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Case study – Genus Law shaping the future of modern law

Judit Petho [1]

Judit Petho, CEO, Genus Law

Giving clients what they want

Genus Law is a modern law firm on a mission to redefine legal services. Owned and managed by business entrepreneurs, not lawyers, the firm was set up to deliver legal services based on the needs of clients, not the needs of lawyers. The whole culture of Genus Law embraces the concept “if you look after clients then you will, by default, grow a good business”.

This different and modern approach is evident everywhere in Genus Law from their stylish headquarters in Leeds, the top class talent they are attracting and the technology they use to underpin everything they do. Under the leadership of CEO Judit Petho, and with a London office in the offing, the firm is bringing a new breed of exciting legal services to corporate and consumers across the UK.

The right platform to build from

Traditional ledger based software, focused on optimising billing, wasn’t how Genus Law wanted to design the firm. While billing was a necessary function it wouldn’t give them competitive advantage. Instead Genus Law was clear at the outset they wanted technology that could enrich the client experience and give the company accurate data to support every process, task and person in the business. In order to challenge traditional players they needed technology that would set them apart. Which is why they selected Peppermint [2]. They could see that Peppermint, like Genus Law, was breaking the mould and united in the mission to deliver a modern day legal service to consumers and business clients. They opted to underpin the Genus Law business with a modern Microsoft based legal platform that was scalable, future-proof, highly flexible and most importantly totally centred on the client experience. The firm also recognised that in today’s world, technology and business process are increasingly one of the same and therefore saw the huge advantage Peppermint offered to the firm by allowing them to tailor the software in line with the firm’s ambitious and unique strategy.

Director of IT and projects Andy Reilly said,

“The Peppermint Platform gives us the flexibility and freedom to rapidly design and deploy processes that best support our business without the constraints found in traditional legacy systems. The Peppermint Platform gives the firm immediate access to benefits and features we get as a result of the billions of dollars invested by Microsoft in the product. In addition, we benefit from the open nature of the Platform which delivers simple integration with other legal applications we want to employ such as Zylpha’s document bundling, along with products enhancing the strong CRM base to ensure easier marketing and tracking.”

Intelligent operations

The Peppermint Platform provides all the key applications a law firm requires on a single platform using, critically, one source of data. The benefits of this are realised in numerous areas within Genus Law. Paired with the powerful built-in business intelligence functionality, the Platform provides instant access to business critical data from across the entire firm. This includes the financial position and risk management as well as analysis and tracking of new business opportunities and enquiry sources which helps optimise business development effort and spend.

Cost certainty as standard

A cornerstone of the Genus Law approach is to provide clients with cost certainty as standard. This has thrown hourly billing out of the window. The Peppermint time recording is used solely for the continuous monitoring and refinement of costs and profit margins. This type of smart, iterative analysis available from the Peppermint Platform enables Genus Law to hone prices and lawyer skillsets to provide the best possible outcome for clients.

Packaged services are also key to the Genus Law offering, such as its insurance backed employment package – Sentinel, in-house legal counsel service and brand lawyer package. The powerful business process engine that underpins the Peppermint Platform gives Genus Law the tools to design and deliver these highly effective proactive corporate legal services at the right price.

In addition, operating from a northern headquarters means Genus Law can offer highly competitive rates to support the expansion plans for London and beyond.

Freedom for lawyers to perform

Genus Law’s mature and modern approach to people management makes a refreshing change from other law firms. The Cloud-based Peppermint Platform makes it possible for employees to work from anywhere and at any time. When new starters join they can simply register them on the Peppermint system and they are ready to go. Genus Law don’t have to employ armies of IT staff to manage infrastructure and they can be confident they have a fixed price for every user they add. This approach to IT not only offers Genus Law predictable costs, it also means the IT systems never obstruct their growth plans whilst providing a level of availability and disaster recovery often only enjoyed by larger firms.

The legal processes within the Platform have been designed so that individuals can work how they want. Whilst some more repetitive tasks and document production are automated for speed and accuracy, lawyers have the freedom to work cases to give the client, and the firm, the best outcome.

Eliminating micro management and the measurement of meaningless units of time, gives Genus’s lawyers full ownership to deliver the end result profitably, and creates a more engaged and productive workforce. As an additional positive, Genus finds this attitude is attracting the top class talent from other more established firms who are looking to break free from traditionally restrictive practises.

CEO Judit Petho commented,

“Our ambition is to add real value to our clients’ lives and businesses by providing a holistic approach to legal services with transparent cost certainty. To do this we need modern flexible technology systems that we can mould to how we work. The Peppermint Platform is ideally suited to support our approach and together we are changing the future of legal services.”