Herbert Smith to open Belfast office to handle litigation due diligence
Herbert Smith is to open a Belfast office to service its dispute resolution practice.
Sonia_Leydecker
The office, which will open before the end of April, will focus primarily on reviewing and analysing documentation relating to cases the firm is acting on.
Initially the office will be home to 20, but Herbert Smith anticipates the employee headcount to rise significantly. There will be no job cuts as a result of the opening, the firm said.
Herbert Smith global litigation chief Sonya Leydecker said: “Clients are increasingly looking to their lawyers for more imaginative approaches to the management of disputes.
“In particular, complex projects such as disclosure are important but can increasingly be systematised and managed in new ways. The Belfast office will make a new range of resourcing options available to clients.”
Leydecker will have overall responsibility for the office working with dispute resolution partner Jenny Stainsby. The firm will also relocate solicitor Libby Jackson to Belfast early next year to oversee its development.
Clients will be given the option of using the operation in Belfast when they instruct the firm, it said.
The aim is to better manage costs associated with disclosure and bring in a more structured approach to reviewing documentation.
In June, Herbert Smith successfully acted for British Sky Broadcasting in its legal battle with Electronic Data Systems. The firm reviewed 500,000 documents in preparation for the case, a costly process (10 June 2010).
The move comes a day after CMS Cameron McKenna announced that partners had voted in favour of a major outsourcing project (23 November 2010).
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Readers' comments (30)
IHateBPP | 24-Nov-2010 1:06 pm
This is an awful idea, the work will be done much cheaper but not necessarily as well.
Most of the lawyers/paralegals in NI don't have experience in the sort of litigation that HS would handle, are qualified/experienced in NI law only rather than English law and have not completed even the LPC.
Nonetheless, they'll have no shortage of applicants desperate to get any sort of paid legal job in NI.
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IHateBPP | 24-Nov-2010 1:54 pm
The nature of these sausage factories is also that of a dead end rather than a stepping stone to an actual career with the firm. Essentially, you start on the sausage factory floor and stay there.
The working culture certainly won't be that of being on call twenty four hours a day either as the staff won't have any incentive, monetary or otherwise, to do so as they're aware that their factory exists simply because it's cheap.
This will only attract staff who only stay for a short period of time then leave due to boredom, often with a trail of negligence in their wake due to their inexperience and the inexperience of the management.
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Anonymous | 24-Nov-2010 2:23 pm
It is curious that IHateBPP is so against this as to be posting the same comment on the website of two legal publications.
It is an interesting idea. The difficulty will be how to sell this as a "good" career opportunity for lawyers who may otherwise want to be more involved in the litigation process. Equally, how many other firms may look at other parts of their business (e.g. real estate) and consider whether it could be more cost effectively run from a cheaper part of the country?
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Manangles | 24-Nov-2010 2:52 pm
There is no such thing as Northern Ireland Law, we just have replicas of Westminister legislation called NI Orders instead of Acts.
I myself qualified in New York and I'm currently studying my LLM in Law & International Commerce.
Herbert Smith will reap a bounty of talent here make no mistake about it, but they already know that as they are regular visitors to both University law schools.
They will become more competitive as a result and their quality will not miss a beat, guartanteed !!!
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Anonymous | 24-Nov-2010 2:58 pm
what a waste of space you are, most commercial lawyers in NI are City trained, unlike you who trained in Burger King
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Paddy | 24-Nov-2010 3:09 pm
To IHateBPP - I'm sure those daft Paddies (of which I am one) will be able to get their heads around disclosure - it aint rocket science son! From your tone, I suspect you have haven’t secured a training contract and are feeling aggrieved. Why not move to the Province and get a piece of that disclosure pie and stop moaning on legal discussion boards.
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Anonymous | 24-Nov-2010 3:13 pm
This is a rather disparaging comment.
It is well known that what were O and A levels were harder under NI examination boards than English boards.
I am sure there will be those who are originally from NI who then worked in either magic circle or Top 50 law firms in England who will return home and will be perfectly capable of doing the work.
The LPC is not the be all and end all. In any event NI does have its own Institue of Professional Legal Studies.
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Anonymous | 24-Nov-2010 3:14 pm
I agree with the comment above. Not only are we lawyers in NI still living in the dark ages but we also lack the intelligence to handle the "type of litigation that HS would handle".
Notwithstanding the fact that a large number of lawyers in Belfast have come from some of the best UK/City/global firms, the moment we jump on that choppy ferry across the Irish Sea, we do somehow lose the ability to do our job "as well" as our esteemed colleagues on the mainland. Perhaps it is just the Paddy Factor...or maybe because we are all full of Guiness. Come to think of it, we are lucky we even managed to get our law degrees!
Dismount from the High Horse IhateBPP - maybe the way you should look at it is better value for money...sure.
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Anonymous | 24-Nov-2010 3:17 pm
Not sure how you justify any of those arguments.
NI produces many high class lawyers. They have as much experience in litigation matters as most lawyers/paralegals in England bar magic circle firms. Also, the law in NI is largely the same as that in England and Wales apart from a few minor differences in land law (which are incorporated into the land law modules studied at QUB anyway).
Finally, unlike in England and Wales, law students who qualify in NI have to pass an entrance exam before they can even begin their professional studies, unlike those in England and Wales who simply fill in application forms and hand over money. You could argue they are better prepared to take on these tasks as they have many more hoops to jump through before they can finally practise!
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Anonymous | 24-Nov-2010 3:25 pm
Clearly, us lawyers in NI couldn't possibly have the brains to take on the work HS would handle.
Don't be so arrogant IhateBPP.
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