It started first with outsourcing back-office tasks, now it involves reading and interpreting medical tests (MRI, X-Rays, CAT scans), research and development in high technology fields, tax preparation, software development, and other creative endeavors.

Unless your work requires physical presence to be effective, it can be outsourced.

Expect to see more of these types of firms coming up in the years ahead. And with time will come the expertise and know-how to understand the historical and culutural contexts of the law.

As for your third question, I think the answer, unfortunately, is that law is very portable. Knowledge service jobs only require knowledge and bandwidth. Distance doesn’t matter. Experience matters, but how much does experience matter in entry-level work? Do you doubt that overseas workers could be educated to the same level as many new U.S. law grads? How about paralegals? What happens when these people have been researching and writing for five to ten years? Would they really have less experience than U.S. ABA-approved attorneys who also never saw a courtroom during that time?

If you want an outsource-proof job, learn to be a plumber or barber. Litigators are also pretty safe, because proximity to court and witnesses and evidence and such matters. But if your job can be done anywhere, it probably will be.