US law firm forays into Mysore

An American media law firm will set up a major legal processing company in Mysore.

Smith Dornan Dhen (SDD) PC, an international media, entertainment and intellectual property law firm, headquartered in New York will formally launch its IT-enabled subsidiary here on April 30.

The New York-based SDD has clients such as 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment, HBO and Clinton Foundation (the non-profit organisation of former US President Bill Clinton).

Says SDD Attorney Russell Smith, who is here for around six months, "The days are gone when large traditional western firms could continue their ways and still survive. They see a lack of responsiveness, inefficient hourly billing, overly high salaries and concentration of personnel in rented offices in the most expensive real estate markets in the US."

"Our mission is to positively change the way in which legal services are provided in the western world. We intend to be a leader in an industry-wide paradigm shift "" toward a dramatic increase in quality, efficiency, responsiveness and cost-effectiveness."

Though the Mysore subsidiary will commence operations in a small way with 13 seats working 24x7 at the entry level, it plans to spread its work into legal, immigration (visas) and then on to merger and acquisitions, drafting, company contracts and the like over a period of three years, he told Business Standard today. "From the present small location, we will move into a bigger facility shortly as we have a lot of new things coming up," he said.

Mysore has plenty of IT talent to meet its requirement, Mr. Russell said and added, "every day morning we can see a large number of IT professionals travelling to Bangalore from Mysore. We would like to see them back in Mysore."

Endorsing his views, SDD Global CEO Malcolm Andrade, who has worked for some of the most prominent MNCs in Bangalore, says, "What Toyota has been to the automobile industry, what Google has accomplished in the realm of Internet search, what Infosys has done to software business, that is what SDD Global wants to help achieve in the world of legal services - nothing short of an industry revolution."

"We envision an industry in which artificial barriers across countries and continents do not keep the most talented and enthusiastic people from doing the work they do best," he adds.