Addleshaw Goddard triumphed at the Legal Week Innovation Awards 2018 as it took home more accolades than any other firm or legal service provider, not only for the prestigious 'Future of Legal Services Innovation' award, but also a highly commended nomination for the 'Client Management Innovation' category, as well as seeing the 'Rising Star' in Innovation award go to its Head of Innovation and Legal Technology.

Addleshaw Goddard's Intelligent Delivery (AG ID) offering saw off tough competition from the likes of Macfarlanes, Herbert Smith Freehills and Clyde & Co to receive the 'Future of Legal Services Innovation' Award (large private practice).  AG ID combines elements of Flexible Resourcing, Process Improvement, Technology and Strategic Consulting to respond to client demand for an innovative and collaborative approach to work, and was described by one client as "light-years ahead of the competition." 

As Head of Innovation and Legal Technology at Addleshaw Goddard, Kerry Westland received the sought after 'Rising Star Innovation' individual award for her role in shaping the firm's technology offering. 

In addition, the work in helping the Sainsbury's in-house legal team develop its use of technology received 'Highly Commended' in the 'Client Management Innovation' category. The firm worked collaboratively with international firm CMS to create a legal portal based on HighQ. The portal will help the Sainsbury's team to drive greater efficiencies in managing the relationships with its external panel lawyers, offering various capabilities, including training, matter tracking and document storage.

Katherine Kinch, Head of Commercial and Property Law, Group Legal Services, Sainsbury's, commenting on the win, said: "Attempting innovation in a world of constant change, competing opportunities and cost-restraint required the best advice available.  I am delighted that CMS and AG have worked hard to understand our business and requirements in supporting us.  Bringing their working knowledge and real expertise of legal tech enables Sainsbury’s to innovate in a way that is absolutely right for us.  The benefits of efficiency and data are well known but the real success in this collaboration is that Sainsbury’s will be able to move at pace, adopting technology that works for Sainsbury’s having regard to our established ways of working/legacy systems."  

Axel Koelsch, AG's Chief Operating Officer, said:  "Winning the 'Future of Legal Services Innovation' award for how we do business using technology is a great achievement, having launched AGID only 8 months ago. Our commitment to creating innovative technological solutions for our clients using the tools within AG ID is clearly producing results. Collaboration is also a key proponent for success - not only with clients but other providers, as evidenced by the 'Highly Commended' nomination for the work we did with Sainsbury's and CMS in the 'Client Management Innovation' category.  

In addition, seeing Kerry take home the 'Rising Star Innovation' award is a well-deserved accolade – she truly understands the business outcomes our clients are trying to achieve and can rapidly deploy a quality team with tested technology tools to deliver commercial impact." 

See our website for more information on our AGID offering. 

For more information on the awards see the Legal week website.