Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has entered into discussions with national firms Mills & Reeve and TLT Solicitors to establish a referral system ahead of an upturn in work.

The magic circle firm has held discussions about sending out work to a select number of national firms including Mills & Reeve and TLT in a bid to boost efficiency levels.

Freshfields London managing partner Tim Jones said that the firm had been passing work to other firms for a number of years but that the time had come to establish a better and more structured framework to enable it to respond quickly to an upturn in work.

Jones said: "It is sensible to use the relatively quiet transactional period to have these discussions."

It is understood that discussions have taken place with a number of firms, some of which have put forward proposal documents to Freshfields.

Freshfields is likely to have two or three firms it will work with on an ad hoc basis so as to take account of conflicts and client demand.

The firm cited low value due diligence as one obvious type of work that could be referred to national firms but said that it was still in the early stages of deciding how best to use any arrangement.

However, Freshfields pointed out that a key priority would be to make sure the firm was working more efficiently and effectively, taking advantage of its own resources before sending out any work.