Message from the Editor of Practical Law Global, Aditi Mene

Welcome to the May 2012 issue of Practical Law Global online magazine, whose mission is to provide you with simple, practical ways to deal with the complex international legal issues you, your business and your clients face everyday.

This month, we are introducing Practical Law Global readers to our Outsourcing multi-jurisdictional guide. Outsourcing is becoming a major issue for global businesses, so make sure you take a look at the outsourcing highlights we have to offer this month, including:

• An article on how to manage employee communications in an outsourcing transaction.
• An article on the advantages and disadvantages of using one of the world's most popular destinations for outsourcing: India.
• A discussion about the trends and developments that are occurring in the global outsourcing legal market from our dedicated PLC Which lawyer? researcher Dominic Zammit.

Also this month, do not miss our regular features:

• The GC Agendas. The EU, US and Chinese developments and horizon issues that you and your company need to know about this month.
• Multi-jurisdictional guidance, including: 
  • An easy-to-read comparative Q&A table on the transfer tax payable on the sale of real estate in 23 countries, as requested by our subscribers.
  • A feature article providing an overview of hybrid securities from our Capital Markets multi-jurisdictional guide.
  • A feature article on the newly enacted US JOBS Act, and how it will affect non-US businesses.
  • A feature article on data protection compliance policies from our Data Protection multi-jurisdictional guide and part of our PLC data protection toolkit.
• The PLC Which lawyer? research. This month we look at:
  • The top firms to instruct in India and Japan and an analysis of the legal markets in these countries.
  • The trends occurring in the global outsourcing market, and the newly published rankings for this area.
• Management information from guest experts who consider the commercial issues you need to think about. This month:
  
  • Lisa Hart Shepherd from Acritas examines the variations in global legal budgets and what this could mean for law firms.
  • Donald Hamilton, Chuck Barker and Simon Maple from CMI Concord discuss the importance of a well-planned commitment in an agreement.
  • Jonathan Bellis from HBR Consulting considers the important relationship between in-house counsel and their clients.
  • Tim Cummins from IACCM examines why contractual changes should not be resisted.

Finally, if you have any suggestions, comments or queries about PLG, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me and my team (Ruth Jones and Jennifer Stoddart). We would be very pleased to hear from you.