Ashurst has chosen South African based legal outsourcing provider Global BPO to take on some of its document production work from January 2015. 

The firm said the decision to outsource some roles has been introduced as an efficacy measure, intended to provide more flexibility across the firm as fluctuating work loads made a large in-house support team unsustainable.

In September Ashurst cut 15 document production roles from its London office as the result of a consultation which placed 17 roles out of a 34-strong team at risk.

Global BPO was previously led by former Charles Russell managing partner James Holder, who took up the role as chairman of the company in 2012, though Legal Week understands he left recently. The company specialises in legal research, document review and special projects, offering a contract services model allowing firms to use it on an ad hoc basis.

According to its website, BPO also works with a magic circle firm, several top 20 UK firms.

The move follows Ashurst's decision to open a low-cost support centre in Glasgow last year which now works alongside the firm's global network of offices.

The Glasgow centre welcomed its first partner in August this year to provide training and development to its finance team, with the expectation that more partners will join as the centre grows.

Ashurst is the latest firm to outsource an element of its London support functions. In August Hogan Lovells relocated a number of support roles to its business service centre in Johannesburg.