Legal technology services consultancy Wilson Allen has merged with outsourced research and intelligence provider LAC Group, in a private equity driven and backed deal that sees Renovus Capital enter the legal services market for the first time, we can reveal.
The combined company is already planning further acquisitions in a bid to meet demand among law firms for fewer trusted suppliers who are capable of managing and solving more needs, both in terms of people and technology.
Wilson Allen was previously privately owned, while LAC Group was backed by TZP Growth Partners. The combined company will have 350 employees across North America, the UK and Europe, led by LAC’s CEO Rob Corrao, who retains that title. Wilson Allen’s co-founder Bruce Wilson will become chairman of the merged company, with the acquisition enabling him to step away from an operational role.
The merger took place in two-stages after Renovus first invested in LAC in the Spring. LAC provides library and information management services as well as competitive and market intelligence research and, increasingly, data management services. Speaking to Legal IT Insider about the transaction, Corrao said: “On March 1 of this year we closed our transaction with Renovus. As part of that investment, we are doubling down on our strategy and executing on our plan to expand our services to the legal and professional services markets, by helping them deal with the proliferation of data and the complexities and challenges that data brings.”
He adds: “There was a desire to figure out where the path was going next and at the same time Wilson Allen was looking for an infusion of capital to execute on their growth plans. Being aware of one another, and familiar with each other in the market, we identified an opportunity to be stronger together. It became so clear that doing so would help elevate delivery to the client and help them to make sense of their own challenges, as well as giving us a lot of scale.”
Wilson Allen itself has a history of making strategic acquisitions – Stanton Allen in 2018 to expand its CRM business; LawDrill in 2019 to give it greater exposure to Aderant; and Capensys in 2020 to help with IT training. Wilson said: “We’ve been looking for a way we can continue to grow and have made three acquisitions up to this point on our own, but it was getting more challenging from a size and capital standpoint. We have known LAC a long time and found that through working with them and talking with Renovus and the relationship they were building, it became a great pathway to get the funding we need and taking advantage of the opportunities available to us.”
Strategic fit
From Wilson Allen’s perspective, the combined company provides the answer to client feedback last year as to how to better service their needs. Speaking to Legal IT Insider, chief revenue officer Kaye Sycamore said: “We did a lot of customer research last year around what law firms are looking for and how we prepare. The really clear thing was that they are looking for fewer trusted suppliers that can do more for them. Whether they are looking at cloud migration or analytics or data insights, they need more services but fewer partners. The other thing we looked at was whether Wilson Allen had the breadth and bandwidth to be that big, trusted partner.
“What came through really clearly from our research is that they can’t get talent and that projects are being held up, transformation is being held up. One of the things that LAC has is a deep expertise in managed services and flexible resourcing. Wilson Allen has a long history in project services and refreshing that revenue each year, and LAC has expertise in retaining those big high value customers. Our blend is a really great combination for our customers.”
From LAC’s point of view, they needed greater technological expertise and Corrao says: “One of the challenges for us and why we got introduced to Wilson Allen is that we were moving up the information value chain and needed to add expertise in data analytics and governance, which is where how we started talking to Wilson. We looked at the intersection of people & technology and saw how the combination of our platforms brings it all together.”
A platform for growth
Both Wilson and Corrao both say that the combined company gives them a platform for growth, with further acquisitions likely to happen fairly imminently.
Corrao said: “We have huge organic opportunities but also we think there is a need for some consolidation in the market, and we think we have the ability to execute together, whereas we would be limited as standalone operations. It’s quite different backing something personally as opposed to being part of a fund, and Renovus has a desire to create a strong platform for acquisitions.”
Wilson added: “Renovus have always been in tech enabled services. Norm Mullock is our head of strategy and already has quite a bit queued up but already there has been some progress and we’re very excited about the opportunities this year to see some additional roll ups.”
Both companies are keen to emphasise that there is a strategic approach to growth, rather than growth for growth’s sake. Sycamore said: “One of the things that impressed me about Renovus is that they put their own plan to enter legal services together last year and when they shared some of that information with us, their analysis of what the big market forces and trends are in legal were spot on. I was really impressed with their knowledge of what it would take to succeed in this market.”
Asked what the budget for acquisitions is, Corrao said: “It’s less about having a budget for acquisitions, it’s about the strategy behind the consolidation, not consolidation for consolidation’s sake. LAC in the past has made acquisitions that turned out not to make sense for our long-term vision, and in 2020/21 we divested several of those divisions, so that we could focus on research, data, intelligence, and knowledge management. It’s about staying aligned to our focus and direction and bringing in acquisitions that will be along the same lines.”
He adds: “When you make acquisitions just to boost your bottom line, they come back to bite you. When you focus on the journey of employees and clients it ends up being a win for all, including our investors.”
The combined company structure
The merger does not, we’re told, create much in the way in overlap in terms of leadership, staff or clients, with Corrao commenting: “The beautiful part is that together we will be roughly 350 people and yet there are no overlaps. We were lacking certain posts that we would have had to invest in as a stand-alone but bringing these two great organisations together resolves that – even amongst clients there is very little overlap.
“Our plan is that everyone who wants to be part of the new company is going to have a role.”
At the senior leadership level, Jason Paru from LAC retains the role of chief financial and operating officer; Norm Mullock from Wilson Allen retains a strategy lead as chief strategy and innovation officer; and Sycamore continues as chief revenue officer.
Mario Theriault will be chief business operations officer and Justin Farmer will be EVP of products and services. Theriault has since 2019 headed LAC Group’s growth strategy, partnerships and alliance programs, while Farmer joined Wilson Allen in 2021 from Thomson Reuters to help grow Wilson Allen’s portfolio of managed services.
For now, the companies have yet to formally rebrand, and Sycamore told us: “We will continue to operate under the two brands and will go through a rebranding exercise in the next few months. At the moment, it’s Wilson Allen on the tech side and LAC on the information services side, but there is a desire to create a brand that supports the vision of this new company.”
Corrao added: “Even though we’re operating under the different brands, we’ve been working for months on how to come together as a team.”
While the news only formally goes out today (21 July), those that do know about it have been “overwhelmingly positive” according to Wilson. “I spoke to some of our Am Law clients about the merger and right away they said, ‘let’s get a meeting to talk about what more we can be doing with you,’” he said.
In a statement, Renovus founding partner Jesse Serventi said: “We have been seeking to make a strategic investment in this sector. We have found two companies with market-leading reputations independently verified as providing excellent, value-oriented outcomes for their customers. Both companies have complementary strengths in service delivery and are culturally and operationally aligned to drive growth. We are very focused on making that happen.”
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