Today – if anyone cares – is Ladies Day at Royal Ascot (that's a series of races in which very small men steer big horses along a patch of grass somewhere near Bracknell). However it is also an opportunity for 'ladies' to put on posh frocks and big hats – and we use quotation marks as this year the stewards looking after the Royal Enclosure at Ascot have had to issue a dress code advising said 'ladies' that they must wear knickers and/or those knickers must not be on show beneath those posh frocks. Now we get to the legal IT bit...
There is a convention in journalism called the embargo that allows press releases to be issued in advance on the strict understanding that they are not published before a certain date or time. Usually there has to be a good reason for an embargo and as to why the information is time sensitive – for example you cannot publish price sensitive information about a quoted company until it has first been released to the Stock Exchange.
Yesterday (18 June) we received a press release that was subject to an embargo – it was about a new (we say 'new' – the firm have actually been running the system since January this year but the story has presumably taken 5 months to get through the internal red tape) anti-money laundering compliance system called Datanomic that is in use at S J Berwin. Splashed across the top of the release were the words 'Embargoed till 09:00 19th June' – and the following explanation "I'll be getting ready for Ascot so I'm sending the release today"
If you want to know more about the Datanomic system (which apparently does lots of interesting things with director sanctions and PEP screening – PEPs are not personal equity plans in this instance but 'politically exposed persons') you'll have to check out their website at www.datanomic.com because you're unlikely to get any sense out of their PR agent (Monique) today. And let's just hope that in all the rush Monique doesn't forget her knickers.
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Thursday, June 19
Midgely Corner - the things PR agencies say
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 19 Jun 2008 09:32 BST
Wednesday, June 18
IRIS Legal make another acquisition - OPSIS
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 18 Jun 2008 10:24 BST
IRIS Software Group has announced the acquisition of OPSIS Limited. Headquartered in Dublin, OPSIS is a major provider of case management systems in Northern Ireland with a strong presence in the regional legal practice markets in the Republic of Ireland and in England and Wales. The official statement says "The acquisition will enable IRIS to significantly extend its customer footprint in Ireland and at the same time, it marks a further step forward towards IRIS’ goal to provide the legal profession with the widest range of quality software products to suit every size and type of practice."
In the UK market OPSIS is best know for its Small Practice System for 1-to-5 user smaller high street firms and its Millennium Solo system for sole practitioners however it also has an accounts and PMS offering suitable for firms in the small-to-mid size range. The UK offices are in Stamford (Lincs) which the company took on after acquiring the old Stukeley Computers business. The official statement also says "As IRIS Legal have done with GB Systems in Scotland, there are no plans to consolidate the product range within IRIS Legal and the business will continue to be run independently by its existing management team, who are remaining with the business."
Informa and UBM talks off
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 18 Jun 2008 09:36 BST
Talks between Informa, best know in the UK legal market for the Islington Legal IT exhibition, the Turnberry Legal IT Forum and the nocturnally-challenging By Legal For Legal, has ended merger talks with United Business Media (UBM). The company is now in talks with a private equity consortium. UBM issued a statement saying it had been "unable to agree terms with Informa that would be in the best interests of UBM shareholders. Discussion between UBM and Informa have therefore ceased".
Tuesday, June 17
3E on time & on message at A&O
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 17 Jun 2008 08:00 BST
At an interview yesterday, Kim Massana – the senior V-P (Strategic Marketing & International) at Thomson Elite (more on that later) – told the Insider the company was fully aware of all the rumours being spread by its competitors about its 3E implementations but said its flagship implementation at Allen & Overy was on schedule and still set to go live in November this year. He added that A&O had opted for a 'big bang' simultaneous go-live on a multi-office, multi-currency implementation and that once this milestone had been achieved, it would be "discussion over" as regards to the rumours surrounding 3E.
Massana also reiterated the message that the Elite Enterprise product was not a legacy system waiting to be replaced by 3E and said the product was still "key to our company... had a long life ahead of it... and would continue to be enhanced" for many years to come. Massana added that the majority of the 70+ 3E sales to-date had come from new wins and not from Enterprise migrations. In other Elite news... Massana said the international business was becoming increasingly important to Elite, with India and mainland China potentially the hottest emerging markets. Massana also said the increased importance of international had led to a change of corporate strategy, with instead of new developments being released on the North American market and then customised for international, in future the international angle would be "embedded at the core of the business" so, for example, the needs of international customers would be taken into account from the earliest stages of product development. "Law is a global business," said Massana, "and we need to ensure the product is global from the outset." Massana also hinted that following the merger of the Thomson and Reuters businesses earlier this year, the company was likely to see some rebranding to take greater advantage of the Reuters name, not least because in some international markets Reuters is a better known name than Thomson. He also added that along with these branding changes, there could also be a more substantive and creative leveraging of the Reuters expertise. Massana stressed that while much of this was still in the realms of early days internal debate and exploration, possibilities included expanding the multi-currency functionality of the Elite software to take advantage of Reuters experience with currency 'hedging' so law firms operating on a global basis could better protect themselves against exchange rate fluctuations. Sunday, June 15
The Curse of the Bozo ISP strikes again
by
Charles Christian
on Sun 15 Jun 2008 18:08 BST
Once again our apologies to everyone who has been sent yet another copy of either our December 2007 or January 2008 issues of the Insider – this is not us going mad but our former ISPs with their wonky server (and even wonkier understanding of networking) doing something weird. The muppets have taken over the modem.
