Hill Dickinson is examining the role of its outside providers and has launched an outsourcing pilot as part of a cost cutting review being rolled out across the firm.

Managing partner Peter Jackson and financial director Colin Wardale launched a review of the firm's practices over the summer in a bid to cut back on expenses. As part of the project, the national firm is attempting to cut money spent on outside providers in areas including training, education and business development resources.

The firm stressed the process was not with a view to making redundancies but an attempt to go over budgets with each of the seven practice group heads.

The move comes after the firm kicked off a business process outsourcing pilot earlier in the year across part of its secretarial function to see if it can boost savings. The pilot, led by head of HR Andrew Rushworth, is being conducted in Hill Dickinson's claimant and professional services teams with two different outsourcers in the UK.

Jackson (pictured) commented: "When we first started our large expansion plans [six years ago] we didn't have the infrastructure to support the business; now we are thinking that we may have too much. We are not taking a knife to the business and cutting out major things but we are objectively analysing whether everything we are spending our money on is necessary."

Jackson and Wardale are likely to present their findings to the board at the end of the year.

The firm is also considering whether it should take advantage of its geographical position and act as an outsourcer for the major City firms.