Growth Potential: Law Firm Earns $900,000 Selling Services Online to Clients

London-based Eversheds recently won the 2005 'Best Use of Technology' award from the European Managing Partners Forum. The annual practice-management competition is open to law, accounting, property management, management consulting and other professional services firms. Categories cover marketing, human resources programs, diversity efforts, financial management and more. I was honored to be a judge for the technology category.

Eversheds has 28 offices, most in Europe (none in the United States). The firm has 2,236 lawyers and a total staff of 3,874. Eversheds reports annual gross revenues of '302.8 million ($538 million) and profits per equity partner of '350,000 ($622,000). Its client roster includes banking giant HSBC; energy supplier Centrica; insurer Legal & General Group; utility providers National Grid and United Utilities, and manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

To serve clients and enhance business development, Eversheds created a triplet of online services.

Competition Law Online Toolkit

This service is designed to educate directors, managers and employees of clients about antitrust statutes and the severe penalties that can be triggered by failure to abide by those regulations. Violations of competition law, (as antitrust law is called in the UK) can carry draconian penalties, including prison for individuals, disqualification of directors for up to 15 years, and fines for the companies up to 10% of revenues ' plus damages. Corporate managers must be familiar with the Enterprise Act of 2002, which brought these significant changes, but many workforces are insufficiently trained.

To address these issues, Eversheds created the toolkit to provide fast, effective training to help clients comply with the statute. Eversheds has sold the system to a growing number of clients, including Volkswagen U.K.

The system includes case studies tailored to each client ' and the client controls the content, presentation and implementation of the course. For example, in some organizations, managers can take the course when they like and at their own pace, while support staff may be be more closely regulated. Administrators can track each participant's progress and make sure they have understood the material. There are no missed training sessions and no travel expenses, and Eversheds promises the process is fun and interactive.

@Work: HR Document Builder

From staff contracts, to health and safety handbooks, HR must create endless paperwork, and it all must be legally perfect. Traditionally, there were two options: spend hours manually doing the work, or pay lawyers to do it for you. One option is time consuming, the other expensive.

Eversheds created a better alternative: an online service where clients can create legally-compliant HR documents in a fraction of the time it normally takes, using an easy web questionnaire. After completing the poll, users simply click a button and a pre-approved document is automatically created.

The document builder is part of a new online program called '@work,' a suite of tailored training, knowledge and transactions tools.

It can be used to create service contracts, terms and conditions of employment, compromise agreements, staff handbooks, and policy documentation, says the firm.

'Basically, it's a self-service system where the client can empower its staff to take document creation into their own hands,' says Imogen Lee, Evershed's press relations manager.

Said The Times of London: 'Eversheds has set the pace for the next generation of employment lawyers. [This] service will surely be attractive to clients, being quicker, cheaper and often more reliable than drafting legal documents manually, or paying big fees to IT-averse law firms.' (July 19, 2005.)

Directors' Law of Europe

Corporations doing business in Europe must comply with a welter of languages and legal systems, with no common codification. To avoid civil and criminal penalties, multinationals must comply with laws and rules on corporate governance everywhere they operate.

Eversheds' online reference tool, 'Directors Law of Europe,' draws this disparate information together for general counsel. It provides up-to-date answers to common questions about corporate governance and directors' liabilities. The system answers questions about duties, disclosure, disqualification and disasters. There also is a glossary that translates key terms into 24 languages. The firm also offers its Eversheds Model Code of recommended good practice as part of this module.

In its entry to the contest, the firm wrote: 'These products aren't just gimmicks. They really work and clients are prepared to pay for them because of the benefits they bring.' Clients, says the firm, save money by reducing the need to consult many outside advisors, and save time, because there is no need to wait for responses from advisors or the need to repackage the answers from different sources. This not only improves efficiency, but helps them anticipate problems, says the firm.

And it's been good for Eversheds's bottom line too. The firm says the project has generated fees in excess of a half million pounds (about $900,000). In fact, reports the firm, some clients like the e-learning option so much that they have retained Eversheds just to get the training system!

