www.chambers.com LPO

Overview

Recent years have seen a throng of new arrivals into their own alternative services to clients, ranging from the alternative legal services market, dominated by flexible staffing and managed through to more novel captive platforms launched by law firms. A number models which aggregate third-party services into of leading firms in the UK and USA have launched composite solutions for clients.

Law Firm LPO Global-wide

Law Firm LPO Condor provides a scalable suite of services, ena- of over £40 million with 185 full time employees and Global-wide bling the rapid mobilisation of large capacity work. around 200 contractors engaged each month. Konexo Guy Usher, head of Derivatives and Structured operates in the UK and , and there will be a formal Leading Firms Finance, comments: “We launched Condor in response US launch in early 2020 – though we are already oper- Band 1 to client demand for law firm managed low cost bulk ationally delivering US work.” Ashurst Advance (Ashurst) document projects, driven initially by the wave of regu- BCLP Cubed (Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner) latory changes following the financial crisis. The value Peerpoint (Allen & Overy) Condor ALS () we add, in addition to technical input, is that we take See profile on p.8 DWF Mindcrest (DWF) * responsibility for delivery of the entire project.Field- Allen & Overy’s all-encompassing suite of solutions GravityStack (Reed Smith) fisher’s legal resourcing service, CondorFlight, offers includes a wealth of resources in its -based Konexo () clients remote access to a hand-picked group of senior Legal Services Centre, which allows clients of the Peerpoint (Allen & Overy) * lawyers by the hour or by the day or per unit of work.” firm to access experienced, high-quality legal Re:link () resources for contentious and non-contentious mat- Recurve (Greenberg Traurig) DWF Mindcrest (DWF) ters in a more cost-effective manner. Established in SixFifty (Wilson Sonsini) See profile on p.13 2012, the LSC houses over 100 lawyers at varying * Indicates firm with profile. MindCrest, acquired in early 2020 by UK law firm levels of seniority with experience using a broad Alphabetical order within each band. Band 1 is highest. DWF, provides contract management and docu- array of technological tools to handle document-in- ment review services to major clients across the US, tensive tasks, including international litigation Band 1 and the Asia-Pacific region, notably those in and regulatory investigations. Meanwhile, its flex- the professional services, financial services and life ible legal staffing platform, Peerpoint, has quickly Ashurst Advance (Ashurst) sciences sectors. Its teams, based in its offices in the become one of the most established platforms in the Operating since March 2016, Ashurst’s well-estab- US, UK and India, are experienced in assisting clients New Law field. It provides clients with access to over lished integrated platform, Ashurst Advance, con- with a broad scope of contentious and non-conten- 300 lawyers qualified in a number of global jurisdic- centrates its services around process enhancement, tious matters, including significant expertise in pri- tions and based across , Sydney, project management and the provision of the latest vacy and data security compliance issues. A client and . These lawyers range from former law LegalTech tools. Since November 2019 the subsid- reports: “They didn’t try to fit us into what their pre- firm partners and senior in-house counsel through to iary has also offered flexible, international legal conceived notions of what we wanted were, but they more junior lawyers, who regularly act for a client resourcing via strategic collaborations with legal listened very carefully to how we wanted to approach base comprised of leading corporates, financial insti- service providers Elevate and Cognia Law. Mike it, spent a good deal of time learning how our systems tutions and investors. Polson, Head of Ashurst Advance Delivery, states work and really collaborated on how we could best that the platform “brings together all of Ashurst’s achieve our objectives.” Re:link (Linklaters) NewLaw capabilities and expertise … including design Another relative newcomer to the world of law-firm and development of digital products and a scalable GravityStack (Reed Smith) affiliated legal resourcing platforms, Linklaters range of cost-effective resourcing options. This com- GravityStack, Reed Smith’s innovation subsidiary, launched its flexible lawyering service, Re:link, in bines with the firm’s legal and industry experts in a encompasses a selection of cutting-edge integrative April 2019. The platform allows the firm to serve its fully integrated, managed and quality assured offering LegalTech services including AI-driven project and clients in their most demanding legal challenges with to deliver clients’ needs.” contract management tools, implementation ser- greater efficiency by providing immediate staffing vices for in-house LegalTech support systems, and solutions. Focused primarily on the UK, Re:link’s BCLP Cubed (Bryan Cave Leighton the firm’s bespoke Periscope platform for KPI met- network of lawyers centres on the agile provision of Paisner) rics around eDiscovery. GravityStack has received practice area-specific expertise, including for project Responding to the ever-increasing workloads of notable acclaim since its launch in April 2018, cul- support and interim cover, backed by the professional in-house legal teams, BCLP’s Cubed service exists to minating in Reed Smith receiving top honours at the infrastructure of the wider firm. Jas Mundae, Global simplify clients’ business and transaction processes 2019 American Lawyer Industry Awards for “Best Head of Alternative Legal Services, reports: “Re:link and slash their costs, by seamlessly streamlining Legal Services Innovation”. is Linklaters’ flexible resource platform that provides outsourced bulk and complex legal work. Launched our clients with access to a thriving community of high- in June 2019 and leveraging its UK and US volume Konexo (Eversheds Sutherland) quality contract lawyers. Through the Re:link platform delivery teams, the platform comprises the areas Eversheds Sutherland’s answer to the fast-growing we are presenting clients with an additional offering to of commercial contracts, real estate asset man- ALSP market, Konexo began operations in July 2019 help drive efficiency in their legal operations, supple- agement, financing agreements and data access and, though young, already brings a robust offering menting their legal teams with skilled lawyers on fixed requests, while offering clients consistent business spanning legal managed services and resourcing, term assignments. The platform is different from other data insights. corporate secretarial/HR solutions and financial ser- providers as it is fully aligned with Linklaters. Re:link is vices compliance support. Committed to delivering not a standalone business, so both clients and Re:link Condor ALS (Fieldfisher) fully client-centred flexibility, the platform utilises lawyers benefit from the firm’s extensive professional Launched in 2017, Fieldfisher’s Condor platform AI technology for swift implementation of services infrastructure and expertise.” offers clients efficient, integrated solutions in the and is staffed by tech professionals. Head of Konexo, financial markets arena. The platform specialises Graham Richardson, adds that the platform “provides Recurve (Greenberg Traurig) in document negotiation and contract management advisory services to in-house legal and compliance In operation since June 2019 with headquarters in with a regulatory focus. Via strategic partnerships, teams,” and states: “The Division already has revenue Denver, Warsaw and Tel Aviv, Greenberg Traurig’s

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