Mallesons has jumped aboard the freight train of innovation by signing up with outsourcing behemoth Integreon.
Whilst UK firms have been merrilylaying off staff outsourcing for some while now, Malleys claims to be the first Australian firm to get involved on a formal basis. The deal with Integreon will see the firm's due diligence, discovery and document review farmed out to 200 lawyers in India. And Malleson's Managing Partner Tony O'Malley is pretty excited, squeaking about "efficiency", "delivering sourcing alternatives" and "innovative business practice". Whilst Integreon, too, is suitably excited about Malleys' "bold innovation".
All these 'innovative' sound bites might make Malleson's partnership feel good about itself, but given Integreon's track record, may be of cold comfort to staff. UK firm CMS Cameron McKenna signed up with the company last year, following which a third of its support staff were faced with the choice of redundancy, relocation 150 miles away to Bristol or relocation, err, 4,477 miles away to India.
O'Malley insists that as the firm will only be outsourcing low end work, there will be no need for redundancies and no drop in recruitment levels. Instead, he claims, junior lawyers will get a higher quality of work and clients will save 30 - 50%. Everyone's a winner, right? Perhaps, but take away the low level work and will there really be enough to feed a large and hungry band of associates?
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Whilst UK firms have been merrily
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Bold innovation yesterday |
All these 'innovative' sound bites might make Malleson's partnership feel good about itself, but given Integreon's track record, may be of cold comfort to staff. UK firm CMS Cameron McKenna signed up with the company last year, following which a third of its support staff were faced with the choice of redundancy, relocation 150 miles away to Bristol or relocation, err, 4,477 miles away to India.
O'Malley insists that as the firm will only be outsourcing low end work, there will be no need for redundancies and no drop in recruitment levels. Instead, he claims, junior lawyers will get a higher quality of work and clients will save 30 - 50%. Everyone's a winner, right? Perhaps, but take away the low level work and will there really be enough to feed a large and hungry band of associates?