The responsibility of lawyers grows as their practices grow with time. The responsibility from becoming a part time assistant to a full-time employee along with the power of supervising, regulating increases their liability. The economy of a country changes with time and in this era of economic condition the demand for cost effective and time effective method of completion of legal process is in demand by the public and the process of Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) has turned out to be the perfect mechanism to achieve it and attract the clients. The process of outsourcing has no longer remained a novelty but has become a reality in this 21st century for a developing nation like India. With the emergence of time, India has become one of the most favorable destinations amongst legal outsourcers due to its convenient time zones and a majority of English-speaking population. However, amidst the evolving nature of the outsourcing industry in India, serious ethical, legal and professional issues are concerned with it. Ethical implications like client confidentiality, conflict of interest, unauthorized practice of law, disclosure to clients and billing practices have always hinders the growth of the process in India.
Thus, this paper attempts to point out the possible ethical concerns that may arise out of the outsourcing process and proceeds to assess the existing regulations that deals with the ethical issues of outsourcing by examining the rules and guidelines that govern outsourcing in India and United States. Moreover, the paper tends to assess the lacunae in the regulatory framework that controls the outsourcing process in India and tries to seek some recommendations to improve the condition of the same and the future prospects of the LPO firms so as to be at par with other developed nations like United States.
