DNA

Bangalore, Dec 11(mb): Al Pacino’s new reality TV serial on rookie cops is getting legal help from Mysore. An outsourcing firm based in the city is insuring the series and doing the legal groundwork for it.

A movie crew having problems using cars with Chicago Police logo is already thankful to Mysore.

While outsourcing back-office work such as document reviews, drafting and application to Indian legal processing offices is not new, lawyers in the royal city of Karnataka are conducting research, writing legal opinions, drafting motions and copyright clauses, preparing documents for insurance coverage, getting permissions for locations and materials for shooting and processing visas for Hollywood actors, producers and directors.

Increasing business opportunities and the availability of cheap labour and office space has prompted SDD Global, the famous law arm of the Manhattan-based international media and intellectual property firm Smith Dornan Dehn, to establish its high-end outsourcing unit in Mysore.

SDD provides legal support to major production houses such as 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Universal Studios.

“Production houses engage law firms to know the kind of legal issues they could face. Permits to shoot at different locations, drafting copyright clauses, signing contracts with actors and crew members, preparing documents for insurance covers, research on potential legal issues, framing legal guidelines for filming are the various kinds of support we provide from our Mysore office,” Russel Smith, chairman and president of SDD Global and founder of Smith Dornan Dehn, told DNA.