The announcement goes on to say...ADERANT’s purchase of StarLaw’s Enterprise Content Management (ECM) applications enables it to enter a market that is of growing importance to lawyers and law firms.  Importantly, the new ECM application suite is being designed with the unique needs of law firms in mind instead of trying to retrofit a more industry-generic solution with functionality required by the legal market.

“Acquiring StarLaw’s advanced applications enables us to greatly expand the breadth of solutions we are able to deliver to law firms,” said Michael Kohlsdorf, President and Chief Executive Officer for ADERANT.  “This transaction moves ADERANT closer to becoming a single-source software vendor for law firms, providing integrated solutions for both the front and back office that reduce IT complexity and costs.”

Early adopters of the ECM application suite include Cooley Godward Kronish LLP and O’Melveny & Meyers LLP.

 "We were enthusiastic about StarLaw's vision for an enterprise-wide content management system that achieved convergence among the different methods lawyers use for generating, storing and retrieving documents, records, and emails, and are greatly encouraged by ADERANT's commitment to reinvigorating the product," said Martin Metz, Director of Information Technology for O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

ADERANT is currently working on the next generation of its new ECM applications.  The new document management application will enable firms to effectively control and monitor electronic content throughout the entire document lifecycle process, including storage, retrieval, modification, review, and preservation.  The records management application will archive, track, and retrieve all firm-protected electronic and physical content.  The email management functionality will allow attorneys and legal staff to efficiently file and organize all relevant email messages as well as associated attachments.

 ADERANT’s new ECM applications will be generally available in Q1 2010.

Huron, which also operates in the litigation support/e-discovery consultancy area, was formed in 2002 by 25 partners of the old Arthur Andersen business, said on Friday that its entire top management team would leave the company and that it would restate more than three years of results. The company's earnings for that period would be slashed almost in half because it had misreported costs related to acquisitions. Huron stock closed down 69.13 percent at $13.69 on Nasdaq.

Huron's audit committee discovered shareholders of four businesses that Huron acquired between 2005 and 2007 redistributed portions of their acquisition-related payments among themselves and to certain Huron employees who were not identified. Huron has already replaced chairman & chief executive Gary Holdren, as well as CFOr Gary Burge. The company also said chief accounting officer Wayne Lipski will be leaving the company.

The restatements raise costs for 2006-2008 and for the first quarter of this year. As a result aggregate net profit for that period dropped to just $63 million from $120 million. Huron also cut its 2009 revenue outlook to a range of $650 million to $680 million from its prior view of $730 million to $770 million. Two law firms are investigating potential shareholder claims against Huron over possible securities violations, while analysts are already raising questions about the company's ability to survive. Comments made include "we believe there are legitimate worries about Huron being a going concern" and "the damage to Huron's reputation will likely be significant."