Heavyweight corporate legal know-how service FromCounsel formally launched in the UK this week, backed by 22 members of Erskine Chambers and 15 PSLs and already subscribed to by some of the biggest law firms in the industry.
FromCounsel provides commentary and analysis on English corporate law – both legislation and key updates – in an online Q&A format underpinned by an intelligent search function.
Users of the subscription-based legal knowledge challenger, which is chaired by former Orange general counsel Mark Paterson, can opt for three different levels of detail. The ‘full fat’ service provides practitioners with comprehensive and analytical coverage of a topic, while ‘semi’ gives broad coverage and a textbook level of detail and ‘skimmed’ a brief overview of the topic, ideal for reading up on an unfamiliar area.
Subscribing firms are said to include Bird & Bird, Clifford Chance, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Macfarlanes, Michelmores, Morrison & Foerster, Norton Rose Fulbright, Pinsent Masons, PwC LLP, Shearman & Sterling, Simmons & Simmons, Stevens & Bolton and Travers Smith.
Participating Erskine Chambers barristers include Martin Moore QC, Nigel Dougherty, Patrick Harty and Ben Griffiths, who over the past month have provided commentary on a number of cases including the High Court decision in Gamatronic (UK) Ltd v Hamilton [2016] EWHC 2225 (QB) and the Court of Appeal’s consideration of anti-oral variation clauses in MWB Business Exchange Centres Ltd v Rock Advertising. Altogether there are seven QCs in the FromCounsel team.
Andrew Thornton, CEO of FromCounsel (pictured on the home page), said: “FromCounsel gives corporate lawyers trusted answers to the questions that arise in practice, covering everything from the basic foundational principles to highly technical points of law. Practitioners are increasingly demanding rapid access to legal answers. Our technology platform meets that demand by delivering content in an intuitive and highly accessible way.”