Breaking News – It’s happened – EY has bought Thomson Reuters’ Legal Managed Services…!
The EY announcement is below if you’d like to read the comments and overview. But, first what does it all mean?
For Artificial Lawyer this seemed to be on the cards for some time. Sources told AL long before Christmas that Thomson Reuters had decided to spin off the LPO arm it had bought and grown, and which has been using eBrevia as an AI review system for volume work.
The problem with the LPO was that it did ‘legal work’. TR is a tech provider and KM provider to lawyers. Basically it looked a little bit like competition to the same people it was selling other service/product lines to.
For EY, well, you don’t need a degree in rocket science to see what’s in it for them. After bagging RiverView and saying they wanted to massively scale up their process capability then it’s clear where TR’s LMS fits in.
In some ways the interesting bit will be which legal AI system they choose to use now, eBrevia or Luminance, which they’re also working with.
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Is this a big deal……..er…..yep! Huge deal. People were going loopy over RiverView….for this they will be eating their top hats.
With this much added firepower – plus the clients that the LMS already has EY can do a lot more than before. Plus, when plugged into EY’s massive client base, who knows what they can do.
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But, as noted below, it’s not completed yet, that will happen in Q2, i.e. some time between April and June 2019…so in fact, very soon.
Exciting times….!
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Official statement below:
EY and Thomson Reuters today announce an agreement for the acquisition of the Thomson Reuters Pangea3 Legal Managed Services (LMS) business by various firms in the EY network. Following the recent acquisition of Riverview Law, EY Law practices are broadening further their depth and capacity to serve corporate legal departments around the world. The acquisition will bolster the ability for EY Law practices to help clients transform their practices and deliver meaningful value to their businesses.
Pangea3 is an award-winning leader in legal managed services, with more than 1,000 legal professionals across eight service delivery locations on three continents. By leveraging legal, technical and business-process talent in quality, cost-effective centers, Pangea3 helps clients mitigate legal risks, reduce burdensome costs and provide continuity and scale to budget-strapped legal teams.
The acquisition will greatly enhance EY technology-enabled legal managed services in the three core areas of contract lifecycle management, regulatory risk and compliance, and investigations and litigation. In addition, EY Law practices, comprising more than 2,400 lawyers in 84 countries, will continue to rapidly grow their Legal Advisory services.
Mark Weinberger, EY Global Chairman and CEO, says:
“This new enhanced offering will make EY one of the leading professional services organizations for global legal advisory services and legal operations services, including legal function advisory, managed services and technology. The acquisition is an example of how EY is working to provide clients with holistic solutions, which are enabled by technology.”
Kate Barton, EY Global Vice Chair – Tax, says:
“The EY Law practices will connect the practice of law with the business of law globally. Legal departments recognize that the future lies in aligning more closely with broader business transformation and we are uniquely positioned to offer a globally consistent, leading approach across the enterprise.”
Pangea3 was the original pioneer in the alternative legal services space and has grown significantly within Thomson Reuters. Clients will continue to receive the same level of quality they have come to expect under Thomson Reuters and will also have access to a broader set of services.
Brian Peccarelli, Chief Operating Officer, Customer Markets, Thomson Reuters, says:
“As we sharpen our focus on our core strengths – bringing new technology and workflow solutions together with our leading legal research, content and software solutions to our customer base – we believe the LMS business will be even better positioned to define the next evolution of alternative legal services with EY.”
Eric Laughlin, Managing Director, Legal Managed Services, Thomson Reuters, says:
“Clients acknowledge that they need to modernize their legal operations; with Pangea3 and EY together, legal departments will benefit from broadened legal services offerings that bring the legal domain knowledge and scale to help guide and implement their transformation agenda.”
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019, subject to the satisfaction of various closing conditions.
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