Chris Bull, Former COO of U.K. Law Firm Osborne Clarke,
To Oversee Integreon European Operations;
Seven-Year £50 million Contract Signed with Osborne Clarke
LOS ANGELES, CA, February 2, 2009 – Integreon, the global leader in integrated Knowledge and Legal Process Outsourcing (KPO and LPO), today announced the launch of the first U.K. onshore shared-services center for the legal market.
Osborne Clarke, a U.K. top 30 law firm with more than 300 lawyers, has worked closely with Integreon to help design the suite of services provided from the shared services center where it is scheduled to become Integreon’s first client beginning March 2009. As part of Integreon’s seven-year, £50 million pound agreement, approximately 75 business services professionals will move from Osborne Clarke to Integreon. Integreon will support Osborne Clarke, as well as other law firms’ Middle Office needs including technology and business intelligence services; knowledge and information management; transcription, secretarial, and word processing services.
To oversee the new expansion, former Osborne Clarke Chief Operating Officer Chris Bull has joined Integreon as European COO, reporting directly to CEO Liam Brown. Mr. Bull will oversee the management of the new shared-services center as well as Integreon’s existing European business. Mr. Bull enhances Integreon’s already deep bench of legal domain expertise and brings the perspective of a highly-regarded and innovative law firm executive, having served on the board of Osborne Clarke for 12 years.
Osborne Clarke has initiated discussions with affected employees as required by the U.K. Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). No redundancies are expected.
Integreon is also in active discussions with other law firms and corporations about taking advantage of the economic benefits of the shared-services approach that the facility will offer. Integreon expects to grow its new U.K. location substantially, open centers in other European locations, hire additional associates and managers, and gain market share in the European legal and knowledge services outsourcing market.
The new U.K.-based operations will be located in Bristol and will complement Integreon’s current onshore U.S. delivery centres in Fargo, North Dakota (acquired in 2006) and New York City (acquired in 2008), which employ approximately 300 staff and its offshore delivery centers in Mumbai, Delhi, and Manila, which employ approximately 1,700 staff.
Integreon provides a range of ‘Middle Office’ professional support services to many law firms, including Clifford Chance, DLA Piper LLC (US) and Sonnenschein.
“Integreon’s long-term strategic plan has always been to offer a choice of onshore and offshore locations, which enables clients to take advantage of talented professionals, cost savings, business continuity options, and a follow-the-sun strategy,” said Liam Brown, CEO of Integreon. “The new UK centre is consistent with that vision and I welcome new associates from Osborne Clarke to our global team of highly skilled professionals.”
Simon Beswick, managing partner, Osborne Clarke said:
“Having access to a full suite of specialized business support services designed for the legal industry is a critical part of OC’s vision of the modern law firm. The aim is to ensure the delivery of a competitive, high quality and flexible service for clients.
“For OC, sourcing non-legal expertise from one expert supplier enables a clear focus on our legal activities, with the security of flexible business service support and cost stability.
“Our clients exist in a tough commercial environment and expect their lawyers to be as focused and cost efficient as they are.
“Osborne Clarke chose to work with Integreon because it provided a good fit commercially for the firm and for its business services professionals. A strong domain expertise in the legal market, clear leadership in the knowledge outsourcing sector and a robust global footprint were also critical in our selection process.”
About Integreon
Integreon provides a range of knowledge support services to professionals, such as research and analytics, legal and financial document services, legal and discovery services, and finance and accounting services, which transform the Middle Office and allow professionals to focus their time and energy on their ‘highest and best use’. Our customers include the world’s leading financial services institutions, international law firms, and Global 2000 corporations. For more information about Integreon, please visit www.integreon.com.
Editor’s Note: Since 2005, Integreon’s Mumbai center has provided Clifford Chance with outsourced document production support. More recently, this has been extended to include a limited range of research services. Clifford Chance has its own, separate, offshore center in Delhi, the Global Shared Service Center, which handles a number of the Firm’s Finance and IT processes as well as providing some legal support work such as research and analysis and discovery of documents.