SOS Connect has been selected by Lodders LLP of Stratford-upon-Avon for its next generation legal system. SOS Connect will help the firm to attain real-time management information, automate and standardise business processes and further support the goals to forge strong client relationships and deliver the first rate services which distinguish Lodders in the marketplace.

Lodders is an established firm of solicitors based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire with additional offices in Cirencester and Henley-in-Arden, offering specialist advice to individuals and businesses. Private client work forms the core of the business and remains the common thread of the other main areas of work: property, business and agriculture. The goal is to combine technical ingenuity and thoughtful advice with a pragmatic approach to problem solving.

In 2008 the firm first decided to replace the existing Axxia system which had reached the end of its life and was not providing the readily available information deemed necessary for accurate and timely decision-making. SOS Connect was selected after a lengthy and in-depth evaluation, interrupted by software industry consolidation, which was taking place at the time. The selection process was managed by Lodders’ existing technology consultant Solutions Squared Ltd. During the process AIM, Mountain and Axxia were subject to acquisition which reduced the initial short list to SOS, Pilgrim and Axxia (DNA).  Following presentations to department heads and secretarial employees the final shortlist of SOS and Pilgrim were presented to senior partners, who opted for SOS Connect.

Commenting on the key anticipated benefits of SOS Connect, Rod Bird, managing partner of Lodders said: “ With SOS Connect we expect to automate formulaic processes, freeing up partners’ time for the high end, bespoke work and client services which are paramount in the business, and equip the firm with modern, efficient systems to take us forward.”

The roll-out of the new system to 100 users across the three offices is on schedule for a go live date of July 2010.

MBM Commercial based in Edinburgh’s city centre has selected Pilgrim’s LawSoft SaaS solution to support its expanding business. The firm split from Murray Beith Murray in 2005 and has since focussed on delivering excellent service to corporate clients. In so doing it has established an enviable reputation in a number of fields including Corporate Finance, IP & Technology, Commercial Property, Dispute Resolution and Employment Law.

 

The firm has opted for Pilgrim’s Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. Users will access the system online, needing nothing more than a PC/laptop and an internet connection. MBM need not concern themselves with managing servers, adding new users, or managing upgrades. By opting for LawSoft SaaS the firm immediately benefits from having a sound disaster recovery solution in place. The firm pays for the service on a per user per month basis thus negating the need for any front loaded capital expenditure.

 

Pilgrim sees the move towards Cloud Computing as inevitable and is confident that the legal profession will be part of this revolution. LawSoft SaaS is a step along the journey to full Cloud Computing and Pilgrim expects more and more of its clients, both existing and new, to adopt this method of software provision, given the undoubted benefits that this shift delivers to firms.

 

MBM Commercial’s Managing Partner David Calder stated, “We have been looking for a new practise management system for some time. We knew of LawSoft in 2005 but the price of implementing it was beyond the means of a start-up practice. However, now the SaaS offering allows us to take advantage of advanced enterprise standard software delivered over the Internet paid for via an affordable subscription model. We expect to reap a number of benefits with our new system in areas like document management, slicker billing, capturing more time and real-time KPIs.”

 

Colin Kennedy Pilgrim’s COO said, “We are delighted to welcome MBM Commercial to our ever swelling customer base. Like David, I expect the take-up of our SaaS solution to increase over the coming months. More and more firms will now be able to exploit the sophisticated tools that LawSoft delivers, whilst avoiding the large upfront cost that is traditionally associated with such a purchase. More and more firms are looking at ways of funding IT investments from revenues as opposed to capital expenditures. LawSoft SaaS supports this trend.”

This year’s Legal IT show will see the launch of TFB’s new corporate identity, with the company rebranding to be known as TikitTFB.

 

The move reflects the growing synergy between TFB and Tikit and the increasing collaboration on projects over the past twelve months. The new name and logo will be rolled out over a period of 3 months with all corporate materials and communications moved over to the new identity by the end of May.

 

Although the name is reflective of the relationship between TFB and Tikit, TFB will continue to operate with autonomy within the Tikit Group and day to day relationships; strategy and market focus will not change.

 

Simon Hill, Managing Director of TikitTFB comments, ‘Since becoming part of the Tikit Group in 2008, we have experienced many advantages on both a strategic and operational level. Whilst continuing to operate as we did pre-acquisition, we have been able to utilise the expertise and technology within Tikit, in conjunction with our comprehensive solution portfolio, to benefit current and prospective clients whatever their requirements.

William Graham Law Ltd in Cardiff has selected Linetime to supply case management software for its expanding Personal Injury Department.

The firm will be offering an enhanced level of service to its clients by providing online access to case files.

