Reed Smith employs over 3,200 lawyers, paralegals, consultants and other support staff at 22 locations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States.
It is hoped the deal will enable staff to locate and access relevant knowledge and expertise more efficiently. The company says that the improved efficiency at Reed Smith will hopefully result in better client services.
Reed Smith’s installation of MindServer Legal will include a number of the platform’s components. The firm will install Enterprise Search, which utilises concept-based search to enable staff to search for documents and other information contained in its document management system, contact database, and portal systems, plus various other applications and databases. Enterprise Search can also enable staff to search through external sources, such as The Practical Law Firm’s knowledge database.
The firm will also be using Matters and Expertise, which the company says will offer a firm-wide view of matters, deals and cases. Reed Smith will also be using Auto-File. This will enable the company to electronically file documents. Once a document is saved in Reed Smith’s document management system, Auto-File will use cues and context to match data to corresponding data fields. It is hoped this will reduce time lawyers spend on manually completing data fields.
Tom Baldwin, chief knowledge officer, Reed Smith, said: Our new knowledge management solution, built on the MindServer platform, brings the right content, in context, to the people who need it, allowing us to focus on what we do best: giving our clients the best service available. Additionally, using Recommind’s unique Matters and Expertise locator, Reed Smith’s lawyers and staff now have a system that automatically leverages our broad knowledge base of experience across the entire firm by allowing us to instantly find the most experienced lawyer for any type of situation imaginable. With the rapid pace of our firm’s growth, giving our lawyers across the globe an understanding of everyone’s experience was paramount in our decision to purchase the MindServer platform.
