Ashurst launches Ashurst Advance Reach

The move reinforces Ashurst’s commitment to being a leader and innovator in the legal services market, strengthening the firm's ability to service clients in the most effective and efficient way.

This unique global multi-partner collaboration transforms Ashurst's resourcing model and offers Ashurst clients a fully integrated service ranging from top end legal advice to high quality alternative managed legal services to integrated law firm led flexible resourcing.

The service builds on the vision of Ashurst Advance to be the leading NewLaw partner to the firm's clients, including through innovative partnerships with leading disruptors in the legal services market.

The collaboration with Elevate, which has first class credentials in the flexible resourcing space, is entirely new for Ashurst and will help the firm as it moves to develop a global flexible resourcing service.  The partnership with Cognia Law builds on the firm's existing and highly successful collaboration in the managed legal services space extending the relationship to include access to Cognia Law’s managed flex resourcing platform and top quality pool of legal practitioners in the UK and Europe.

The Ashurst Advance Reach platform will enable the firm to source contract lawyers who can be engaged to supplement Ashurst's practice areas as well as allowing clients to access technical expertise for secondments. The service will be offered initially in the UK and Australia and, over time, will be developed into a platform for the firm's global network of offices.

Ashurst Advance Reach will be led by Alexa Crawford as Senior Operations Manager and will form part of the alternative resourcing arm of Ashurst Advance, led by Iain Brown.

Iain Brown, Head of Alternative Resourcing in Ashurst Advance Delivery, commented:

"By giving our practice groups access to high quality lawyers on a flexible basis we can source required skills on demand and maintain a productive, lean business model without sacrificing our ability to respond to spikes in demand from our clients, at the same time as maintaining the wellbeing of our lawyers when workload increases.

We see collaborations between law firms and innovative legal service providers like Cognia Law and Elevate as strategically important in creating value for our clients across a broader spectrum of their legal needs and we believe such collaborations will increasingly define the future of the legal market."

Janet Taylor-Hall, CEO of Cognia Law, commented:

"We are thrilled to build on our existing relationship with Ashurst Advance by collaborating with them further. The ability to provide innovative, flexible approaches to staffing is a crucial component in supporting clients as they shape and build the workforce of the future. It has been a pleasure to leverage our next generation managed flex resourcing model to support the development of the Ashurst Advance Reach platform.”

Janvi Patel, VP of Elevated Lawyers, the flexible resourcing arm of Elevate, said:

"We are delighted to support Ashurst Advance in its commitment to continue to meet client demand in a flexible and cost-effective way. There is a growing demand for the flexible sourcing model worldwide, and we are very pleased to be able to provide Elevate's bespoke platform, experienced legal team and global reach for the benefit of Ashurst and its clients."