As at December 2009 India’s LPO sector employed 4,900 professionals, according to the report, which it predicts to rise to 6,100 by the end of this year and to 17,000 professionals by December 2015.

From December 2005 to 2009 the size of the Indian LPO market has almost quadrupled from 1,300 to 4900 professionals.

The much smaller LPO market in the Philippines is set to grow from around 300 now to 1,000 professionals in five years.

Meanwhile, revenues at all LPOs in India and the Philippines are predicted to rise from $300m in the 2010 calendar year to $960m, according to Evalueserve’s research.

By contrast, the total legal spend of Indian corporates has been predicted to reach $1bn in three years, said legal consultancy RSG Consulting in its report on the Indian transactional law market.

Out of 3,900 LPO professionals in the two countries outside of IP in the two countries, 500 professionals or less than 15 per cent were estimated to be doing work equivalent to a first or second year US or UK associate. Such work includes preliminary template-based drafting of commoditised agreements, due-diligence review and higher-end legal research.

By contrast, a total of 85 per cent were still doing lower-end work as traditionally handled by paralegals abroad, such as document management, transcription and legal database-related work.

However, a number of LPOs have plans to move further up the value chain by attracting higher-level work as the low-end market becomes increasingly saturated and competitive. Pure-play LPO UnitedLex, for example, was targeting revenues of $35 to $40m by focusing on such work, while another pureplay LPO Pangea3 recently added another 50 per cent of floorspace in its Mumbai office.

Across the Indian and Philippines LPO sector, only one quarter service the intellectual property (IP) space, where around half of all outsourced work is high-end IP work.

The report identified that there were more than 120 LPO providers in the two countries, of which only 12 employed more than 100 legal professionals. Around 55 LPOs were so-called “pure-play” LPO providers that supplied nothing but legal outsourcing services.

Around 15 multinational corporations have captive LPOs in India.

The Evalueserve report also estimates that if 41 per cent of a typical US law firm are overhead expenses, around 17 per cent can be moved offshore. This could shave around 4 per cent off a firm’s total cost-base.

  <smarttagtype downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/" name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></smarttagtype><smarttagtype downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/" name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></smarttagtype><span lang="EN-GB">The report also identified that there were more than 120 LPO providers, of which only 12 employed more than 100 legal professionals. Around 55 LPOs were so-called pureplay LPO providers that supplied nothing but legal outsourcing services.</span>

Around 15 multinational corporations have captive LPOs in India.