Harbor, the Chicago-based authorized expertise and consulting agency, continues its string of latest acquisitions with the addition of Encoretech, a specialised coaching and person adoption companies firm targeted on the authorized sector.
The deal marks Harbor’s first acquisition since receiving a majority funding from personal fairness agency BayPine in June and represents the corporate’s sixth acquisition since its formation in 2023.
The acquisition addresses what each corporations characterize as a important hole within the authorized trade: the persistence of outdated coaching methodologies in an period of quickly evolving expertise and synthetic intelligence.
Associated: digital-transformation-in-legal.html” rel=”bookmark”>LawNext: Harbor International CEO Matt Sunderman On Driving digital Transformation in Authorized.
Encoretech brings roughly 80 professionals throughout america and Europe who concentrate on serving to regulation companies and company authorized departments maximize their return on expertise investments by complete coaching packages.
Coaching as a Aggressive Benefit
“As each facet of authorized companies turns into extra tech-enabled, coaching and upskilling authorized professionals has change into mission-critical,” mentioned Matt Sunderman, CEO of Harbor. “Encoretech has a monitor file of excellence as a coaching companies firm that provides agile, versatile options for regulation companies and company authorized departments looking for to make sure their individuals take advantage of the methods and instruments accessible to them.”
The acquisition displays a broader recognition inside the authorized expertise sector that expertise adoption — not simply expertise acquisition — determines the success or failure of digital transformation initiatives.
Regardless of regulation companies’ substantial investments in follow administration methods, doc administration platforms, AI instruments and different applied sciences, many battle to attain significant adoption amongst attorneys and employees who proceed to depend on acquainted, if much less environment friendly, workflows.
Encoretech’s flagship providing, Coaching-as-a-Service (TaaS), offers a completely managed resolution that helps regulation companies redesign their expertise coaching packages from the bottom up. The service encompasses new-hire onboarding, steady studying by stay and on-demand coaching, customized content material improvement, and studying administration system integration.
Encoretech works with Am Regulation 200 companies in addition to company authorized departments.
Growing older Options for Fashionable Challenges
Jeffrey Roach, president of Encoretech, mentioned that there’s a elementary mismatch between conventional coaching approaches and present expertise realities.
“Expertise coaching packages within the authorized sector are sometimes nonetheless rooted within the methodologies developed 20 years in the past,” he mentioned. “With the ubiquity of expertise and the arrival of AI, it’s clear that the outdated manner of coaching customers is ineffective.”
The problem has intensified as authorized expertise has moved past fundamental doc manufacturing instruments to embody refined AI-powered analysis platforms, predictive analytics, automated workflows and cloud-based collaboration methods.
Many of those instruments require not simply technical proficiency but additionally judgment about when and find out how to apply them successfully — a talent set that conventional one-time coaching classes fail to develop.
Encoretech’s method emphasizes ongoing talent improvement quite than one-off coaching occasions. Its methodology combines instructor-led coaching, particular person teaching and a library of on-demand content material designed for fast consumption.
The mannequin displays analysis exhibiting that sustained, incremental studying produces higher retention and conduct change than intensive however rare coaching classes, the corporate says.
Constructing A Complete Platform
The Encoretech acquisition matches inside Harbor’s broader technique of assembling capabilities throughout what it calls the “Advise/Implement/Handle lifecycle.” The coaching companies will combine with Harbor’s Authorized Expertise + Operations follow, which handles cloud migrations, workflow automation and ongoing administration of enterprise functions.
Encoretech represents Harbor’s sixth acquisition because the firm’s formation by the 2023 merger of HBR Consulting, LAC Group and Wilson Allen. The corporate’s acquisition timeline demonstrates an aggressive development technique:
- October 2023: Acquired Stout’s authorized administration consulting follow, including e-discovery advisory and company authorized operations capabilities.
- February 2024: Acquired Pinnacle, a UK-based authorized expertise companies supplier, establishing important presence in Europe and Asia Pacific.
- March 2025: Acquired CLIENTSFirst Consulting, including advertising expertise and CRM information high quality companies.
- October 2024: Acquired Ascertus, a UK-based iManage implementation specialist.
- November 2025: Acquired Encoretech.
This acquisition sample means that, quite than focusing completely on software program choice and implementation, Harbor is assembling companies that deal with the total spectrum of technology-related challenges regulation companies face, from strategic planning by long-term adoption and optimization.
First Deal Since BayPine Funding
Harbor’s acquisition of Encoretech marks the primary deal accomplished since BayPine’s majority funding closed in June 2025. The transaction adopted three years of possession by Renovus Capital Companions, which stays a big investor alongside BayPine and Harbor’s administration staff.
“The authorized trade is present process a generational transformation pushed by the speedy improvement and availability of rising applied sciences and instruments,” Sunderman mentioned on the time of the BayPine funding.
“Making use of superior applied sciences and AI to enterprise operations and authorized workflows is game-changing, however the scope and scale of the transformation required to capitalize on the potential alternatives is important.”
On the time of that funding, Sunderman mentioned that the corporate deliberate to “develop its funding within the company authorized market globally and advance new capabilities by acquisition or inside improvement.”
The Encoretech acquisition seems to exhibit that technique in motion, including capabilities that Harbor recognized as strategic priorities quite than trying to construct them itself.
Encoretech Integration
The Encoretech staff will be a part of Harbor’s Authorized Expertise + Operations follow, which now encompasses greater than 900 professionals globally serving over 80 percnet of world 200 regulation companies and 500 company authorized departments.
The mixing positions Harbor to supply purchasers a extra full package deal: strategic expertise planning, implementation companies, and now complete coaching and adoption help.
“Harbor has a powerful fame inside the authorized trade for its experience in authorized expertise, operations and innovation,” mentioned Stacy Gittleman, CEO of Encoretech. “I’m thrilled to see our staff begin a brand new chapter as a part of Harbor.”
For Roach, the Encoretech president who will proceed in a management position at Harbor, the mixture permits the corporate to develop its affect.
“Our staff has made nice strides in serving to the authorized sector rethink its method to expertise adoption,” he mentioned. “Becoming a member of Harbor permits us to scale that work and attain extra organizations able to modernize the best way their individuals study and work.”
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