U.S., British Companies Send More Work to India; Patent Applications Are Big

By ERIC BELLMAN and NATHAN KOPPEL Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Updated Sept. 28, 2005 12:01 a.m. ET
It happened with tech support, financial services and catalog order-taking. Now, a growing number of U.S. and British companies as well as law firms are outsourcing legal work to India.

The practice started a few years ago with simple word processing and filing services performed by nonlawyers. But increasingly, squads of experienced but inexpensive lawyers based in India are doing things ranging from patent applications to divorce…