Lawyers on Demand

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Lawyers On Demand (LOD) is a global legal resourcing business created by law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and a merger with AdventBalance in Asia Pacific. It uses a non-traditional freelance model to provide services to organisations requiring legal support.

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LOD lawyers work on a project basis, as part of in-house legal teams or in private practice firms. One of the features making LOD different from providers of short-term or interim legal resources is that it is owned and controlled by BLP, an established law firm. It has been used as an example of the legal profession addressing a period of disruptive change by incubating a new business model.

On September 5, 2023, Consilio announced that it had completed the acquisition of LOD. [1]

Development

BLP LOD was created in 2007 by Simon Harper, a partner at BLP, and Jonathan Brenner, then the firm's Head of Recruitment. [2]

Early clients for the LOD service include Gucci, UBS and Vodafone. [3] Another reported client, Cisco, [4] is a strong supporter of innovation in legal services and an investor in another 'new generation' legal service, Legal OnRamp.

In June 2012 BLP spun-out the LOD business as a separate BLP group company, still retaining strong links with the firm. [5]


Endorsements

BLP LOD resulted in BLP winning the Client Service category at the Financial Times' Innovative Lawyers Awards 2008. [6] In 2009, BLP LOD won an award [7] for HR innovation from The Lawyer and was a finalist for awards for innovation from Law Society of England and Wales [8] and Legal Business.

In October 2011 BLP LOD won the global InnovAction Award for innovation in the legal sector. Professor Richard Susskind has commented that "Lawyers on Demand comes at a fascinating time in the current legal marketplace because it's a marketplace in a huge state of flux". [9]

LOD has sparked debate from a number of prominent legal commentators around the merits of combining new model of legal service with a traditional one: "At this point in the evolution of the legal marketplace, when corporate clients are simultaneously pressured to reduce cost but also to maintain a sense of quality control, effectively offering clients two firms - one traditional, one innovative - could prove to be a remarkably powerful competitive advantage." [10]

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References

  1. ↑ "Consilio Completes Acquisition of Lawyers On Demand and SYKE". Consilio. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
  2. ↑ "Pioneering Lawyers On Demand business secures high profile ex FT general counsel to plot growth". Legal Business. 2013-07-09. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  3. ↑ "About Us | The Hildebrandt Institute Blog" (PDF). Hildebrandt.com. Retrieved 2013-03-10.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. ↑ "Cisco to use BLP's Lawyers on Demand | News | The Lawyer". thelawyer.com. Retrieved 2015-03-07.
  5. ↑ "BLP votes to retain 80% stake in Lawyers on Demand spinoff". Legalweek. 2012-05-24. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  6. ↑ "FT.com / Special Reports / Innovative Lawyers". Rankings.ft.com. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  7. ↑ Archived August 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Archived October 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ "Berwin Leighton Paisner". Blplaw.com. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  10. ↑ "Law firms on demand - Law21". Law21.ca. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
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