Herbert Smith Freehills has extended its innovative Alternative Legal Services business to China establishing the first alternative legal services hub of its kind in the country.
According to the international team, a 13-member team of lawyers and legal analysts bilingual in Mandarin and English is now operating from the firm's Shanghai office.
Shanghai becomes the seventh city HSF has an alternative legal services team in expanding from Belfast, Brisbane, London, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
The firm’s Alternative Legal Services global team has more than 350 lawyers, legal assistants and technologists.
“This innovation of a new centre in Shanghai helps us deliver on the firm's commitment to providing innovative and cost-effective service delivery options to our clients. It is part of our new strategy launched earlier this year, and continues the pioneering work we have done in the alternative delivery of our services to clients,” said Global Co-CEO Sonya Leydecker.
According to the global law firm, its alternative legal services business combines legal expertise, process efficiency and client technology solutions to process high-volume or document-intensive work more efficiently and cost effectively for clients.
The new business unit in China complements the bespoke advice offered by the firm’s lawyers from its existing Greater China offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and internationally.
“A complex transaction or dispute can involve the review of millions of Chinese-language documents that often must remain in China,” said Libby Jackson, Global Head of Alternative Legal Services.
“By equipping this new team with the technology and processes proven at our existing legal hubs in Belfast and Perth, we can offer clients a cost-effective way of tackling the document-intensive elements of these projects on the ground in China,” she added.
