(Better) Matter Management Migrates to Australia

We've been taking a little look at the shifting market in Matter Management in Australia while in town, and it appears that FWBS's MatterCentre solution has gained more and more attention in the past three months with new clients such as Slater & Gordon, McCabe Terrill and Moray & Agnew jumping on to the new arrival.

While the other legacy vendors such as such as Caseflow and Visualfiles appear to be asleep on a beach somewhere, FWBS seem to be becoming the system of choice for firms looking to move away from older case management and document assembly systems.

The most powerful message to date which would indicate their chances of future market domination in APAC (apart from the amazing Silverlight based navigation and the very cool iPad/iPhone integration within the product) is the fact that FWBS have planted resources directly in the region to sell and support.

We're predicting big things in APAC for enhanced matter management, and we expect that some of the older and less flexible case management vendors will start to hurt as they leave the region in the hands of resellers who have either fallen asleep counting their recurring maintenance revenues, are powerless to dictate the direction of the actual product, and/or who very rarely understand the market they are actually selling to.

Linklaters Purchases Autonomy

News here from Autonomy of their recent legal win with global giant Linklaters. The firm will be using the powerful search tool across their Knowledge repositories using the new user-orientated enterprise search platform powered by IDOL. Great win for the Autonomy gang, and validation that search is indeed still relevant and on the radar for Knowledge systems.

HighQ Solutions Moving & Shaking

News from HighQ HQ that they are on the move. The team have moved closer to our new favourite roof top venue (Mint Hotel's Sky Lounge) to Great Tower Street. All indications of even more exciting news and technology leadership from the group after an excellent Sunday brunch with Director Stuart Barr at Dishoom. If you have not already, make sure you follow their movements on Twitter @highqsolutions.

Phoenix Business Solutions & DTE Event

Phoenix Business Solutions will be holding a DTE event on June 1st in London at The Savoy. Full details of the event here. This is well worth attending, particularly based on their recent win with Olswang (see here). The team also had a very successful private round table in Sydney recently with some of the Janders Dean friends and family large law CFOs. Expect more soon.

UK Law Firms - Knowledge Management & IT Recruitment

An interesting two months of change in the UK law firm support department leadership areas - particularly in Knowledge Management and Information Technology.

Innovator Sam Diamond of Clifford Chance fame will be leaving to join Norton Rose as the Global Knowledge Management Director, and will also have a new peer as the firm also announces a new global CIO. Sheila Doyle joins in the role, and has previously held IT roles at BP, IBM and, most recently, Royal Mail, which she left last year to work on a freelance basis. Full details here.

In other moves, Chris White of Ashurst fame has emerged as the new interim CIO at Kennedys, with former Kennedys CIO Ian Lawreys moving to Barlow Lyde & Gilbert. Tim Hyman (previously IT Director at Taylor Wessing) has moved to Reed Smith to become IT Director EMEA of the global firm, while upcoming appointments in the Knowledge Management field should also be expected from firms Stephenson Harwood and Osbourne Clark.

Janders Dean congratulates all the movers and shakers on their exciting new challenges.

More UK Firms Chase Great Australian Dream

After a whirl wind two years of arrivals, mergers, and scouting trips, yet another major UK firm is seeking a presence in Australia. After the arrival (via various methods) of Allen & Overy, Norton Rose, DLA Piper, and Clifford Chance, news has leeked this morning in London from The Lawyer regarding Herbert Smith's plans to arrive in the land of uranium, coal and beer coolers. Full story here.

Autonomy Buys Iron Mountain

Autonomy have announced details of their approach to purchase part of the digital division of Iron Mountain.

"We are pleased to announce this transaction, one we have been looking at for some time, which will bring significant advancements for customers," commented Dr. Mike Lynch, Group CEO of Autonomy. "Processing customer data in the cloud continues to be a strategic part of Autonomy's information governance business. We look forward to extending regulatory compliance, legal discovery and analytics to a host of new customers as well as enabling the intelligent collection and processing of non-regulatory data from distributed servers, PCs and especially tens of millions of mobile devices. This will afford the opportunity to bring to these customers the power of IDOL's meaning-based technology."

Excellent summary of the purchase details here at The Orange Rag here.

...so they did merge with Mallesons afterall...(sort of)

Clifford Chance target Cochrane Lishman Carson Luscombe appears to be a 2006 spin off from Mallesons Stephen Jaques (Ian Cochrane and Michael Lishman).

Legal Leaders profile of the two founding partners appears here from Lawyers Weekly in December 2010.

...and true to Australian form, there is even a beer connection. Cochrane wears another corporate hat - as the chairman of Little World Beverages Limited, which brews Janders Dean's most beloved Little Creatures beer in Fremantle.

