Ashurst is set to launch a new low cost centre in Scotland, in a move which will see 350 London support roles placed at risk of redundancy.

The new Glasgow base, which will open later this year, is expected to house 150 staff within the next 12 months, including 30 legal analysts and 120 business support staff, with the firm set to recruit heavily in the Scottish market.

Three-hundred and fifty London support roles will be reviewed as part of the move, with London support staff offered the opportunity to relocate to the new base. Staff are being informed today (12 June) about the move, with the consultation – which will last 45 days – set to begin in the coming days. The move is not expected to result in lawyer redundancies.

The launch of the office is being supported by a £2.4m grant from Scots economic development agency Scottish Enterprise, based on the firm employing 300 staff at the base within five years. Scottish Enterprise confirmed that a number of other law firms are also considering Scotland as a base for their legal service operations.

The office will be led by former Dundas & Wilson partner Michael Polson, who left the Scots firm last year.

The legal analyst role is a new role similar to that of a paralegal, with the 30 staff set to support Ashurst's disputes and finance practice in London. Meanwhile, business support roles cover IT, business development, finance, HR and compliance.

Ashurst managing partner James Collis commented: "The shape of the legal services market is changing and clients want their law firms to take responsibility for efficient sourcing of services without compromising on quality. We believe that our new venture in Scotland will be of great benefit to the firm and its clients. We have been looking at this for some time and, unfortunately, this has also required us to make some difficult decisions in relation to our business support services.

"Consistency and continuous improvement in service quality are key to our business. By creating a legal centre of excellence focusing on a structured approach to these areas of recurring work, we can build up expertise, reduce timescales and enable other parts of the Ashurst network to focus on more complex matters."

The news comes after RBS, one of Ashurst's main clients, placed an emphasis on outsourcing in its latest panel review, with law firms seeking positions on the panel required to demonstrate they have sufficient capabilities in place.

Other firms that to have launched their own regional 'near-shoring' bases include Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and Allen & Overy. This week HSF announced it has added a part-time legal resource team to its Belfast office, which opened in April 2011 to handle the firm's work on major contentious cases, notably in litigation, arbitration and investigations.

Meanwhile, A&O received a grant of £2.5m in return for creating 300 new jobs in Belfast through its business and legal support centre in 2011.

"We considered a number of other locations in the UK, and internationally, before deciding on Belfast," said Libby Jackson, director of HSF's Belfast office. "Finding talented people, with the skills to make the business a success, is critical to the decision-making process. We chose Belfast because of its great combination of cost competitiveness and a pool of high quality qualified lawyers and law graduates."