Last week Hogan Lovells, the latest law firm planning to open shop in Birmingham, began its recruitment drive.

The office, which will open in the autumn, is a regional offshoot of the global legal practice, headquartered in London and Washington DC.

Hogan is not the first City law firm to adopt the practice of disaggregation in the quest for greater efficiency.

Instead of turning offshore to countries such as India and South Africa, firms are now ‘insourcing’ or ‘nearshoring’ on home turf.

Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith Freehills, Ashurst, Simmons & Simmons and Nabarro are among those who have done something similar, albeit in other regional centres.

Mills & Reeve has a London office and a further five in the regions.

As such, we can cut our cloth to suit clients’ budgets.

However, even with the advantage of established lower cost regional bases, we too have looked at innovative ways to deliver cost savings for clients.

It is now crucial to demonstrate cost efficiency in tenders. Nor is it just public sector clients that have come to expect this.

What’s interesting is that while these regional offshoots tend to start small, once the partners down south get used to the idea that there is intelligent life north of Watford – they can snowball.

Allen & Overy started with just support staff in its Belfast outpost.

My understanding is they now have 20 associates and paralegals working on due diligence and dispute resolution.

Trowers & Hamlins, which opened an office in Birmingham in 2011, has also just announced it is to open up a new 21-strong document production centre here next month.

So, can Birmingham expect to benefit further from this trend?

In truth, we are late to the party. Hogan is the first major City firm to base it’s ‘B’ team here. To date, Belfast, Bristol and Manchester have seen more inward investment from big City firms.

However, our thriving legal sector and talent pool, the presence of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman make us an obvious choice.

Once you add HS2 into the mix, Birmingham is a very compelling proposition.

In the meantime, let’s lay out the welcome map for Hogan Lovells and hope they are the first of many.

* Steve Allen, head of the Birmingham office at national law firm Mills & Reeve