A legal process outsourcing (LPO) conference, to be held in London this spring, will bring leading LPO professionals together with potential law firm clients in the biggest global event of its kind.
The Global LPO Conference – Buyers and Vendors Meet in The UK, of which Legal Futures is a media partner, will take place at the Waldorf Hilton Hotel, London, on 2-3 March. Around 150 LPO buyers and vendors are expected to attend.
Legal process outsourcing (LPO) is growing rapidly as law firm clients demand better and cheaper services, while competition within the global legal services sector heats up in an era of tight budgets and economic uncertainty. Taking advantage of services hosted offshore can enable law firms to cut overheads and to compete in the marketplace on an equal footing with much larger entities.
The conference hosts, New Delhi-based KPO Consultants, which provides specialist business advice to outsourcing companies, aims to reproduce the success of last year’s Global LPO Conference, held in India.
Vendors attending this year will include representatives from all the major nations providing LPO services, including India, South Africa, the Philippines, South Africa, Israel, Argentina, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, Kenya and Mauritius. LPO businesses in these countries provide a huge range of offshore paralegal and legal support services. These include such essentials as legal transcription, document review, contract management and legal research.
In addition, representatives from many of the UK ‘s and other country’s legal and outsourcing groupings will be present at the London Global LPO Conference. Among organisations represented will be the Bar Council and the Law Society of England and Wales, the legal executives’ professional body, ILEX, the Legal Services Board, UK and European outsourcing bodies, the Society of Indian Law Firms and the law societies of Scotland and Kenya.
The conference organisers say that as well as having access to potential buyers of their services, vendors will have an unrivalled opportunity to meet and share experiences not just with lawyers, but also with leaders of their own industry, which holds out the possibility of building partnerships with overseas providers. Buyers will be able to share experiences with their peers, meet LPO vendor executives one-to-one, learn about the LPO industry and possible future developments, discuss their concerns about outsourcing and potentially even locate a vendor and sign an offshoring agreement.
For people interested in attending the conference but unable to be physically present in London, the organisers have laid on a virtual conference that will give access to much of the content via the internet. Virtual attendees will be able to witness all presentation sessions and panel discussion as well as participate in question and answer sessions via a video screen.
A virtual exhibition hall will enable remote access to LPO suppliers who are present at the conference and it will be possible to communicate with vendors, or indeed with any other delegates, online using group or private chat, if required. Content and contacts from the conference will also be accessible online for weeks after the event.
A stellar cast of speakers from among leading lawyers and LPO specialists has been assembled for the London conference. They include Orijit Das, whose roles include being a board member of the Association of Corporate Counsel; Peter Brudenall, a partner at Hunton & Williams’ global technology and outsourcing group; John Wotton, vice-president of the Law Society of England and Wales; Nigel Kissack, head of Pinsent Masons’ dispute resolution and litigation team; Alison Hook, the Law Society’s head of international; and Mark Ford, director of Clifford Chance LLP’s knowledge centre.
As a preparatory offering, the conference organisers KPO Consultants are running a series of 30-40-minute webinars – web-based seminars – covering a range of LPO-related topics, between now and 23 February. For details and to register, visit this web page.
For general information on the Global LPO Conference, London, visit the dedicated conference web pages here.
