Herbert Smith Freehills is preparing a pilot scheme to use the firm’s Belfast document review centre for cases from the legacy Freehills side of its business in Australia.
The firm is planning to launch the pilot in the next two months. Management from legacy Freehills is now understood to be searching for a suitable case in the Asia Pacific region on which to collaborate with the Belfast office, which will handle the document review work. The pilot scheme will give the firm an idea of whether the time differences and any language barriers can be overcome in the long run.
In a statement, Belfast office director Libby Jackson said: “It’s early days. We’re continuing to explore the extent to which our offering in Belfast might be able to support our disputes practice in Australia.”
Pre-merger Herbert Smith launched its Belfast office in 2011 to focus on reviewing and analysing case documents (24 November 2011) and initially shared £3m of public money from Invest Northern Ireland with Allen & Overy – which opened a support function office in the city – to help fund the launch (4 February 2011).
Herbert Smith then got a further £500,000 from Invest Northern Ireland after announcing it would create another 61 jobs in Belfast, in addition to the initial 26 (30 June 2011).
Herbert Smith merged with Freehills on 1 October 2012 (28 June 2012). The combined litigation group is headed by legacy Herbert Smith partner Sonya Leydecker and legacy Freehills partner Damian Grave.
Readers' comments (15)
Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 9:21 am
"...whether... any language barriers can be overcome in the long run"
I thought they spoke English in both Australia and Belfast?
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The Cunning Linguist | 19-Nov-2012 9:32 am
@Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 9:21 am
Good point, perhaps they mean that the Irish accent is incomprehensible for Aussies? Though, that seems unlikely. But, if so, maybe Herbies will have to introduce elocution lessons?
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Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 9:53 am
They should be used to accents from either side of the border, the Irish have been emigrating to Australia for years after all!
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Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 11:52 am
"language barriers" - what an outrageous comment to make. how offensive.
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Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 12:44 pm
Im of irish decent and find these comments very insulting as these comments have moved away from where Herbies uses it review centre to insulting the irish.
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Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:12 pm
I may be wrong but in Freebies' and the journalist's defence, I think the reference to "any language barriers" is meant to address the possibility that the pilot case can be drawn from the Asia Pacific region so could involve documents in diverse languages such as mandarin, cantonese, japanese, thai and indonesian to name but a few.
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Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:17 pm
Grow up chaps - they specifically reference the Asia-Pac region as being part of the pilot. Understanding whether the Irish and Vietnamese (for example) can converse must surely just be part of their dd in looking at the project
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Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:27 pm
@Anonymous 12.44
You aren't helping dispel the "language barrier" issue with your appalling spelling and grammar.
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Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:40 pm
Calm down all you touchy people -- this is document review work being done overnight (for the Aussies) -- one would assume that "language differences" referred to differences between Australian and UK legal drafting conventions. Or is that too dull for comment?
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Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:48 pm
I'm actually Irish and I don't find these comments insulting at all, it's obviously just a stupid reference to language barriers which was not clearly thought out, if anything it could be insulting to Australians, if you think about it, so just don't worry about!
And just an extra comment from today's brilliant LND which said:
"It could just be one big trick though. The Australian state of Victoria has a coastal town called Port Fairy with roughly 2,500 residents, not far from Melbourne by Australian standards. Sydney solicitor James Atkinson, who was from Northern Ireland, bought 5,120 acres of land in the town in 1843 and renamed it after his hometown - Belfast. It was a name that lasted until 1887, when the town reverted to its old name following an act of parliament."
In my view Port Fairy sounds strangely similar to the name of Portaferry, a town in Northern Ireland.
In any case, I think if this move by Herbies means that more work will be coming into the Belfast office and therefore potentially more locals will get work there, then that's surely a good thing.
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