Australia - Who Gets Left Behind?

A detailed article about the newest kid on the block in Australia (as of only a few hours ago) - Clifford Chance. The firm joins Allen & Overy, Norton Rose, DLA and Bakers as the latest global giant to arrive, with the first three in that list arriving formally (and almost on the same flight) less than six months ago.

This is not a gradual arrival - this is clearly an invasion. So who will get left behind? Will the industry look to the likes of other UK leaders such as Freshfields and Herbert Smith and consider them the slow movers for not joining the vegemite varsity?

Perhaps the US mid-sized firms will be seen as the group that lost out the most by leaving their run too late?

Or will history actually look less favourably on the domestic firms in Australia that have not yet benefited from an international marriage, saying they were too slow to move, too slow to change, or indeed just too slow to react to the increasing threat? If so, the next logical question is "why so slow"?

Most domestic market dominance and evolution analysis (particularly that which focuses on comparatively small domestic markets and their relationships with larger global threats - irrespective of industry or offering) points to the long term winners of market share being the global brands and the mid to small sized domestic brands and boutiques, with the hardest hurt in the long term being the previously strongest domestic leaders (most often mistakenly seen as irreplaceable and immovable brands).

Many business leaders and academics have studied such trends, with multiple authors hypothesising on the causes - leadership, change resistance, and blindness brought on by ignorance and apathy can't be discounted.

To all those "she'll be right mate" types who may look to stick their heads in the sand and continue to say that this won't change the face of legal service provision in Australia or the competitive landscape that has existed for over 20 years, we remind you that although Rome wasn't built in a day, it fell faster than a tropical Queensland cyclone.

Clifford Chance Arrive in Australia

As predicted last week - Clifford Chance announced today that they will open in Australia. Full press release from the firm here.

Far from the expected take over of a domestic giant, the firm has decided to today announced mergers with Australia's two leading boutique law firms, Chang, Pistilli & Simmons (CP&S) in Sydney and Cochrane Lishman Carson Luscombe (CLCL) in Perth. The firm says that "the mergers are among the first steps in the delivery of an ambitious growth strategy for Asia, with plans to double regional revenues for the Firm through investment in new offices, talent and practices".

This gives the firm an immediate 14 partner presence - much like A&O's initial presence (which now has them with more - filling four floors of office space after their initial start up needed just the one floor).

Watch for selected marquee partners from leading firms leaving to join up one at time.

2020 - How Many Large Australian Firms Will Survive?

Nice article from Lawyers Weekly on the challenges facing the large Australian firms published this week (see here). Even more fuel on the fire comes from ALB Magazine with their analysis of the "Hottest Australian Firms to Watch in 2011" (here). Two of the top three in the "watch list" being Allen & Overy and...wait for it...Clifford Chance. We predict that a repeat of Allen & Overy's successful entrance model (the wholesale partner raid) will be seen soon in 2011. Change is inevitable in a market where "we'll be alright mate" won't cut it for too much longer - watch this space for the inevitable rise of the "Global Panel" approach from in-house legal.

Janders Dean "Food for Thought" Breakfast Briefing - February 17th 2011

Janders Dean will be hosting the first in a series of exclusive "Food for Thought" breakfast briefings next Thursday (17th February 2011) in Sydney, Australia. Hosted in partnership with BTP Australia and Lawyers Weekly Magazine, this briefing will focus on the evolving area of legal process enhancement.

An expert panel of Michael Boot (CEO of Gilbert+Tobin), Gerard Neiditsch (CIO of Mallesons) and Janet Young (COO of Freehills) will be providing their thoughts to over 40 invited law firm leaders.

Stand by for the next in the exclusive "Food for Thought" series from Janders Dean in May 2011, and our leading Knowledge Management Conference in September 2011.

FWBS Live Webinar Event

FWBS (one of the UK's leading suppliers of Case Management and Matter Management solutions to the legal sector) will be hosting a live webinar next Tuesday (15th February) at 10:30am GMT. The event is aimed at providing an introduction to FWBS MatterCentre and will demonstrate how the company's software solutions overcome critical law firm management issues.

Full details on the event here. Further details on FWBS and MatterCentre are worth looking at here.

Phoenix Business Solutions - Office 2010 Deployment Seminar (Law Firms)

London based law firm friends of Janders Dean should take a look at the following event hosted by the gang over at Phoenix Business Solutions. The event will be held on 17th February at the The Tower Hotel, St. Katherine’s Way, London from 3:30pm to 6pm.

Full details of the event here.

Sparke Helmore iManage Project News

An excellent summary article from IDM Magazine on the leading Autonomy iManage implementation project at Janders Dean client firm Sparke Helmore (a project which has a unique and award winning approach to Knowledge Management specific features of the Autonomy suite). Full article here.

