Ashurst has hired leading Australian alternative legal services (ALS) expert Hilary Goodier as a partner and COO of Ashurst Advance in a move the firm says signals its ambition to be ‘at the forefront of new law’.

Goodier is joining the firm’s Melbourne office from Herbert Smith Freehills, where she headed up the technology arm of its ALS group.

She becomes Ashurst Advance’s fourth partner as part of a 120-strong team, working alongside London-based head Chris Georgiou. Ashurst Advance was relaunched last year as a division of the firm.

The firm said she would be focused on growing Ashurst’s offering in the Asia Pacific region.

Aside from a spell as a technology partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth from 2006 to 2010, Goodier’s career has focused on operations within the technology sector, including serving as COO and general manager of NTT Data Business Solutions in Australia. She is also an advisory member of the Centre for Legal Innovation.

Launched in 2016, Ashurst Advance provides a range of new law services to clients, including flexible resourcing, low cost legal advice and consultancy services to help clients ‘with their own legal transformation’.

When revealing this year’s financial results, the firm said the division had recorded a 34% increase in revenue with headcount up by 25%.

Global managing partner Paul Jenkins said Ashurst Advance had had an “impressive first year as a core division of the firm” and that Goodier would “help position Ashurst at the forefront of the future legal services market".

Several international firms have been investing in, and repackaging, their new law services, including Linklaters, which  launched a 400-strong legal operations function in March that grouped together an array of offerings under one umbrella.

However, in July UK-listed firm DWF announced the closure of its flexible resourcing arm as part a cost-cutting programme designed to save £15m in the current financial year.

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