Legal Operations 10 Jan 2019 Ashurst Advance - Legal Excellence with Efficient Delivery

Ashurst Advance is our "NewLaw" legal operations division with a simple mission: to offer our clients "legal excellence with efficient delivery". You want to spend more effectively and achieve more for less, but you don't want to compromise on quality or service. We hear you, and Ashurst Advance provides our response to that need.

Big law firms do not have to be inefficient – the problem is a particular operating model which has grown up over decades, even centuries, and which will take time, effort and a collective will to change. We are proud to be part of a small but growing community acting as a driving force for that change, and with the urgency which clients expect. We aim to be innovative in doing so, but frankly you don't always (or even often) have to be innovative to offer clients what they want. We share the view of those who are moving away from the label of "alternative" legal services – this should not be alternative. This should be, and is, just how we do things.

Over the past few years we have been building significant capabilities within Ashurst Advance and now our clients want to know more about what we offer and how it benefits them. It's a market-leading offering and we have already acted for over 450 clients across our global network on 55 different worktypes. Over the coming weeks, we'll share insights into the three core areas of our platform: legal analyst resourcing, legal project management and legal technology. 

We'll also provide commentary on areas of interest in the legal operations world. It’s an exciting time for legal operations and our world is changing fast. A growing number of legal operations professionals have been established within in-house legal functions with roles focussed purely on improving legal service delivery – the "how" rather than "what". We look forward to meeting many of you at CLOC later this month and sharing thoughts on the future. The only certainty about 2019 is that it will be an eventful year – watch this space!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Ashurst Advance co-heads Chris Georgiou and Mike Polson.