Whether it’s a new CMS for client solutions, solving legal conflicts in whistleblowing or providing key startup advice, these new legal products will have widespread impact in future legal innovation.

This year, the shortlisted firms for The Lawyers’ Business Leadership Awards demonstrate the impact of tech in business development across a wide variety of jurisdictions. In the space of just a year, many have already proven value not just to their clients, but to their own firms proving that investing in innovation is truly a no-brainer.

Eversheds: The NewLaw approach

Eversheds’ ambitious product ‘Ignite’ plans to support in-house teams through a NewLaw approach. The offering focuses on helping in-house teams outsource high volume, low risk work including statements of work and non-disclosure agreements.

GrahamRichardsonEversheds
Graham Richardson

The service launched in 2015 led by head of Eversheds Ignite Graham Richardson, longstanding Eversheds client Communisis’ client partner Peter McCormack, Communisis services director Mark Lewis, and Communisis director of legal services Denis Connery.

So… how does it work?

Clients benefit from enhanced management information and new technology within the product to help them manage risk and balance their workload, Eversheds says.

Eversheds Ignite is designed to help legal teams concentrate on higher value, strategic work, aiming ultimately make the in-house legal department more efficient.

Why is it innovative?

Eversheds Ignite is a managed services provider enabling in-house teams to outsource higher volume lower value work they are currently doing within their teams, therefore enabling them to focus on higher value more strategic work. It is capable of applying to any kind of legal work although it is particularly active on commercial contracts. Clients benefit not only from the freeing up of in house resource but also from bespoke IT giving them matter/document management and access to excellent real time management information

Ogletree Deakins: Employment risk, solved

Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart has developed a risk management tool for in-house teams targeting labour and employment-related issues.

Chuck Baldwin
Chuck Baldwin

Ogletree Deakins’ Advantage product was developed by managing director Charles Baldwin, managing attorney Brian McDermott and a legal project management analysis and client solutions team.

The service, which launched in 2015 and has already been employed by one of the firm’s long-standing retail clients, is the first time that the firm has been able to formalise its otherwise ad-hoc portfolio engagements.

So… how does it work?

Ogletree Deakins Advantage makes use of proprietary technology, streamlined processes, knowledge management and legal project management to proactively predict and manage risk for its clients and reduce their exposure to costly employment-related legal matters. The service acts as an extension of the in-house legal team.

The Ogletree team identifies potential risks, proposes changes, and then implements a corrective plan that incorporates proprietary tools and self-help resources to support matter management and provide consistent guidance.  Throughout the engagement, a dedicated Ogletree LPM analyst coordinates the relationship, maintaining responsibility for plans and budgets, status reports, status meetings, and an annual review.

Why is it innovative?

The service offers a searchable log of past counselling requests and resolutions, as well as regulation and employment law surveys, legal updates and best practices documents. But the service also offers clients the option to scale up an employment issue, from dealing with any issue on a collaborative platform in the first instance and transferring it over to an Ogletree lawyer if the issue was not resolved.

The firm estimates that by transitioning from a regional firm with hourly billing to a national flat-fee arrangement, the company has saved 44 per cent in legal spend since the start of its engagement. The product is also expected to have an impact on budget predictability, allowing for future savings, and a faster resolution of legal issues. According to figures from the firm, the response rate from the company that tested the product decreased from 10 days to just one hour.

The use of checklists and preventative counselling as part of the service is expected to have an effect on the amount of claims and future vulnerability of clients’ companies.

McCarthy Tétrault: Streamlining commercial contracts

McCarthy Tétrault launched a contract management solution designed to capture and manage high volumes of low and medium complexity commercial data and contracts. The product, which has already been trialled with some of the firm’s clients, aims to boost in-house teams’ core efficiency to allow them to capture commercial contract data and manage risk effectively.

McCarthy Tétrault partner Matt Flynn and chief client and innovation officer Judith McKay led on the project.

So… how does it work?

The CMS offers a four-step approach to in-house clients.

First, McCarthy Tétrault reviews the relevant commercial documents to create a set of standard templates. Based on these, the firm develops a ‘playbook’ which provides alternate positions acceptable to the client that deviate from the client’s standard form templates.

The client can then choose to negotiate the company’s own commercial contracts, or they can opt to send them to firm’s preferred legal process out-sourcing company Exigent. The company’s contracts and playbook become the firm’s basis for the legal outsourcing company to review, revise, amend and renew.

The firm is in charge of performing quality control exercises, reviewing exceptions from the playbook and all contracts. As part of the firm’s CMS, the templates, work in progress and final agreements are stored in a central location that tracks progress and contract lifecycle.

Why is it innovative?

In-house lawyers would on average make cost-savings by using this process, the firm says, but it also provides in-house counsel a “panoramic view of tagged legal terms and commercial economic provisions, giving real-time quantifiable data measuring when contracts deviate from the agreed norms and any times there are issues in commercial contracts”.

Through this product, in-house lawyers can quantify risk objectively based on the data analysis of their company’s portfolio and manage the contract provisions to return revenue to the bottom line.

McGuireWoods: Trade law innovation

McGuireWoods legal product was created as a one-stop shop for companies subject to the complex web of EU customs and international trade laws.

