General counsel are starting to ‘unbundle’ legal work in a bid to improve efficiency, though some remain cautious, law firm research shows.

In the face of cost pressures and rising workloads, international firm Ashurst says there is a growing willingness among GCs to take advantage of outsourcing to deliver essential components of matters.

However some GCs are still concerned that coordinating several providers for each matter could increase the workload for the in-house team, particularly if one or more providers is unfamiliar with the clients’ working processes.