Legal Services Centre
Established in Belfast in 2012, the Legal Services Centre (LSC) is able to resource a wide-range of matters, including due diligence, litigation reviews, drafting and research with greater efficiency.
By focusing on quality, project management and workflow technology, the LSC team is able to deliver efficient and cost-effective services while also guaranteeing the high standards that clients expect from A&O.
We are also a founder member of the Advisory Board of the UK's first Legal Innovation Centre at Ulster University, providing postgraduate education programmes in law and technology, as well as undertaking post-doctoral research projects.
The A&O difference
Significant cost efficiencies
Cost savings are typically up to 35%, sometimes higher.
A seamless service
Our integration with A&O offices means our clients avoid the risk and hassle of working with multiple providers.
Document review experts
We specialise in the handling of large-scale document exercises.
Intelligent use of technology
We harness digital tools to project manage our workloads and to analyse high volumes of material.
Service continuity
More than half of our lawyers have worked with us for three or more years.
The LSC in numbers
matters handled during FY18/19
secondments to A&O offices or client sites
professionals
matters handled during FY18/19
secondments to A&O offices or client sites
professionals
The LSC in action
A major UK financial institution was selling a real estate loan portfolio and needed support carrying out vendor due diligence.
Challenge: To prepare the data site, the company had to index, review and profile approximately 6,400 documents, which often contained complex and technical content.
Solution: The team helped the firm complete the VDD report on time. It also seconded a legal professional to provide continuity during the final stages of the sale.
An oil and gas company needed help as it expanded into overseas markets and entered into new relationships with third-party suppliers.
Challenge: The company’s in-house legal team struggled to review and negotiate new commercial contracts on time.
Solution: The LSC worked as an extension of the company’s in-house legal team, embedding a consistent approach to agreements often within a 24 hour turnaround period.
Two multi-national pharmaceutical companies instructed Allen & Overy to help complete the world’s largest consumer healthcare JV.
Challenge: The companies needed to arrange the transfer of more than 15,000 trademarks in over 180 jurisdictions.
Solution: We built a software solution to help the companies: understand each jurisdiction’s transfer requirements; identify potential issues; and track progress of specific marks, in real time.
A company involved in the refining and sale of oil came to us when it planned to sell two downstream business units.
Challenge: The business units included approximately 1,200 commercial agreements, which needed to be novated to the purchasers.
Solution: We coordinated a large team to complete the project within the tight timescale (approximate rate of 250 documents per week). The time internal managers spent on the project was significantly reduced.
Assisting a major bank in relation to an investigation by the financial regulators across the globe.
Challenge: The regulators were conducting an investigation into potential misconduct by a number of participants in the wholesale foreign exchange trading market, and our client was one of the banks being investigated.
Solution: We coordinated a large team to conduct a review of 350,000 documents and, building on matter experience, expanded our role into other workstreams and drafting analysis, supporting the teams in our other offices.
Work for us
