This is one of if not the first lateral legal tech partner hires, in a maturing of the law firm alternative legal services space. We speak to Lucy Shurwood about her new role at Simmons & Simmons.
International law firm Simmons & Simmons has announced today (4 September) that Pinsent Masons partner Lucy Shurwood will join the firm’s innovation practice as a partner in Wavelength, formally starting on 11 September 2023. Shurwood, who headed the Advanced Delivery Team at Pinsents, specialises in the development and delivery of legal technology solutions for clients in the financial services sector.
The heavyweight hire will support the expansion of Wavelength, Simmons’ legal engineering arm acquired in 2019, which sits within is Solutions business. Since its acquisition, Wavelength has been focusing largely on integrating the business. Other than a small presence in San Francisco is it is UK-based, but will focusing on building the business internationally going forward.
Shurwood will join Solutions partners Ben McGuire, Sarah James, Drew Winlaw and Peter Lee and a 75-strong Solutions team to drive the growth of the international practice group. Speaking to Legal IT Insider, she said: “I knew Drew and Pete pre-Simmons, when they set up Wavelength. They do legal engineering and look at both legal engineering and legal technology solutions for clients and have done a great job of bringing Wavelength into Solutions.
“They have a really strong culture with all these people who can deliver services in a very different way for clients. This is a great opportunity to bring together a really strong legal engineering practice with my legal technology capability and financial services focus.”
Shurwood was appointed as a partner by Pinsents in 2016 and she told us: “This is the first lateral move at partner level in this space and speaks to the recognition within law firms that this is a valuable area to invest in. A few years ago it wouldn’t have been possible for me to move. I built the business in Pinsents and it was difficult for other firms to understand how it worked and where to put it but now there are far more opportunities available.”
McGuire, a partner and managing director of Simmons Solutions, said: “Lucy brings to our practice both deep technical expertise and a strong understanding of how to apply technology to solving our clients complex problems. We are pleased to have secured an established partner with an exceptional track record. Lucy’s hire will allow us to respond to growing client demand and help to accelerate the expansion of Wavelength and Solutions.”
caroline@legaltechnology.com