Pinsent Masons

Vario is a Practice Group within the professional services firm Pinsent Masons that provides clients with a range of alternative legal services. It has a permanent presence in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE, with partnership arrangements in place within the USA, South Africa and the Netherlands to enable them to also support clients within these jurisdictions.

Within the Practice Group, there are 5 individual Service Lines, these being:

• Flexible Legal Services - relieves the pressure on clients’ legal teams by providing high-quality, interim, in-house legal support. This resource is provided using carefully selected professionals from the Vario Hub, which is a diverse community of Consultants, Flexible Paralegals and other legal professionals looking to work on an Assignment basis.

• Managed Legal Services - blends the right resources at the right time (including lawyers who have worked in-house) to extend a client’s team and deliver legal services in a scalable manner.- Within this Service Line, there are 4 primary solutions, these being: (1) Legal Desk; (2) Company Secretarial; (3) Managed Projects; and (4) Managed Team.

• Company Secretarial Services - helps clients to manage the creation, governance and management of legal entities. This is done via a team of Chartered Company Secretaries and experienced Paralegals who are either placed within the client's legal team, or utilised as part of Vario's in-house to carry out work for clients.

• Legal Project Management - applies the principles, processes and practices of project management to the delivery of legal services. Dedicated legal project managers work to improve the efficiency of legal delivery, through the application of best practice project management tools and techniques, either via an integrated team member or a standalone function.

• Consulting: Process & Technology - helps to assess current processes, identify overlapping or duplicated activities and bring clarity to stakeholder responsibilities by taking a holistic approach to Vario's consulting. The focus is always for projects to be solution-led rather than technology-led, to provide the best possible service to our clients.

Each of these 5 Service Lines can be delivered individually, or as a holistic offering combining any number of the services to suit the individual needs of the client.

As a part of Pinsent Masons, Vario’s client base is similar to that of the wider firm, working with a wide range of corporate clients, from SME through to large multinationals and public sector organisations. They do this across 5 primary sectors:

1. Energy
2. Financial Services
3. Technology, Science & Industry
4. Infrastructure
5. Real Estate