The Lawyer magazine is reporting that the Hammonds Direct bulk conveyancing business is in discussion with potential buyers to buy the operation as a going concern but failing that could enter administration. The Hammonds' law firm offshoot has been hit by the collapse of the residential conveyancing market.
|
||||
          Recent Comments
Who's there?
Search
Month Archive
 |
Monday, January 19
Hammonds Direct up for sale?
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 19 Jan 2009 12:49 GMT
Sunday, January 18
And in his spare time...
by
Charles Christian
on Sun 18 Jan 2009 17:06 GMT
A few people have been asking if Orange Rag editor Charles Christian will be attending the Legal IT exhibition in Islington next month? The answer is 'no' – he'll be in New York for LegalTech. And, some other people have been asking if he's going to be available on the evening of Tuesday 3rd February to attend various vendor receptions. The answer is also 'no' – and now we know the reason why...
 Friday, January 16
Something for the weekend - a little quiz
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 16 Jan 2009 17:05 GMT
Here's a simple quiz for the weekend? What is the legal IT-related connection between the building on the left of this picture – No.167 – and the passage to its immediate right? Post your answers in the comments section.
And then there were 10
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 16 Jan 2009 09:37 GMT
Contrary to earlier reports, the English Law Society's latest 2009 edition of its Software Suppliers Guide will only carry 10 vendors this year. They are, in alphabetical order...
AlphaLaw (now part of the IRIS group) Cognito Software (part of the Ultima group & now including longtime guide stalwarts JCS) DPS Software (still independent) Eclipse Legal Systems (still independent) Linetime (still independent) Opsis (now part of the IRIS group) Quill (still independent) Select (still independent) SOS (still independent) TFB (now part of the Tikit group) In terms of bangs for your bucks, High Street firms looking for a supplier now get a better choice from the Institute of Legal Cashiers & Administrators rival ILCA Listed Suppliers Guide 2009 which this year contains detail on 18 vendors... Access Legal Systems AlphaLaw Cognito Software DPS Software Eclipse Legal Systems Edgebyte Computers FWBS IRIS Legal Solutions LexisNexis Linetime Opsis Peapod Perfect Software Professional Technology (UK) SOS System One TFB Timeslice Wednesday, January 14
January edition of American Legal Technology Insider out now
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 14 Jan 2009 16:59 GMT
The 6th issue – January 2009 – of the American Legal Technology Insider
newsletter is out now. Click on the link to download your free copy as
a 301k PDF file.
Top stories include the results of our survey into the impact of the recession on law firm IT plans and US-based digital dictation systems supplier Verdatum taking a swipe at overseas-based DDS competitors, as well as vendors not 100% dedicated to the law firms. You can also register to receive it direct to your desktop as an email file attachment – just email to altisubs@legaltechnology.com with the word subscribe in the subject line. The next issue will be published on Thursday 12 February 2009.  1 Attachments
Dirkzwager first to go with Open Text Sharepoint DMS offering
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 14 Jan 2009 13:22 GMT
The Dutch law firm Dirkzwager has become the first legal practice worldwide to sign up for the Legal Information Management Solution (LIMS) – Open Text's new Microsoft Sharepoint-based document management system. After considering both Interwoven Worksite and Handshake Software's own Sharepoint solution, the firm selected Open Text LIMS for an initial proof of concept, before going on to place an order for 250 seats. The deal, including the proof of concept and full implementation, is being handled by Open Text's Benelux partner Timesoft. The project will encompass both document and email management – and also see Open Text being integrated to Dirkzwager's Aderant practice management system.
• In other Open Text news... After several years of running with Open Text (previously Hummingbird) as its DMS platform in London and Interwoven Worksite in New York, Clifford Chance has standardized on Open Text DM as its global document management system and is swapping out Interwoven from all its American offices. Tuesday, January 13
Tikit's pre-close trading statement
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 13 Jan 2009 17:05 GMT
The AIM-listed Tikit Group plc has reported on trading for the year ended 31 December 2008, as it enters its close period and ahead of the announcement of its preliminary results in March 2009. The Board says trading during the second half of the year, despite increasingly difficult conditions, has been satisfactory, and that the full year trading results will be ahead of the prior year and broadly in line with market expectations.
The Group has closed the year with a positive cash balance, reflecting the cash generative nature of its operations; this is following a cash outflow of £6.0 million in respect of acquisitions during the year. The statement goes on to say "As indicated at the half year, the caution exhibited by our clients has resulted in lower than planned sales of third party software and a small impact on implementation revenues from project-based work. However the Group's focus on recurring revenues and Tikit-developed IPR has helped improve margins overall. TfB, which was acquired by the Group in April, has made an important contribution to the Group's results and performed in line with the Board's expectations at the time of acquisition. "As the Group enters 2009, the Board expects the tougher trading conditions to continue. The legal market that the Group serves is in a period of cost and headcount reductions and some deferral of capital projects. However, we continue to experience good levels of business activity and believe that the effect of a full twelve months contribution from TfB combined with strong cost control should enable the Group to continue to grow profits and earnings per share." A further update will be given to shareholders at the time of release of the preliminary results in March.