New Chairman for CPA Global

After the recent announcement from outsource provider Integreon regarding their appointment of Richard Susskind to their advisory board, CPA Global have announced today that David Harrel (previously senior partner of London firm SJ Berwin) will succeed Geoffrey Grime as chairman. Full press release here.

Friday Cocktail Leadership

Good morning or evening (or both) and Happy February to all.

A special hello to Autonomy's Mr. Hornsby who today is on a course all about safe driving (see you in March). Also a shout out to congratulate Mr. Black of IBM, to wish Jeff and Nat luck in the coming last few weeks of silence before the new baby, to wish Jabba a good trip, and to say Happy New Year to our friends at King & Wood.

Life is spinning fast here at Janders Dean HQ as 2011 gets into full swing. We've been busy working with a number of existing and new clients in both the UK and Australia, and also partnering up with a number of our old friends on some cracking engagements including the guru himself Mr Craig of Baker Robbins and Navigant fame (stand by for news from Tribeca), and the immaculate Mr Mehdi of Ashurst and Clifford Chance fame.

Our time with David of course has led not only to a great new entry into the team at an Australian government regulator's office, but also to him decoding the New York City Starbucks code to replicate the Australian "flat white". For those Australians visiting the US and missing the joys of a good flat white, ensure you ask for a DSNFL (double shot no foam latte) in an "unadvertised" short cup in order to get your fix.

For those who could not make it to New York for Legal Tech, or for those who drowned in the social media flood of tweets, blogs and status updates, there is a solid summary of product and vendor specific news items from the show by Sean Doherty of Law.com here. All in all an adequate show this year, with no real major "market moving" announcements, and once again being dominated by eDiscovery.

Analysis of the show from Inside Legal suggests that 53% of all sessions and tracks contained an eDiscovery related topic and 73% of all educational sessions were sponsored by eDiscovery or litigation support vendors. Moreover, in 2010 there were 96 LegalTech vendors with an eDiscovery/litigation support solution slant compared to 103 vendors in 2011 (representing 43% of all exhibitors).

Many of you would have seen our story here on Allen & Overy. More news is coming in regarding the move to transfer their support staff to Belfast. The Belfast Telegraph has revealed that Invest NI backed the firm with investment incentives of £2.5 million. See more here.

For some scary reading this weekend, we recommend this article regarding emails found within JP Morgan which all up highlights the power of e-discovery and the need for corporate litigation readiness strategies.

For some light weekend reading, we recommend this article from Harvard Business Review on the "Hire for Attitude/Train for Skill" approach - reminds us of a conversation in London held during a long summer's evening in 2010 in the garden of Janders Dean HQ with current Queensland Minter Ellison CEO, past Mallesons alumni, and all round hero to Janders Dean, Mr Andrew Todd. The "hire for intelligence and attitude, train for skills and experience" is a mantra that we see too often ignored or forgotten even by the most senior of managers during the recruitment phase. Thanks to Mallesons' Michelle Mahoney for bringing this one to our attention during our morning TweetDeck review.

A few bits to get you through the weekend. Check out Battle at Kruger on YouTube (thanks to Dean and the team at BLG for this one). Annoying Fruit (thanks to the Innocent team as always). The new Becasse begins.

We'll see you in London next week and Sydney the week after. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the first of the 2011 Janders Dean "Food for Thought" Breakfast Briefings on the 17th of this month in Sydney (with special thanks to BTP Australia and Lawyers Weekly), and also at the cocktail evening that same week (with special thanks to Michael Boot for pulling it together). Also looking forward to catching up with old friends and new across Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne on this latest roadshow.

Enjoy the weekend team.

Janders Dean.

Integreon Appoints Richard Susskind to Advisory Board

Legal outsource leaders Integreon have announced that Professor Richard Susskind will chair a new client advisory board. Full story courtesy of Legal Week here.

Janders Dean "Food for Thought" Breakfast Briefing - Sydney 17th February 2011

Following on from the successful senior management events in 2010, the first of the 2011 Janders Dean "Food for Thought" Breakfast Briefings will be held in Sydney on 17th February in association with BTP Australia and Lawyers Weekly magazine.

Hosted at the award winning Becasse Restaurant in Sydney, this panel session will bring together thought leaders from some of the countries leading law firms to discuss the challenges connected to managing a professional service environment.

Particular attention will be placed on improving operational efficiency and firm profitability by recognising and leveraging opportunities to enhance business processes, while also focusing on extracting the most from existing information assets, and leveraging newly emerging technologies.

