Supporting the world’s largest law firm merger makes for interesting and varied work. Daniel Pollick, global chief information officer at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, says he loves it. “It is not yet a full financial merger. However, from a purely IT perspective we have been treating it as though it is,” he says. “The really big challenges have been in bringing together two very autonomous and deeply thoughtful IT functions – and aligning them so that they think the same way.”
Pollick is halfway through a three-year, three-phase plan. Phase one was connection: how to go about gluing things together. Phase two is alignment: aligning the US and European practices’ strategy and processes in key areas. “This involves some big technology decisions,” he says. “For example, we have standardised an Interwoven WorkSite for document management, which was a big thing because the US was a majority [Hummingbird] user. We are also deciding on a single practice management system (PMS).” Pollick would not be drawn on the choice of supplier, because at the time of writing the decision had not been made.
