Simmons & Simmons has become the latest in a long line of city firms to consider outsourcing a proportion of its low-end legal work to India in an effort to cut overheads.
 
The firm's partners will vote on the proposal later this month, which could see it sending both litigation support and corporate due diligence to India, South Africa and even Australia.
 
The firm's managing partner, Mark Dawkins, said the move was all about maximising efficiency and refused to rule out the possibility that the scheme could cost jobs within the firm, saying instead that it may be a way for the firm to increase its market share.
 
"We want to be at the forefront of delivering value through new ways of working at the top end of the market," he said. "We're not going to defend a business model that clients don't want to have to pay for. We could get more work from clients and grow."
 
Similar rationale was cited for the legal outsourcing programs of Clifford Chance, Lovells, Eversheds and Cadwalader, all of whom started offshoring a percentage of their legal work as early as last year.

Allen & Overy is also considering outsourcing more work, including due diligence and e-discovery as part of the firm's continued cost-cutting measures.

But whereas these firms predominantly outsourced either their paralegal or support staff functions, Simmons is the first firm to consider using qualified lawyers abroad, a move which will go someway to dispelling the 'poor quality' tag that is often pinned on work offshored to places like India.