WE OFFER A SELECTION OF DEVELOPING PRACTICE TRENDS FROM LAST MONTH
Significant consolidation in the world of alternative legal services; and private equity buys up a firm’s fiduciary business
Consilio, a US enterprise legal services business, has bought both Lawyers on Demand from the private equity firm Bowmark, and SYKE. Lawyers on Demand was the first provider of freelance lawyers to law firms and in-house departments. It has more than 4,500 lawyers and others on its books and has supplied 27 members of the FTSE 100. SYKE is a legaltech consultancy which formed a partnership with Lawyers on Demand 2 years ago.
Consilio is itself owned by Stone Point Capital, a private equity firm. It has been expanding rapidly in the field of global enterprise legal services and is a market leader in legal consulting services, and the world’s largest eDiscovery provider.
Harneys, the offshore law firm, has sold its fiduciary business to Hillhouse, a $100bn Asia-based private equity firm. Harneys Fiduciary provides corporate administration, trust and fiduciary services in the BVI, Caymans, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere. The funds from the disposal will be invested through a Harneys Accelerator Fund into new technologies and to optimise the firm’s business operations.
AI developments in law firms continue apace; and UK firms are expanding their recruitment pathways for lawyers
The American Bar Association has set up a task force to look at the risks posed by AI as well as the benefits. It will focus in particular on generative AI and AI governance, and provide lawyers with practical guidance on using AI responsibly. In addition to ABA members, the task force will comprise special advisers from the US Department of Homeland Security.
AI initiatives continue to proliferate. In addition to the many firms licensing tools such as CoCounsel and Harvey to experiment and pilot, some firms have been building versions of ChatGPT within their own secure environments to use their own firm’s data. Reed Smith is building its own data model for a customised large language model; Travers Smith have created their own tool, YCNBot; the US firm, Gunderson Dettmer, has done the same with ChatGD, and other firms are also pursuing their own solutions. Various providers are supporting these initiatives.
Clyde & Co is the latest firm, after Dentons and Eversheds in the last 2 years, to launch a route to qualification as a solicitor for 25 of its UK paralegals. The firm will support them through a year-long development programme and then the required SQE qualification pathway.
