Ince & Co senior partner Jan Heuvels has revealed that the firm is considering adopting an ABS structure in order to offer additional services to its clients.

The move is being considered as part of a strategy to rebalance Ince’s business by increasing the amount of transactional work the firm carries out. Currently, around 75 per cent of Ince’s income is generated through litigation and 25 per cent comes from transactional work, but Heuvels wants to alter this so the split is closer to 50/50.

Heuvels said: “Consistent with our agreed strategy of growing our transactional capability in our chosen industry sectors in order to compliment our reputation in dispute resolution, we’re considering additional product lines that we could offer to our clients under an ABS.

“While our discussions are ongoing, the additional services that we are considering would utilise our depth of market expertise and contacts to enhance our offering to our clients.”

Discussions about adopting an ABS are in very early stages within the firm and no formal plans have yet to be implemented. Due to this it is unknown which professional services Ince will look to provide its clients with, outside of legal services.

The discussions represent a noticeable shift in strategy for the shipping and insurance firm, which has often acted conservatively in the past. The structure of the business has remained largely the same despite Ince’s competitors diversifying in order to provide additional services to clients.

In February insurance specialist RPC launched a management consultancy businesses led by former Towers Watson risk consulting and software chief Rory O’Brien. The new venture, known as RPC Consulting, advises on strategy, capital management, operational efficiency, regulation, M&A and outsourcing.

At the time of the launch RPC managing partner Jonathan Watmough said initially RPC Consulting was limiting its scope to insurance management consulting. This was done in an attempt to take part of the market share from the big four auditing firms.

Ince also recently announced it is relocating its London office away from 1 St Katharine’s Way to a new office space at Aldgate Tower. The 35,000sq ft office is considerably smaller than the 64,030sq ft of space the firm currently occupies and will see Ince move into open plan space for the first time.

The new office also represents a considerable reduction in costs. As well as reducing the amount of space it uses in London by 45 per cent the firm is also understood to be paying less than the £55 per sq ft it is currently paying for 1 St Katharine’s Way.

Last week Ince was dealt a blow after the managing partner of the firm’s Singapore office, Richard Lovell, is leaving to take up a role at Reed Smith along with Incisive Law joint managing director Mohan Subbaraman. Incisive Law has had a strategic alliance with Ince since 2011 but it is unknown whether the relationship will continue following the moves.