India: Hands On

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India has approximately 200,000 new law school graduates entering the workforce every year.

Profile of a Young Lawyer in India: 2005

"Raj" Rajasekhar, QuisLex (legal support services)

Raj is an attorney working in a new, global legal services marketplace. He lives nine miles from the office. On a typical weekday, he drives and makes it to work in half an hour. If he expects to work late, he can take the bus because his employer provides a cab ride home to employees who work past seven at night.

Raj works in Hyderabad, India, for QuisLex, a company that provides legal support services to corporate-law departments and law firms in India and the United States. Their New York office houses the marketing department while a staff of twenty-two (seventeen of them lawyers) performs the legal support work in Hyderabad. At the end of its workday, a U.S. law firm, for example, might submit a project to QuisLex staffers, who could complete the project by the start of the next U.S. business day.

Composed of cubicles, desks and computers, the QuisLex office would be instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever worked in a corporate environment. Staff attorneys sit at desks outfitted with high-end computers, telephones, and other peripherals, including Internet access to Lexis and Westlaw. On weekends, casual dress is permitted, but Monday through Friday, staff attorneys dress formally: the men in dress shirts and slacks; the women in formal yet colorful Indian outfits. Because of the intense heat, men don't wear ties or suit coats. Dress, nevertheless, is taken as seriously as it is in any law office in the U.S. Raj, for example, admits he is meticulous about his appearance.

"Since the crowd at the office grows by the month, I need my appearance to reflect my organizational capabilities," says Raj, a Project Manager. "It will make an impact in the short term. My colleagues take me seriously, and I can conduct official business easily. In the long term, it will help create standards for all employees."

Raj, whose full name is Gopalajosyula Rajasekhar, knew in high school he wanted to become an attorney. His mother wanted him to be a physician (Raj was even admitted to medical school), and his father was apprehensive about Raj's future as a lawyer. "My parents have always given me a free hand to choose my academics and my profession," says Raj. "They realize that I have chosen this field since I do not like taking the oft-beaten track. What mattered ultimately was what I wanted to do. And I had my way."

In India, students may attend a three-year postgraduate program very similar to the typical law-school experience in the U.S., or they may enroll in a five-year program that combines an undergraduate degree with a law degree. Every year adds another 40,000 graduates to the pool of about six million attorneys. The Indian legal system derives from British common law, and, as in the U.S., judicial decisions are based on tradition, custom and precedent. All legal education in India is taught in the English language.

Raj attended law school at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University of Law in Hyderabad. After law school, Raj worked for an attorney on litigation and non-litigation matters and appeared frequently before various courts in Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

At QuisLex, he started as a Junior Associate and, within four months, became a Project Manager. He coordinates work and checks its quality, and he also manages pilot projects. Communication with clients via phone or email is on-going. "I come into the office each day with little idea about what is in store for me," he enthuses. "The job is challenging. I like working on issues related to U.S. corporate and commercial laws. I like intellectual property, information technology, and taxation. The industry is a new frontier. My work profile will enable me to carve a niche for myself within the company in particular and the industry in general."

Raj says that in law school he and his fellow students didn't imagine working in the law-outsourcing industry, mainly because they didn't understand it. "To us, outsourcing was data entry," he says. What convinced Raj to join QuisLex was the vision of a growing and vibrant industry, a vision articulated to him by QuisLex CEO Ram Vasudevan and COO Sundari Pisupati.

Young lawyers are attracted to QuisLex because of its meritocratic principles. Traditionally, the practice of law in India has been, and to some extent still is, dominated by family-controlled law firms. Businesses like QuisLex, however, offer young attorneys the opportunity for advancement based on merit. Young attorneys are also motivated by the intellectual challenge of learning and mastering aspects of American law, which to them has the added cache of qualifying as international law (and it pays on average about fifty percent more in salary). These young and ambitious attorneys also understand the context of the industry in which they are participating. This nascent industry has the potential of growing into a multi-billion-dollar market. (Forrester Research predicts that the equivalent of $4.3 billion in U.S. legal wages will be outsourced overseas by 2015.) And leaders of legal-support-services vendors like QuisLex understand that their greatest value lies in the talents and experience of their staff.