Adding to the pressure at the bottom end of the law ladder.

Last year, Rio Tinto announced an outsourcing deal with CPA in a bid to cut cut 20% from its annual legal spend. The CPA lawyers came at a cost of around $250 per day, which is “less than a very junior lawyer at a major law firm”, about 7 times less in fact.

A cost saving which hasn’t escaped the notice of other businesses with huge annual legal bills.

Gazette: Software giant Microsoft will begin outsourcing general legal work to India after signing a deal with legal process outsourcing (LPO) company CPA Global.

With U.S. unemployment figures at frightening levels, you can imagine how that kind of news will go down.

As for the effect on law firms, the pressure to at least consider outsourcing can only increase as business steals the initiative…