Legal management consultancy Hildebrandt International and Indian company Office Tiger have set up a joint venture to help law firms outsource parts of their business to south Asia.

Activities that firms will be able to outsource through the joint venture, which will be called OTH Services, include document processing, legal research, finance and accounting, and human resources.

Giles Pugh, a director in Hildebrandt's London office, said: 'We will be providing consulting services for firms to identify the full potential and benefits of outsourcing.'

Mr Pugh said the main benefits to firms were the lower costs achievable, the extra capacity for transactional work, and the 24 hours, seven-days-a-week availability of the service.

Firms can also take advantage of the high levels of education among Office Tiger's staff for a fraction of the equivalent cost in the UK.

He acknowledged law firms would need reassurance on issues such as confidentiality, but added that 'there is a huge amount of security' at Office Tiger's headquarters in Chennai.

'There is also uncertainty [among firms] over how things will work out when they transfer activities to India, but this is where recent technological advances such as broadband help,' he said.

So far only Allen & Overy of the leading City firms has publicly outsourced operations, having transferred part of its document production activities to India in a deal with Office Tiger last September (see [2003] Gazette, 18 September, 4).

The firm's operational services head, Steven Chernikeeff, predicted at the time that the move would produce 'a seven-figure annual saving'.

Mr Pugh said several other firms were looking to follow suit, adding that outsourcing was becoming an increasingly attractive option for a range of firms.

He added: 'Outsourcing is becoming an increasingly flexible tool - it can cover the very largest firms down to the mid-sized practices and probably beyond that.'

Philip Hoult