London-based Eversheds recently won the 2005 'Best Use of Technology' award from the European Managing Partners Forum. The annual practice-management competition is open to law, accounting, property management, management consulting and other professional services firms. Categories cover marketing, human resources programs, diversity efforts, financial management and more. I was honored to be a judge for the technology category.

Eversheds has 28 offices, most in Europe (none in the United States). The firm has 2,236 lawyers and a total staff of 3,874. Eversheds reports annual gross revenues of '302.8 million ($538 million) and profits per equity partner of '350,000 ($622,000). Its client roster includes banking giant HSBC; energy supplier Centrica; insurer Legal & General Group; utility providers National Grid and United Utilities, and manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

To serve clients and enhance business development, Eversheds created a triplet of online services.

Competition Law Online Toolkit

This service is designed to educate directors, managers and employees of clients about antitrust statutes and the severe penalties that can be triggered by failure to abide by those regulations. Violations of competition law, (as antitrust law is called in the UK) can carry draconian penalties, including prison for individuals, disqualification of directors for up to 15 years, and fines for the companies up to 10% of revenues ' plus damages. Corporate managers must be familiar with the Enterprise Act of 2002, which brought these significant changes, but many workforces are insufficiently trained.

To address these issues, Eversheds created the toolkit to provide fast, effective training to help clients comply with the statute. Eversheds has sold the system to a growing number of clients, including Volkswagen U.K.

The system includes case studies tailored to each client ' and the client controls the content, presentation and implementation of the course. For example, in some organizations, managers can take the course when they like and at their own pace, while support staff may be be more closely regulated. Administrators can track each participant's progress and make sure they have understood the material. There are no missed training sessions and no travel expenses, and Eversheds promises the process is fun and interactive.

@Work: HR Document Builder

From staff contracts, to health and safety handbooks, HR must create endless paperwork, and it all must be legally perfect. Traditionally, there were two options: spend hours manually doing the work, or pay lawyers to do it for you. One option is time consuming, the other expensive.

Eversheds created a better alternative: an online service where clients can create legally-compliant HR documents in a fraction of the time it normally takes, using an easy web questionnaire. After completing the poll, users simply click a button and a pre-approved document is automatically created.

The document builder is part of a new online program called '@work,' a suite of tailored training, knowledge and transactions tools.

It can be used to create service contracts, terms and conditions of employment, compromise agreements, staff handbooks, and policy documentation, says the firm.

'Basically, it's a self-service system where the client can empower its staff to take document creation into their own hands,' says Imogen Lee, Evershed's press relations manager.

Said The Times of London: 'Eversheds has set the pace for the next generation of employment lawyers. [This] service will surely be attractive to clients, being quicker, cheaper and often more reliable than drafting legal documents manually, or paying big fees to IT-averse law firms.' (July 19, 2005.)

Directors' Law of Europe

Corporations doing business in Europe must comply with a welter of languages and legal systems, with no common codification. To avoid civil and criminal penalties, multinationals must comply with laws and rules on corporate governance everywhere they operate.

Eversheds' online reference tool, 'Directors Law of Europe,' draws this disparate information together for general counsel. It provides up-to-date answers to common questions about corporate governance and directors' liabilities. The system answers questions about duties, disclosure, disqualification and disasters. There also is a glossary that translates key terms into 24 languages. The firm also offers its Eversheds Model Code of recommended good practice as part of this module.

In its entry to the contest, the firm wrote: 'These products aren't just gimmicks. They really work and clients are prepared to pay for them because of the benefits they bring.' Clients, says the firm, save money by reducing the need to consult many outside advisors, and save time, because there is no need to wait for responses from advisors or the need to repackage the answers from different sources. This not only improves efficiency, but helps them anticipate problems, says the firm.

And it's been good for Eversheds's bottom line too. The firm says the project has generated fees in excess of a half million pounds (about $900,000). In fact, reports the firm, some clients like the e-learning option so much that they have retained Eversheds just to get the training system!