iManage’s co-founder and CEO Neil Araujo this week (20 November) received the Outstanding Achievement Award at the British Legal Technology Awards 2024 on a night that also saw Manchester-headquartered law firm Horwich Farrelly scoop three out of 12 awards.
The Outstanding Achievement Award, which Araujo received as iManage prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary, celebrates his decades of developing and delivering software. “Receiving this award is especially meaningful for me as iManage prepares to celebrate its landmark anniversary next year,” Araujo said. “Over the years, our mission has remained consistent: combining customer insights about the challenges they face with our deep understanding of technology to solve problems for this industry. I am honoured to receive the Outstanding Achievement 2024 award, and I share it jointly with our customers, our partners, and our employees. We are all on this journey together, and we will continue guiding, supporting, and leading the industry in making knowledge work.”
Horwich Farrelly’s wins were for Alliance of the Year, Tech Team of the Year, and Information Security Team of the Year.
The alliance was with UK case and matter management provider Sharedo, and the judges were looking for a project that showed genuinely integrated collaboration. Speaking to Legal IT Insider, HF’s CIO John Presland explained that the project involved switching out LexisNexis Visualfiles to Sharedo, which is in effect the third and final big project after the firm moved from SOS Legal to Aderant, and shifted to SharePoint for its document management. “This is the final piece of the big three elements of running a law firm and we selected Sharedo following a very big exercise within the firm,” Presland said. “We got all the different partners together, so it was very much a business-led-requirements exercise, and there was 100% support for Sharedo. We’ve been working with Sharedo to start rolling out across the firm and we’re already seeing bigger benefits than we put in the business case.”
For Tech Team of the Year, the judges said that HF demonstrated exceptional innovation and agility, particularly through their strategic restructuring and modernisation efforts, commenting: “By integrating technologies such as AI and enhancing their core platforms, they have significantly improved operational efficiency and client satisfaction. Their commitment to digital innovation and robust security measures has not only increased revenue but also positioned them as a leader, achieving remarkable success in customer tenders and expanding their market presence.”
Some of the restructuring work we have already flagged above, but Presland said there was also a lot of focus from the judges on the work that the firm is doing with partner and head of innovation and client solutions David Scott, and their agile delivery model. “If we suddenly detect an opportunity in the market or we’ve got a new customer that wants a particular thing or someone in the business recommends something, then we work with the CEO and the innovation director and we’re delivering projects and implementations in very tight time scales and staying ahead of the curve within tight budgets,” Presland said.
Information Security Team of the Year was a recognition in part of some of the work that Horwich Farrelly is doing with Egress, and Presland said: “We’ve also really embedded security into the whole firm, but specifically our technology teams. This year we moved the information security team to our head of risk and compliance.”
The firm uses Boxphish for pen testing and Egress to double down on email security. Presland said: “The business love it because it has a colour coded responses to show if something is a high risk of phishing and it’s a really interactive tool.”
Presland reports to the board each month on security and he says: “We’re completely transparent and I think the judges liked that culture.” He added: “Ronan [McCann, managing partner] is very support of our approach to technology. We’ve done a lot of work with the likes of Gartner and our suppliers and it’s really nice to be recognised.” This is the third time in four years that HF has won this IG award.
Elsewhere, Best AI Use Case went to InfoTrack, where the judges were impressed with InfoTrack’s pragmatic approach to the challenge of submissions to the Land Registry in property transactions. “In less than a year, their GPT powered solution has been adopted across 54% of clients and has led to a 40% reduction in form requisitions. A remarkable achievement that showcases the winner’s application of AI to a valuable use case to maximise impact for professionals and their clients,” the judges said.
And the Tech Venture of the Year went to Weightmans. The judges said: “This year’s winner has revolutionised the process by which clients perform crucial safety checks. This helps to prioritise road safety and mitigates against the need to defend claims. They have transformed the way that legal services are delivered, reducing liability and enhancing client outcomes. The judges appreciated the passion and insight the team showed in engaging and empathising with end users and customers for this product.”
Commenting on Weightmans success on LinkedIn, BLTA judge Jenifer Swallow said: “As a judge there will always be stand outs. Amongst others, seeing Weightmans pick up the prize for Technology Venture of the Year was inspiring. When a law firm uses technology to help clients stop the 6,500 serious collisions caused by avoidable lorry fleet safety issues on our roads every year, that is something pretty special. This type of work should be our everyday normal in legal services, and with the help of this great crowd, now is.”
Here’s the list of winners in full below.
Outstanding Achievement – Neil Araujo
Information Security Team of the Year – Horwich Farrelly
IT Security provider of the Year – Arctic Wolf
Alliance of the Year – Sharedo and Horwich Farrelly
Technology Venture of the Year – Weightmans
AI Use Case in Legal Services – Infotrack
IT Product or Service of the Year – Arctic Wolf
Most Innovative Firm of the Year – Sprintlaw
Technology Team of the Year – Horwich Farrelly
Inclusion & Diversity in Legal Services – Gateley
Innovation in Legal Services – Cloud Contracts 365
Supplier of the Year – Verify 365