In a significant in-house win for Peppermint Technology, Invicta Law, the legal services company set up in 2016 by Kent County Council, has selected Peppermint Technology to provide the technology platform to underpin its client-centric approach.
Kent CC has long been one of the few, innovative in-house legal teams to operate as a profit centre. It has set up Invicta Law to operate as an alternative business structure, and the Council has awarded Invicta with a ten-year contract to undertake its legal work. Most of Kent CC’s legal staff from Maidstone and Canterbury have transferred across to Invicta, and former Kent CC head of legal services, Geoff Wild (pictured), has become its CEO.
Invicta Law, which has over 150 specialist personnel, will also provide legal services to the wider public sector (including central and local government, blue light services, the health and education sectors), and the voluntary and commercial sectors.
The council’s in-house team turned over around £10.5m last year but speaking to the Law Society Gazette in August 2016, Wild said that once the ABS is up and running, the team plans to increase its turnover to £14m in the first three years, £18m in the first five years, and £29m in the first 10 years.
Wild, a strong advocate of getting technology right to deliver the changes demanded by today’s legal services market, said: “In future, we will no longer have a legal business that happens to use technology; instead, it will be a digital business that happens to do law”.
Commenting on the partnership with Peppermint, Wild said: “I believe that law is set to be radically reshaped by the emergence of technology such as Peppermint CX, and this will present a real opportunity to both remove waste and duplication in back-office operations, and to change the way we deliver services and manage client relationships.”
Wild is determined to challenge the status quo where legal services are delivered so expensively and with such complexity that it has become inaccessible for 80% to 90% of the population, saying, “The way to address the issue is through disruptive innovation and investment in technology, like Peppermint, and this is set to transform the sector beyond recognition.”
Arlene Adams, Peppermint’s CEO, added: “This is a very exciting partnership. The leadership of Invicta Law have a vision to radically change the procurement and delivery of legal services in the public sector, and that has the potential to realise huge reductions in spend on these legal services. We are delighted to be working with them, and to be providing the core tech platform to support this business strategy.”