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31 October 2019 / Dan Reed
Issue: 7862 / Categories: Features , Profession , Legal services , Technology
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Beyond outsourcing

Dan Reed reports on the brave new world of enterprise legal services
  • Law firm spend and its impact.
  • Realising the potential for law firm transformation.
  • Steps to take for a win-win outcome.

Corporate legal spend has increased significantly in recent years as litigation and other risk has shot up the boardroom agenda. And control of that spend is a constant conversation topic between GCs and their C-Suite bosses, with knock-on impacts for the firms that advise them. Much has been written about the rise of innovative outsourcing and managed legal services arrangements, and of course the advent of legal super-tech, all focused on delivering more value in the legal supply for less money. It’s a brave new world of law being done differently, and with the right imagination the possibilities seem endless. But the opportunities are so much bigger than lawyers currently envisage. Done the right way and pushed to its full potential, the terms ‘outsourcing’ and ‘managed legal services’ don’t even cover it. Indeed, these descriptors become entirely inadequate.

Ambition

Lawyers

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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