Legal Tech Firms to Gain Access to Major Corporates in New Slaughters Programme
Slaughters and its clients such as GlaxoSmithKline, John Lewis and Vodafone will work with legal tech businesses on developing products.
February 27, 2019 at 07:39 AM
3 minute read
Slaughter and May has launched a fresh opportunity for small legal tech companies to test and develop fledgling products alongside some of the firm's major clients, including GlaxoSmithKline, Vodafone and John Lewis Partnership.
In April, the initiative, called Collaborate, will select six legal tech businesses that will be given access to the corporate in-house teams as well as partners and lawyers at the firm. The programme will run for three months.
Slaughters clients GlaxoSmithKline, John Lewis, Santander, Standard Chartered and Vodafone have all agreed to test and assess the small firms' products in development.
Slaughters said the selected companies will also have access to two "dedicated mentors" from the firm – one lawyer and one member of the knowledge team – and "dummy data" to develop their products.
Unlike Fast Forward, the firm's other tech initiative, the selected companies will not receive legal advice from the firm.
The programme has also set up what it calls an "industry expert panel" to provide additional advice to companies. The panel will feature: Dr Anna Donovan, vice-dean for innovation at UCL; Catherine Bamford, a legal engineer; and Andrew Burgess, an AI adviser.
Collaborate will be led by partners Anna Lyle-Smythe and Nilufer von Bismarck, and supported by innovation head Jane Stewart, knowledge head Alexandra Woods, and senior technology lawyer Natalie Donovan.
Stewart said in a statement: "What differentiates this programme and what we are most excited about is the level of involvement and partnership with our clients. We are offering legal tech pioneers access to our clients and an opportunity for clients to engage with leading legal tech entrepreneurs to shape, develop and finesse these technologies together."
Slaughters has set up a number of initiatives and investments in disruptive companies in the last three years – particularly in fintech and legaltech.
Early in 2017, Slaughters bought a 5 percent equity stake in U.K. AI company Luminance after trialing the platform in its London office, and went on to join the company's $10m seed round that year.
Earlier this month, Slaughters joined the second fundraising round for Luminance, which valued the company at $100 million.
The firm also launched its Fintech Fast Forward programme in 2016, which offers £30,000 of free legal services to selected startups. The programme opened up to non-fintech companies in its most recent third round of selections last month, and a total of 17 companies have so far been selected by Slaughters to receive funding.
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 AllGibson Dunn Sued by Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
Australian Corporations More Concerned About Class Actions Risk, HSF Report Finds
3 minute readSingapore Oil Tycoon Appeals 17.5 Year Prison Sentence In Fraudulent Trading Case
Charles Russell Speechlys Opens in Milan to Focus on Ultra-High Net Worth Clients
Trending Stories
- 1Commission Confirms Three of Newsom's Appellate Court Picks
- 2Judge Grants Special Counsel's Motion, Dismisses Criminal Case Against Trump Without Prejudice
- 3GEICO, Travelers to Pay NY $11.3M for Cybersecurity Breaches
- 4'Professional Misconduct': Maryland Supreme Court Disbars 86-Year-Old Attorney
- 5Capital Markets Partners Expect IPO Resurgence During Trump Administration
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