Keno Kozie has a significant presence in the mid-law market segment. The combined firm will be one of the largest legal-technology consulting firms in the United States and will offer comprehensive strategy, operations, and technology consulting services to the legal industry including law firms, in-house legal departments, legal service providers, and law schools. The acquisition will take HBR’s total headcount to more than 700 professionals. Keno Kozie, a Chicago based technology firm, provides IT services including document management, litigation support, application development, and networking design to law firms. Watch out for our interview with Chris, coming up very soon on legaltechnology.HBR Consulting LLC (HBR), a leading advisory, managed services, and software solutions provider to the legal industry, has acquired Keno Kozie Associates, Ltd. Law departments have similar issues, and we are helping them to understand the tools available.” It shifts the burden from the firm and allows them to focus on the stuff that really has an impact. Petrini-Poli told us: “Our managed services offering gets the back office off our clients’ plate. This deal followed a three-year procurement deal with US white shoe elite firm Shearman & Sterling in 2013, under which staff also moved to HBR. Last year HBR announced that DLA Piper US had entered into a five-year managed services agreement, under which HBR took over some of its back-office functions and four DLA employees moved to HBR. While law firms rowed back on the move to outsource their procurement and IT functions after the turn of the century, there is once again an appetite to outsource their critical back office functions. We are getting pulled across by organisations that are looking for help on how to sort through all of these things.” Private equity and venture capital are investing multiple billions and law firms are investing their capital too. Law schools need to be thoughtful about how they are training their people and we’re looking at the whole ecosystem. He said: “We believe that technology is going to shape all legal practices: the flavour of that you can argue about, but whether the Am Law 100 will be impacted is not a debate, and that applies to corporate legal departments too. Petrini-Poli referenced the flight to technology across all parts of the legal sector, which HBR is being asked to advise and assist with. The plan is to grow the combined organisation by a fairly astonishing 100 consultants a year. It will be ‘Keno Kozie, part of the HBR family.’ Clients and partners know that we’ve been operating together and sharing resources and goals for a long time, and it’s important to keep the leadership in place.” We’re keeping the Keno Kozie name for the time being. Barry Keno and Jay Kozie will remain in very similar roles. In terms of the Keno Kozie executive, Petrini-Poli said: “We’re keeping the entire team. We have built our IT managed services offering leveraging their managed helpdesk, so this acquisition is a natural evolution.” HBR has been building its managed services client base over the past few years, including multi-year deals with international firms such as DLA Piper and Shearman & Sterling, although Keno Kozie is not involved in those deals. Speaking to Legal IT insider, HBR’s executive chairman, former CEO Chris Petrini-Poli, who has been leading the acquisition for HBR alongside incumbent CEO Nick Quil, said: “We’ve been working with Keno Kozie a long time and have alignment on client strategy. Keno Kozie, which is best known for its helpdesk outsourcing capability, will increase the scale and flexibility of HBR’s managed services –– including IT, procurement, and research and information (library) services. The acquisition is in response to the recent growth and anticipated further growth in the need for legal technology advice and support, plus the managed services that HBR and Keno Kozie have already been collaborating on. HBR Consulting has acquired Keno Kozie Associates, we can reveal, in a move that will form the largest technology consulting firm in the sector, with over 700 legal professionals.
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