KPMG UK is building a team of in-house lawyers in India to support its legal function, with the professional services firm hoping to benefit from the country's timezone and lower costs.

Jeremy Barton, general counsel (GC) for KPMG UK, told Legal Week he has already started recruiting in India and hopes to have six full-time lawyers in KPMG's existing base in Gurgaon, outside Delhi, by the end of this year.

The accountancy giant is recruiting lawyers with 7-10 years' post qualification experience, preferably including time with another professional services firm or other in-house role.

The team, which will be able to use the HR, technology, and office support services already in place in KPMG India, will allow Barton's London team to turn around documents overnight.

Barton said: "I am finding the opportunity for cost-efficient service provision on a virtual basis. This will be a team of Indian lawyers working for me who just happen to be based there rather than in Canary Wharf. They will be the same as a member of the team in Canary Wharf, but sitting two and half thousand miles away."

All of the Indian lawyers will spent some time training with KPMG in Canary Wharf and will then be led by an onsite manager and overseen by Barton in London.

He added: "A lot of our work is done over email now but there is a limitation on some of the work they can support. Obviously, if you need physical negotiations here in the UK that's not going to work. On the other hand, a lot of our commercial work is done by email and in due course we will build out additional resources there to support other practices."

As the team's skillset grows, Barton believes it could also support KPMG in other countries.

"I said to GCs in the other KPMG firms that once this was up and running we could come to an agreement where we pool these resources to work for the Australian firm or the South African firm, for example," he added.

This is not the first time Barton has used offshoring for his own team.

Before taking the top legal role at KPMG UK in 2015, Barton was GC at Boston Consulting Group, where he also created a remote team in India of two contract specialists and two general in-house counsel to help his team in the UK.

His move comes as it rapidly becomes the norm for leading international law firms to have at least one legal services centre either in a cheaper UK location or another country.