Shearman & Sterling will look to bolster its ties with financial institutions by offering software programmes to help its banking clients better navigate regulatory and compliance issues.

The firm has already worked with UK-based technology company Casewise Financial Solutions to develop the Volcker Assistant programme, which helps US banks achieve compliance with the Volcker Rule by a July 2015 deadline.

A key pillar of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the Volcker Rule restricts US banks from making certain kinds of investments that do not benefit customers. The Volcker Assistant has already been used by a major global bank and several smaller financial institutions.

Building on the success of the first project, Shearman and Casewise will meet in New York on Monday (1 September) to discuss the development of a series of further legal risk management software products, which will be offered to clients alongside traditional advisory services.

The plans will see Shearman develop software for banks to achieve compliance with the UK and European equivalents of Volcker, namely Vickers and Liikanen, as well as the Basel III standard governing bank capital requirements and the European Union's Markets in Financial Instruments Directives (MiFID).

The firm believes similar programmes offered by large auditors or accountants do not provide sufficient legal support, and that many banks efforts' to create their own compliance tools could fall short.

"Law firms have to shift with this landscape," said Casewise founder Robert Marks, previously head of technology at Merril Lynch. "There's so much complexity coming through with the global regulatory environment, the only way for banks to meet it is with technology."

Shearman's push into technology is led by London-based financial regulatory group head Barnabas Reynolds and Washington DC-based financial institutions partner Donald Lamson, who worked on the draft legislation which later formed the Dodd-Frank Act before joining the firm.

Lamson declined to give an estimate on the revenue Shearman has generated from the product or the cost of setting up the software but called the move "a significant investment".

"We are offering these to our current clients," continued Lamson, who says the Volcker Assistant has led to an increase in traditional advisory mandates for his team.

"We're trying to create an industry standard product," he added. "We've shown these tools to regulators, and while they do not endorse us – in fact they cannot endorse us – they have shown interest and we were not shown the door.

"This type of offering is viewed as something of an irritant for our competitors, at the same time as prompting potential clients to look at us."