Boutique law firm Thirsk Winton accelerates growth strategy with iManage

Growing London law firm, Thirsk Winton, has ambitions to deliver more bespoke, specialized client services at scale. To achieve this, they migrated document management to iManage Work 10 in the Cloud, which is more agile, scalable, and cost-effective, and enables the team of 30 staff to be more productive from anywhere. To further enhance security and simplify compliance, the firm expanded its footprint with iManage Threat Manager for behavioral analytics and iManage Security Policy Manager to achieve need-to-know access to sensitive data.

The business challenge

Removing barriers that slow down innovation

Founded in 2009, Thirsk Winton is on a journey of growth and evolution. To achieve its ambitions of focusing on niche legal areas and adding more value to clients through bespoke, specialized services at scale, lawyers needed fast access to crucial documents from anywhere.

“Delivering excellent client service is all about providing legal advice with greater speed and greater efficiency than ever before, without compromising on security or accuracy,” said Jason Winton, Partner at Thirsk Winton. “Clients rely on us to understand and assimilate information quickly, and that means giving the right lawyers secure access to the latest and most relevant documents related to a matter.”

Thirsk Winton is a boutique law firm which gives it the agility to scale and act quickly. However, the firm does not have a dedicated IT team, which means finding the right partner to execute digital strategies is crucial. To give users a rich user experience and save costs, the firm began looking for a flexible, fully managed document management solution in the cloud.

The solution

A single source of truth accessible from anywhere

Thirsk Winton has been using iManage Work on premises since 2015. To support business growth without increasing hardware and storage costs, the firm decided to migrate to iManage Work 10 in the Cloud in 2019.

“iManage is the leading document management system on the market. It is trusted by the world’s biggest law firms and provides a secure, low-maintenance cloud solution that allows us to focus on better serving our clients,” said Winton.

The firm used iManage documentation to manage the cloud migration in-house. Thirsk Winton doesn’t have an IT team, so Winton leveraged his own skills to optimize iManage Work 10 with custom functionality to meet the unique requirements of the firm. One customization uses universal iManage APIs to automatically check for a Royal Mail delivery tracker when a lawyer saves a file with “envelope” in the name, for example, so they can easily check whether hard copies of documents have been received.

Following the implementation, Thirsk Winton no longer needs to spend time managing their platform, which has been a huge benefit. “Moving to cloud was a great decision for us. Costs are clear, and we don’t have to worry about managing updates. iManage just works and will scale in line with our business,” Winton said.

The move also proved timely to ensure business continuity when the pandemic hit. Staff could quickly pivot to remote working using their preferred device, which was crucial for user adoption.

“It can be hard to get used to a new way of working, but staff couldn’t believe how liberating it was to have all their documents available from anywhere. The interface is so intuitive — it’s second nature to start filing documents properly,” commented Winton.

Taking security to the next level

For an additional level of security, Thirsk Winton rolled out iManage Security Policy Manager to enable need-to-know security at scale, while giving partners a high-level overview of visibility across all workspaces. Policies can be applied on a client or matter basis, depending on requirements, to enable teams to collaborate on the relevant documents.

The firm automates categorization and secures sensitive content using the collections feature, saving a significant amount of time and helping to meet the needs of client and regulatory requirements. This is achieved via an integration that assigns metadata to matters as they are created.

Business outcomes

“With iManage, we can assure clients we take security and governance seriously. The only lawyers who can access client data are those who are authorized to work on it. If there was a security breach and someone was hacked, we could easily isolate that user’s profile and suspend access to keep documents safe,” said Winton.

iManage Threat Manager also provides 24/7 protection of sensitive data using adaptive behavioral modeling and machine learning to neutralize threats and prevent data loss. “We use activity reports in iManage Threat Manager to check new hires are storing documents and emails correctly so we can ensure company-wide compliance and monitor user adoption,” revealed Winton. “If someone has accessed and printed an unusual number of documents, for example, we get an alert so we can proactively look into why without spending time manually tracking every lawyer.”

Looking ahead

A future-ready cloud platform

By moving to iManage Work 10 in the Cloud, Thirsk Winton has empowered its lawyers to be more productive and efficient, which means the firm can take on more work and accelerate its growth goals. Feedback from the team has been positive, and user adoption is high, which ensures greater compliance and security across the organization.

“iManage gives us the flexibility to work from anywhere and to work in our own way,” said Solicitor, Daniel Barrett. “No two days are ever the same, but using iManage Work 10 means every day can be a success and we can proactively offer clients greater accuracy and expertise.”

For clients, this means better continuity of service and faster access to expertise, which is a vital aspect of the firm’s ambitions to specialize in niche areas of law and give clients more personalized legal services.

Work 10 in the Cloud is also more cost-effective than an on-premises solution and has accelerated the firm’s initiative to eliminate more paper processes in line with ESG goals.

The platform consumes fewer resources, reduces storage costs, and gives users a modern, feature-rich experience from any device and any location.

“iManage isn’t just for large enterprises. It’s an affordable platform that means we can collaborate better, simplify governance and compliance, and give the right people the right level of visibility to make sure we’re working in the best possible way,” concluded Winton. “Now we can provide top-level client service, and iManage enables us to make that happen.”