Ashurst to add freelance lawyers to Glasgow office

Ashurst is to expand its Glasgow support centre by bringing in lawyers to work on a freelance basis, expanding the current north-shoring model, The Herald reports.

The Glasgow office opened in 2013 and supports lawyers across the firm’s 24 offices.

Most of the work is undertaken by legal analysts, a role previously described by office head Mike Polson (pictured) as one in which “law meets business meets technology”.

Mr Polson said the firm is now taking on a freelancers to expand the services of the legal analysts.

“There’s a big pipeline of work and opportunities and we want to grow the team here,” he said.

“There will be an element of growing what we’ve got but we want to leverage that more by adding a slightly different skill mix.”

Mr Polson expects lawyers to make up to 20 per cent of the team, which currently has 50 legal analysts.

And the new lawyers will work across practice areas, reflecting the remit of the analysts.

“We’re saying ‘here’s an opportunity to throw away the old model a bit and look at this completely flexibly’,” he said. “I imagine that people who are attracted to that won’t want to work in a pigeon-holed area but would want to apply their skills in a range of areas.”