Lovells and Slaughter and May have landed lead roles on a major outsourcing deal between insurance giants Aviva and Swiss Re.

Lovells is advising longstanding client Swiss Re on an agreement that sees the administration of three million life and pension policies held by Norwich Union Life – the UK life business of Aviva – transfer to the Zurich-based insurance giant from October 2007.

Almost 1,000 employees will transfer to Swiss Re, with customers' policies and funds remaining actively managed by Norwich Union.

Financial institutions partner Rachel Kent is leading the Lovells team advising Swiss Re, while Slaughters technology and outsourcing partner Robert Sumroy is heading up the magic circle firm's team acting on behalf of Aviva.

Commenting on the deal, Sumroy told Legal Week: "We have a very longstanding relationship with Aviva. This is a very exciting appointment for us, as although we have an outsourcing department, we have never been appointed to do outsourcing for Norwich Union before."

Kent added: "After all of the initial planning, the deal only took three weeks to complete. My normal experience of this type of thing is that it would usually take six months or so."