Catch up on the latest wins and deals across both sides of the Atlantic.
WINS
United Kingdom
Streathers selects Linetime
Linetime has been selected by London based firm, Streathers, with the objective of consolidating the London-based firm’s systems, procedures and processes into one solution.
Linetime was recently acquired by PracticeEvolve, which provides practice management, document management and accounts management to over 115 mid-tier firms across the UK.
Lee Kirby, chief operating officer at Streathers said: “Streathers continues to enjoy significant growth but, like many firms, we are looking for technology to be smarter. For us, it is crucial that any system is flexible, efficient but also provides commercial awareness across our firm. Having carried out a thorough review of the market, the selection of Linetime was unanimous across the board due to the usability and the excellent features.”
He added: “Throughout the selection process, it was clear many providers offer similar functionality but Linetime demonstrated how software can empower improvements in performance with a transparent view of ROI. Ultimately, the solution will refine the way we manage our business which has to be our focus for the future. We selected Linetime as we believe they will continue to evolve the software to align with our own long-term growth objectives.”
Larkin Hoffman to deploy BigHand’s legal workflow solution
Larkin Hoffman, has chosen to convert to BigHand’s full legal workflow management solution.
The decision was made as part of an internal initiative to introduce Legal Administrative Assistant (LAA) teams. Mark A. Brauch, director of information services explains, “We saw the market trend of law firms teaming support staff for more efficient lawyer and client service and wanted to accomplish it at our firm.
“Certain tasks needed to be delegated more effectively so that the right people were working on the right tasks at the right cost to the business. Lawyers still have their designated LAA but they are now part of team, and we needed a reliable legal workflow technology to underpin the changes and enable the flexibility to reassign and manage the work.”
BigHand Workflow Management will provide the LAAs with a centralized task hub and an effective way to move work around. Previously, tasks could be sent via email, via a phone call, or a physical note – all of which could easily be lost and were difficult to monitor.
The project was accelerated thanks to COVID19.
Roythornes converts to BigHand legal workflow solution
Elsewhere, Roythornes has converted its BigHand Voice licenses to the full legal workflow solution.
Jonathan Swan, IT director and partner at Roythornes said: “When enforced remote working came into place, we needed a way to capture and track the work that our lawyers sent to our support staff in order to streamline and optimise the process. We were already users of BigHand’s digital dictation and could see how the full workflow solution would help us to gain visibility over all types of support tasks including copying, bundling, archiving and document amendment – most of which have traditionally been handed to the support staff whilst in the office.”
The legal-specific workflow tool allows tasks to be sent to a central workflow with all the required instruction upfront. Tasks are then automatically routed to the right skilled resource, at the right cost to the firm. The centralised view of work can be accessed by desktop or mobile devices to allow lawyers to check on the progress of their work at any time. Team managers have a clear view of outstanding work and resource capacity, and can easily move work between teams to maximise service and utilisation.
Swan says: “Our aim is to use the new workflow visibility to ensure that our support resource is fully optimised across the firm. For example, if we have capacity in Nottingham to undertake searches, document amendments or create bundles for fee earners in Birmingham – these tasks can be delegated accordingly, enabling us to more flexibly match up the supply of support resources, and their specific skills, with peaks and troughs in demand.”
Having visibility over legal back-office workflow is vital and Swan says: “For us, converting to BigHand’s workflow technology was an easy choice, as rather than introducing a new system, our lawyers are already familiar with the platform, reducing the training requirements. It’s reassuring to work with a technology partner that understands our challenges and builds technology specifically for the legal professional.”
Clio & Advantage Consulting form strategic partnership in the UK
Advantage Consulting and Clio have formed a strategic partnership in the UK. As part of the deal, Advantage Consulting will offer Clio’s legal software solutions as a premium case management solution to its clients, including the Advantage 365 platform and the Advantage Legal Network member firms.
