Best global use of IT:
Clifford Chance
In July 1999 it was announced that Clifford Chance, the UK’s biggest law firm, would merge with US-based Rogers & Wells. That was a major project, but shortly after the initial announcement, both firms announced the inclusion of Puender Volhard Weber & Axster, one of Germany’s largest law firms, thus creating the world’s largest law firm. The new firm consisted of 3,262 lawyers, and 6,500 employees based in 26 offices worldwide.
The logistics of bringing together three large IT systems to provide a robust infrastructure capable of supporting the number of users involved represented a huge task in itself, particularly as there were big differences in the infrastructure systems of the firms involved. Due to the project’s timing, the integration task was further complicated by Y2K issues.
Apart from technical issues, people-based concerns also represented a major hurdle for the integration team, which had to ensure that it was still business as usual
for their fee earners. This project has still to be completed, although the list of ticks in the completed box on the project managers’ planning chart is getting longer.
Best overall use of legal IT:
Blake Dawson
Waldron
When judging the best overall use of legal IT, there are a number of objective measurements that can be used. These include return on IT investment; ratios of users to support staff; and the extent of IT usage by fee earners. But to
get a true overall picture, the judges considered further subjective criteria based on the extent to which the use of legal IT had changed the culture and working practices of a firm. They also looked for a firm that showed every indication of continuing to evolve and progress in line with technology developments.
With these objectives in mind, the award went to Blake Dawson Waldron (BDW), one of Australia’s leading international law firms, with more than 180 partners and 1,600 staff based in a number of offices around the Pacific Rim.
The Legal Technology Group (LTG) is a practice group with staff in all BDW offices. The group’s members are lawyers, project managers, computer professionals and paralegals.
One exercise carried out by the group was to work in isolation in a different office, where the firm looked at disruptive technologies that could seriously affect the delivery of legal services. One of the group’s aims is to “…create innovative software products that deliver BDW’s legal expertise to clients in new ways”. According to the firm, the LTG was created to enable BDW to “provide superior client service through the effective and creative use of technology”.
