While the outsourcing of IT and ITES services to India has been continuing since the past 15 years, the off-shoring of legal services is still in its initial stages. Offshoring is a special subset of outsourcing, where the work is sent outside the U.S. The work is usually sent to a country which has a fleet of qualified professionals with good English language skills and relatively lower wages.

Consequently, Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO), a niche segment within the Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) category, is thriving profusely. Presently, many US law firms have internal legal departments comprising of lawyers, associates, and paralegal staff. However, many smaller and even most of the larger firms do not have these departments for various reasons such as cost, efficiency, quality etc. For such firms, outsourcing their legal work makes good business sense.

There are a large number of legal and paralegal services that can be outsourced. A few important ones are:

- Electronic Document Management Services such as legal transcription, legal coding, data digitization etc

- Research Services such as statutory and case law research services, by making use of electronic databases.

- Due Diligence Services such as checking of company books, board resolutions and shareholder resolutions for the purpose of mergers and acquisitions.

- Contract Drafting and Proof Reading of Contracts such as employee contracts, non-disclosure agreements, licensing agreements, supplier agreements, lease agreements, vendor agreements, and distributor agreements

- Document Discovery in Litigation which is a tedious, time consuming process that is essential in most litigation cases.

- Intellectual Property Services that include patent application drafting, prior art searching, patent proof reading, docketing, patent landscaping and patent valuation.

There are many professional Legal Process Outsourcing companies offering a range of legal support services. One of them is Acumen Legal Services. To know more visit their website http://www.acumenlpo.com/