Linetime will be providing Liberate B2C Online Case Tracking to provide client access to up to date case information including current status and case progression history. In addition case management will be provided by Liberate SE – a .Net based solution utilising Microsoft SQLServer.

Rapidly expanding Northern Ireland law firm, Jonathan McKeown Solicitors, has selected Eclipse’s integrated Proclaim Case Management Software solution.

 

The practice, based in County Down, specialises in Personal Injury claims and has become one of Northern Ireland's leading players in recent years.  The firm aims to combine a traditional high-quality service ethos with the fast and efficient file processing made possible by technology.  This approach has proved immensely successful and has led to Jonathan McKeown Solicitors growing to over 50 staff, with further expansion strategies planned.

 

To underpin its ambitious goals, the practice has selected Eclipse Legal Systems as its core software provider, and is implementing the Proclaim Case Management system for all users, with Proclaim Accounts, to form a fully-integrated practice management solution.  Eclipse will be tailoring the delivered system to take into account specific claims procedures in Northern Ireland.

 

In addition, Jonathan McKeown Solicitors will be implementing Eclipse's FileView solution to enable clients to securely access and track live case data online.

Autonomy Corporation have introduced a flexible and cost-effective consolidated archiving solutions. Powered by meaning-based technology, Autonomy offers these solutions on-site, in the cloud or on an appliance, covering every size of organization, types of data and applications to meet the diverse needs of today’s legal market.

Traditionally, organizations require many hardware systems and IT staff in order to maintain their email archives. This approach creates ever-increasing IT overhead costs, as users generate massive amounts of content each day. With Autonomy, organizations now have the option of implementing an email archiving platform without the need for significant hardware, software, and IT personnel resources. Autonomy’s consolidated archiving and email management solutions allow customers to match their business requirements with the appropriate archiving solution, including email management, eDiscovery or information governance. For the first time, organizations can determine which approach is best for them, including on-site, in the cloud or as an appliance. Corporation can also establish appropriate user access policy, including secured self service, if required.

Autonomy’s next-generation email archiving and management solutions automatically ingest, de-duplicate, index and extract metadata from all data types, including audio, video, web sites and SharePoint files. Autonomy IDOL automatically understands how to manage each piece of content, thus eliminating the burden of acquiring, implementing and managing local compliance grade storage, including the time and cost associated with backups, administration, software upgrades and technical support. The Autonomy solutions consist of:

·         Arcpliance – An on-premise digital archiving appliance that leverages the next-generation archiving capabilities of Autonomy Digital Safe to provide a turn-key and cost-effective archiving appliance. The appliance is ideal for mid-sized businesses or organizations seeking a simplified yet scalable solution for specific tasks – such as archiving application, divisional, or location-specific data.

·         Digital Safe – A cloud-based archiving solution which manages the world’s largest cloud-based archive at over 13 petabytes and currently archives at a rate of three million data objects per hour.

·         DSmail – A turnkey email archiving solution with end user web access (without stubbing) and basic governance and legal hold functions. DSmail is ideal for any size organization that is looking to start their investment in governance with affordable, cloud-based email archiving.

·         DSplus– Designed for companies in regulated industries as well as those embarking on a proactive governance campaign, DSplus offers advanced, meaning-based functions for monitoring, proactive policy management, ingestion of additional types of content, and advanced tools for compliance.

·         DSprofessional – Consolidated archiving and governance platform that applies advanced, meaning-based tools for search, eDiscovery, legal hold, classification and desktop collections to 400+ repositories and 1000+ file types.

·         Enterprise Archiving Solution (EAS) – A highly scalable on-premise solution that captures and preserves electronically stored information (ESI) for litigation readiness, information governance, and storage optimization.

·         WorkSite’s Email Management - Built on Autonomy IDOL, the solution delivers the industry’s first “suggestive filing” capability, allowing the computer to anticipate where the user would want to file the emails and recommend the appropriate location to the users. This helps to alleviate filing burdens for users and saves them time and increases their productivity. The iManage Email Management solution allows accessibility from multiple file formats and file types, including Microsoft Outlook, IBM Lotus Notes, the Web, as well as mobile devices, such as the Apple iPhone.

Autonomy Corporation recently announced the availability of iManage ConflictsManager, an innovative solution that enables law firms to streamline the management of their conflicts of interest process. iManage ConflictsManager is powered by Autonomy’s Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), which identifies patterns in data and automatically acts on that knowledge to mitigate risk and accelerate the overall conflict screening process. Unlike legacy approaches, whose traditional keyword searches are limited to a finite number of data sources and laden with manual processes, Autonomy’s iManage ConflictsManager represents the first solution that automates time-consuming steps in the vetting procedure and thus minimizes the risk associated with this process.

