Bird & Bird's change management consulting joint venture, Baseline, has set its sights on the European, US and Middle East markets as sources of growth.

The venture, which was launched in February last year, had not previously set out which markets it would target before now.

Baseline, which is a joint venture with IT change business ASE Consulting, is currently in discussions with clients in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the United Arab Emirates and the US, according to Bird & Bird partner and Baseline chief executive Dominic Cook.

Speaking to Legal Week Cook said: "It is clear that the opportunities for Baseline are very international and that there is the potential to build a scalable business to sit alongside Bird & Bird's traditional legal services."

Cook also revealed that the business has racked-up billings of more than €1m (£720,000) in its first three months.

He said that Baseline had also broadened its scope, which had originally been focused on major transformational projects, to take more work advising on in-house compliance functions.

"I am not one of those lawyers who thinks that, because I have a legal qualification, I am capable of doing everyone else's job," Cook said.

"What Baseline is doing is not competing with consultants – we are teaming up with them to offer an end-to-end solution to solve the problems clients are facing. That is because we believe it is no longer enough to deliver the legal part of the answer and then expect the client to work out how to implement it."

He added that the "vast majority" of Bird & Bird partners had contributed capital to support the venture after voting in favour of doing so before its launch.

However, Cook declined to reveal any projections for the business' future revenue, headcount or profit.