Foreign outsourcing of legal work poses dangers to clients

Attorneys, always looking to make the most money possible for the least work possible, have found a new way to make even more money: hiring foreign outsourcing firms rather than paying real paralegals. The Florida Bar has, astoundingly, even approved this action.

Yet, whatever happened to “the best interests of the client”?

Foreign outsourcing is not only taking the jobs of traditional paralegals, but is also a danger to clients since foreign workers are likely not properly trained in the appropriate (and many times quite specific) laws, regulations, and procedures; and since for the most part they are halfway across the world, they cannot be properly supervised by attorneys. Foreign legal outsourcing firms are hired, not because they are superior to traditional paralegals in any way, but merely because they will accept an inferior wage and are not subject to the same protections afforded traditional workers. As such, foreign outsourcing will additionally save the attorney a great deal more money, over and above salaries, in workers’ compensation and taxes, and other benefits. Worst of all, foreign outsourcing workers are not legally bound by the same laws and ethical considerations which serve to protect clients, such as the illegality of disclosing or sharing client information with third parties.

Trained, experienced, qualified Paralegals aren’t cheap. Attorneys usually charge by the hour for paralegal work, but keep much of it, so they actually make money off their paralegals; however, that profit is usually used to pay office costs. They will continue to do the same thing with foreign outsourcing, but in that situation, they get to keep almost all of it due to the huge disparity in salary, and therefore they come out with a hefty profit.

This is being done solely to line the pockets of attorneys, because attorneys using foreign outsourcing workers are not passing along their significant savings to the clients. Clients are paying the same rate they have always paid.

Frighteningly, attorneys are not informing the clients that they are using potentially ill-trained and sometimes blatantly unqualified persons - persons they have never actually met and have no way of dependably verifying their character - to assist in their cases. They are not informing their clients that they are sending their sensitive information to workers in another country, where the confidentiality of that information cannot be ensured. They are not informing their clients that they are using workers who are not bound by the very laws, rules, regulations and ethical considerations which serve to protect the clients. Even if an attorney enters into an agreement with a foreign outsourcing firm to protect client information, it will be impossible to ensure the continuing confidentiality of client information.

In truth, some of these foreign outsourcing workers, due to the fact that many times they are making far less than the US minimum wage, may very well blackmail, scam, or sell a client’s sensitive information to the highest bidder - or even steal the client’s identity - and likely no one would realize it or recognize the connection to the outsourcing of legal work until years after the fact, if ever.

Those of us with years of experience in monitoring, warning the public, and helping federal authorities shut down foreign scams recognize the danger inherent in sending confidential client information overseas. Every time information is transmitted, the client is placed at risk. Since the success of those scams depend upon human greed and/or financial need, and legal clients have already been forced to pay out extraordinary amounts of money to an attorney, they are at particular risk of falling for a scam. In addition, clients involved in highly personal cases are at very high risk of being blackmailed, while clients involved in financial cases are at very high risk of identity theft. The potential for scammers, once they have that level of information on individuals, is limitless.

There is simply no upside to the practice of foreign legal outsourcing, except to the attorneys who are making far more money since they are not passing the savings on to the clients, and the foreign scammers who eventually gain access to confidential information on individuals. This is not a matter of whether this will happen, because it most assuredly will happen given how little the outsourced workers are being paid. The only question is when it will happen, and how long it will continue before anyone even realizes it.

While the Florida Bar has approved foreign outsourcing of legal work, it is a foolhardy decision motivated by financial and political concerns, rather than being motivated by the only legitimate reason, which is the best interests of the client. I therefore encourage clients to inquire if their attorney uses foreign legal outsourcing; and if the answer is yes, to seek the representation of an attorney who does not engage in that practice, for your own protection.

Do your homework when hiring an attorney, now more than ever. Make sure you are not dealing with a firm who will end up sharing your confidential information with people overseas who work for pennies on the dollar compared to traditional paralegals. You’re going to end up paying the same amount either way, so there is no reason for anyone in the United States to tolerate this practice, given the dangers inherent in the practice of outsourcing legal work.