Boost for Kennedys as large team joins from TressCox
A team of nine lawyers including three partners has joined the growing Melbourne office of Kennedys from national firm TressCox.
The hires include a team of healthcare specialists led by partners John Petts and Cindy Tucker, which includes special counsels Anjali Woodford, Elaine Fabris and Abby Neylon, lawyers Rose Hopkins and Rod Felmingham and four support staff.
Also joining Kennedys’ Melbourne office, which opened in August 2017, are employment partner Chris Molnar and senior associate Phoebe Blank.
“Our ambition when we opened in Melbourne was to grow to service the breadth of insurance and related industry sectors that align with our capabilities in Sydney and around the world,” commented Matt Andrews, Kennedys Australia’s managing partner.
Banking duo strengthens Ashurst in Asia
Banking and finance partners Eric Tan and Daniel Lau are joining Ashurst in Hong Kong to serve the firm’s clients in Greater China.
Tan has more than 15 years’ experience with firms including
Linklaters and Fangda Partners. Lau joins from Allen & Overy in Beijing.
“Greater China continues to be a key region in terms of driving growth. Ashurst has an exceptional profile and a strong relationship with major banks and financial institutions in the region,” commented Ashurst’s Hong Kong managing partner Joshua Cole. “Eric and Daniel will enhance our ability to offer exceptional client service in the region."
Analytics adds value to law firms says survey
Using analytics within a law firm adds value according to 90% of respondents to a new survey.
Almost a third of those polled by ALM and
LexisNexis Legal & Professional said the use of analytics was ‘invaluable’ while most firms plan to increase its use.
“We’ve seen tremendous growth in the use of analytics among law firms and corporate legal departments since it was introduced four years ago, but now it has become an indispensable, ‘must-have’ technology for a growing number of attorneys and firms,” said Josh Becker, CEO of Lex Machina.
Every one of the respondents said that using analytics helped demonstrate their expertise or competitive advantage to clients; while 98% said it is valuable for determining legal strategies for particular courts or judges (98%), predicting likely outcomes of legal strategies or arguments (96%), and performing case assessments (94%).
The main benefits of using analytics according to those who said it was valuable are cost saving (92%), pricing projects (90%), winning cases (88%) and attracting new client business (82%).
Of those firms not using analytics, a third said it was because partners don’t believe it is valuable, 27% said no one in the firm is trained in its use, and 22% cited cost.
