Mindcrest, which topped the list of core LPO service providers in the Black Book of Outsourcing rankings for 2009, has big plans for expansion. When asked about the rankings, Teju Deshpande, Vice President, Client Services is quick to react, announcing that only lack of co-ordination between Black Book and Mindcrest prevented them from winning the accolade last year as well! Deshpande also mentions that this year's rankings have been more streamlined and organized in that all parameters of the organization were factored in and weighed before arriving at the final ranking numbers.

Mindcrest's centre in Pune currently seats about 700 people. However, the LPO plans to aggressively build personnel strength to ramp up both offshore and onshore legal capabilities. Rohan Dalal, Managing Director of India operations, claims that the recession has positively impacted their business, allowing them to expand. "We are ramping up our on-shore capacity to 1000 by the end of the year and our onshore capacity to 50," he told Bar & Bench.

Dalal attributes the top spot in the rankings to no management attrition and extremely low operations attrition at Mindcrest. "While many LPO players were focusing on scale, we focused on both scale and margins in our services. Mindcrest currently has three service verticals, what it calls the creamy layer of outsourcing- litigation support, document and contract review and legal analytics."

When questioned about client satisfaction and feedback, Teju Deshpande says that "our team in India is qualified to do the same work that an associate in a top US law firm would do".  Like most LPOs, Mindcrest is chary of naming client names. Mindcrest has some Fortune 500 Corporations in the finance, healthcare, entertainment and engineering services sectors along with some of the top 50 law firms in the US, and some magic circle firms from the UK as their existing clients.