Global legal firm Ashurst
hit the headlines this month, confirming it's on schedule to create
300 jobs in the first five years of operating its legal business
support services centre in Glasgow's IFSD.
Since opening at Central Exchange, Waterloo Street, in the
summer of 2013, the firm has grown rapidly to employ 230
staff.
Of these, around 60 people are legal staff and the remainder
work across seven business support areas including finance, risk
and compliance, IT and HR.
The legal function is represented mainly by a growing
team of legal analysts, a new role within
the legal market which the firm created
specifically for its Glasgow base. Typically, these
legal analysts are law graduates looking for an alternative to
qualifying as a lawyer. Mike Polson, managing partner of the office
describes the role as "law meeting business meeting technology and
combining those skills together".
So far, the centre of excellence in Glasgow has
worked with colleagues across the firm's 24 international offices,
handling early-stage legal work including document review for
litigation cases and due diligence for corporate and finance
transactions, It is a growing exporter of legal services from
Scotland into the international market.