Our top-ranked International Outsourcing Practice advises on the full range of technology and business process outsourcings across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Our experience stretches back over 20 years and includes advising on some of the most complex and innovative outsourcing transactions undertaken anywhere in the world. Our team is international and fully integrated, making us uniquely placed to support global and pan-European transactions.
We advise clients throughout the lifecycle of an outsourcing relationship, from the initial structuring of a deal through the procurement process to contract negotiation, transition and implementation. We have unparalleled expertise in advising on contract management issues and also regularly advise on re-tenderings and exit planning matters.
Our clients in this area include major corporates across a variety of industry sectors, financial institutions and government departments, as well as a number of leading outsourcing vendors.
Head of Group: Mark Leach in London.
Recent highlights of work
• Advising BT plc on a £640 million extension of its telecommunications outsourcing contract with the UK Ministry of Defence.
• Advising Catlin Group (a global specialty insurance and reinsurance group) on a global wide area network outsourcing to Verizon covering the vast majority of Catlin's sites worldwide.
• Advising a major insurer on a complex policy administration and IT outsourcing with a total contract value in excess of £500 million.
• Advising Mecom plc on a cross border IT infrastructure outsourcing.
• Advising Michelin Group on its global IT outsourcing (with a total contract value of over £700 million).
• Advising T-Mobile on the joint venture formed between T-Mobile and 3 to create the world's largest known active 3G network sharing agreement deal, under which T-Mobile outsourced their communications networks to MBNL and took services back from MBNL.
• Advising the UK Ministry of Justice on a series of large scale technology outsourcing procurements utilising a tower-based, multi-vendor sourcing model.
Latest Accolades
Sources are “impressed by their depth of resources – they are very focused on our business needs and have a great sense of where the market is.”
Chambers UK 2013
Bird & Bird impresses with “expert knowledge based on hands-on commercial experience”, and delivers a level of service ‘second to none’.
Legal 500 2012
Sources praise this firm’s outsourcing team for its “consistent approach” and “strong culture of high-quality legal work”
Chambers UK 2012