Next month, U.K. firm Eversheds will launch its London-based contract lawyer division, Agile, in Asia to capitalize on the high-volume commercial legal work that general counsel often outsource but no longer want to pay top dollar for law firms to handle. But the firm is not alone in its plans—Allen & Overy brought its own offering, Peerpoint, to Hong Kong earlier this year.
“I spoke to one CFO in Hong Kong and his comment to me was, ‘We have made a lot of lawyers very rich over the last number of years, but they need to realize that the gravy train is about to stop,’” Eversheds Asia managing partner Stephen Kitts says.
