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Clifford Chance and Microsoft plan new dawn for legal market IT

17 January 2011 | By Matt Byrne

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Million-pound joint venture allows Microsoft way into the legal sector

Clifford Chance is targeting significant cost savings with the launch of a technology platform backed by Microsoft.

The magic circle firm has been working with the ­technology giant, which is considering a concerted push into the global legal market, for several months.

It is mulling plans for a new document management system (DMS) based on Microsoft’s SharePoint software suite of products,
a package contained in Microsoft Office.

IT specialists claim the increased functionality of a SharePoint-based system, coupled with the savings derived from buying a
one-off licence, could mark a seismic shift in the legal technology market.

“The quality of the Microsoft product set is ­constantly evolving and there’s no way a firm can ­dismiss this as an option,” said Derek Southall, head of strategic development at Wragge & Co.

Last week Lewis Silkin became the first top 100 firm to launch a SharePoint-based DMS system, known as Excalibur. The widely well-received product ­utilises IP devised by Lewis Silkin’s ­in-house ­technology team.

Unlike Excalibur, Clifford Chance’s deal with Microsoft is understood to involve the software company funding the development of the new platform in exchange for the kudos of working with the UK’s largest law firm.

Clifford Chance would not comment on industry speculation that the project has cost in excess of £1m so far, but did confirm the ­business relationship, which it added was “early in the development stage”.

“Microsoft and Clifford Chance have signed a joint partnership to develop a matter-centric DMS, the first of its kind in the legal ­industry,” the firm said in a statement last week.

The firm would not ­comment on whether it had decided to replace its ­current DMS provider, Open Text, with Microsoft’s new system.
Simmons & Simmons director of business transformation Abby Ewen said the use of SharePoint for a variety of functions was becoming increasingly ­common among firms.

“We launched our new intranet on SharePoint 2010 in December, and our new website, which we recently put out to tender, will ­probably also be on it,” Ewen said. “We believe it will become a ubiquitous part of the infrastructure.”

That potential ubiquity has raised questions among IT specialists about the extent of Microsoft’s ambition in the legal market.

“Microsoft’s known for having partners and then swallowing them to get ­market share,” said one UK law firm IT director. “This is something they’re obviously going after, and not apparently with much stealth.”

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Readers' comments (16)

  • chris | 17-Jan-2011 9:57 am

    Must be the future. DM systems suck

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  • Bill Jobs | 17-Jan-2011 12:50 pm

    This potentially signals a significant point in the nature of law firm technology systems, from something that is designed to be best of breed like Open Text to something more reliant on everyday technology. There is going to be a bloodbath.

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  • Anonymous | 17-Jan-2011 12:51 pm

    If a law firm was setting up today would it use Microsoft products? Probably yes.

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  • Charlie Hull | 17-Jan-2011 1:31 pm

    There's a better route, which is for the legal community to develop solutions based on open source. This would give law firms a lower cost (and in some cases completely free) software base, and avoid lock-in to a particular vendor. There are some other ways open source methods could help such as the development of a common legal taxonomy, which I wrote about here:
    http://www.flax.co.uk/blog/2010/11/11/legal-search-is-broken-can-it-be-fixed-with-open-source-taxonomies/

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  • Anonymous | 17-Jan-2011 1:32 pm

    Computing power isn't there yet but over the next decade (if computers continue to double in power roughtly every 18 months, and they will) we will approach the point where the vast majority of work currently done by qualified lawyers, let alone trainees and paralegals, can be automated.

    In 20 years time the idea of an intelligent person spending 10+ hours a day staring at a screen producing documents will be arcane.

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  • Anonymous | 17-Jan-2011 3:07 pm

    Why would someone buy a product from MCS UK who would not enhance it, maintain it, etc?

    They are a services business, not a software business. Saying this is "Microsoft" is over stating it. Microsoft is a platform company.

    Great idea by MCS, but customers will very quickly see through it and support traditional ISV partners instead.

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  • Luddite #1 | 17-Jan-2011 3:36 pm

    Anonymous | 17-Jan-2011 1:32 pm
    Richard? Richard Suskind? Is that you?
    Never going to happen.

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  • P90 | 17-Jan-2011 3:57 pm

    Interesting to see an advocate for open source - for which support is the achilles heel - and this post about MCS opining about the perceived lack of support all in the same thread of comments.
    Don't you suppose that the MCS IP will be baked into future Sharepoint releases so that the services support perspective here will be moot? Why else would Microsoft subsidize this development work?

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  • PtL | 17-Jan-2011 4:43 pm

    What are you all talking about? I understand the issue about support as regards ISV partners and baking into Sharepoint releases. But what does this mean for my Amstrad? Will I have to buy one of those "mouse" things?

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  • Anonymous | 17-Jan-2011 5:06 pm

    Open text and iManage will soon be like Word Perfect and Lotus Notes. Once thought indispensible, soon no-one over a certain age will even remember why they mattered

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