Global firm Dentons is set to shift 50 business service roles outside the UK as it joins a growing trend of firms moving back office functions to low-cost areas.

An announcement said that Dentons will open a business services centre in Warsaw later this year to provide support for lawyers in the firm’s UK, Middle East and Africa (UKMEA) and Europe regions.

Certain tasks are set to move to the centre during the course of 2016/17 which could see around 50 business services roles in the UK move to the centre. The firm will consult the staff who will be affected by the move shortly.

The centre will provide finance, business development and marketing, human resources and IT services as part of an efficiency drive.

The centre, which has been named Dentons Business Services EMEA, will be led by director Piotr Macieja, who joined from services provider TMF.

Global chairman Joe Andrew said: ‘After the firm’s rapid expansion for the past few years it is a logical step for us to leverage our scale and resources more effectively, while continuing to invest in harmonisation so that we can achieve our objective of building the law firm of the future now.’ 

Global chief executive Elliott Portnoy said the centre would deliver the benefits of a ‘one-firm experience’ to its lawyers and clients. 

The announcement comes the same week as Norton Rose Fulbright announced it was opening a support centre in the Philippines and a week after DLA Piper said it plans to cut 200 UK staff as it moves more functions to Warsaw.