November 27, 06

NEWS / Foreign firms see wisdom in outsourcing to rural U.S.

WHEELING, W.Va. ??“ Downtown Wheeling might seem an unlikely home for the back office of an international law firm with hundreds of attorneys spread around the globe.

After all, corporate America is sending U.S. jobs to India and other overseas destinations, not the rustbelt. But British outsourcing firm Williams Lea is betting that corporate clients will want to keep more sensitive jobs such as transcribing depositions and processing legal documents a little closer to home.

???Wheeling is an essential piece of what we??™re trying to accomplish,??? said Dave Pennino, the firm??™s director of marketing.

Pennino envisions Wheeling as an onshore alternative to Williams Lea??™s established offerings at or near client??™s offices and overseas.

The company hopes Wheeling will help attract additional clients interested in keeping sensitive information in the country.

There??™s nothing terribly novel about sending jobs to smaller U.S. cities, said Harold Sirkin of Boston Consulting.

???Iowa??™s loaded with call centers. Salt Lake City also has a lot.???

But there is a trend toward higher-level jobs being sent to rural America, particularly from overseas, Sirkin said. The reasons are the same as always: flexible hours, employees with strong work ethics and relatively low wages.

???A lot of design jobs and things like that are coming into the U.S. now, even from places like China and India,??? he said.

Still, the concept remains foreign to potential customers, Pennino said, who admits Wheeling made him do a double take when he joined the company about a year ago. Would-be clients have the same reaction until they figure out that Wheeling has people, easy access to the amenities of Pittsburgh and local benefits such as decent schools, he said.

???Once people get their hands around that, they??™re very excited,??? he said.

For Wheeling, Williams Lea holds the promise of economic development in its downtown, said Don Rigby, executive director of the Regional Economic Development Partnership. The non-profit organization rebuilt and owns both the Wheeling Stamping and Stone & Thomas buildings.

Service jobs grew at a scant 0.3 percent rate in Ohio County from 2001 through last year, less than half the rate of the rest of the state, according to statistics from West Virginia University.

The county has struggled with a declining population, dropping from more than 50,000 in April 1990 to a bit more than 45,000 by July 2005. Unemployment has dropped in recent years from 5.4 percent in 2003 to 4.8 percent last year.

Yet the area faces a somewhat uncertain future, along with much of the state. The state??™s manufacturing sector has lost 3,300 jobs over the past three years and losses in the steel and chemical industries are expected to continue.

???These types of organizations are now a target market for the state,??? Rigby said. ???There are several areas in the state where this makes some sense.???

Workers for Williams Lea and New York-based law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe are ensconced in a nicely appointed downtown building against the banks of the Ohio River. Less than two years ago, the former Wheeling Stamping Co. plant was what Rigby terms a ???wreck??? after sitting vacant for perhaps a dozen years.

???It had no windows; it was leaking,??? he said.

In less than six months, the building was transformed. Two others were razed to create parking lots and the remaining structure now features an atrium and several floors of loft-style open office space.

Williams Lea has bigger plans for the area.

In just over a year, Williams Lea has built a staff of 37 employees in its Wheeling office.

The firm handles meat-and-potatoes work such as transcription and word processing for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe??™s 900 lawyers worldwide.

Pennino hopes to add one or two large clients a year and eventually expand the staff to 120.

The company has gone about setting down roots in Wheeling since October 2005. Besides the office in the old Wheeling Stamping plant, Williams Lea has signed a deal with West Virginia Northern Community College to offer courses aimed at preparing students for careers in business law and legal document handling.

Rigby and Pennino say Wheeling has advantages that companies notice once they take a closer look.
By Tim Huber
Associated Press

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