Friday, June 13
Something for the weekend #2
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 13 Jun 2008 16:45 BST
Two stories to mull over at the end of the week...
• We've just been informed by someone 'who knows for a fact' (which means its totally unreliable) that the price LexisNexis paid for Visualfiles two years ago (taking into account earn-outs etc) was £36 million. We think this is way off the scale of reality and more likely to have been nearer £16 million – although it is rumoured that ex-chairman Neil Ewin's new estate is called Yorkshire. • And, there is to be a new head of IT at Linklaters. Simon Thompson was promoted to global chief operating office (or COO) last year. A formal announcement is due next week however the one clue we have is: 'Think female and think existing Legal IT Director' – feel free to suggest who you think this may be altho we think first names starting with a 'J' are a possibility.
Recession - what recession ?
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 13 Jun 2008 09:03 BST
It's an old saw that the legal market is recession proof – in the sense that people may stop buying houses (which is bad news for property lawyers) but there is a corresponding increase in debt recovery and insolvency work. But is there any truth behind this theory?
According to the Cowen Group (www.cowengroup.com) a US recruitment consultancy specializing in the legal technology market, the number of litigation support positions are on the rise, and salaries for this market are projected to rise by year end to be in line with the demand for talent. This report comes out at the same time the US Department of Labor Statistics reports that the US legal service sector* has lost 9700 jobs since a year ago and 4200 in the last six months. “Despite deep and ongoing layoffs in many other industries and the legal sector at large, our research shows job growth in the legal technology market has remained strong,” said David Cowen. “From 2006 to 2007, the number of litigation support job openings grew 25 percent nationwide. So far this year, the East Coast is up 15 percent, Chicago is up 10 percent, Texas is up 35 percent and the West Coast is up 10 percent.” The research for the Salary Survey also shows that most large firms are actively backfilling litigation support positions plus adding to staff while small and mid-sized firms are rapidly adding these litigation support roles for the first time. “Despite this increase in demand for talent, salaries are holding steady and remain in line with what they were a year ago,” continued Cowen. “However, we project that as the economy picks back up, new litigations get started and the corporate market engages, salaries will begin to rise noticeably by year end.” * According to The US Department of Labor, 1.17 million people, or less than one percent of the US job market overall call themselves 'legal service employees' which they classify as lawyers, paralegals, support staff, librarians, and secretaries. Wednesday, June 11
More mergers ahoy - FTI acquire Attenex
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 11 Jun 2008 07:31 BST
FTI Consulting Inc, a global player in the litigation support and case management market (its flagship product is Ringtail Legal and in 2006 it bought the UK lit support company 3G Consulting) last night announced that is had signed a merger agreement
to acquire Attenex Corporation, a leading e-discovery software provider best known for its Attenex Patterns system. The total purchase price for the transaction is approximately $88 million in cash and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2008 after expiration of the HSR waiting period. After amortization of intangibles, the acquisition is expected to be neutral to FTI’s earnings per share in 2008 and accretive in 2009. Attenex had revenue of approximately $25 million in 2007. Attenex Patterns software automates data processing and provides powerful visualization tools for quickly analyzing massive amounts of electronically stored information (ESI). Attenex will be integrated into the FTI Technology segment. Kathryn Hardie, JR Jesson, Mike Kinnaman and Joe White will join FTI as senior managing directors in the company’s technology segment. FTI expects the acquisition of Attenex will bring with it a number of strategic advantages including enhanced positioning in the e-discovery marketplace: both companies are well-established players with distinguished brands and proven track records. Attenex and FTI are two of the market’s top five e-discovery software vendors, according to the 2007 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey. Through this acquisition, FTI now owns key proprietary technology for each crucial step of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), providing clients with a single source, industry leading solution.FTI will host a conference call to discuss its acquisition of Attenex Corporation today, Wednesday 11 June, at 9:00pm Eastern Daylight Time – that's 2:00pm London time. You can access the live call via internet broadcast through the home page of the company’s web site at www.fticonsulting.com Tuesday, June 10
The Bryan Roberts saga - Mark III
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 10 Jun 2008 18:39 BST
Story removed at the request of Bryan Roberts.
Monday, June 9
If you go down in the woods today
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 09 Jun 2008 11:27 BST
If you go down in the woods (well technically the Marriott Forest of Arden Hotel) today (and tomorrow June 10) you will get a surprise as the IRIS Group is holding its Legal Office User Group Conference – aka the old Videss business. The event is being sponsored by Capscan, who offer the address and postcode data verification service.
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