Taylor Wessing set to create arm in Cambridge for standardised work

Taylor Wessing is set to create an affiliated corporate services business to offer clients standardised work.

The firm is in the early stages of setting up a business unit in its Cambridge office to offer clients more lower-cost options to handle work such as corporate due diligence.

The business will initially work solely on Taylor Wessing projects, but going forward it is likely that the firm will offer the service to third parties, including other law firms.

If successful, the Anglo-German firm will also consider entering into a joint venture with an IT company to help create processes to streamline work.

Taylor Wessing is currently in discussions with recruiters to bring in a number of lawyers to conduct the work, although the size of the unit and the exact nature of the work it will handle is still unclear. The firm will not use any of its own lawyers in the business.

The move is one of the ideas to emerge from the firm's 'change group' - a working group set up last year to monitor the opportunities presented by the Legal Services Act (LSA). When formed, the group was given the remit to concentrate on radical reforms to allow external investment in law firms.

The group, which is led by managing partner Tim Eyles, includes financial institutions chief Tim Stocks, finance partner Peter Shepherd, real estate partner Adam Marks and intellectual property partner Niri Shanmuganathan.

Eyles (pictured) commented: "We are looking at ways we can be more competitive, in particular looking at our financial modelling and the different ways we can offer a quality and premium service but at a better cost to clients."

Taylor Wessing on the Legal Week Wiki