Eversheds is outsourcing the bulk of its IT function to an external provider with almost 100 staff set to leave the firm, Legal Week can reveal, as it emerges magic circle firms Allen & Overy (A&O) and Linklaters have also secured further back-office outsourcing deals. The national giant is set to sign a deal with independent IT provider Computacenter by the end of the month, which is likely to last three years and will involve the transfer of about 80% of the firm’s entire IT capability, with around 90 people leaving.
It is understood the deal contains provisions to outsource various core support functions including Eversheds’ helpdesk network, infrastructure teams and its IT training specialists.
The departing staff, who will leave by 1 November, are expected to come from offices across the firm’s national network, which includes a major call centre in Birmingham.
UK managing partner Bryan Hughes told Legal Week: "We want to do more than just keep the lights on. We are not a specialist IT firm and we have not got infinite resources [so] we could never be at the cutting edge of legal technology — but with an outside provider, we can."
The shake-up follows a review of Eversheds’ IT function by newly-installed director Malcolm Simms, who joined the national firm last year from Disney, and makes Eversheds the first major UK law firm to outsource one of its core support divisions.
Meanwhile, A&O has confirmed it is to cut six jobs from its graphic design and document production department after outsourcing more of the team’s work to US company Office Tiger.
Magic circle rival Linklaters is also finalising an agreement with an external IT provider to handle its technology development, some of which will cover cross-border work, internal management tools and application development.
The latest developments will be watched closely by UK lawyers, who have traditionally lagged behind their professional services counterparts in their use of outsourcing in core services, although firms are increasingly moving towards a leaner business model. Law firms have also experimented with outsourcing support work to India. In 2003, A&O agreed a deal with Office Tiger to outsource half of its document production abroad.