Patrick Hurley has today (16 January) joined transatlantic legal technology services consultancy Harbor as managing director of applications management, with a remit to lead and grow Harbor’s managed services business.
Harbor currently provides law firms with managed services for Elite 3E, iManage, a variety of Intapp applications and smaller applications such as PitchPerfect. Hurley, who was previously vice president of global support at Elite, will be leading the drive to grow the existing book of business, create new offerings, and expand globally. Speaking to Legal IT Insider, Hurley said: “Right now it’s the fastest growing organic part of our business and has huge growth potential.”
Law firms have traditionally spent a significant amount of time and money running and managing their applications and Hurley said: “Now that more and more applications are in the cloud or will be in the cloud, law firms may think they don’t need people to manage those applications but it’s the entire lifecycle of tech support they can partner with Harbor for an annual subscription. When you do an upgrade, we look at the amount of work we expect to come in and we’ll charge you X amount per year to manage it. It helps with cost certainty but also we operate in the same way as your own employees without the overheads.”
Harbor first announced last year that it was expanding its managed services business, which it absorbed as part of the February 2024 acquisition of Pinnacle.
The managed services business has to date helped firms with the likes of BAU support and fault resolutions; guidance around system and data integrity and maintenance; continuous improvement with enhancements, upgrades, workflows and testing; and strategic advice such as integrations across cloud and on-premises systems.
Hurley said: “I’m excited about the role for two major reasons. The first is that the opportunity is huge because of Harbor’s secret sauce, which is the unique holistic technology estate management capability that enables law firms to focus on practising law. But just as important to me is the people I work with, and Harbor has assembled a fantastic team of people who I respect and admire. I rate everyone who works at Harbor highly and I’m excited to work there from both an integrity and cultural standpoint.”
In a statement welcoming Hurley, Justin Farmer, global practice group lead, legal technology + operations at Harbor said:“Firms have responded enthusiastically to Harbor’s strategic applications management solutions. Patrick’s stellar reputation as a client advocate and his commitment to delivering an outstanding service experience make him the ideal fit for this role. His expertise in scaling international services will be pivotal as we expand to meet increasing demand and support clients around the world.”
For more information see www.harborglobal.com