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Allen & Overy
Overview
Allen & Overy LLP (“Allen & Overy”) is a premier international law firm with over 4,800 staff, including some 440 partners, working in 25 major centres worldwide.
Challenge
As a prominent international law firm, Allen & Overy is subject to professional rules, as well as regulations and laws which apply, and must be taken into account, when making decisions as to whether new matters can be advised on. These rules must be taken into account in all the jurisdictions in which it operates.
Like many other law firms, Allen & Overy has many critical processes in place that are significant elements of managing the firm’s overall business. One such process is the business acceptance process, known within the firm as ‘matter inception’ - one of its most critical, challenging, and time consuming activities. Matter inception involves reviewing and processing new clients and new matters as well as checking for possible conflicts of interest each time a potential client or an existing client with a new matter asks the firm for representation.
Allen & Overy had a manual system in place for its matter inception process that was conducted using a number of paper-based forms which were passed through a variety of departments. The firm was fine with the way its existing system was running but recognized that by automating this critical process they could create a more streamlined and efficient work environment – which would ultimately accelerate its business acceptance process.
Allen & Overy initiated an effort to deploy an automated system to streamline the matter inception process using Business Process Management (BPM) technology.
Solution
Allen & Overy selected Metastorm BPM™ to automate its matter inception process firm-wide. The firm began with a pilot system and today its production system is at an advanced stage and is integrated into the firm’s Thomson Elite system.
The system was built entirely in-house by internal developers, and was designed to allow all client and new matter information to be entered by lawyers into online matter request forms in a standardized manner. The forms and the information entered into them are securely protected within the system and the standardized format allows information to be submitted, analyzed and transferred to secure databases and then stored in an effective manner, with the ability to retrieve information when required for future business acceptance analysis.
Results
The automation of its matter inception process using Metastorm BPM has enabled Allen & Overy to efficiently manage their processes in an auditable environment for enhanced productivity and collaboration across the firm.
The firm now has a highly automated means to manage activities associated with matter inception and is realizing improved efficiency, productivity and quality control by enabling anyone involved in the process to have complete visibility of its progress. Overall, the firm has met its goal of accelerating its business acceptance process by ensuring that information relating to new matters is sent instantaneously to the appropriate department for approval and processing.
Allen & Overy is also looking to extend its use of Metastorm by implementing additional processes including the procedure for maintaining up-to-date matter records and the for closing matters.
Simon Fuge, Assistant Partnership Secretary and Head of the Business Acceptance team at Allen & Overy said, “Since we launched the pilot system in the autumn of 2002, we have seen our BPM business acceptance system develop and become used by offices across the globe. We view the current system as a starting point in our use of Business Process Management technology and look forward to developing that system further and other systems to increase the efficiencies and quality of our internal processes.”
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