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Cobra Legal Solutions LLC did not
originate in the hallowed halls of America's or India's
major business or law schools. Its founding is more
interesting and intensely personal; yet, still a product
of the dynamics of globalization.
In 1999, John and Becky Douglas tragically
lost their daughter, Amber. When John and Becky went
through Amber's personal effects, they discovered
that Amber had been sending a portion of her college
allowance to an orphanage in India. As a tribute to
Amber, Becky later traveled to India. She was so moved
by the needs of the people that Becky organized a
group of friends and started a charitable organization
called Rising
Star Outreach.
Rising Star provides medical, educational and economic
assistance to the leprosy-affected families and their
children in the colonies of Tamil Nadu, a southern
state in India. Becky met and later partnered with
Padma Venkatraman, the daughter of a former President
of India. Together, Becky and Padma established micro-lending
programs in addition to ongoing assistance programs
in Tamil Nadu and extended their reach to the fishing
villages affected by the 2004 Tsunami. Rising Star
relocated its hostel and school during 2007 to a new
13.5 acre facility near Chennai, India, which will
ultimately house 300 children and educate 800 children.
As a result of Rising Star, Becky
brought the issues of the leprosy-affected people to
the attention of her friends. One, Cantwell Muckenfuss,
went to India to work with the children from the colonies
to complete his service obligation for high school.
His mother, Angela Lancaster, joined him. Angela and
Cantwell shared Becky's love for the children. They
also, through Rising Star, became good friends with
Mohan Subramanyam and his wife Meena Mohan. Mohan is
the CEO of Kumaran Systems, an information technology
services company based in Chennai with offices in the
U.S. and Canada. Mohan and Meena's daughters, Manju
and Swathi, also volunteered at Rising Star. Through
these relationships, the group came together in an enterprise
centered on children that demanded the love and attention
of people from all over the world.
Contemporaneously, John, Mohan and
Cantwell's father, Chuck, began discussing globalization
and India's increasingly important role in the world
economy -- just as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman
was writing "The World is Flat". Each recognized
the tremendous opportunities associated with pairing
the needs of corporate law departments with the intellect
and talent of Indian-trained lawyers using modern technology.
After extensive analysis of the needs of U.S. corporations
and law departments and resources in India, the core
approach of Cobra was developed: Combine world-class
processes, procedures and controls, excellent and motivated
Indian attorneys and U.S.-trained personnel on both
sides of the ocean.
It was easy to pull together the
founding group for Cobra. Each of the founders is
convinced that the Cobra model provides the framework
for reshaping the legal profession dramatically. With
their large firm backgrounds, they understand the
importance of excellence. With their sensitivity to
client needs, they understand the need for delivering
that quality at an attractive price. Each believes
that the Cobra model meets a compelling need in a
manner that assures quality and timeliness.
The desire
of this group of people to be responsible global citizens,
to revolutionize the delivery of legal support services
and to explore the dynamics of globalization resulted
in the formation of Cobra Legal Solutions LLC, a Delaware
limited liability company, in 2007.
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