Advantage Consulting (www.advantageconsulting.co.uk) is a leading provider of business consultancy services to law firms in the UK, with over 500 clients across its technology, consulting and insurance divisions. This unique legal sector expertise and knowledge of the legal marketplace will be available to Clio’s customers worldwide.
“Through this partnership, Advantage Consulting and Clio will help law firms accelerate growth and find new ways to drive innovation in the legal sector in the UK using Clio’s innovative product suite,” says Clio’s EMEA manager Colin Bohanna.
“Advantage Consulting, with its recognised expertise in the legal sector, is now a strategic partner for Clio in the UK, and together we will help solicitors across the British Isles address their most critical practice management and remote working challenges.”
“The goal here is to give Advantage Consulting’s clients access to one of the best practice management software platforms in the world,” said Mev Dzihic, Technology Director at Advantage Consulting.
“Web-based, secure and easy-to-use, Clio will be the perfect match for the Advantage client-base, providing them with all the tools they need to manage their law firms efficiently and effectively,” added Mev Dzihic.
Supported with joint co-selling and go-to-market activities, Clio’s products and solutions will begin rolling out to Advantage Consulting clients in March this year.
United States
Epiq Selects Intapp OnePlace Risk & Compliance
Epiq has adopted Intapp OnePlace Risk & Compliance as part of its ongoing efforts to become a fully cloud-based enterprise. Epiq says it will use the Conflicts module to streamline automate conflicts clearance, improve efficiency, enhance data hygiene, reduce risk, and centralize its business processes.
Epiq has more than 80 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. As the organization has grown, the volume of manual conflict checks grew with it, surpassing 128 conflict checks every week. “Automating our business process with a robust, best-in-class solution like OnePlace Risk & Compliance is a critical step in the evolution of Epiq’s Client Conflicts Program,” said Kate Stark, Manager of Conflicts and Compliance at Epiq. “Centralized, cloud-based data isn’t the future; it’s a requirement for success. With Intapp, we’re deploying a smarter, faster, and more accurate approach to our workflow, which helps us continue our pace of growth while ensuring that we continue to deliver world-class service to our internal and external clients.”
Other factors in Epiq’s choice of OnePlace Risk & Compliance as a key component of its digital transformation include the ability for the solution to seamlessly integrate with major enterprise technology platforms, third-party data integrations from partners like Dun & Bradstreet, and the option to implement complementary OnePlace solutions down the line to increase its connected enterprise footprint.
Californian firm Stuart Kane LLP switches to DocsCorp
Stuart Kane LLP, a specialized real estate, employment, and litigation law firm in California, has chosen compareDocs and cleanDocs for legal document review and security.
Josh Grushkin, real estate attorney and founding partner at Stuart Kane, said the firm was already using a document comparison solution but found compareDocs to be an “upgrade.”
“We are really enjoying the ability to quickly re-run comparisons without having to start over from scratch each time. Plus, the smooth integration with our document management system makes comparison really easy.”
cleanDocs will work alongside compareDocs to prevent leaks of sensitive information during the document review process. It integrates with Outlook to strip email attachments of metadata and alert users to potentially risky or incorrect recipients.
“The ability to quickly convert Word documents to PDFs once attached to an email is another great feature of cleanDocs,” said Grushkin.
AbacusNext acquired by Thomas H Lee Partners
Professional services SaaS compliance provider AbacusNext has been acquired by growth equity law firm Thomas H. Lee Partners from PSG (Providence Strategic Growth). AbacusNext will continue to be led by its chief executive officer, Scott Johnson, and the other members of the company’s senior management team.
Johnson said: “This partnership with THL will enable us to accelerate our investment in innovative SaaS products with integrated payment processing, allowing us to continue to offer a market-leading software suite.”
Mark Bean, a director at THL said: “The shift to cloud-based software is well underway and has accelerated in the current ‘work from home’ environment. Scott and the management team at AbacusNext are leaders in capitalizing on this growth opportunity. We are excited to see AbacusNext continue to develop best-in-class technology and pursue strategic acquisitions that will further enhance their product offering.”