Baker McKenzie’s global CIO Dan Surowiec has joined Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, reprising that same title at the Am Law 100 international firm.
Surowiec, who started as head of the circa 100 strong IT team on 18 July, takes over from Connie Hoffman, who is taking over as global director of procurement in a bid to build up that function internationally.
Surowiec’s move follows that of BCLP’s COO Jason Marty, who joined from Baker McKenzie in December 2020. Surowiec worked closely with Marty on Bakers’ innovation programme, which saw it apply design thinking on a global scale; create a four-prong framework for investment; and launch innovation hubs across the network.
Marty was brought in by BCLP to help with the development and execution of Project Advance, the firm’s new program of business transformation. The project saw the end of BCLP Cubed – BCLP’s innovation hub – with each of its sub-departments brought into the core of the firm. The innovation team headed by Nick Pryor will be joining BCLP’s IT team.
Speaking to Legal IT Insider, Surowiec said: “Neither Jason or I want a situation where the lawyers are too busy for innovation work, and look to a subsidiary and say, ‘that is where innovation happens.’ Both his view and mine, and we have been consistent over the years, is that the real value of innovation is to elevate the lawyer in the eyes of their client and help them stand out above competitors. That is what the innovation effort is targeted towards.”
BCLP has a cloud-first strategy and the firm, which is on iManage, is already in the process of moving to the iManage Cloud.
Surowiec leaves Bakers after more than 22 years, in which he started as lead architect in 2000 and moved into the global CIO role in 2011.
He told us: “This transformation is something that the firm has really bought into and invested in across the partnership. They see this as a real opportunity to elevate themselves and the momentum behind the initiative is very attractive for me to a part of and gives it a much greater chance of success.”