We bring you the latest wins, deals, hires and launches across North America and the UK from Reed Smith, Deloitte, Taylor Wessing, BigHand, Aderant, Tiger Eye and Simmons & Simmons.
North America
Reed Smith formally launches innovation lab following hire of KPMG head
Global law firm Reed Smith last week formally launched its innovation lab, after hunting for the last few months for a head. It has hired Dr Madeline Boyer, who previously led the innovation lab at KPMG.
Reed Smith first began talking about launching the lab in May, with the idea – led by chief innovation officer David Cunningham – being that it becomes a space for working on change projects with both internal stakeholders and clients.
We’re told that Boyer has significant experience of ‘combining human-centered design methods and culture-based research with data-driven strategies.’
“Our new innovation lab will serve as both a business consulting unit and diagnostic testing ground,” said Cunningham, who joined the firm in 2021. “Under Madeline’s direction, the lab will help us thoughtfully re-consider how we deliver our legal services and what tech and alternative services complement our methods and playbooks. Through her creative research and use of data, we will conduct cross-functional team analysis and facilitate collaborations in a positive employee-client experience that encourages innovation, productivity and flexibility.”
The new lab will draw upon the firm’s existing innovation resources including Gravity Stack, its legal technology subsidiary led by Bryon Bratcher.
Boyer said. “The firm has many existing resources working to develop legal tech and shape the law firm of tomorrow. The lab is an incredible opportunity to build a new way of collaborating across these teams to accelerate change.”
Deloitte acquires SFL Scientific
Deloitte at the start of October acquired the business of data science consulting firm SFL Scientific. SFL has previously worked with the likes of contract management platform LinkSquares, building its machine learning based analysis solution on AWS. You can read that AWS case study here: https://aws.amazon.com/partners/success/linksquares-sfl-scientific/
“As our clients advance their enterprise AI journeys, they require the comprehensive and sophisticated experience that SFL Scientific delivers,” said Dan Helfrich, chairman and CEO, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “The acquisition builds on an already strong relationship between our two organizations serving both commercial and public sector clients. Additionally, it will help us advise clients with the best approach to how AI can help transform their business, implement scalable capabilities to drive that transformation, and provide ongoing support to continually improve investments with AI-infused tech.”
“Combining SFL Scientific’s specialized AI strategy knowledge with Deloitte’s breadth of AI technological capabilities and industry depth will advance our AI leadership, accelerate our AI market share, and position Deloitte as a trusted advisor helping our enterprise clients transform their businesses through the power of AI,” said Nitin Mittal, AI co-leader and principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP.
Aderant launches CompuLaw/American LegalNet combo Milana
Aderant on 5 October launched Milana, which combines the functionality of its legacy legal calendar and docket solution CompuLaw with the feature set of docketing provider American LegalNet, which Aderant acquired in January.
The ‘best of both’ cloud-based product has been in development since the acquisition of ALN. Aderant says that it selected the name Milana because it means ‘mix’ or ‘bring together’ in Hindi.
Chris Cartrett, president and CEO of Aderant said: “Law firms must guard against reputational and malpractice risk and docketing can be a major source of both. To better address the needs of our clients and the industry, we are bringing together CompuLaw’s market-leading court rules and the cloud benefits firms have come to expect with ALN into a new product that far exceeds anything available for firms today. Milana is the new standard in docketing, built on the rules the industry trusts with a defined path of innovation ahead.”
To schedule a demo email info@aderant.com
United Kingdom
Taylor Wessing implements BigHand Resource Management
International law firm Taylor Wessing has implemented BigHand Resource Management to enable it to create a sustainable, long term hybrid working model.
Wendy Tomlinson, director of talent at Taylor Wessing said: “When managing the transition to our hybrid working model, we wanted to ensure our work allocation was efficient and everyone had access to career enhancing tasks at the firm, regardless of their physical location. We also wanted to reduce the time taken by our partners to allocate work so they could focus on client service delivery.”
Following a successful pilot with BigHand, an internal survey with the firm’s corporate partners revealed that 100% agreed that work is now allocated more consistently, and 70% agreed they’ve worked with a wider variety of people and teams.
Penny Lloyd, business transformation and operations director at Taylor Wessing added: “The beauty of the tool is in the way it brings together the people elements of skillsets and career ambitions with the ability to match those with upcoming matters, and then provide reporting that is easy to navigate. As hybrid working becomes more consistent for everyone, we are now able to ensure that we are enabling our lawyers with better tools to equip them in delivery of complex, interesting work, and driving more service delivery efficiency.”
You can watch our task management webinar with BigHand here: https://legaltechnology.com/2022/09/06/webinar-replay-hybrid-working-combatting-the-war-on-talent-and-prioritising-dei/
Tiger Eye selected by Simmons as iManage partner
Tiger Eye has been selected as iManage Partner by international law firm Simmons & Simmons, which it has upgraded to iManage Work 10.3.
Tiger Eye began to work with Simmons in 2018, acting as the organisation’s technical support partner. Since then, the relationship between the two businesses has expanded, with Tiger Eye now also providing development services, project support, system upgrades and consultancy to the firm’s 2,250 iManage users based in offices in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
David Shorland, senior systems analyst at Simmons said: “We have been working with Tiger Eye for the last four years and they have constantly provided us with excellent service in both day-to-day support and project work. Tiger Eye’s impressive technical knowledge has allowed us to successfully deliver everything from document imports to complete environment replacements, with their professionalism and know-how we know we can count on Tiger Eye to deliver to a high standard.”