LONDON, 8 January 2007 – A team of outsourcing lawyers in the London office of Morrison & Foerster represented Skandia UK, a leading independent provider of long-term savings solutions on a $200 million, multiservice, five-year contract with HCL Technologies.

Partner Jon Edgell, who led the transaction for Morrison & Foerster, having joined the firm in October 2006, commented, “This deal, and other recent deals that Morrison & Foerster has acted on such as the Somerfield and Pearl outsourcings, indicate the step change that has occurred in offshore outsourcing in 2006. On the client side, we see companies becoming increasingly comfortable with outsourcing IT infrastructure to predominately offshore based companies, while on the vendor side, Indian service providers are establishing a substantial onshore presence and taking on significant numbers of clients' staff onshore in the UK. This convergence of onshore and offshore marks a wider trend towards global delivery models.”

The Morrison & Foerster team on the Skandia deal included Susan McLean and Jonathan Lea who joined the firm with Mr. Edgell. Lynn Stewart also provided support on the transaction.

As part of the deal, Skandia UK will outsource application optimisation, including development, maintenance and support (across all platforms) and remote infrastructure management to HCL. Skandia UK will retain all customer-facing activities.