BigHand’s co-founder and legal tech veteran Gordon McAlpine (pictured) has joined resource management consultancy Mason & Cook as a non-executive director to oversee the growth strategy of its technology product – Vantage. He will be responsible for the global launch and continued growth of the software arm of the business.
Mason & Cook have been supporting law firms for over six years in adopting best practice resource management processes and structures. They have been developing Vantage over the past 18 months to allow the processes they introduce to scale globally. Vantage tracks and monitors teams’ activities and helps partners to achieve better (and arguably fairer) utilisation of fee-earners’ time plus make sure work is going to the right place from a client perspective. Available on prem or in the cloud, it accepts data feeds from core systems such as the PMS/HR and time recording systems. You may recall that Mason & Cook was behind the ‘blind allocation’ work schemes at firms including Clifford Chance, allocating work based on previous tasks as opposed to partner requests.
McAlpine, who until last month was a mentor within Allen & Overy’s innovation hub Fuse, said: “I am always extremely selective about businesses I become involved with as I only like to get involved if I passionately believe I can add a lot of value and make a real difference. When [CEO] Dave Cook approached me to discuss this opportunity, I was extremely impressed with his clear vision and ambitious plans to expand the Mason & Cook business with the introduction of the impressive Vantage software. Mason & Cook’s philosophy ties in very closely with my core values and they operate in a specialist area which allows firms to be more productive, their lawyers more engaged and is a key enabler for shifting the needle in diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.”
Cook said: “To attract an individual of Gordon’s calibre and standing within the legal industry is a huge compliment for us and the impact our work has had across the legal sector. We are seen as the market leaders in process design and adoption, technology is the next logical step for us. To have Gordon as part of our firm to drive the growth of our ground-breaking technology allows us to drive the adoption of our products to benefit firms on a global basis.”
McAlpine will become a member of the board at Mason & Cook, alongside the Mason & Cook leadership team. He will also become part of the Mason & Cook advisory board alongside Jennifer Emery – former director of strategy & integration at CMS, now global people leader at Arup; Sean Twomey – director of business development & marketing at HFW; and Stephen Allen, global head of legal service delivery at Hogan Lovells.
Mason & Cook won Legal Week’s Innovation Award for supplier innovation (resource management) in 2018, in which Legal IT Insider’s editor Caroline Hill was a judge.