Big Four accountancy firm KPMG has created a legal ‘transformation service’ to help in-house lawyers adapt to new ways of working post Covid-19.

The Global Legal Operations Transformation Service will advise general counsel and in-house legal teams on how to optimise their use of technology and how to work more efficiently in the wake of the pandemic. KPMG said there is an ‘urgent need’ to rethink delivery models and transform legal function operations.

‘While the move to digitise and automate the legal function was already underway before Covid-19, the situation has intensified and it is now a commercial imperative, and the scope and remit is wider than before as the pandemic need for organisations to transform,’ it said.

The service will be run by business specialists, lawyers, legal technologists, and data scientists.

Stuart Fuller, KPMG’s head of global legal services, said: ‘The new Legal Operations Transformation Service enables KPMG firms to handle large-scale business in a more efficient and technologically-enabled way and is only the first in a number of capabilities and services that we plan to provide in this space.’

A report by fellow accountancy giant EY found that almost three-quarters of in-house legal departments are now outsourcing services to cut costs and deal with rising volumes of work.