Eversheds has abandoned plans to set up a legal process outsourcing (LPO) venture with consulting firm Accenture and is instead drafting up options for an in-house alternative.

The top 10 law firm is in the early stages of designing a new in-house model intended to offer better value delivery of routine and high-end legal work, with the creation of an in-house facility at one of the firm's regional offices staffed with paralegals one option under discussion.

Eversheds finance director Kathryn Fleming is leading the project, which is on the agenda for the firm's senior management team meeting later this month.

The plans come after Eversheds held formal discussions with Accenture earlier this year about combining forces to form an offshore LPO service, with plans to potentially offer the service to other law firms.

It is understood the talks were abandoned because of difficulties coming to an agreement with Accenture and lack of interest from Eversheds' clients.

Fleming said: "There is quite a movement in the legal services sector at the moment as the pressure on client fees forces firms to look at offshoring legal process or setting up onshore facilities somewhere such as Belfast. Rather than follow the crowd we want to do something that aligns us to the needs of our clients. We are in the early stages of drawing up the blueprints for a multi-dimensional service that will connect clients' needs to services and deliver commercially-driven solutions."

Eversheds entered into a back-office outsourcing agreement with Accenture in August last year, which will continue covering areas such as general accounting, billing and collections, and business processes involved from procurement to payments.

The agreement has seen more than 350 of the firm's financial support processes outsourced to Bangalore, resulting in 75 jobs being cut across its Birmingham, Cardiff and Leeds offices.