| BANGALORE, May 8, 2008-SDD Global Solutions, the | | | | Patricia Holland, veteran New York trial attorney |
| leader in high-end legal services outsourcing to India, | | | | Kwarma Vanderpuye, U.S. immigration law specialist |
| has expanded from Mysore and New York into | | | | Priya Kumar, and others. |
| London and Bangalore. Already the "go-to" legal | | | | Says Frank Dehn, a Harvard Law School graduate |
| provider for Fortune 100 media, entertainment and | | | | and managing attorney of SmithDehn's New York |
| other companies in Hollywood and elsewhere in the | | | | office: "Every modern U.S. law firm is now struggling to |
| United States, SDD Global has added not only new | | | | figure out its 'India Strategy.' We're the only Western |
| offices, but also new service capabilities, including | | | | law firm that not only has one, but already has been |
| transactional work and patent services. | | | | implementing it on the ground." |
| London Office Opened | | | | Another SmithDehn founder, Columbia Law School |
| Alex Hannell, one of the world's leading specialists in | | | | graduate Russell Smith, who spends most of his time |
| international media, intellectual property and | | | | in Mysore, managing SDD Global Solutions, says: "With |
| entertainment transactions, heads SDD Global's new | | | | its new offices, new practice areas, and new parent |
| London office, and its new service division, The | | | | law firm, SDD Global is poised to achieve its dream. |
| Business and Legal Affairs Group. Led and trained by | | | | We want to revolutionize the way legal services are |
| Hannell, with outstanding attorneys working in Mysore, | | | | delivered to companies and individuals all over the |
| this new department handles the transactions and | | | | world." |
| commercial legal affairs of film and television | | | | More About SDD Global |
| companies, and it can do the same for all other kinds | | | | SDD Global Solutions, the only legal services provider in |
| of companies, which (a) are no longer willing to tolerate | | | | India managed by a U.S. law firm, offers high-quality |
| the usual outside counsel rates in the West, and/or (b) | | | | legal research, analysis and drafting at a fraction of the |
| want another alternative to hiring in-house lawyers. | | | | traditional cost. Headquartered in the city of Mysore, |
| Before joining SDD Global, Mr. Hannell served as Head | | | | India, two hours from Bangalore, and with other offices |
| of Commercial Affairs for Granada International, the | | | | in New York, London, and Bangalore, the company |
| worldwide arm of what is now the U.K.'s largest | | | | maintains quality and security controls that meet or |
| commercial television company, ITV. He is also a | | | | exceed those of top-tier law firms in the West. In |
| veteran of the pre-eminent London-based law firm, | | | | order to maintain the highest standards, SDD Global |
| Herbert Smith LLP. From 2002 until 2008, Hannell | | | | hires only one out of every 900 job applicants, from a |
| developed his own roster of film and television clients, | | | | growing talent pool that includes 80,000 |
| including a "who's who" list of such companies as | | | | English-speaking law graduates in India entering the |
| Warner Brothers and countless others. | | | | market each year. Due to the dramatically low cost of |
| Bangalore Patent Office Added | | | | living and doing business in Mysore, where SDD Global |
| Simultaneously, SDD Global has opened a patent legal | | | | has its own state-of-the-art office building, the |
| services operation in Bangalore, led by IP experts with | | | | company can significantly reduce costs for its |
| an extensive track record in the field. SDD Global's | | | | corporate and law firm clients. |
| multidisciplinary team of patent agents, scientists, and | | | | As noted in a press release from Columbia Law |
| patent attorneys provides in-depth experience, | | | | School ("Is the Future of U.S. Law in India?"), SDD |
| combined with up-to-date technical knowledge. The | | | | Global Solutions is actively dispelling the stereotype |
| team handles IP portfolio creation and management, | | | | linked to outsourcing, by (a) hiring lawyers in the United |
| prior art searches, patentability consulting, infringement | | | | States and the United Kingdom to further improve its |
| analysis, patent drafting and prosecution, valuation and | | | | quality control, supervision and onshore presence, and |
| licensing, and a host of other IP services. | | | | (b) providing more legal services opportunities for U.S. |
| New Parent Law Firm, SmithDehn LLP | | | | law firm clients, since the lower costs of those |
| In other news, SDD Global Solutions is now managed | | | | services create a demand for legal work that in many |
| by SmithDehn LLP, the New York and London-based | | | | cases would not have otherwise existed. |
| international law firm created by the intellectual | | | | SDD Global is on the path to becoming in many ways |
| property, media, and entertainment attorneys of the | | | | the functional equivalent of the world's largest and |
| former Smith Dornan Dehn PC. Joining these former | | | | most affordable global law firm. SDD Global is solving |
| SDD attorneys at SmithDehn LLP are Alex Hannell in | | | | one of the most urgent problems of today's |
| London, former NBC and CBS television in-house | | | | businesses, namely, the inefficiencies of having most |
| counsel Benton Levy, former Chicago Mercantile | | | | legal work done in locations that often are among the |
| Exchange Director and Associate General Counsel | | | | most expensive, and the least productive. |