LegalTechnology.com is the award winning niche web site for legal technology and online legal services news and information, which has been described by The Times newspaper as "the definitive online resource for the latest news about legal technology." Along with a searchable archive of back issues of all our publications, its facilities include: an extensive diary of forthcoming legal IT events, a jobs board for recruitment opportunities within the legal IT market and our definitive top 250 chart of which systems the UK's largest law firms are using - leading US legal publishers LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell recently described this chart as "wonderful data".
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by Neil Cameron of the Neil Cameron Consulting Group
Well the ABS race is on. In just a fortnight we have had Silverbeck Rymer and Russell Jones & Walker start on the road to become ABSs. Neither is doing it for themselves; they are both subject to takeover - one domestic, and one foreign. Silverbeck Rymer is being taken over by Quindell Portfolio in an £20m example or vertical market integration, and RJW by Australian market pioneers Slater & Gordon in a horizontal integration move worth £54m.
In The Times newspaper Tina Williams of Fox Williams is quoted as saying “This deal is a real wake-up call to law firms that expected to have years to adapt to a changing market”. I could not agree more.
Over the past few years firms UK general have had one of three reactions to the Legal Services Act and the creation of the ABS:
• they have ignored the whole phenomenon hoping it might go away;
• they have half-heartedly flirted with the concept;
• they have determinedly examined the options, and readied themselves for a move – like Irwin Mitchell and Duncan Lewis.
But there are many routes to forming an ABS; one is by an established law firm on its own initiative, one is a new start-up with new capital, and one is the investment of external capital in an established law firm. For a more detailed examination of the consequences of these options see our ‘Flirting with Floating’ article.
Quietly, in the background capital-rich organisations have been circling around the market like lions drawn to fresh young meat. Some in a blaze of self-publicity – such as Lyceum Capital – and others more stealthily like Investec. Other established enterprises that believe they can expand into this market have also been examining their options – like the Co-Op.
No-one could have predicted which way this was going to pan out, or predict accurately what will happen next – the law of unintended consequences makes sure of that. But now all bets are off, and I think we are going to be amazed at how quickly things move – especially in the high-volume consumer law areas such as personal injury and similar work.
Like all the girls at the teen-age dance, even if you don’t really want to dance neither do you want to be the last left standing at the end of the evening with the other no-hopers with no-one to partner up with. Make no mistake, Slater & Gordon is mopping up the Australian market for their target work – buying up firms and building a brand that attracts potential clients at the expense of other competitors. That is exactly what they want to do here – and who is going to stop them?
Any law firm reliant upon any degree of such business must now determine what it will do to counter the threat. They must either:
• launch a highly attractive and competitive service to the new sleek enterprises – which will require a heavy investment in marketing and systems. Few firms can afford to do this;
• undertake their own IPO and hope that the market will find them attractive enough, and then use the capital raised to invest in marketing and systems. This will take time;
• throw themselves under the feet of one of the new entrants – the estimated RJW partner bung of £2m will be attractive here, although that sum per partner will continually reduce as less attractive firms come forward desperately competing for involvement;
• find a new business partner with which to form an ABS – again, this will end up being a cut-throat beauty parade – and quicker than any of us think;
Peppermint Technology has just announced the appointment of David Thorpe as Director of Business Development, he starts work there on Monday.
Arlene Adams, Peppermint Technology CEO, comments: "David brings a wealth of market experience and knowledge to Peppermint. His appointment reflects the influx of demand we are seeing for the Peppermint Platform. A highly experienced player in the UK Legal market, David was quick to recognise the unique value of the Peppermint Platform that brings together applications, content, collaborative working and transactions in one single system."
Thorpe comments "I have spent the last 30 years helping law firms become more efficient. Arguably, law firms today face a bigger challenge now than at any time over that 30 year period: There is a global recession; there is more competition for business; there are ABSs entering the market and more and more clients are demanding Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs) and other billing variants from their law firms.
“Traditional legal software products are designed to focus on the back office. While this is important and is something that the Peppermint Platform delivers very well, the real value of Peppermint is how it enables legal providers to transform the client experience. The Platform recognises the power of data and connects together data, applications, people and process in one system centred round a single client profile. The result is transformational. By using the Platform legal providers can start to offer clients an ‘Amazon-like’ experience in legal services.
"This is the first platform I've ever seen with this focus and it's revelatory. Of course efficiency and cost cutting is important but that will inevitably lead to a dead end; someone somewhere will always find a way to provide the work at a lower cost. By adding value to the experience of the client, law firms using the Peppermint Platform have a USP which doesn't depend on forever finding cheaper delivery options. It's been a long time since I was as excited by a software proposition as I am about Peppermint. I am really looking forward to taking the message to the market and working with the outstanding team at Peppermint."
Comment: Thorpe told us a few minutes ago that the Peppermint Platform was the most exciting legal IT system he had seen since Elite in 1993. He added that people forget how back then Elite – now the firmly entrenched market leader – was also seen as a novelty and not regarded as serious competition to the likes of the Miles 33, John Hemmings and Digital Kienzle (later Axxia) systems that then dominated the larger firms market.
