EDITOR’S LETTER
So, summer seems to be rather cementing its reputation as the season for eye-catching legal business tie-ups that might just point to larger transformation of our community. Last year we had the EY Riverview Law combination excitedly interrupt our icecreams. This year ‘traditional’ legal got in there, with Simmons & Simmons snapping up ‘legal engineering’ outfit Wavelength.
Close watchers of our industry’s exquisite choreography will know that Wavelength had only just appointed the two new roles of head of legal innovation and design (Erika Concetta Pagano, from the University of Miami School of Law) and head of strategy and policy (Sophia Adams Bhatti, creator of the Law Society’s public policy commission on the use of algorithms in the justice system).
Summer seems to be rather cementing its reputation as the season for eye-catching legal business tie-ups that might just point to larger transformation of our community
Also, earlier this season, Eversheds Sutherland brought several existing areas of the business together into ‘alternative’ offering Konexo: a new managed service product line, which the press release pointedly says “is led by a team of tech professionals rather than lawyers”.
Not quite as hot on the heels of one another as strategic moves of this ilk, are those firms that have seen fit to take advantage of the government’s offer of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with a university or other research-focused organisation to fuel innovative thinking. Some time ago I felt it was high time we spoke to this particular group in detail about what they’ve gained from that experience and what others should expect if tempted to join them. Read all about that from p14.
Many will know that issues of Briefing are far too reflective of the whirlpool of business factors churning up this industry to have something as prosaic as a single, overarching management ‘theme’ these days. But I just so happened to notice that a little word used a lot in all the input into this month’s selection was ‘data’. What do we want? When do we want it? What should we do with it if we get it? Which of those things should we do first? When do we give up on it, even? It’s both the big opportunity for powerful change and the persistent problem preventing it.
This article can be found in Briefing’s September edition: Hot data
