DLA's Riverview adopt new Peppermint Technology platform

One of the likely consequences of the changes being brought about by the Legal Services Act is a renewed focus on technology to enable legal services to be delivered in a more efficient, flexible, cost-effective and client-friendly manner than has been the case in the past.  To some extent the pace of change is being forced by the entry into the market of businesses from other disciplines, which are bringing with them a new mindset and a new business rigour focused on efficiency and scaleability.

A very small number of firms, such as Epoq, have already made some strides in changing the way that technology can be used in law firms, but relative to other spheres of business there have been surprisingly few innovators in the field to date, perhaps because lawyers have tended not to be early adopters of new technology and therefore not historically a particularly fertile market.  However, there seem to be some early signs that this is changing, and this week has seen the launch of a new entrant into the market which has ambitious plans to shake things up.

Peppermint Technology has developed a new generation of legal technology built for law firms, alternative business structures and in-house legal teams.  The platform is being used by Riverview Law, the new venture backed by DLA Piper and it is understood that at least 2 other law firms will be going live this year, with others under development.

The platform claims to be different from traditional practice management and case management systems, in that it brings together applications, content, collaboration tools and transactions on a single unified platform.  The system is centred around a client relationship rather than a particular transaction, and enables all data relating to a client (communications, documents, activity records, financial transactions etc) to be linked to the client.  Peppermint has further plans to launch the Peppermint App Shop, which will brings together in one platform a wide range of complementary partner products and services designed and built for legal service providers.

Peppermint Technology CEO Arlene Adams has said: “The platform recognises that successful legal providers of the future will be able to turn data and applications into meaningful, relevant and personalised content for clients, anytime, anywhere. To do this, a company must have an end-to-end system in place that can track and connect every data point and activity to a client. That’s what the platform is all about.”

It is good to see that one of the consequences of the current shake-up in the legal market is an increased focus on using technology in a way to improve client delivery - something which has been sorely needed for some time now.