Herbert Smith Freehills is expanding its Belfast document review centre to handle corporate and real estate work for the first time.

The Belfast office, which opened in April 2011 as a support arm for the firm's litigation practice, will now offer services in corporate and real estate due diligence and real estate asset management. The firm also plans to develop support for its funds practice as well.

The corporate offering will be made available from March 2013 with a focus on supporting the firm's London office in the first instance.

The office currently has 65 staff including 58 fee earners.

Herbert Smith UK corporate head Scott Cochrane said: "Our move is strongly aligned with our clients' interests. Corporate clients are increasingly looking to their lawyers for more imaginative approaches to the management of due diligence and other document-intensive tasks.

"Our Belfast office will enable us to offer clients a very attractive combination of quality, efficiency and value for money to support clients in their major transactions."

Meanwhile, the firm is also gearing up to pilot a scheme to use the Belfast centre for cases from legacy Freehills in Australia.

The news comes after Herbert Smith started taking on trainees in its Belfast legal support centre for the first time this autumn, with the firm offering some of its legal assistants training contracts in a bid to retain talent.

Three legal assistants took up contracts with the firm in September, with more expected to do the same next year, depending on business needs.

The Belfast base is currently in its sixth recruitment round with the latest hiring spree to take the number of fee earners in the office to around 70 by April 2013, with a 50/50 split between legal assistants and lawyers.