"Our analytics help lawyers do a better job"

Ram Vasudevan ,CEO , QuisLex Inc. One of the pioneers of India’s LPO industry, QuisLex Inc. has come a long way to become a leading legal support services provider globally. Today, it boasts of dozens of Fortune 500 companies as clients. The Dollar Business caught up with its Founder & CEO Ram Vasudevan to know what it takes to be a leader Sisir Kumar Pradhan | @TheDollarBiz

Ram Vasudevan, CEO, QuisLex Inc.

TDB: Give us a brief idea of how LPO firms work. Ram Vasudevan (RV): We basically work in two ways: In the first model, we are engaged directly by large corporate to assist them with corporate matters (M&A due diligence, contracts management etc.) and on litigation matters (investigations and compliance related matters for example). In the second model, we are engaged usually by a large law firm that utilises our services to better assist their clients. TDB: Tell us a little bit more about the various offerings of QuisLex Inc. RV: Our services can be broadly divided into three groups – Litigation related services, Contract Management, and Compliance. In litigations, we assist clients from early case assessments and relevancy analysis all the way through to performing complex analytics, deposition assistance and trial preparation services. Our litigation matters are usually complex and require the involvement of all three parties, i.e., the end client, the law firm and QuisLex. Our responsibility is to provide superior support to the law firm to allow them to present the client’s case better. Under contract management, we provide end-to-end support to our clients in drafting contracts, negotiating contracts, preparing templates and contracts clause playbooks and in ensuring that all commercial transactions (whether procurement or revenue focussed) are adequately documented. Under compliance, our engagement is almost directly with a company’s legal department to ensure compliance with global regulations. We have helped several multinational organisations design and implement global compliance programmes. TDB: Has there ever been an instance when a law firm wants to take your services but the end client is against it? RV: I don’t think we have ever faced such a situation. The service we provide is at the top of the legal services vertical. We work with several of the top law firms in UK, US and Europe, which in turn are dealing with companies that are often the recognised leaders in their segment. Both the corporate and the law firms understand the value of these services and the experience and expertise we bring. So, when a law firm wants to hire us, the company usually does not oppose the decision. TDB: Is India having a similar legal system to that of United States and United Kingdom a reason why the LPO industry is flourishing in India? RV: I would say it is a key enabler. India has a common law system based on the British legal system. US, Canada and even Australia have similar systems. Moreover, in India, the most common medium of education is English. Because of these uniformities, and with some training and guidance, Indian lawyers have been able to add a lot of value to the legal services sector and have, for years now, demonstrated work product quality that is as good as anything, anywhere in the world. TDB: How did QuisLex came into being and how were the initial days? RV: After having done my LLB in India, MBA from Cornell and LLM from Columbia University, I spent about eight years working at some of the best corporations and law firms in US. I was with Skadden Arps (one of the largest law firms in the world) when I realised that with the right kind of training, good lawyers in India should be able to assist the top US law firms and corporations, which were always stretched for resources. And so, QuisLex was born on April Fools’ Day in 2004! We started with three people. Understandably, initially it was difficult to convince clients, as well as for employees to join us. But, gradually clients gained confidence in our quality and strong process controls. In short order, our clients became the biggest drivers of our business. TDB: Can you give us a sense of Team QuisLex? RV: We have a team of more than 900 people, spread across Chicago, New York and Hyderabad. Most of our employees are from law background, but we also have Six Sigma Master Black Belt holders, Six Sigma analysts, statisticians, and business experts, who support our core delivery groups and supplement their legal expertise with process expertise (Lean Six Sigma). The combination of quality, efficiency, and legal acumen is the cornerstone of our model. Our business model is not based only on cost arbitrage; rather it is premised on the ability to improve services while making them more cost effective. This has been the reason for our success in the past and we will continue to excel in the future because we add value to the services we provide and continually innovate. TDB: When you visit law schools to hire, are students apprehensive about joining the legal outsourcing industry? RV: Yes, in the beginning, there was some apprehension. When I visited various law colleges and universities and made presentations, students were sceptical of what was a new and relatively unknown industry. And, you would expect a healthy level of scepticism from lawyers! It has now become, as you know, not only an accepted career path, but one that has come to be highly regarded. Also, as the industry itself has matured over the last 10 years, the recruitment process has become more streamlined with graduates seeking us out making it easier for us to identify and hire talented law graduates. TDB: Can you give us an idea about your revenue and growth in recent years? RV: We don’t share revenue figures but as far as the company’s growth is concerned, we started with three people 10 years ago and today our employee strength is little over 900 full-time professionals. That should give a decent picture of our growth trajectory. At the same time, growth, in terms of the type and complexity of the work that we handle and the types of analysis that we do, has been at a much higher rate. What we are delivering has grown not only in terms of volume, but also in terms of complexity. TDB: What is the cost arbitrage for your clients? RV: The more one rises up the value chain of legal services, the cost differences keep narrowing. Today, clients using our services can expect savings of anywhere between 30-50%. However, this is only comparing like service to like service. The actual cost differential and cost avoidance values can be much higher as our relationship with the client matures. TDB: Do Indian multinationals fighting a legal battle in United States seek your help too? RV: Today, most of our clients are from Europe and North America. In fact, we have typically not pursued clients in India. But since more and more Indian companies are going global, it is only logical for Indian companies to use our services. There are aspects in legal services where Indian law firms can help companies in matters like overseas acquisitions. But there are other support services such as e-Discovery, etc., that are highly specialised and where specialised companies like us can add great value. Moreover, since we already have an established team in India, it should be an added advantage. While it may be counterintuitive to some, the value we bring is far more than simple wage arbitrage and we are competitively positioned to help firms anywhere in the world. TDB: In that case, would you consider full-fledged law firms in US as your real competitors? RV: Not really. I wouldn’t call them competition because their focus is on something different. Their job is to manage things at the front-end, while our focus is on the back-end. The analytics we provide helps them to do better in what they are doing. The information we provide as a function of our work, helps legal counsel to better represent their clients. By way of metaphor, would we think of the diagnostician in a medical lab analysing a sample or reading a CAT Scan in competition with the physician needing the information to properly guide his or her patient? No, of course not! Similarly, we are in a sub-specialised field in the practice of law. Lawyers who know how to use our services tend to do very well because they, and their clients, benefit from what we do.

"Our analytics help lawyers do a better job"

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