Screening for conflicts of interest is a critical process for law firms while onboarding new clients, protecting the interests of existing clients while also complying with professional and ethical responsibility rules. The process has become an increasingly complex task for law firms given the rise of mergers and acquisitions, globalization and the increase in lateral hires within the legal industry.

Built based on IDOL’s unique ability to understand, analyze and act on the meaning of information in any file format and language, Autonomy’s iManage ConflictsManager enables global law firms conducting businesses around the world to understand the inter-relationships of their data when conducting new client vetting procedures. The solution also offers the following advanced capabilities:

 

• Fast, comprehensive and real-time search – uses IDOL’s core information processing engine
• Conceptual understanding  - applies Autonomy’s Meaning Based Computing approach to transform the conflicts detection process
• Flexible conflicts database to maintain historical party and client information
• Web-based reporting interface – improves quick elimination of false hits and online annotation and routing of potential conflicts
• Lateral Hire Module – faster processing of on-boarding attorneys’ conflict metadata
• Integration with iManage WorkSite to audit Engagement Letters and Waiver Letters
• Seamless integration with iManage WorkSite, iManage RecordsManager and iManage Workflow Manager– provides a comprehensive, end-to-end legal risk management solution

“Advances in information processing technologies, such as those in Autonomy’s IDOL, can transform the conflicts resolution process in law firms,” said Meg Block, managing director at Hildebrandt Baker Robbins. “The increasing complexity of ethical and business conflicts resolution and the ever-growing volume of source data requires information to be presented in context, with the most relevant content distinguished in an intuitive interface."

“Autonomy is committed to providing advanced technology to enable law firms to improve productivity, and protect and promote their business,” said Neil Araujo, CEO of Autonomy iManage. “Now with iManage ConflictsManager, our more than 1,500 law firm customers can further streamline their business process by quickly and accurately identifying whether there is any conflicts of interest in their new client vetting procedures.”

Eclipse Legal Systems, is unveiling a raft of enhancements to its Proclaim system at Legal IT 2010.

Eclipse is inviting delegates to experience the latest version (v3.2) of Proclaim, and visitors to Eclipse's stand (number 44) on the 10th and 11th February will be able to see:

iPhone integration: Eclipse is the very first legal software vendor to announce a strategy to build iPhone compatibility into its products.  Eclipse's staff will be on hand to demonstrate examples of live iPhone integration with the Proclaim Case Management solution!

MS Exchange integration: Close integration with MS Exchange and Outlook now allows for common address books and flexible processing of emails into the relevant Proclaim case(s).  Fee earner diaries are entirely integrated into Proclaim, with 2-way links enabling live updates to be made from Outlook or even a mobile device (e.g. iPhone).  In addition, Proclaim's inbuilt email functionality now allows the creation and distribution of branded graphical and HTML emails (the system previously used a plain-text format).

Proclaim Library: Proclaim’s new 'Library' enables selected documents to be stored in a central repository, organised in a configurable folder structure.   Documents are accessible globally, or can be restricted to particular groups or individuals.  Users are able to add documents from case histories, or from any location outside of Proclaim – these library documents are then indexed and made available as results in…

… Global Search: This new feature allows keyword searching across every document stored within Proclaim.  Searches can be global, restricted to specified worktypes, contained within the Library, or even in a location entirely outside of the Proclaim system.

Autonomy received a “Strong Positive” rating in Gartner’s recent report “MarketScope for E-Discovery Software Product Vendors.” Strong Positive is the highest possible rating in the Gartner MarketScope.

The MarketScope evaluated E-Discovery vendors based on their overall viability, customer experience, market understanding, sales execution / pricing, offering (product) strategy, product/service, and sales strategy.

“The world’s leading corporations and law firms continue to trust their most demanding E-Discovery and Information Governance requirements to Autonomy – the only company to cover all aspects of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM),” said Mike Sullivan, CEO of Autonomy ZANTAZ.  “Autonomy’s comprehensive platform for E-Discovery and Information Governance is a proven asset for reducing legal costs and arms our customers with a competitive advantage in obtaining favourable outcomes in all manner of cases, litigations, and investigations.”

Autonomy is the only vendor to provide an end-to-end platform across the entire information management lifecycle, including eDiscovery and Information Governance, and a seamless experience for its customers. The Autonomy platform provides corporate clients with the ability to view, analyze, and manage data in place while also enabling outside counsel to have secure, targeted access to their client’s data. Autonomy’s approach dramatically decreases the time and costs associated with managing litigation and investigations while also mitigating the risk involved with protracted manual processes and transfers of data.
Autonomy’s eDiscovery platform helps corporations become more agile and effective by creating tighter linkages with their outside counsel, streamlining the exchange of information. This enhanced connectivity, enabled by Autonomy’s unique “discover-in-place” capabilities, allows firms to gain a competitive edge while providing the client with greater transparency into risks and costs.

