In a recent reversal of the Big Four accounting firms snatching up ALSP talent, EY Law's former managing director and global innovation and technology leader Ed Sohn has joined law company Factor as its new head of solutions.

For nearly 13 months, Sohn created and advanced EY Law's tech implementation agenda and consulted with clients regarding their legal transformation projects. Sohn also previously managed Thomson Reuters' Pangea3, and when EY acquired the service in June 2019, he shifted over to EY Law.

Sohn said he enjoyed working at EY but was looking for speed and focus that is difficult to find in the Big Four, which can be bogged down by massive offerings that includes, but doesn't  exclusively focus on, legal services.

"I think EY … and the Big Four at large will make huge investments and big moves, but I wanted a team that was very focused, with little distraction, on being the best and starting from that foundation of being a disruptor and being able to accomplish complex legal solutions at scale," Sohn said.

He added that he joined Factor because he believes the organization can be a great disruptor in the legal space. "They have assembled a very special leadership team at the right time in the right space," he said.

Sohn is the latest addition to Factor's growing leadership team, noted CEO Varun Mehta in the press release announcing Sohn's hiring. Mehta himself joined Factor in January after the company rebranded from Axiom Managed Solutions to Factor. Previously, Mehta was a co-founder and executive vice president of compliance analytics and managed services firm Clutch Group before it was combined with Morae Legal in 2017. Mehta later served as market growth and strategy president of the combined company.

Along with Mehta's hiring, Factor named John Dillon, former divisional CFO of global consulting firm Mercer, as CFO. Factor also tapped former Accenture client service innovation and operational excellence senior vice president and Axiom Managed Solutions COO Roxann Erxleben as COO. 

At Factor, Sohn is tasked with upgrading Factor's existing client service offerings, which include contract review and contract negotiation for corporate legal departments, and understanding what third-party legal tech can solve clients' needs.

Sohn also noted he's responsible for developing Factor's new solutions that will include a focus on handling legal departments' contract challenges.

However, don't expect Factor to venture into new practice areas. Sohn said that he's focused on enhancing Factor's contract abilities, adding that providing support for a specific function allows flexibility that the Big Four is simply too large to provide. 

"This gigantic engagement with the world's biggest companies may work for some, that's the [Big Four's] strategy, but Factor is the best at complex legal work at scale. That's a huge difference in trying to be the absolute best, and focusing [only] on legal work it allows us to be energetic and flexible."

However, the Big Four's expertise beyond legal services hasn't hampered its ability to hire leading figures from alternative legal service providers (ALSPs). Deloitte has attracted talent from ALSP's executive ranks, including Luminance Technologies CEO Emily Foges, Elevate's former managing director of U.S. contracts consulting Lewis Christian and others.

While the Big Four is expanding its legal service provider abilities, Sohn said Factor is steadfast in focusing and enhancing its complex contract abilities for corporate clients. Sohn echoed his new boss Mehta, who in January told Legaltech News specialization will replace the notion of a "one-stop shop."