Litera has acquired performance management tool Objective Manager, which is used for strategic planning, performance management, and talent engagement in law firms. Objective Manager’s CeO Arlene Adams – founder of Peppermint Technology – is joining Litera.
While Objective Manager is probably best known for its performance management capability, speaking to Legal IT Insider, Litera’s global head of corporate development, Haley Altman said of its strategic planning capability: “They realised that if you’re thinking about how teams perform there is a disconnect: distributed workforces have all these goals but no-one has insight into how each person is working to achieve those goals.
“Objective Manager enables the firm to set the strategic plan and then how to achieve those goals, aligning people to objectives.”
Objective Manager will initially be a standalone company while Litera works out how to integrate it, but there are signs that it will integrate best with the law firm business intelligence unit, where Foundation and Clocktimizer sit.
Altman said: “As a former law firm partner, performance management was the most painful part but now you can also pull in time and activity from Clocktimizer and matter data from Foundation.”
Only in January, Objective Manager announced that it had taken on investment and appointed Jim Whitmore as vice president of North America to lead its growth in the region.
Altman said: “The company had just continued to grow and penetrate the UK, and is just starting to penetrate the US – that’s where we see a lot of opportunity.”
Commenting on the acquisition in a statement, Adams said “We are excited to join Litera and accelerate our platform presence in the broader North American market. We believe the addition of Objective Manager to Litera will enhance how we can help law firms use meaningful data to create great firm strategies alongside developing and retaining top talent.”
Founded in 2011, Objective Manager in the UK counts 11 of the top 20 law firms as clients, including Baker McKenzie, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, and Norton Rose Fulbright.