New Somerset firm Williamsons Solicitors has selected SOS Connect from Solicitors Own Software for its first practice, matter and case management system. Williamsons Solicitors' new website http://www.mrw-law.co.uk/ launches today.

The litigation firm which began operating in December 2009 is specialising in dispute resolution, personal injury and employment law. By taking advantage of technology, integrated case and practice management systems together with digital media, the goal is to provide high quality, streamlined and ‘crisp’ services to clients.

Founding principal Michael Williamson spun-out the new firm from The Stokes Partnership where, as managing partner, he headed up litigation for 11 years: “I welcome the opportunity to start with a blank sheet of paper and in particular to install and develop the technology that I believe will give us an edge in service delivery”, he said, “and the SOS software is a key part of that.“

SOS Connect delivers the flexibility, scripting tools and building blocks that Williamsons was looking for, which will enable lawyers to modify and create their own new workflows as required and without delay. As Williamson commented: “SOS Connect is to case management what content management systems are to web sites. In other words we can respond rapidly to dynamically changing business needs.”

Familiar with SOS from the old firm, Williamsons also took advice from IT colleagues and carried out its own research into available software suppliers, before opting for SOS Connect. Starting afresh with contemporary software is a major advantage in creating efficient processes and managing the business effectively.

Already live on accounts, client and matter management, Williamsons expect to commission the extensive additional features of the new software in the very near future.

David McNamara, managing director of SOS said: “SOS Connect is a powerful tool for helping any new law firm to manage its business effectively and to maximise performance right from the off. We’d like to wish Williamsons every success in their new venture.”

Personal Injury specialists, Irvings Solicitors, have chosen TFB plc to provide their new case and practice management system in place of Axxia. The system is scheduled to go live in April 2010 to coincide with their new financial year.

Irvings, who have been based in Liverpool for the past 30 years, had been using Axxia’s Artiion system, but following a system review upon the appointment of their new IT Manager, Scott O’Brien, identified the need for a system which would allow them to make greater use of case management and enhanced report automation. They reviewed an upgrade offer from Axxia to their new DNA system, as well as proposals from Eclipse, before selecting TFB’s Partner for Windows as their system of choice.

Scott and his team were immediately impressed with the breadth of Partner for Windows’ flexibility, allowing them to easily configure the system to fit within their existing IT infrastructure. This, coupled with Partner TaskCentre, a business process automation tool, will significantly increase the firm’s ability to extract and circulate management information to key individuals as well as increase the overall efficiency of the business.

Scott comments, ‘Moving to any new system can be unsettling, but with the depth of Partner for Windows’ functionality, the strength of TFB’s installed user base and their ‘can do’ attitude, we are confident we have chosen a system and supplier that will consistently deliver results and develop with the firm over time.’

Richard Higgs, Sales Director comments, ‘Irvings are a client who will always be keen to push the boundaries of Partner for Windows’ functionality which makes this an exciting and challenging project for TFB. We look forward to working with the team at Irvings for many years to come whilst helping them to fulfil their ambitious plans for the business.’

London - Lewis Silkin LLP, a leading full service corporate law firm, has selected IntraLinks, the leading provider of critical information exchange solutions, as its sole supplier of client extranet platforms. Through the use of IntraLinks’ solutions, Lewis Silkin LLP can provide a cutting edge service to its clients by allowing the secure exchange of business-critical information across enterprise boundaries.

“Our clients require the most secure solutions to facilitate the safe, compliant and auditable exchange of critical information.” said Jo Farmer, Partner in Lewis Silkin’s Media, Brands and Technology Department. “We therefore wanted a secure extranet in place to add value and create a space for all kinds of communication between Lewis Silkin and the client. We needed a partner with expertise and a proven track record in providing the highest levels of security and availability and IntraLinks came out top.  At the end of the day, our clients’ needs come before anything else, and IntraLinks shares that philosophy which was extremely important to me and the rest of the firm.”

“During the selection process I worked closely with the firm’s partners to define and select an appropriate solution. It was recognised early on that a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering would drastically reduce the total cost of ownership and provide much more functionality than an in-house solution could,” said Jan Durant, Director of IT, Lewis Silkin. “IntraLinks was the natural choice in that it provides a fully hosted and secure environment with 24/7 live support which ensures we continue to deliver the  outstanding service which our clients have come to expect from Lewis Silkin.  Also, the service capabilitiy in terms of functionality was far superior to anything else we could find in the market.”