PartyGaming is taking its commercial work in-house to save money after hiring Victoria Allison from IWC Media to join the team at the online gambling company's Gibraltar HQ.
The company intends to expand its legal team with two more lawyers - one of whom will exclusively handle IP matters.
PartyGaming assistant general counsel James Elliot: "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."
The move will mean that PartyGaming's existing law firms will receive less day-to-day commercial work. They include Berwin Leighton Paisner, Olswang, Squire Sanders & Dempsey and Taylor Wessing. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is PartyGaming's chief corporate counsel.
Elliot added: "Our panel law firms have always done a great job of offering excellent value for money. But when you compare the annual cost of an in-house two to four-year 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."
The new hires will take PartyGaming's in-house team to 16 lawyers in total.