The motto of legislation apply administration firm Clio is to “remodel the authorized expertise for all.” However for a lot of of its 17 years in enterprise, that “all” has targeted totally on smaller legislation corporations and their shoppers. Final yr, Clio expanded that “all” to include mid-sized firms, and, within the wake of its tech-funding-record-with-900m-raise-at-3b-valuation-lawnext-has-exclusive-podcast-interview-with-founder-jack-newton.html”>record-setting $900 million elevate final July, it additional accelerated its progress in that sector of the market.
Now, it’s taking that “all” all the best way to the highest of the market and planting its flag in Large Legislation land by buying ShareDo, a U.Ok. firm that gives cloud-based enterprise case and matter administration software program for giant legislation corporations. Based in 2011, ShareDo’s clients embrace among the largest legislation corporations within the U.Ok. and a rising variety of corporations in the US, Canada and Australia.
In response to ShareDo’s web site, legislation corporations it counts as clients embrace DLA Piper, DWF, Herbert Smith Freehills, Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slater + Gordon, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, and a number of other others. It has over 40 giant legislation clients in whole, serving some 13,000 authorized professionals, in response to Clio.
“Clio is doubling down on its mission to rework the authorized expertise for all, with a give attention to delivering superior, versatile, and safe expertise for giant legislation corporations now, and sooner or later,” it stated in a press launch.
Jack Newton, Clio’s founder and CEO, stated: “We’ve spent years increasing upmarket, reworking how legislation corporations function throughout nations, apply areas, and sizes. However that is about greater than segments; we’re driving a basic shift in how the whole authorized trade operates. The big legislation agency market is getting ready to a serious shift, and this acquisition cements our position in main that change.”
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All of ShareDo’s roughly 70 workers will stay with the corporate. Benjamin Nicholson, its founder and CEO, will take the place of common supervisor, ShareDo. As well as, Clio stated it intends so as to add a major variety of folks to the ShareDo workforce over the approaching yr.
Clio declined to reveal the phrases of the deal.
A Very Completely different Acquisition
In a submit I wrote final yr analyzing the landscape of law practice management software for smaller corporations, I described Clio because the 800-pound gorilla in that house. But, for all its progress and funding, it has been comparatively conservative in its acquisitions, making solely three previous to at the moment: its 2018 acquisition of CRM platform Lexicata, which grew to become the inspiration of its Clio Develop product; its 2021 acquisition of court calendaring company CalendarRules, which is now constructed into Clio Handle; and its 2021 acquisition of document automation company Lawyaw, which was rebranded earlier this year as Clio Draft.
However this acquisition of ShareDo seems to be of a much-different nature in two notable methods. For one, whereas these different acquisitions all focused the identical small-firm market that Clio was already in, ShareDo serves what’s just about a wholly new marketplace for Clio. (Don’t quote me on this, however my recollection is that some particular apply teams inside giant corporations have been Clio clients.)
For one more, whereas these different acquisitions all concerned merchandise with the potential to be built-in into Clio’s present apply administration software program, ShareDo seems to not be a candidate for any such integration and fairly is best left as a freestanding product.
A Distinct Product
In a briefing forward of at the moment’s announcement, Ronnie Gurion, Clio’s chief working officer, confirmed that ShareDo would stay a definite product.
“I believe that’s correct,” he stated, explaining that enterprise legislation corporations favor to purchase best-of-breed level options over the sorts of all-in-one options that smaller and mid-sized corporations favor.
“As you go to the Am Legislation [firms] and the actually giant finish of the spectrum, it’s a really totally different proposition,” he stated. “It’s both apply space particular or it’s better of breed.”
Gurion stated that ShareDo excels at integrating with most of the different platforms utilized by enterprise legislation corporations, equivalent to NetDocuments, iManage, Aderant and Elite.
“They work alongside with and assist amplify the general tech stack for these legislation corporations. In order that’s why we received comfy with it being totally different than up to now the place it was extra built-in into the Clio ecosystem.”
On the identical time, Gurion stated, Clio believes there are alternatives to take a few of its present capabilities — equivalent to its funds expertise and its Clio Duo AI expertise — and weave them into ShareDo to additional speed up ShareDo’s capabilities.
Market Alternatives
I requested Gurion why Clio considers it vital to broaden into the massive legislation agency market.
“Our mission is to rework the authorized expertise for all and I believe we’ve performed an incredible job of working in direction of that mission,” he stated. “It’s laborious to try this with out servicing all varieties of legislation corporations, particularly the biggest, most scaled legislation corporations. So it is vitally a lot consistent with our mission.”
There’s additionally a robust enterprise case, he famous. Whereas the massive legislation sector represents a smaller total portion of seats in comparison with small legislation, it instructions a disproportionately excessive quantity of income and spend.
“From a enterprise alternative and growth alternative perspective, we see that as an space that may actually assist additional Clio’s long-term enterprise and monetary goals as properly.”
Past the enterprise case, Gurion believes the large-firm market is underserved by present merchandise.
“There’s been a dearth of true cloud fashionable options which might be constructed with an incredible UI and nice buyer expertise and nice flexibility for the enterprise market,” he stated. “We expect ShareDo is without doubt one of the few corporations we’ve come throughout that does that.
“There’s a chance to essentially serve that market and people clients in a good way, as we’re seeing within the U.Ok., and with our capabilities carry that to the world’s largest authorized market and others extra quickly.”
Provided that Clio is an organization that helped blaze the path for small legislation corporations to maneuver to the cloud, Gurion acknowledged that the large-firm market has been slower to make that transition.
Whereas that could be partly attributable to easy resistance, Gurion believes it’s extra as a result of nobody has provided them the proper mixture of expertise and help. As proof of that, he stated that, although Clio’s core platform just isn’t constructed for that market, it however receives a whole lot of inbound curiosity and leads from that section.
“I believe that speaks to the curiosity and what persons are in search of,” he stated. “They’re keen … and I believe they’ll transfer to the cloud in giant diploma as the proper options manifest themselves, which is what we expect this [acquisition] may help us speed up.”
Implications for Present Clients
I requested Gurion if this deal has any trickle-down profit for Clio’s present clients. He stated that simply as there are capabilities in Clio’s platform that would improve ShareDo’s platform, the reverse can also be true.
As well as, the acquisition supplies an avenue for corporations as they develop bigger to maneuver from one platform to the opposite. “We have now properly over 1,000 mid-market corporations on our platform and a whole lot of them are very quick growers.”
One other side of the deal is the brand new partnership alternatives it opens for Clio. Clio is already know for its broad community of integration companions. Whereas ShareDo already has integration partnerships with most of the identical corporations, it additionally has partnerships with corporations that aren’t presently a part of Clio’s ecosystem.
“We’ll be seeking to leverage these and likewise create extra ones as properly, so I believe it’ll create some actually good downstream income and companies alternatives for plenty of main authorized companies corporations,” Gurion stated.
ShareDo CEO Nicholson, in a press release supplied by the corporate, stated that the acquisition “is a robust validation of our enterprise and the numerous alternatives for market and product growth forward.
“I’m immensely pleased with what we now have completed at ShareDo as a workforce and couldn’t be extra excited to accomplice with such a customer-obsessed firm like Clio. With the backing of such a dynamic international firm, we’re prepared to start this subsequent chapter within the UK and past.”
