April 25, 2008
UC Berkeley School of Law
Co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and the Institute for Global Challenges and the Law.
The conference will focus on the emerging trend of corporate institutions outsourcing basic (and some not so basic) legal work in order to reduce legal costs and increase profits. The full day conference will address the following questions: Why do some corporations and law firms outsource legal work while others do not? What ethical issues arise in outsourcing legal services? Who is doing the outsourced work and what qualifications do they have? What type of legal work is being outsourced? What are the concerns regarding the outsourcing of patent drafting and patent searches? What impact, if any, will legal outsourcing have on the elite guild nature of the U.S. legal profession?
The event will feature a series of dynamic panels with esteemed law faculty from Boalt Hall and beyond, legal outsourcing consultants, and representatives from U.S. law firms and corporations engaged in and refraining from legal outsourcing. C.L.E. credit will be offered to participants. Boalt Hall Professor Andrew Guzman will open the conference with an overview during which he will address the nature of legal outsourcing, the key issues involved therein, and the manner in which legal outsourcing differs from outsourcing in other industries. The subsequent morning discussion will focus on experiences with international outsourcing, to help determine why some are outsourcing and some have stopped or have not considered outsourcing. In the afternoon, panelists will discuss their experiences (both positive and negative) with outsourcing patent drafting and patent searches. The final panel will analyze the implications of outsourcing highly-skilled projects both on the U.S. economy and on the legal profession overall.
In addition to the panels, the event will feature a luncheon presentation on the ramifications of legal outsourcing with regard to State rules governing ethics in the legal profession. State laws require that a state-licensed attorney supervise the work of any non-licensed legal assistants or paralegals. These rules require the work of non-licensed, foreign individuals to be supervised as well. Some of these ethical issues include conflicts of interest, client confidentiality, disclosure and supervision.
Link: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/centers/gcl/outsource/registration.html
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