Adams added that David's experience in the larger firms sector was also an attractive proposition for Peppermint as they were now attracting the interest of 500+ user firms.
So, Thorpe has joined Peppermint. All those vendors who have been trying to ignore the potential threat represented by Peppermint may need to reassess their ideas now.
• Arlene Adams will be speaking at the LawTech Futures event in London in March www.lawtechfutures.com
The January (issue #249) of the Legal Technology Insider newsletter has gone out now – print copies should be arriving in the post while the digital edition has just been sent using our new NewZapp edistribution service.
Top stories include... • IRIS Legal to focus on three inhouse centres of excellence • Weightmans 'exploring' LexisNexis ERP offering • BLM iManage order upsets Sharepoint fans • Scottish & English Law Societies offer guidance on social media & cloud technology • Total buys K-Cloud • There's a new chef in the Workshare kitchen who can cook !
Our next issue is out on 23rd February (probably!)
Here's an interesting case study featuring Michael Priestley is Head of Building Services at the London law firm Withers LLP in which he explains how the firm has saved £570,000 by using the CAFM Explorer system from facilities management specialists CAFM.
He identifies three main savings...
1. By tracking our costs -v- budget in parallel to our finance team we saved over £200,000 ($350,000).
2. By operating a streamlined cost effective management team, some by 40% below benchmarked levels we saved £250,000 ($400,000).
3. By closely tracking our building management and contractor’s performance we were able to renegotiate £120,000 ($200,000) of savings from their charges.
And adds "Year on year we achieve similar reductions in our fiscal spend and this year has been no exception with over 1/2 million pounds (just under $1 million dollars) savings for a comparable minor investment."
by Dee Caporali, director for Access, specialist in providing HR software to the legal sector
With the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) now a licensed regulator for alternative business structures (ABS), this month marks the start of it accepting applications from legal firms. As one would expect, Chief Executive Antony Townsend welcomed the news, stating on their website: “It means the public can have confidence that ABS providing reserved legal activities will be regulated according to the same rigorous professional standards as traditional law firms." If all goes to plan, the SRA should announce its first successful applicant early this year.
It will certainly be interesting to see how things materialise. All firms, regardless of whether or not they go the ABS route, will have to be more competitive and innovative in their approach. Undoubtedly some tough decisions need to be made in this new deregulated environment which will see the commoditisation of legal services.
Technology will play a part in helping firms strengthen their position, whether this is through streamlining business processes and cutting costs, improving customer experience, or managing human capital more effectively. In terms of the latter, with more competition for the best lawyers it will be vital that firms look after their most valuable asset. A cliché perhaps but crucial to future success and firms are increasingly focusing their attention on HR technology.
The introduction of ABS would mean a huge shift in how firms operate, from the individuals they employ to the training they receive as well as succession planning. There is a strong likelihood that firms will be a mix of legal and non-legal professionals as was highlighted in research commissioned by Access to mark its 20th anniversary, titled The Future of Technology: transforming mid-market business operations*. A growing belief that multi-disciplinary practices (MDP) are the future business structures of legal professional services organisations will bring solicitors together with accountants, independent financial advisers, estate agents, surveyors, and other professional services providers, all under one roof. Clients will be able to obtain advice on conveyancing, tax and financial planning, personal injury and wills, from a single firm. Given the potential varied scope of professional services offerings, firms need to consider technology that is wider in scope than the traditional practice and case management systems used up until now, integrating the different areas of the business as well as managing the diversity of talent.
HR systems will help to smooth the process from identifying the need for new skills, to meeting staffing requirements and ensuring that professionals with the right expertise are allocated to clients – this is especially important given the SRA’s move towards a more qualitative style of measuring professional conduct and service delivery to customers. Succession planning is another area of rising concern for firms, given they are turning away from the traditional route of promoting partners within the organisation. This means they will need to carefully review the incentives they have in place if they are to avoid haemorrhaging the brightest talent with the increase in competition for their services.
The bottom line is that technology is an enabler that can help firms more efficiently manage their business; for the HR director in particular it helps them to automate as many of the day-to-day administrative tasks as possible, alongside supporting recruitment drives, CPD, personal development/training programmes and self-service – and crucially providing the business intelligence needed for HR teams to play a strategic role in the firm’s direction, and ultimately their success.
Phoenix Business Solutions have got a couple more events coming up that you might want to put in your diaries...
• On 2nd February, they are holding another of their Brekkie with our Tekkies breakfast briefings, this time on the company's Phoenix Workspace Information Manager* (WIM), Refiler and Guardian products. Full details below...
* Phoenix Workspace Information Manager enables firms to present Matter/Project related information from a range of systems when clicking on a Workspace in WorkSite. WIM allows the firm to utilise the whitespace that the user sees when they click on a Workspace and populate it with clien/matter or project related information from any source within the firm. This could be contact information, financial information, critical dates or anything else that may be referred to. Pulling this information into FileSite means increases the use and flexibility of WorkSite and puts the information at the user’s fingertips.
