Hogan Lovells has announced that it will open a low-cost office in Birmingham to carry out a carefully chosen selection of its least interesting work.

HogLove plans to cut the ribbon on its 'Legal Services Centre' this autumn with, initially, 20 lawyers. A spokeswoman, apparently undeterred by logistical constraints and planning laws, announced that the Birmingham office would be an "extension of the London office". RollOnFriday contacted building experts who confirmed that the extension, stretching 100 miles alongside the M40, would indeed be Britain's longest and dullest building.

The office will handle the "less complex aspects" of its corporate, finance, real estate and litigation work. The tasks will include, but never exceed, due diligence, document reviews and "minor contract amendments".

HogLove trainees rue the loss of another data room review to Birmingham

 
HogLove is the latest City firm on-shoring/off-shoring/Brum-shoring work to cut costs and to demonstrate value for money to clients. RPC has set up in Bristol, Ashurst is in Glasgow, and A&O has persisted in Belfast despite dirty protests. All of them figure that while clients will shell out £700 an hour for a partner's expert advice, £400 for version 26 of a car park licence is less appealing.

Hardened old lawyers might be bitter concerned that juniors will no longer get the experience that comes from summarising 4,000 almost identical debentures. But A&O NQs responding to the RollOnFriday Firm of the Year 2014 survey say their fears are unfounded. The Belfast office "has pretty much eliminated first level document review from associates' (and trainees') workloads", said one, "meaning you get to do better work".

Hogan Lovells regional managing partner for the UK and Africa Susan Bright said, "We are constantly looking for cost-effective solutions for our clients in relation to fee arrangements and the provision of legal advice".