UK Top 100 law firm Shakespeare Martineau has deployed SaaS legal pricing platform Virtual Pricing Director (VPD), we can reveal, integrating it with their Aderant Expert practice management system.
VPD, which was conceived of and built over four years by UK cost consultancy Burcher Jennings and legal pricing experts Validatum, integrates with any of the major practice management systems including Elite 3E, Aderant and Fulcrum/SAP. Shakespeare Martineau has been working with Validatum since 2015 and was attracted by the combined professional development plus technology offering.
Alex Smith, a partner, and managing director of Shakespeare Martineau’s infrastructure & specialist markets business unit said: “VPD is a very impressive solution to a business-critical challenge with which all of us in the profession have been grappling for years. On our assessment, we concluded it was the best solution on the market.
“Aside from bringing increased commercial rigour to our operations, VPD will give us the ability to better address the needs and expectations of our clients, particularly around price transparency, budgetary certainty, and better cost communication throughout the life of a matter.”
He added: “Critical for us was the fact that Validatum are the leading legal pricing consultants internationally, with whom we have been working since 2015. We wanted the whole package of professional development alongside best-in-class technology. Tech on its own is of limited value, which often results in low user adoption and a poor return on investment. In contrast, all our lawyers have been champing at the bit to get their hands on VPD.”
This is the latest in a series of big wins for VPD. In April, we revealed that UK Top 100 law firm Hugh James has deployed the pricing solution, having taken part in VPD’s pricing masterclasses.
Richard Burcher, chairman and co-founder of VPD said: “Over the last 10 years, the importance of pricing sophistication has become increasingly apparent to most law firms, large and small. What firms around the world have told us for several years is that they want a holistic solution comprising people, process and technology that appeals to both front line lawyers and management power users, but is sufficiently flexible, adaptable, and scalable up or down to meet the needs of a very diverse legal market.
“As a former practicing lawyer of 30 years and a former managing partner I have been determined from the outset to give lawyers something that would make their lives easier and help them to be more commercial in their approach. A key feature of VPD is that it has been built by lawyers for lawyers.”
See also:
Legal IT Win: Top UK firm Hugh James adopts Virtual Pricing Director