Litigation in North Carolina, as elsewhere in the United States, is an expensive proposition. High-quality lawyers in North Carolina usually work on an hourly billing rate, and can charge as much as $350 to $500 an hour or more. SDD Global has found that clients prefer to be billed on a flat-fee basis, although of course we give our clients the option of choosing an hourly fee structure as well. In any case, our fees are very competitive, especially compared to the rates of lawyers in North Carolina. Lawyers who choose to work with SDD Global can pass on the savings to their clients and become the most competitive attorneys or firms in their area.

One of SDD Global's U.S.-licensed, supervisory attorneys, Michael Cleaver, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School at Chapel Hill, and his office is located in Asheville, North Carolina. Mike is admitted to the North Carolina bar, and he is one of the reasons our work for North Carolina clients will always meet the highest local standards.

North Carolina has a long association with the film industry in the United States, and has been one of the top ten U.S. location destinations for the past 20 years. North Carolina has been the location of many big-budget studio productions, as well as independent features and documentaries. Legal fees are an escalating component of the budget in producing a film, and they easily can be controlled through legal outsourcing. SDD Global provides excellent legal support and assistance to both large studios and independent filmmakers at low rates. SDD Global has a strong association with the media and entertainment industry in the United States and the United Kingdom. In particular, we have assisted media companies on matters relating to films with controversial and legally difficult themes, which require extensive legal analysis in established and emerging areas of the law.

North Carolina lawyers are also involved in other transactional issues. SDD Global has experience in transactional work in North Carolina. SDD Global conducted extensive research for a Fortune 100 company relating to North Carolina law. The research was in the areas of choice of laws, contract law, and tort law including fraud and defamation. SDD Global also conducted similar research for a major media company.

SDD Global also conducted research into the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement and its application in North Carolina. A major Indian manufacturer required research into the state application and enforcement of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, and engaged the team at SDD Global to ensure that the research was conducted in a timely manner for a very reasonable fee.

The American Bar Association understands the economic advantages of legal process outsourcing and expressed this understanding in its Formal Opinion 08-451 dated August 5, 2008 titled Lawyer's Obligations When Outsourcing Legal and Nonlegal Support Services. (The full text of the opinion can be found here.) The ABA blessed the outsourcing trend as "a salutary one for our globalized economy." The opinion stated that outsourcing "affords lawyers the ability to reduce their costs and often the cost to the client to the extent that the individuals or entities providing outsourced services can do so at lower rates than the lawyers' own staff." The ABA also said outsourcing created new opportunities for smaller firms to handle larger matters.

The Ethics Committee of the State Bar of North Carolina also has given an opinion on the ethics of outsourcing. In its Formal Ethics Opinion No. 12 of 2007, issued on April 25, 2008, the Ethics Committee stated that outsourcing of legal work by lawyers in North Carolina to lawyers abroad, who are not registered to practice in North Carolina, does not violate the Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers. The only qualification to this opinion is that the North Carolina lawyer should follow Rule 5 of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Rule 5 provides that lawyers may delegate work to non-lawyers as long as they supervise the work of the non-lawyers and exercise reasonable due diligence in selecting the individuals to whom the work is outsourced. The lawyer also has to ensure that client confidentiality is maintained.