I had a rant a few posts back about legal outsourcing to foreign countries. This is an article from Kellie Schmitt about legal "insourcing," meaning moving doc review to other places of the country besides the traditional DC or NYC.
Honestly, I have no problems with this. These are not people in other countries without American law degrees giving legal advice (unethically in my opinion) withoout a license to practice Amercian law anywhere (while the ABA, and every State Bar buries their perverbial heads in the sand). These are American barred attorneys in "America" having the opportunity to do something that helps them and the entire community around them. That is what capitalism is all about. Would I like ALL doc reviews to be in DC, you bet, but that is not the reality we live in. That being said, litigation is going nowhere, and doc review will always be a staple in DC and NYC.
Now, you better believe that "insourcing" will continue to spread, but I don't believe it will ever spread enough to evaporate e-discovery in both our cities, unless 80% percent of attorneys in both DC and NYC decided to migrate to Wyoming or something...which would not be a bad idea...
From the article:
"A onetime state capital, the former steel and coal mining center of Wheeling, W.Va., was on its last legs. Once-booming factories stood vacant, their furnaces silent. A nearby mall had hobbled its lingering mom-and-pop retail, creating an empty downtown that wasn't safe after dark. After topping out at 60,000 residents during World War II, Wheeling had barely half that in 2000.
"It was a slow deterioration," said resident Brian Taylor, an artist born in Wheeling in the 1930s.
Then Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe moved in. Six years ago, an impromptu plea from the mayor helped persuade the major San Francisco law firm to open a back-office hub here, initially with 73 jobs. Orrick's Global Operations Center has triggered a quiet renaissance in Wheeling as the anchor of a downtown revitalization that has created more than 1,200 jobs, according to the Wheeling Economic and Community Development Department.
"This company is the best thing that ever happened to Wheeling," says Debbie Garvin, an administrative assistant at the Orrick GOC.
These days, cars are everywhere downtown, many belonging to Orrick's nearly 200 employees. The family-owned Lebanese bakery across the street is selling its pastries to a line of GOC staff. Downtown's Centre Market district bustles during lunch -- residents are quick to point out that Coleman's Fish Market, inside, won "Best Fish Sandwich" in Gourmet Magazine in 2001. And other companies are following Orrick's lead, moving back-end operations here.
Orrick is happy, too. Chairman Ralph Baxter Jr., a West Virginia native, says the GOC allowed the firm to shave $26.5 million in overhead costs in its first five years."
1 comment:
Since I live on a small island we really don't have that outsourcing problem but insourcing is a great idea, one which law firms would benefit from in the long run in light of the downward slide of the US economy.
Great post re Orrick.
On another note where do you find the time to write so many posts?
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