• On 23rd February (4pm - location tbc) Phoenix are holding a product briefing on: Phoenix Office Customisation Centre. Partners Kutana will be joining to demonstrate their Print Management Software. Contact Nikki.bhogal@phoenixbs.com for more information. Speakers: Development Manager Nick Hull + Solution Architect Guido Cianfanelli from Phoenix plus Rob Simcock and Roger Middlebrook from Kutana Agenda: - Why Customise Microsoft Office 2010? - Limitations of the base product, and extend base functionality - Prior Phoenix Customisations - Examples of some of the bespoke development Phoenix have done, Office Templates -v- Office Customisation - What is Office Customisation Centre? - Overview of the main functions that will be in the release - Product Roadmap - Where Phoenix are now, when demos will be available & planned launch dates - Product briefing on Kappris by Kutana
There's no hiding place from Orange Rag editor Charles Christian, who today has the first of his new monthly legal IT opinion columns go live on the Legal IT Professionalswebzine. Here's the link – enjoy and feel free to disagree...
LexisNexis UK today said that Weightmans LLP, a top 50 UK law firm, is exploring the deployment of LexisNexis’ next generation, Microsoft-centric case management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. "The discovery process," says the statement "and feasibility study on the new products have already been initiated and will be completed in mid-2012. The two organisations will work together to examine a highly scalable, future solution that builds on Weightmans’ existing technology investments and expertise, and delivers enhanced capabilities to support the firm’s growth plans." Weightmans has a long standing relationship with LexisNexis and for a number of months the firm has been running a small pilot to test LexisNexis dna as a possible platform for the organisation. The majority of the firm has continued using LexisNexis Fee Earner Desktop (FED) as its case management system. Recent guidance issued by LexisNexis’ Axxia division indicates that its dna product, primarily designed to meet the requirements of medium-sized general practice and full service commercial law firms, is not suitable for top tier firms such as Weightmans, who now have in excess of 1200 users. LexisNexis released this advisory based on the company’s experience of working with its largest customers, including the Weightmans pilot group; and the findings of an independently commissioned third party scalability testing of the product. "We are now re-assessing our needs, especially in view of the unprecedented growth the firm has experienced in the last few years. The firm is much larger and more diverse than it was 12 months ago, and our IT requirements have also evolved. We always aim to use the latest technologies available to provide our clients with the best possible service, and will be discussing potential solutions with LexisNexis over the next few months," said Stuart Whittle, Weightmans' IS & Operations Director. "Underpinning the business with the right technology is imperative to the realisation of our future plans." LexisNexis’ new solution (codenamed Nimbus) is being built on Microsoft platforms (including Microsoft Dynamics AX) and encompasses client management, case management, resource planning, finance and accounting, reporting, business intelligence and compliance. The solution offers powerful new capabilities, functionality and scalability to meet the business needs of large law firms such as Weightmans. "We are working closely with Weightmans to provide a future-proof solution that gives the firm the agility and flexibility required to operate in a continuously evolving marketplace," said Tim Cheadle, General Manager, LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions. "Both organisations are committed to making that happen as quickly as possible. In the meantime, LexisNexis will continue to support Weightmans’ existing IT capability."
This is the Sharepoint story we mentioned in yesterday's American Legal Technology Insider... UK law firm Berrymans Lace Mawer LLP (BLM) has awarded Phoenix a contract to supply and implement Autonomy’s WorkSite document management system and the full suite of Phoenix Worksite Tools to its user base of over 1300 staff. Phoenix will be looking at a 9-12 month implementation plan as well as a training and e-learning program to all BLM offices.
Head of IT, Fran Evans selected Autonomy WorkSite after a comprehensive product analysis by independent technology and business consultancy 3Kites, and commented: "Email management and the integration with existing BLM applications were core objectives for us when we considered implementing a document management system (DMS). We needed a solution that would allow us to manage our documents and emails in both an efficient and matter centric way. We felt Autonomy’s WorkSite offered an all-inclusive email management solution that integrated well with our existing practice and case management system. Workspace management and integration with our back office systems was further simplified by the addition of Phoenix WorkSite Tools.
Phoenix add that it was imperative for the DMS to have a smooth integration with BLM’s other core applications: Flosuite, MS Exchange, Winscribe and Aderant. Autonomy’s WorkSite will provide a seamless integration with the firm’s other applications. Phoenix understands BLM’s goals and are conscious that the tight integration of Flosuite - BLM’s case management system, with Autonomy WorkSite is key to this project being a success.
BLM have also awarded Phoenix a training and e-learning contract to ensure that users are trained effectively on how to use Autonomy’s DMS.
Comment: the bits the formal press release doesn't mention is that BLM not only looked at iManage and OpenText but also three Sharepoint-based products – although only one made it through to the final shoot out. We also know this was not a case of a 'friendly' consultant loading the dice. In fact in a former life the consultant worked for Hummingbird and was in competition with iManage to win the fiercely fought Simmons & Simmons deal, so no love lost there. We'll leave readers to draw their own conclusions as to whether this shows Sharepoint still can't cut it as a DMS.