Without a knowledgeable trade law team, dealing with individual member states may result in the unexpected imposition of high import duties and slow the shipment of products to customers.

Last year, McGuireWoods co-founded Green Lane, a network of European customs and trade law firms aligned to provide clients with seamless service.

McGuireWoods partner Yves Melin was the mind behind the initial concept for the firm, and partner Vassilis Akritidis assisted in developing it.

Yves Melin and Vassilis Akritidis
Yves Melin and Vassilis Akritidis

So… how does it work?

Green Lane is an alliance of different law firms that provides legal services in three key areas: customs, trade remedies (anti-dumping and countervailing duties, and safeguards), and export controls and sanctions. The network also helps clients establish in-house compliance programs and policies.

Why is it innovative?

Today, there is no other network or alliance of European law firms that specialise in customs and trade law.

Green Lane adds value by saving clients time spent on researching and vetting outside customs and trade law counsel across the EU, and instilling knowledge-sharing among counsel, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing costs for clients.

Simmons & Simmons: Fund launcher

Simmons & Simmons’ hedge funds practice has taken on the challenging regulatory developments in the market with its shortlisted legal product.

devarshi_saksena
Devarshi Saksena

Aimed at those who are launching a new hedge fund in the UK, the firm developed an online resource called LaunchPlus to help hedge fund managers launch for less.

Simmons & Simmons investment funds specialist Devarshi Saskena led the team working on the project.

So… how does it work?

LaunchPlus provides clients with 24/7 access to advisory materials (checklists, quick guides and project management tools), which are presented in a practical and easy to understand format. The product offers “four key stages that inform the path to a successful hedge fund management business: get started, launch, operate and grow”.

Why is it innovative?

The firm rationalised a threefold advantage to building the site: providing a resource of high value that significantly reduced the cost burden and complexity of launching a fund from scratch; demonstrating a clear commitment from the firm to start-up hedge fund work; and allowing it to competitively bid for start-up work.

LaunchPlus contains information a hedge fund start-up would otherwise have to pay approximately £15,000 to receive. Instead, the firm offers the information to the hedge funds that instruct it, allowing it to “tap into the startup market”.

TLT: Managing the litigation avalanche

TLT’s new product is geared towards helping financial services clients deal effectively with increasing volumes of litigation in the UK, by providing detailed management information and analysis.

Jonathan Hoey
Jonathan Hoey

An increase in regulatory scrutiny and media interest has led to greater public awareness of issues such as PPI and bank charges. Claims management companies also continue to target the financial services sector. Balancing resource and risk management is an increasing challenge for banks and other financial institutions in this climate.

The project team for TLT’s ‘Engage’ included head of financial services, disputes and investigations Jonathan Hoey, financial disputes and investigations partners Richard Hayllar and Deborah Sheldon.

So… how does it work?

TLT’s product ‘Engage’ is collaborative, and aims to be “a genuine extension of the in-house team through direct engagement with the business”. This frees the in-house team to focus on complex work and strategically important matters.

This product operates a fixed retainer model calculated by reference to TLT’s clients’ definition of business risk and volumes, not the lawyers’ assessment of the time required.

Why is it innovative?

The product provides improved analysis to clients, which means informed decisions on strategic management of cases and early identification of emerging risks and trends.

More importantly, the firm’s approach addresses primary client concerns about managing risk and reputation. It does this by providing clear lines of responsibility, robust management structures, transparent accessibility and relevant escalation controls. The product allows for a multi-faceted approach to cost certainty based on factors that are most relevant to individual clients.

TLT’s Engage also offers post-implementation review and modification of processes, so that its can adapt to the changing needs of clients.

Wolf Theiss: The whistleblowing solution

Wolf Theiss’ legal product focuses on the challenge of managing internal whistleblowing while protection a company’s reputation.

Roland Marko
Roland Marko

With cases of corruption and fraud featuring prominently in the media, there is increasing obligation on businesses to introduce internal codes of conduct. Implementing a compliance code allows companies not only to ensure legal compliance but is also aimed at protecting themselves from financial and reputational damage. However, this is more effective if there is also a monitoring system which actually verifies the company’s compliance.

Wolf Theiss’ SecuReveal was developed to provide an infrastructure to respond to this issue in-house. Wolf Theiss partner Roland Marko had the initial idea and worked for the development of the product. Wolf Theiss subsidiary Responsible Business Solutions (RBS) GmbH managing director Gernot Rauter and tech provider RISC Software GmbH managing director Wolfgang Freiseisen were also involved in the project.

So… how does it work?

Through the RBS subsidiary last year, the firm developed an online-based whistleblowing platform which supports businesses in monitoring compliance. It allows whistle-blowers to notify the company on a confidential basis of internal irregularities and breaches of regulations and, thus, to contribute to an effective corporate compliance.

SecuReveal also features a case management system (where compliance officers can handle cases) and a data room function, enabling file exchange also with external persons (e.g. external advisors).

Why is it innovative?

This tech product is unique in the Austria and CEE regions. It also solves an important problem. In the past, the firm had refrained from acting as an external intermediary for companies dealing with whistleblowing because there were conflicts that did not allow the firm from representing the client. This tech-based online platform resolves this issue, because Wolf Theiss lawyers do not operate the platform and the files gathered by SecuReveal are dealt with as a separate entity.