US and City firm Baker & McKenzie is to instruct external law firms to recover any unpaid legal fees owed to it by clients, the Gazette has learned.

It is understood the firm, in an unusual move, has instructed each of its practice areas to pay external firms to act on fee recovery issues – possibly bringing to light the current difficulties faced by leading corporate law firms in getting clients to pay their bills.

It is also understood that the firm will begin sending fee-recovery work to Baker & McKenzie Global Services Manila (GSM), its offshore facility in the Philippines.

Baker & McKenzie employs 3,900 lawyers in 67 offices worldwide, including more than 400 lawyers in London, its largest office. It is understood that Baker & McKenzie’s Chicago-based general counsel Edward Zulkey recommended that fee-recovery work be outsourced.

One former law firm senior partner said he had not come across a law firm using an external firm to sue for fees before, but the strategy was likely to be cost effective. A law firm consultant said: ‘The idea of having independent legal advice to review the matter before launching proceedings is actually a very good control. It gives the opportunity for someone to say, "you haven’t actually done a very good job here, so you shouldn’t sue".’ A Baker & McKenzie spokesman said: ‘Currently we do not have any ongoing suits for fees. We do have a policy, however, to require outside counsel review before such litigation is approved.’ Last year, the Gazette revealed that top corporate firms in the UK were increasingly resorting to court action to claw back unpaid legal fees (see [2009] Gazette, 19 March, 6).