Welcome to 2021, where we’re going to kick off with a few big movers and shakers that may have escaped your attention thanks to the festive period or have only just been announced.
In the US, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s chief knowledge and innovation officer, Oz Benamram has made a raft of senior hires including Tanisha Little as director of KM; Kay Kim as director of practice innovation; Andrew Baker, who joined as director of data analytics; Moshe Azoulai as director of practice technology; Sheila Sterling as library director; and Brian Roe as MCO attorney. Having joined Simpson Thacher in March with the aim of significantly growing KM, Benamram’s dream team is coming together nicely despite COVID. Oh yes, and they are still hiring.
In the UK, leaving Thomson Reuters Contract Express is the man credited with much of the contract automation software’s success, Andy Wishart, who is leaving for a new challenge – we will shortly be able to reveal all.
Wishart is a huge loss to TR. He co-founded Business Integrity, the company that launched Contract Express and was acquired by TR in 2015. After the acquisition Wishart was promoted from head of Contract Express to VP for drafting and productivity solutions. He has passed on the document automation baton to Cassi Waddy, director of product management at TR.
Commenting on LinkedIn, TR VP and customer propositions lead Jim Leason said: “You’re leaving Thomson Reuters having contributed to making it a better place than you found it. Fellow VP Chris Jeffery said: “The comments on this post show what an impact you have had these past five years.” He added: “You didn’t just create a product, you created a whole ecosystem and the influence this has had on the industry has been huge.”
Elsewhere, in the UK Morae Global is starting the year with a bang. Joining the strategic advisory group as associate director is Sally Senior, who was previously business process manager at Norton Rose Fulbright and before that workflow product manager at Pinsent Masons. Also joining is senior associate Joshua Lyons, who was previously at Deloitte Legal.
In July 2020 Morae acquired Janders Dean to give it a UK-based legal advisory practice group with a particular eye on the large law private practice and corporate legal market. According to Janders Dean founder Justin North, the group is growing thanks to increasing client demand. You can read that article here: https://legaltechnology.com/morae-global-ramps-up-uk-advisory-capability-with-acquisition-of-janders-dean/
We’ll be sure to bring you all the latest legal IT news as or before it happens and this year we’re looking for more great comment – which is free on this site – so please contact [email protected] with your ideas.