Microsoft Expands LPO

A team of between three and five qualified lawyers at CPA are handling multi-jurisdictional legal support work, including legal research, for Microsoft. The lawyers are based in CPA’s offices in Gurgaon, near Delhi.Microsoft has been outsourcing basic intellectual property (IP) and patent renewal work to CPA for five years, using a team of around 70 CPA staff. However, the new arrangement for general legal work operates separately.

The LPO model Microsoft is using is pretty similar to what Rio Tinto did, according to Legal Week:

Microsoft’s tie-up with CPA is similar to a deal struck between mining company Rio Tinto and CPA in June last year, which involves a team of 18 lawyers – also in Gurgaon – handling tasks such as contract review, drafting and legal research. Other companies offshoring legal work to CPA in India include Bupa and Carillion.

But CPA has recognized that there are still some hurdles to overcome in convincing people to literally send their work to India.  They’re also beefing up the “onshore” and “nearshore” capabilities.

Microsoft has been pretty aggressively cutting costs, as we previously reported:

The NLJ sat down with Microsoft GC Brad Smith for a cover feature called “The Great Recession.” In it, Smith reports that the law department’s budget was cut by 15% and head count was reduced by 5%. According to the piece, “[b]efore the cuts, the company’s legal department had a $900 million annual budget and 1,050 employees, 43% of them attorneys.”

That means approximately 53 people were cut, of which (assuming lawyers and staff were cut in proportion to their overall numbers) about 23 would have been lawyers.

The $135 million he had to cut from the budget came from the RIF, requesting (and apparently getting) fee reductions of 10%, and “mov[ing] farther away from the billable-hour model.” Oh, and a healthy dose of vetting bills more closely.