A&L Goodbody moves to Aderant Expert
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 13 Jan 2009 12:42 GMT
Aderant today announced that Dublin-based firm A&L Goodbody, one of Ireland’s leading corporate law firms, will replace their existing Aderant/Keystone practice management system with the company’s Aderant Expert integrated business management software suite. After evaluating its options, the firm chose to stay with Aderant on the strength of Expert's comprehensive financial management functionality, robust international capabilities, and clear alignment with Microsoft technologies.
Beyond Aderant Expert’s core time and billing and financial management functionality, A&L Goodbody will also implement Expert’s business intake, practice management, and business intelligence applications. Additionally, the firm will roll-out Aderant Expert’s Microsoft SharePoint-based portal application and time entry and inquiry capabilities for BlackBerry handheld devices.
Australian firm goes live with Bighand DDS
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 13 Jan 2009 11:36 GMT
Australian personal injury law firm Maurice Blackburn today announced it has rolled out the BigHand Digital Dictation system across its 17-office national network and experienced significant productivity gains. The increased operational and administrative efficiency facilitated by BigHand software has allowed the support of smaller regional and short-term ‘visiting’ offices to a high level of quality and cost-effectiveness; in turn enhancing client service.
Maurice Blackburn National Application Support Manager, Jane Bennett commented: “BigHand3 software really has delivered a high degree of flexibility for the firm, which has experienced high growth in recent years. Smaller regional offices like Rockhampton can now be supported (on the secretarial side) out of Melbourne, which has greater in-house resources. Another example of the ability of BigHand technology to respond to our changing requirements was when one of our principals had to visit a client in Greece within weeks of our BigHand roll out and was able to use the BigHand Email Gateway feature to send back a report from an internet café. It has turned out to offer one of the biggest productivity gains of any IT project we have ever run.” During a recent joint venture in Ireland, a Maurice Blackburn partner regularly travelled to Dublin, and from there dictated documents and instructions that were transferred instantly 10,000 miles back to Melbourne via the BigHand system. In Melbourne a team of secretaries was able to offer the level of support and quality of document production that the partner did not have access to on-site, enabling the firm to maintain first-class client service even while work was done remotely. Maurice Blackburn IT Manager Justin Westbrook, who led the original digital dictation selection process described: “When considering the move over to digital dictation workflow we reviewed quite a few systems on the market including Philips SpeechExec, Quikscribe and Winscribe but at the time BigHand were the first to open up a virtual channel on Citrix so it was the only solution for us. The choice has paid off as BigHand have remained innovative on the technical side, their service orientated architecture now utilizes Microsoft .Net 3.5 and over the course of the project we have implemented their Email Gateway, the new System Admin console, as well as the Active Directory module. Next up to assess is whether we converge to Windows Mobile PDAs to dictate, rather than continuing to use remote hardware devices.” BigHand Digital Dictation software has gone to 213 users across Maurice Blackburn. Offices implementing the technology including Brisbane, Cairns, Rockhampton, Townsville, Maroochydore, Southport, Newcastle, Sydney, Parramatta, Canberra, Camperdown, Melbourne, Ringwood, Reservoir, Sunshine, Dandenong, and Geelong. Monday, January 12
Alternative legal events – and there's more...
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 12 Jan 2009 16:30 GMT
OK, so you all laughed when we mooted the idea of an alternative legal IT event last week – but we're not the only ones. With a remarkable lack of originality, LexisNexis are currently floating this idea around the market. It appears to be being planned as an alternative to the Legal Week and Legal IT Forum events – lots of questions about whether you want to attend gala dinners. And, just for the record, we hear yet another organisation is investigating the viability of a new exhibition to compete with Legal IT Islington. As one IT director put it: "Blimey, at this rate we'll be spending all our time going to conferences."
Web Survey - The Alternative Legal IT Summit Welcome to this web survey. This survey is designed to assess how popular an alternative conference on Legal IT would be to those already on the market and to see what topics we should cover if we hold this conference in September 2009. It will take less than 5 minutes to complete. The responses will be anonymous, unless you wish to take part in the prize draw (see below). The information captured will be used only for the purposes of this research project. By way of a thank you for taking part, you are welcome to enter a prize draw to win a bottle of Bollinger! If you wish to take part in the prize draw, please provide the details requested in question 10 and complete the survey by 5pm tomorrow Tuesday 13th January 2009 CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE SURVEY AND PRIZE DRAW - this is the link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=tGRXCIjT2pV6VtThX9sjdQ_3d_3d Many thanks for your assistance, which will help me in planning this and other similar events. I hope to see you at one of our conferences this year. Kind regards, Caroline Boyd Conference Manager - Legal |
           Recent Articles
RSS Newsfeeds
Main Page RSS
Twitter Updates Categories
Login
|
||