DWF is continuing to expand its legal technology capabilities, with the recruitment of Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer’s Jamie Whalebone.
Whalebone ran Freshfield’s legal technology operations team, out of its Manchester office. The unit was created at the start of 2018 in order to connect fee earners with the firm’s global technology and innovation division. He joins DWF as head of legal service delivery and transformation.
DWF has made a number of senior tech hires over the past year as the firm gears up for an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. The firm hired former DLA Piper chief information officer Daniel Pollick to the newly created role of CIO last summer. It previously had a chief technology officer, Richard Hodkinson. The CIO role incorporates a greater focus on data strategy.
In addition, DWF hired Anup Kollanethu as chief executive of managed services last year. Kollanethu also joined from Freshfield, where he was chief of business operations, responsible, amongst other things, for delivering the operational platform for implementing legal innovation within the firm.
DWF believes floating on the public markets will allow it to increase investment in information technology, as well as its connected services division, which includes the firm’s innovation arm DWF Ventures, run by Jonathan Patterson.
While DFW has been mulling an IPO since the middle of last year, the firm officially announced its intention to list last week as it revealed its latest financial results. The firm reported an 18.3 per cent increase in revenue to £133.4m in the year to the end of October 2018, driven by strong growth in its connected services business.
“The success has been driven by our differentiated business model and ability to provide complex legal, managed and connected services, coupled with the benefits of technological innovation, while continuing to expand internationally to better serve our clients globally, said chief executive Andrew Leaitherland.
