LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions has invested in new, larger research and development premises in Leeds, having hired around 100 full-time employees during the last 12 months, including UK technology director David Espley from Advanced Legal, who joined in September. The new R&D facility will be the UK hub of product development for enterprise resource planning solution LexisOne and workflow and case management system Lexis Visualfiles. It will primarily house the development team, customer support team, a number of the product management team and some of the business support team.
Enterprise solutions general manager Andy Sparkes told Legal IT Insider: “This is a part of our investment in and commitment to LexisOne. It’s how we are delivering on that and significantly increasing headcount that means we now need a different environment.” Recent wins for LexisOne, as reported on Legal IT Insider, include Fieldfisher, Wedlake Bell, Hamlins and Collyer Bristow.
Lexis is moving towards agile working across its business and the new office, which has capacity for around 130 desks, will be a further step on that path. To help drive Lexis’ IT strategy and oversee the Leeds ‘Centre of Excellence’, David Espley has joined LexisNexis as its UK technology director. Most recently, Espley served as chief technology officer at Advanced Legal, a supplier of software to the legal industry. Prior to that, he held positions including head of technology consulting at EMC Consulting and chief technology officer at Progressive Digital Media Group.
Espley replaces former head of software development David Roake, who has retired. Unlike Roake, Espley will be permanently based in Leeds, which is increasingly positioning itself as a digital hub, including housing Sky’s new 400-staff technology hub and software engineering academy. Espley, who has experience in leading large, agile, cloud-based development teams that have designed and delivered enterprise scale solutions to customers in the banking, legal and media sectors, said: “In a short space of time, LexisOne has gathered huge market momentum with many high profile law firms adopting the solution. Similarly, this year has seen Visualfiles fortify its position with some impressive product enhancements. We will now build on these achievements and the new Centre of Excellence gives us the foundation to do that.”
As reported by Legal IT Insider on 1 October, Lloyds Bank’s general counsel Kate Cheetham has awarded LexisNexis a contract to roll out Visualfiles across the 320-lawyer in-house legal team. The bank had already been using Visualfiles across a third of its in-house legal team but following a competitive pitch which LexisNexis won, the case management system will now be rolled out to all lawyers across 15 locations.