Invited attendees will be given the opportunity to hear exclusively from our panel including Michael Boot (CEO of Gilbert+Tobin), Gerard Neiditsch (CIO of Mallesons) and Janet Young (COO of Freehills) who will be discussing previous project successes, future efficiency focused initiatives, and trends across an industry known traditionally for being slow to change support models or innovate.

The event will be facilitated jointly by Janders Dean Director Justin North and BTP Australia's Managing Director Ian Dunn. We are pleased to announce that the event is now fully subscribed with over 40 senior management from across the country's law firms attending.

Please contact info@jandersdean.com if you are interested in future events in the 2011 Janders Dean "Food for Thought" Breakfast Briefing series.

CMS Cameron McKenna - Support Staff Outsourcing

The CMS Cameron McKenna news from late 2010 regarding the firm's massive support staff outsourcing deal to Integreon continues to be the most popular story for reader comments on both The Lawyer and Legal Week sites.

It is estimated that 9% of staff will face redundancy, with a further 21% facing relocation requests (to either Bristol or India). In total, the move impacts 363 support staff from the firm (half of which are located in the firm's current London headquarters).

As reported by The Lawyer magazine on 25th January, Duncan Weston (Managing Partner) outlined some of the reasons behind the move in a recent note to all staff “The changing legal landscape requires constant innovation in the way we do business. This new approach to our business services will give us the ability to focus on our clients and provide a more sophisticated service.

“It creates greater flexibility to scale support services based on demand, and gives us access to a more advanced technology with the benefits of future investment by Integreon towards building a unified business model. It’ll also allow us the option to integrate our approach to business services across our international businesses.”

With numerous emotive comments being posted by readers on the above mentioned article, at the very least it indicates that the CMS Cameron McKenna support staff are reading the legal industry press.

Stripping the emotive comments aside, as one reader states "They're doing this to cut costs aren't they and if that means cutting some of the flab out of the headcount so be it. This is a business after all".

As per our recent item on Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith moving elements of their support functions out of London and across to Belfast, how long before firms in other high cost regions in the US and Australia look to do the same?

Allen & Overy - Support Function Savings (Belfast Move)

In addition to the firm announcing a multi-million pound deal with Savvis (where the management of the European and UK networks and data has been outsourced) aimed at saving in excess of 10% on the firm's IT costs (see story here), further details were publicly provided overnight on magic circle firm Allen & Overy's move to shift professional support personnel from the firm's London headquarters to a central hub in Belfast.

An initial setup up of 180 staff will move across, with as many as 250 support personnel (and the possibility also of 50 fee earning personnel) being based in the Irish city by 2014.

The Allen & Overy Belfast hub will see teams from the Human Resources, Information Technology, Finance/Accounts, Business Services and Library departments all located in a single site aimed at generating a cost saving to the partnership of up to £10 million over the initial five years.

If this approach of Allen & Overy follows the offshoring "regional hub" approach that was led by global giant Baker & McKenzie a number of years ago, Allen & Overy's Belfast hub will look to provide support to both the UK and EU located offices of the firm in the future.

The differences here between the Allen & Overy approach and other recent press items around legal support outsourcing and/or offshoring, is that the firm's partnership specifically refer to the fact that this move is "onshoring" (e.g. the hub site is within the UK), and that the Belfast office is an Allen & Overy office - a clear indication that the provision of a quality support service is the leading driver - rather than an overly aggressive cost reduction position being the driver.

Allen & Overy are not alone in reaching across to Belfast - Herbert Smith also announced a similar deal at the height of the PIGS financial concerns late last year, and are currently in implementation mode. What is unique about the Herbert Smith move is that their Belfast move is being led by the dispute resolution/litigation support practice. Will we see this as an area where low cost "staff attorneys" undertake low cost first level reviews?

We expect to see Asia based equivalent hubs grow in popularity over the coming 3-5 years to complete the "follow the sun" 24/7 support jigsaw for truly global firms, which may well see the support functions in areas such as Australia lose out to cheaper cost bases (particularly given the unattractive high rate of the Australian dollar) in other regions such as Singapore, Manila (where Baker & McKenzie already have one of their global hubs), and even New Zealand.

DLA Phillips Fox Formally Merge With DLA Piper (Announcement Expected From World Economic Forum Davos)

Happy New Year from Janders Dean.

The first major merger announcement for 2011 has been reported (some say earlier than the firm would have liked) by Mark Kleinman of Sky News noting that Australian firm DLA Phillips Fox will formally merge with its global partner firm DLA. The new global entity will be known as DLA Piper, and will now be positioned as the biggest business law firm in the world.

A formal announcement is expected from Sir Nigel Knowles today from the World Economic Forum in Davos. Today's news follows the 2010 trend where we witnessed the arrival of both Allen & Overy and Norton Rose in Australia. So who will be next?

Full posting here.