Herbert Smith Freehills has announced that it is launching a "pop-up" where, instead of vegan burgers and beard oil, it will provide alternative legal services.

The firm is opening a temporary installation at its Perth office in which, for six months only, 30 staff will take on the overflow of document review work from Herbie's low-cost office in Belfast. Like the legal recruiters who killed YOLO, Herbert Smith Freehill's choice of "pop up" to describe its decision to offshore its offshore work indicates that peak pop-up has occurred and, accordingly, the term must now be laid to rest.


Herbies' pop-up: how it doesn't look
 

Giving hope to the pop-up's hirsute, ukelele-proficient employees, a spokeswoman said that at the end of the six months the operation might be expanded “or even made permanent, depending upon client demand”. Although they will be moved far away from the better-paid lawyers: Managing Partner for Strategic Implementation Patrick St John explained rather bluntly that if the project is extended, "our low-cost operation will not be sitting here in Perth’s nicest commercial office block with views of the Swan River". Yeah, kick out those filthy hipsters.

While many firms have opened cost-saving centres in recent years, including RPC in Bristol, Ashurst in Glasgow, A&O in Belfast and Hogan Lovells in Birmingham, Herbies' spokeswoman said its pop-up is "understood to be an Australian first" as no other firm has, to date, required its staff to ride fixed gear bikes and wear wooden bowties.
 
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