Next’s legal team has selected Linetime’s Liberate matter management system in order to improve the way it delivers services to the business.
Like many smaller in-house functions, Next’s seven-strong legal team previously used traditional paper files and stored emails and other electronic information on personal and shared drives.
Before going to market, Next set out its objectives for a matter management system, which included greater efficiencies in terms of the transfer of administrative tasks from lawyers to support staff; reduced cost of paper and files and a desire to go paperless; better team collaboration; a centralised file sharing system; the ability to undertake more accurate searches on matters; quicker response times; and a more consistent service delivery and quality control (better version control and standardised precedents).
The team, which covers a wide area of work including real estate; commercial; contentious and non-contentious intellectual property; consumer and employment law then reviewed the systems available, from purpose built to off the shelf.
“The reasons we chose Linetime were very clear,” said Anil Raja, Assistant General Counsel at Next. “As a specialist software provider, we expect Linetime to provide a solution that will pretty much work out of the box. The system has many features which make it ideal for improving collaboration between members of an in-house legal department including: automated email filing; organising work in matters visible to all or selected team members; secure work areas for confidential matters; optional time recording for litigation; electronic bundle creation; and accurate search facilities. It works seamlessly through Outlook and is designed specifically for lawyers. We also like and trust the Linetime team – which is absolutely critical for a long term business solution such as this.”
Other users of Liberate include top 100 law firm Michelmores, which featured as a case study on Legal IT Insider in January 2015. Other clients include Wragge & Co, DWF and Leigh Day.
Leeds-based Linetime was set up in 1983 and provides case, matter, document and financial management software to the legal sector, including top 250 practices, in-house teams and high street firms. In mid-2014 the company completed a management buyout, with the 50% stake held by former chairman John Burrill acquired by managing director Tony Klejnow and development director Phil Snee.
Snee said of this latest deal with Next: “The Next project is proof of Linetime’s commitment to providing a cutting edge, rapid deployment, matter management tool to the wider legal community. Clients benefit from quick and clean implementations and are quickly in a position to enhance their business processes.”