Legal Education in India

The available Indian labor pool for legal services is both well-educated and steeped in quality fundamentals. With over 221 universities graduating over 3.3 million students annually, the Indian educational system today is a global leader in such professional disciplines as science, management and engineering. Acceptance at the leading Indian engineering colleges is statistically more difficult than admittance to law school at Harvard or Yale. Academic excellence is accorded rare prestige. Valedictorians at an American university are given the yawning acknowledgement of a speaking part at commencement; in India, they are - quite literally - Gold Medalists, achieving the kind of recognition here reserved for the athlete or the heiress socialite.

Estimates of the number of Indians with legal training vary widely, ranging from 1.5 million to as many as 6 million. What is clear is that Indians share with their American counterparts a common business language (English) and the heritage of British common law. As in the U.S., judicial decisions in India are based on tradition, custom, and precedent. Conducted entirely in English, legal education in India follows a structure similar to that in the U.S., typically involving a two- or three-year graduate program. Based on the latest estimates, India today has over 500 law schools, 6 million attorneys and up to 200,000 new law students graduating every year.

It is important to note that lawyers educated in the Indian system are not eligible to take the American Bar Exam and are thus unable to practice law in the U.S. This means that they must be supervised and have their work product reviewed by a lawyer licensed to do so. That said, they do have the potential to perform substantive legal tasks, if the tasks are selected appropriately and proper supervision, structure and training are provided.

Forrester Research predicts that 40,400 lawyer positions, or the equivalent of $4.3 billion in U.S. wages, will be outsourced overseas by the year 2015. If one includes paralegals and legal assistants, the number grows to 79,000 jobs, or $5.8 billion in wages. The accuracy of these predictions depends in large part on the actual ability of Indian resources to deliver quality legal services effectively.

The Differences Between Indian and U.S. Lawyers

Although Indian lawyers are well trained in common law, most have worked only within the Indian system. This means that training to bridge the differences between the U.S. and Indian legal systems becomes vitally important. Despite knowledge gaps, Indian lawyers are eager to join forces with U.S. companies because they see it as an opportunity to increase their incomes (typically by 50% or more) and to work with international clients.

Depending on the level of training and experience, there are differences between Indian lawyers and their U.S. counterparts in terms of the level of written and oral communication skills. To be effective, lawyers must be able to understand and apply principles of business writing and rules of English grammar, and write in a style that conveys legal principles in a clear and concise manner. In India, lawyers are often accustomed to a more informal style of writing, reflecting standards acceptable to their Indian clients. The more established legal services firms in India understand the expected level of English proficiency and formality and have trained their employees accordingly.

There are also requirements for activity-specific training. Drafting and filing patents from India, for example, requires significant training in U.S. law, patent procedures and practice.

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Offshore Legal Services: The Drive For Productivity