The Lawyers Weekly - June 4, 2010

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
June 4, 2010| 25

BUSINESS
CAREERS

Outsourcing
popularity grows
ACC value index
causes controversy
Quotable

Since the Association of Corporate
Counsel (ACC) unveiled its ACC Value
Index last October it has stirred
controversy. In-house counsel rank law
firms based on a one-to-five scale based
on a number of factors. Initially only the
25,000 worldwide ACC members could
access the index. This made law firms
antsy. Recently the ACC decided to
allowed firms access to the index.
As of February there were more than

1,500

Individual reviews on the index site,
which can be found at: http://www.
acc.com/valuechallenge/valueindex/
home.cfm.
In a sobering aside,
[Professor Mari Sako, of the Saïd
Business School, Oxford] pointed
out that the global market for
legal services has been valued at
$460 billion, of which legal
process outsourcing [LPO] accounts for a mere 0.1 per cent.
She went on to note that, even though some exuberant
commentators predict the outsourcing market in law will grow
to $4 billion in the next five years, even this will represent less
than 1 per cent of the legal market.
—Richard Susskind, author of The End of Lawyers?, on why the hysteria
over LPO might be a bit overblown in a column for Times Online.

NIDERLANDER / DREAMSTIME.COM
+more
Outsourcing is steadily growing in
popularity and credibility these days.
Last June Rio Tinto PLC entered into
an agreement with CPA Global that is
projected to save Rio Tinto 20 per
cent ($25 million) annually in legal
costs. Now, Microsoft Corp. has
enlisted CPA to slash costs. Last
October, the world’s leading computer
company entered into a pilot scheme
with CPA. Then, this February, Marty
Shively, assistant general counsel of
Microsoft, who has been overseeing
outsourcing opportunities in India,
told Bar & Bench, Microsoft has a
five-year relationship with CPA and
hopes “to strengthen it in the future.”
RICHARD SCHNEIDER / IMAGES.COM
Find features, briefs, profiles, columns and photos on in-house counsel in the spring edition of In-house
Counsel magazine with your June 11 issue of The Lawyers Weekly.

IN HOUSE COUNSEL

The Lawyers Weekly

SPRING 2010 | FREE

IN HOUSE COUNSEL

Weathering the

S TOR M STORM S TORM

What to do when disasters, from recalls to class actions, hit your organization

FEATURES

Plus Outsourcing firms for in-house counsel

; Weather the storms ; Who’s your client? ; Constraining costs

;Outsourcing firms ; Conference photos ; Survey results

Lawyer an expert on China

China
Continued From Page 22
That also explains why Arslanian and Beau-
grand-Champagne are willing to make the long
18-hour trek to Montreal several times a year to
teach. Arslanian decided to go to study in China
after watching a documentary and became so
enamoured with the region that he decided to
stay, and is now practising for a leading Hong
Kong boutique firm that specializes providing
counsel principally to financial institutions and
in financial market activities.
“It’s hard for us to leave our jobs and take a
couple of days off to come to teach a class, but
sincerely it is worth every minute of it,” said
Arslanian, adding that it took quite some time
to develop the class outline given that there was
so much to cover.
Beaugrand-Champagne concurred. Living in
Beijing, Beaugrand-Champagne is China’s rep-
resentative and correspondent for HB Global
Advisors Corp., the consulting arm of Heenan
Blaikie LLP. Fluent in Mandarin, English and
French, Beaugrand-Champagne has shifted his
practice and now mainly provides counsel to
Chinese companies doing business abroad.
“It’s all about giving back to Quebec society
the knowledge I acquired over the course of my
career in China,” said Beaugrand-Champagne, a
co-founder of Fruits & Passion China, one of
Canada’s largest successes in the Chinese retail
sector. “There’s also very few Quebec lawyers in
China, and since China is a flourishing market
and one that growing numbers of Quebecers are
targeting, I thought it would be a good thing to
offer some of expertise.”
Sébastien Lebel-Grenier, associate dean at
the Université de Sherbrooke, is so enamored
with the program that he is already contem-
plating offering more courses in the not-too-
distant future. While far too early to assess
the program’s success, Lebel-Grenier says
that students so far have been delighted with
the course.
“We’re going to wait and see what people
have to say once the three courses are offered,
but we are already seriously beginning to con-
sider broadening our program,” said Lebel-
Grenier. “We’re hoping that this program will
help lawyers understand the Chinese legal sys-
tem, which will make them more efficient when
accompanying and representing their clients
doing business in China.” ;

Announcements

Catherine Milne and Rachel Turnpenney are pleased to announce
the formation of their partnership.

c i

Turnpenney Milne LLP is a boutique law firm representing both employers and employees throughout Ontario in workplace law: • employment litigation • human rights advocacy • contract drafting and review • human resources consulting • workplace investigations and training