HSBC launches offshore legal team for bulk work

HSBC is pioneering an offshore legal function to service its UK volume legal queries, in a move that threatens to make corporate counsel the latest back-office commodity to be relocated to Asia.

The FTSE 100 banking giant has set up a team of four lawyers in its global service centre in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, and has said that it may open up the facility to the bank's legal functions in other jurisdictions. It is understood to be the first major UK financial institution to make such a move.

HSBC's corporate banking head of legal, Keith Ford, is leading the initiative. One senior in-house lawyer was seconded to pilot the scheme in September and the bank is now training up the team in UK law.

Ford said the move followed HSBC's 'offshoring' of other back-office functions such as human resources. "We send out the most straightforward and practical work; the queries are of a routine nature rather than any complex issues," he said. "The project has freed up other onshore lawyers to do more challenging legal work."

He added: "We have been encouraged by the results and are currently training the lawyers in Kuala Lumpur and looking to make some further local hires shortly. Overall, however, we are undertaking the project at a considered pace, wanting to ensure that we succeed in managing one type of work offshore before migrating others."

It is rare for major companies to send UK legal work overseas. Other UK legal teams to offshore a portion of their in-house work include BT, which last year expanded its existing offshore legal function in New Delhi with two new outposts in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires to support its US operations.

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