Taking a page from the Big Four, global accounting network Moore Stephens International Ltd. has started a legal services division in Australia and plans to act like an outsourced general counsel for clients.

"The Big Four financial services firms have proven there is a desire from clients for a more holistic model and, like all good ideas, this eventually trickles down," Alexander Nielsen, head of legal at Moore Stephens Victoria, said in a statement. "It's an exciting opportunity to be one of the first in the mid-market space to evolve into this area."

The firm said the new division will provide clients with a multidisciplinary approach rarely found outside of the Big Four accounting firms, which have all moved into legal services in recent years.

Nielsen, who has more than a decade of experience in corporate, tax, real estate and asset management matters, joined Moore Stephens from global firm Dentons, where he was a partner.

Moore Stephens' legal services offering aims to reduce friction across multiple advisers. "We're interested in making this work by integrating legal services with our existing service lines across our tax, accounting and business advisory," Nielsen continued in his statement.

Clients may still need to engage external legal counsel and Moore Stephens said it would help them manage this.

"It's like we're an outsourced general counsel. We can help clients get the most out of their existing lawyers and where there's a skill that we can't provide, we can guide them on the best people for the job," Nielsen said. "We're coming in with an open mind about how best legal services can be delivered and whether that includes new service delivery models."

The legal services offering will complement existing advisory services, said Steve Sakkas, Moore Stephens Victoria CEO.

"With clients experiencing more complex tax and advisory issues, adding a legal offering to the network was a logical next step. Clients are asking us to provide more holistic advice around complex issues. Alex can work alongside a client's existing advisers or provide independent counsel on a matter," he said.

The Moore Stephens global network has more than 30,000 partners and staff in 271 firms across 609 offices in 112 countries, collectively generating fees in excess of $2.9 billion.

Nielsen declined an interview and did not respond to questions about the size of the firm's legal services division.