Legal Outsourcing and the Global Financial Crisis
Last week I was having lunch with a friend who is Assistant General Counsel for a Fortune 100 company. We were chatting about our lives and families, when he began to ask me about legal outsourcing. Although my involvement in the legal outsourcing industry was not a secret, my friend had shown no previous inclination to discuss the outsourcing of any legal work by his corporate employer. In fact, he had assured me earlier that the General Counsel was unlikely to have any interest. But that, he said, was BEFORE he received a memo one day earlier that no one in the legal department should incur any expense for travel or CLE or and other discretionary matter. The recessionary screws were clearly tightening.
Forrester Research, Inc. has opined that legal outsourcing, still a nascent industry kept at arms’ length by many in the legal profession, will grow to a $4 billion industry by 2015. Nonetheless, as one managing partner of a top national law firm told me, “The management committee has no appetite for legal outsourcing.” No appetite? It would be surprising if partners in major law firms, many earning high six figure annual incomes, would have an appetite for anything but the status quo. Why change a good thing for something as uncertain and threateningly perceived as legal outsourcing?
Financial Times reported in January 2007 that corporate legal bills soared 20% in 2006 with “outside lawyers now accounting for 65% of corporate legal spending by large firms, compared with 42% in 2001.” The status quo means more of the same—ever rising legal fees. With new lawyers from the top tier law schools commanding $160,000 to $175,000 per year directly out of law school, legal fees must rise. The total first year costs to law firms bringing on these top lawyers now likely exceeds $250,000. Clients of those law firms have always obliged and paid the fare. But, the times are changing as law firm clients become more discerning. Clients are beginning to understand that certain legal tasks are “chore” in nature and need not be performed by a Harvard or Yale law graduate at a $200 to $400 hourly billing rate. Other legal assignments require more sophisticated analysis and should not be sent offshore. Increasingly clients are unwilling to accept the billing rate of $300 or $400 per hour for a document review that can be competently completed by lawyers in India for a fraction of the cost.
The legal profession painfully accepts change. Although Bates v. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court case decision permitting lawyers to advertise, was decided in 1977, it took the profession more than a decade to accept the reality of legal advertising. Some still officially reject legal advertising, but almost all law firms now engage in some form of marketing and self-promotion that was unthinkable only 30 years ago. Likewise, sending legal work offshore is gaining in acceptance. In August 2008 the American Bar Association issued an ethics opinion proclaiming the outsourcing trend as “a salutary one for our globalized economy.” Law firm clients are embracing the trend as one borne of reason and necessity. Lawyers, having a duty to act in the best interests of their clients, will, in time, accept selective outsourcing as a process that can be beneficial not only to clients but to the law firms serving them as well.
How To Succeed At Online Product Creation The Easy Way
Product creation could be a frightening subject for a lot of Internet marketers to face. Some folks who get in the game with the intention of making a full time income are completely ignorant as to how an online business operates. One of the most profitable ways to create online cash is by creating a product that others are happy to pay for.
Product creation is legitimate method of generating money through internet marketing but many entrepreneurs get it wrong. They start by imitating their Internet marketing gurus by creating information products on Internet marketing in hopes of getting rich the way their heroes did. The problem is that they usually don’t know what they are doing and enter a highly competitive niche with very little marketing experience or connections.
Here are a few tips for effective product creation that may help you get on the right track:
Start by finding a profitable niche with low to moderate competition. If you conduct some rudimentary market research and keyword research, you’ll find many opportunities in areas that will surprise you. Amazon and eBay are two great places to brainstorm for product ideas.
Developing Your Product does not have to be a difficult project. You can find experts in the right field for your niche and pay them to write the material while an artist designs the packaging and website or blog. You can outsource the entire product creation part of the project after you conduct the research and testing to ensure profitability.
Sales and marketing strategies should be created while developing the product and learning about the market. Some experienced marketers use pay per click to drive traffic to their offer page; some folks outsource the entire marketing campaign to affiliates through ClickBank or other affiliate programs.
Product creation does not need to be hard, particularly when the merchandise is electronic. E-books, videos, audio and multi-media products sell very well. They are distributed immediately to customers electronically. Once you have a good feel for a niche market, try to service your customers with associated products and upgrades. If you want to earn money online through product creation, you must understand supply and demand. The majority of new online marketers fail miserably because they go after highly competitive markets or forget to research their chosen niche properly. You have to create your products according to the needs, wants and desires of the prospective customers.
The Advantages of Online Home Based Business
Ever since the Internet boom in the 90′s, several home based business models have gained in popularity. Nowadays online home based business is rapidly gaining popularity, either for full time or part time work. People from all over the world are engaging in this kind of business with the aim of earning money. In this article I am going to share with you the advantages that online home based business can provide.1. Availability of training for online marketing – Having instant access to training for online marketing is one of the best things about running an online home based business. You can learn how to drive traffic to your website online. Setting up appointments and attending live trainings is very simple now because all you have to do is get to your computer and access the Internet.2. The luxury of staying at home – You can run your own business at the convenience of your own home. You do not need to go out and fight traffic or commute to work, you can just get online for your business.3. Direct selling have become a home based business – In the past years, direct selling were run where you will go to people’s house to sell your product. Nowadays, a lot of direct selling companies provide software that will allow its members to just stay at home and set up an online business. Direct selling has never been this convenient.4. Advertise or sell digitally made product information – You can sell product information that are digital. There are websites that offer affiliate program for digital product information, and you can get commission out of it. Joining this type of program will give you an access to electronic books that you can sell and make money out of it.5. Sell physical products by joining affiliate programs – In the home business industry, you can find a lot of free affiliate programs that you can join and will give you access to it product to sell. Everything is done online including the shipment and inventory.There are a lot more advantages that online home based business has to offer and the ones I’ve mentioned are just a few of them. Start thinking of running a successful business right from the comfort of your own home and start earning money.