PartyGaming strengthening legal team

The appointment will see the online operator move its commercial legal work in-house to save money and it stated that it intends to expand its legal team with two more lawyers, one of which will handle intellectual property matters exclusively.

“The aim is to bring in some new commercially minded assistants who’ll be able to share some of the everyday workload so that we can limit our outsourcing only to where there’s a requirement for specialist knowledge that it does not make sense to retain in-house,” James Elliot, Assistant General Counsel for PartyGaming told periodical The Lawyer.

PartyGaming's chief corporate counsel is Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer but this move will see its other law firms, which include Berwin Leighton Paisner, Olswang, Squire Sanders and Dempsey and Taylor Wessing, receive less day-to-day commercial work.

“Our panel law firms have always done a great job of offering excellent value for money,” said Elliot.

“But, when you compare the annual cost of an in-house two to four-year post qualification experience (PQE) with what that amount buys you in hours from a London law firm, it makes a lot of sense to go for the in-house hire.”