Hogan Lovells, a leading global law firm, is to set up a Legal Services Center in Birmingham, United Kingdom to deliver high quality cost-effective legal services for aspects of its client work. The Center will operate as an extension of the firm's London office.

Following the recent announcement about setting up a Business Services Center in Johannesburg, the Legal Services Center of Hogan Lovells further demonstrates how legal firms are looking to reduce costs, while keeping the quality of their services at a high level. Hogan Lovells is one of the largest law firms worldwide with total annual revenues of $ 1.7 billion, 2,500 lawyers working out of more than 40 offices around the world.

According to Hogan Lovells regional managing partner for the UK and Africa, Susan Bright: "We are constantly looking for cost-effective solutions for our clients in relation to fee arrangements and the provision of legal advice. Hogan Lovells has for many years been a leader in this area, with initiatives such as our real estate outsourcing service, our Alicante office for Europe-wide trademark portfolio work, our bespoke offshoring arrangements for certain litigation projects and our use of alumni, contract lawyers and paralegals for a range of work including document reviews for litigation and corporate projects. The Legal Services Center will extend the range of options we already offer. We are delighted to be establishing the Center in Birmingham which has a significant and high quality legal community."

The office capabilities will be developed over time in response to client demand but it is expected to comprise up to 20 lawyers initially at the start by autumn this year. The Birmingham team will do work such as such as leasing and licensing of premises, the preparation of formal documentation for the completion of transactions, some intragroup reorganisations and minor contract amendment.

Buck Consultants International assisted Hogan Lovells with the assessment of 12 selected locations all over the UK in which the cost, quality, availability and competition for legal talent was included. In addition other factors such as real estate, travel time / cost, investment incentives and the quality of life of the different locations has been taken into consideration. Nick Cray, Hogan Lovells Chief Operating Officer, said "Following on from their exellent work on our global back office project, we had no hesitation in using Buck Consultants International for the analysis of potential locations."

birmingham

Learn more about this topic or want to discuss this topic with an expert?

Receive news from BCI