Casey Flaherty, the well-known Director of Legal Project Management at Baker McKenzie, has left to join legal tech marketing consortium LexFusion as a co-founder, (i.e. a co-owner in the business), and as head of strategy.
He becomes the third co-founder, joining Joe Borstein and Paul Stroka at LexFusion, which represents a group of specially picked legal tech companies that includes the likes of CLM company Agiloft, complex work at scale provider, Factor, and the Litera conglomerate.
Flaherty has been busy building a legal project management group at Bakers, but it’s now ‘job done’ after creating a team there to serve the firm.
He told Artificial Lawyer: ‘The move feels good, it’s a return to the scene. Bakers has been rewarding, but I missed being in the mix.
‘I will be part of the core team at LexFusion and at the centre of the conversations with end customers. I will be listening and driving forward the conversation.’
He added that the end clients of the consortium, which are law firms and inhouse legal teams, really want to know what is happening in the legal tech market and what is possible, and in turn LexFusion is looking to build long-term relationships.
With Flaherty on board the trio will be able to do a lot more outreach – although, that said, they were already working flat out with Borstein and Stroka.
More broadly he noted that when he first heard of a consortium approach for selling legal tech, ‘I thought: this is a terrible idea….for anyone other than Joe and Paul!’.
He noted that the two other co-founders have a huge number of deep relationships across the market, many of which were developed while working at Pangea3, which went to Thomson Reuters and then to EY. This, he added, made their consortium sales strategy a very realistic approach – something that many others would not be able to do.
In terms of how they will make money, there is a commission award to LexFusion for clients won and there is a membership fee from the tech companies.
And, as to why he left Bakers?
‘My part at Bakers was done. My build was done, which was to make the biggest LPM group in the world,’ he explained.
A key factor here is that, as Artificial Lawyer put it to him, he is a ‘builder’. And that is the kind of person any young company needs.
He also has broad experience, having worked inhouse at Kia the car company, and also having created his own startup Procertas that helps with tech training. Plus, he was an associate at US law firm, Holland & Knight. All in all, a wide range of skills and experiences that no doubt will help him to connect with potential clients.
Last word goes to Borstein: ‘Casey is a friend and a fellow traveler in the world of legal innovation. We cannot contain our excitement that he has chosen to join our team. It’s a milestone when one of the brightest minds in your space not only believes in what you are doing, they agree to become part your story and join you in advancing the collective conversation.
‘Casey’s presence will make an immediate impact on the practices of our corporate and law firm clients, as well as the businesses of our member companies. He can offer an unparalleled insight and guidance to those in the legal field seeking solutions to address their current and future priorities.’
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The full list of the LexFusion companies so far:
- Factor – complex legal process at scale,
- Time by Ping – timekeeping,
- HaystackID – eDiscovery,
- Litera – legal workflow specialists and more,
- Priori Legal – lawyers on demand,
- Intelliteach – now Frontline Managed Services – outsourced IT services,
- Agiloft – CLM.
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