Casey Flaherty has joined ‘legal tech collective’ LexFusion and there are new hires for Allen & Overy; Factor; ECFX, Relativity; Datolite Solutions and DWF.
North America
Casey Flaherty has joined ‘legal tech collective’ LexFusion, which launched six months ago. Flaherty has been announced as the third co-founder – alongside Joe Borstein and Paul Stroka – and takes the role of chief strategy officer. Flaherty was most recently director of legal project management at global law firm Baker McKenzie and has held in-house roles including corporate counsel at Kia Motors.
He is co-founder and principal of Procertas, which was one of the first organisations to promote competency-based technology training.
At LexFusion, Flaherty will be engaging legal departments and legal service providers in LexFusion’s go-to-market operation.
LexFusion is described as a legal innovation marketplace, which includes a vetted portfolio of ‘innovation companies’. Existing members include Agiloft, Factor, HaystackID, Frontline, Litera, Ping and Priori Legal.
Flaherty said: “LexFusion reduces the friction and noise in what has become a chaotic market because everyone is scrambling to solve truly pressing problems. There is no better time than now, and now is just the beginning. We are, after decades of talk, at the forefront of an explosion in legal innovation, and I am ready to hit the ground running. I also look forward to working with Joe, Paul, and all our members on ‘LexFusion 2.0’, as we conceive of novel and effective ways to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”
Not everyone is convinced. Jeffrey Brandt, editor of PinHawk Law Technology and CIO at Jackson Kelly says of the claim that LexFusion reduces friction: “Really? Because to me, this immediately sounds like a Maslow’s Hammer dilemma. Have an eDiscovery issue, then it seems LexFusion will only recommend HaystackID, as that is their chosen best of breed product. Workflow? It will be Litera. Time entry? It will be Ping. Sounds like a cookie cutter approach based on “these are the best tools because these are the ones I sell” principle. I don’t see how preselecting one product is helping anyone navigate the “crowded landscape” of products? Although I can see why the consulting would be free, cause there can’t be much to it.”
After over 20 years with Thomson Reuters, legal software veteran Scott Norby has joined ECFX, the leader in electronic court filing (ECF) notice management for law firms, as Director of Sales. Scott Norby and ECFX founder Dan O’Day are former colleagues from Thomson Reuters Elite.
Norby said: “When Dan showed me how ECFX Notice can streamline the entire electronic court notice process with workflow and flexible options for document delivery, I knew this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. There are very few solutions in the legal technology market that are unique and will benefit every size law firm, government agency, and corporate legal department in the country.”
Prior to joining ECFX, Scott Norby led the ProLaw Sales Team as director of sales. At ECFX he will lead sales in the midsize law firm, government agency and corporate legal department sectors.
Andrew Arruda, co-founder of legal research startup ROSS Intelligence has entered the medtech arena with the launch of Automate Medical, which is building software to achieve better health outcomes through the use of diagnostic lab reports.
In a post on Medium called “hello, world”, Arruda said: “We give superpowers to medical professionals by transforming messy medical data into useful insights.” The newco, which has raised a 2M USD pre-seed round, is founded by Arruda and COO Tom Hamilton (both ex ROSS). The CTO is Josh Kelly, who was previously CTO at DIY ticket platform Universe.com.
In the latest turn of events in ROSS’s litigation with Thomson Reuters – which led to ROSS shutting down – TR has asked the Court to dismiss ROSS’s counterclaim that TR is maintaining monopolistic and anti-competitive control.
Cristin Traylor has moved to Relativity as senior product strategy manager. Traylor was previously an attorney with McGuireWoods, representing individuals and corporations facing investigations and enforcement actions by State and Federal Government agencies.
Ryan Ladisic has joined Datolite Solutions as head of global sales. Ladisic was previously director of sales for eBillingHub and DTS at Thomson Reuters Elite. His hire follows the arrival of Dan Wales, who has joined the Datolite team as UK sales and growth advisor through a partnership with his legal tech accelerator Oliella Partners.
UK & EMEA
Allen & Overy has hired Oliver Jeffcott as legal technology solutions analyst, where he will be using his experience as a qualified solicitor to drive service improvements.
Jeffcott, who has been an associate at Bolt Burdon Kemp; Slater and Gordon; and Blake Morgan, in 2018 founded online claims platform Litem to help injured cyclists settle their case for free.
His hire follows that of legal engineer Ana Burbano, who joined A&O as legal technology solutions analyst in February.
Allen & Overy’s former global managing partner Andrew Ballheimer is joining the board of Factor in the latest big name hire for the alternative legal services provider rebranded from Axiom Managed Solutions.
Factor will be leveraging Ballheimer’s knowledge and experience of the legal sector: he stepped down as managing partner in April 2020 after 35 years in private practice, including 15 years in senior management roles at A&O.
During Ballheimer’s time in management, A&O launched its Belfast shared services centre; it’s flexible resourcing arm Peerpoint; and its legal innovation lab Fuse.
Speaking to Legal IT Insider, Ballheimer stressed that Factor works in partnership – not competition – with his previous firm and he said: “The proof of the answer is that A&O has a captive in Belfast and still works in partnership with Factor: it’s a complimentary offering.”
DWF has hired Jordan Owen to lead its Global Entity Management service. Owen joins DWF from KPMG, where she spent the last five years as a senior manager in the Global Entity Management team, which she helped establish. Prior to that, she was at Eversheds for five years.
The new service will allow clients to outsource the day-to-day management of their global entity portfolio, with complete assurance of compliance with local laws and regulations and price certainty. Owen will work alongside DWF’s existing and established UK Company Secretarial team, led by Laura Forbes.
Commenting on her appointment, Jason Ford, CEO of DWF Connected Services division, said that Owen will help establish DWF’s new global entity management service, working alongside our existing UK team, and further expand its range of regulatory and compliance services. “With Jordan on board, we will be looking to rapidly expand the team so that we can quickly help fulfil our client needs,” he said.
Owen said: “DWF’s strong identity and a clear global presence is definitely a key attraction to joining the business. My experience and drive, together with DWF’s reputation in the market, will allow me to create a thriving global offering for clients. I look forward to getting started and working with the team.”