After the apparent success of Clifford Chance’s outsourcing efforts, it appears as thought one of the most conservative of City firms could join the trend. Slaughter and May are now considering outsourcing some of their low level legal work according to The Lawyer . Given the polarised views outsourcing tends to provoke; that Slaughters is considering it will certainly raise a few eyebrows.

Last week Legally India , noted that 12,000 hours of work were farmed out to Clifford Chance’s Gurgaon "knowledge centre". The report stated, "Knowledge Centre lawyers worked with 15 offices last year, putting in over 12,000 hours of work on over 300 client projects… On a large project for a major international bank the use of Knowledge Centre lawyers for certain aspects reduced the overall cost to the client by almost 20 per cent."

Results like that won’t have gone unnoticed by other City clients; no doubt they will be encouraging their lawyers to save them some costs too.

Clifford Chance offshoring reduces client costs by almost 20% [SolicitR]
Slaughters in talks over outsourcing plans [The Lawyer]