Following the success of its high-end contract lawyer service Peerpoint in London, Allen & Overy (A&O) is now extending the model to Asia.
The Magic Circle firm said the move comes on the back of increasing client demand in Hong Kong over the past year.
As part of the launch, A&O has also appointed Tony Corcoran – an A&O alumnus – as managing director for Peerpoint in Asia Pacific, who will be based in Sydney. Corcoran has in-house experience across the region having served in senior roles at Lend Lease in Sydney, Dutch bank ABN AMRO, RBS in Hong Kong, and with Macquarie Group in Sydney.
He also established his own business focusing on start-ups targeting disruption of traditional business models in financial and legal services. His arrival comes one year after the firm appointed Richard Punt as Peerpoint CEO last year.
Corcoran’s aim will be to recruit lawyers for a regional Asia Pacific panel together with client business development.
Two years since launching, Peerpoint has grown to a panel of 100 consultants, which currently work with ten of A&O’s key banking clients after one year of launching Peerpoint’s client service.
Punt commented: ‘Tony’s passion for leading high performance teams and enthusiasm for smarter ways of delivering professional services makes him the perfect fit for Peerpoint. His extensive in-house experience in the financial services sector will be invaluable, as is his experience across the Australian, Hong Kong and London markets as we look to develop Peerpoint in Asia Pacific.
‘What the past year has shown is the level of unfulfilled client demand for alternative resourcing options. It has also highlighted the demand from an increasing number of highly-skilled lawyers for greater control over of how, where and when they work.’
The move follows DLA Piper’s announcement this week it has teamed up with Lawyers On Demand (LOD) to provide contract services for its clients. While DLA told Legal Business in June it wanted a flexible working unit similar to Peerpoint, it ditched those plans to launch its own contract lawyer arm in favour of the LOD deal.
Separately, this morning (13 November), six frontrunners emerged as strong potentials to takeover A&O c-suite next year.
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk