Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) is in the process of drawing up a business plan for its Managed Legal Service (MLS) arm, following the hire of former Fujitsu director Andrew MacNaughton as chief executive for the entity.

The business plan will be presented to partners later in the year, with the possibility of taking external investment for the outsourced legal services supplier among the options being considered for inclusion by MacNaughton.

Since being hired in March to the newly-created chief executive role, MacNaughton has been working alongside BLP managing partner Neville Eisenberg on options to grow MLS; however, no formal revenue targets have been set. 

The entity is aiming to sign up to two more clients over the next nine months, and is targeting large corporates, regulated industries and government organisations.

MLS, launched in 2010, sees the firm take over the in-house legal capability of a company for a fixed price and bring the existing in-house team under the employment of BLP.

Currently Thames Water is MLS' only client, after the firm struck a five-year, £5m deal in March 2010 to take on 13 of the utility company's in-house legal team and three administrative staff to carry out all of its legal work.

Before joining MLS, MacNaughton ran his own business, AVM Business Consultants, having also previously worked at Fujitsu and aerospace and defence manufacturer EADS.

Eisenberg said: "The MLS concept is designed to provide solutions for major companies with significant legal spend. It forms part of a range of options which we offer our clients in order to best address their requirements in the current market."

In September 2010 the firm neared a deal to take on IT company Colt as a second MLS client; however, it fell through at the last minute with the work then handed to Greenberg Traurig Maher.