Law 2.0 conference held in Dubai – News

The noble legal profession is on the brink of a revolution

Legacy-oriented Kafkaesque systems have been intercepted by new technologies and business globalization. To shed light on the challenges and prospects of this new-age profession, Dubai hosted one of its largest face-to-face legal events this December.

The Law 2.0 Conference, held on December 16-18, attracted prominent names in the legal world from different countries, offering professionals the opportunity to learn from the best and expand their legal expertise.

One such celebrity is CA Adv Harsh Patel, founder and CEO of Water and Shark.Patel is a Advocate and qualified Chartered Accountant with over ten years of experience in corporate law, taxation and global business advisory in India, USA, Singapore, UAE and several other countries. He was one of five panelists delving into how to scale a law firm to win international client work.

On stage, he chose to focus his talk on two things – the expanding activity among law firms and the flourishing of LPOs.

Scale up to acquire international clients

Whether you are an individual practitioner or a small business, acquiring international clients is not as daunting as it sounds. Patel believes that anyone can expand his legal practice with a strong and determined mind. “Don’t allow yourself to be easily intimidated by huge tasks, or by people who put you down,” he says.

During the meeting, Patel developed a framework for global expansion for new firms and emerging lawyers.

1. Work for your company, not for your company. There is a thin line between the two prepositions. “Working for your company” means that you put in the required hours to earn an income. It’s no different than working a 9-to-5 job. You basically treat your own company like a third party company. However, “working at your company” means that you are the company’s CEO, brand ambassador, and godfather. You’re building systems, laying foundations, building teams, and targeting your dream customers.

Patel argues that despite their technical sophistication, lawyers can sometimes be naive when it comes to business management. They equate business success with increased hourly wages.

“Of course, ROI is important. But if you’re going to work by the hour, then you’re going to fall into the rut of the monthly income chaser. If you really want to be a big name in the legal industry, you need to get out of the $X per hour rut. mentality and start working 24 hours a day,” he said.

Networking, Collaboration and Capitalization. Like any young man with visions, Patel was a travelaholic in his youth. He enjoys traveling to different cities and countries every season. But these aren’t just your typical backpacking adventures. Patel’s travels had a veiled commercial motive. He uses these trips to study the regulatory and business environments of different countries. He built a rigorous network, entered legal circles large and small, and worked with local law firms. All that knowledge and networking was then used to establish eight global offices in just 10 years.

“When I plan to expand into a new country, I ask myself, what can I do for the business community in this country? What solutions can I bring to them?” Harsh emphasizes the importance of a solutions-oriented practice sex.

Compete globally, not locally. Comparing yourself to your peers is inevitable. Even imperative, as some say. But the kind of comparison you make says something about how you’ve grown. Patel believes that even a lawyer from the smallest town in an Asian country should compare himself to his global counterparts.

“Don’t just try to be the best in your small geographic space. Benchmark global winners so that even if you fail, you fail above average.”

Legal Processing Outsourcing (LPO) as an Asset for Asian Companies

Due to the pandemic and the remote work culture, LPOs have had amazing accolades over the past few years.

LPO did not exist in the early days. Among the Big Four, outsourcing to Asian countries is common due to suitable talent and low-cost infrastructure. However, most other companies in the US, UK and Western European countries are skeptical due to privacy or data breaches and the quality of work in other parts of the world.

But as the pandemic pushed the economy into the abyss and caused mass layoffs in the West, LPOs started to gain momentum.

Companies can no longer maintain well-paid, high-profile in-house lawyers. So they started looking for alternatives outside the box. As a result, lawyers from India, Bangladesh and other Asian countries have obtained the opportunity to serve abroad remotely and prove their ability.

“The fact is that there are many legal services such as consulting, LPO, corporate and business drafting, etc., which can be provided remotely and do not require a license from a specific country (of course this is not a blanket law, and different countries may have different regulations). But in the past , the Western perspective is only biased towards Western lawyers, so credible people from Asian countries limit the avenues to make it big globally.”

The pandemic has eased those restrictions and prejudices. It means that Asian lawyers have more opportunities.

Patel’s sentiments were echoed throughout the session, becoming a leading voice at the law firm.

At the conclusion of the meeting, he received an award for his services to the legal field, which he accepted with great gratitude. There was humility in his demeanor. He dedicates this award to his decade-long journey and hard work, because it was that journey that gave him wisdom that few come from an MBA or law school.