Kathryn DeBord and Chris Emerson of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner Bryan Cave Launches New Consultancy Division for In-House Teams
Named Cantilever, a new division of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner is a combination of two of the firm's old in-house brands and will provide consulting services for contract systems, technology, legal operations and litigation management along with document and decision-making automation applications.
November 13, 2018 at 04:10 PM
3 minute read
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has tapped two of the firm's innovation leaders, Chris Emerson and Kathryn DeBord, to head a new global legal operations consultancy division for corporate legal departments.
Dubbed Cantilever, the new division is a mash-up of Bryan Cave's BCXponent and Streamline divisions and also brings together other teams within the firm that focus on providing services to in-house clients, according to a news release.
DeBord and Emerson are co-founders of Cantilever and also serve as the firm's global chief innovation officer and chief of legal operations solutions, respectively. They are now co-leading a team of 20 engineers, data scientists and tech gurus who aim to help legal departments improve their operations.
“We have been doing legal operations work since before it was called legal operations,” DeBord, who is based in Denver, said in an interview. “The point of Cantilever is to help law departments function better, operationalize legal advice within their own departments, and also act as partners and be a strategic adviser back to the business.”
Cantilever has about a dozen clients at the moment, according to DeBord. The division boasts a proprietary software platform called CrossLite, which the firm describes as a “sophisticated data management and analytics tool.” Its members will offer consulting services for contract systems, technology, legal operations and litigation management along with document and decision-making automation solutions.
DeBord joined Bryan Cave as a partner in 2012 and was appointed chief innovation officer about three years later, according to her LinkedIn profile. She previously worked as an intelligence analyst for the CIA and was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis and a partner at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.
She'd served as co-leader of BCXponent alongside Emerson, who is in St. Louis and has been with Bryan Cave for more than two decades. He joined the firm in 1997 as a user support specialist and rose through the ranks to his current role.
Emerson said in a prepared statement that Cantilever stands out because of the wide range of skills that its team offers to in-house clients: “As well as consultancy and strategic advice, we can provide highly practical solutions and tools that solve the issues clients face.”
“We stitch together these solutions with the BCLP legal teams' expertise to provide something that clients tell us others aren't able to deliver,” he added.
|This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Digging Deep to Mitigate Risk in Lithium Mine Venture Wins GM Legal Department of the Year Award
5 minute read
Elaine Darr Brings Transformation and Value to DHL's Business
PepsiCo's Legal Team Champions Diversity, Wellness, and Mentorship to Shape a Thriving Corporate Culture
Trending Stories
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
