NetDocuments and Hoffbrand Consulting support a new way of working at Humphreys Law.

Humphreys Law is a boutique technology and media law firm, formed in 2017 to offer a specialist alternative to elite City firms. Companies of all sizes and investors of every kind come to them on high-stakes transactions and complex projects. Research and analysis specialists PitchBook ranked Humphreys Law amongst the top-20 European legal advisors for 2018, putting the newcomers firmly amongst distinguished company.

“I think even the legal sector is over worried about the cloud. Firms know things can be better. Clients do want to understand how you do things though – so having software with the highest ranking standards helps with that.”

Henry Humphreys, Managing Partner, Humphreys Law

Controlling Documents and emails

In just two years Humphreys Law has seen tremendous growth, swelling to a team of 18 and becoming known as a forward-thinking and dynamic law firm with a technology ethos to match.

From the outset, managing partner Henry Humphreys knew that cloud technology could help a small team of A+ lawyers compete with much larger and long established law firms still untangling themselves from clunky legacy systems, “We wanted everything set up fast without having to write the expense of an in-house team into the business plan to make it work. Software in the cloud was key to that.”

Why a Document Management System?

For document storage Humphreys Law used Microsoft Office 365, including access to OneDrive for Business, to get going. Folders were set up according to requirements, but as soon as the team started growing a purpose built legal document management system was needed.

Henry Humphreys knew that he needed to a get best practice document management in place, “The large firms I had been with before had been using software running on their own servers. Software that was curated by their own legal teams. I knew I wanted document management and cloud technology.”

The firm’s commitment to building a flexible environment for its employees and yet still offering its clients first-class cutting-edge advice at pace dictated a number of other must-haves for the platform, “Beyond cloud we also needed inherent document and email security. Access to fast moving matters anywhere, from any device, high availability and of course competitive purchase and implementation costs.”

Reviewing the market, it became clear that NetDocuments provided the service most suited to the firm, “We did consider iManage but they had only recently launched their cloud-based offering. As a business they have not built their software in the cloud from the ground-up as is the case with NetDocuments, so I was soon speaking with Paul Hoffbrand and NetDocuments.”

“The quid pro quo of working flexibly is that everybody needs to work consistently using a common methodology so that transactions all look the same. Software needs to be so easy that people just use it.”

Henry Humphreys, Managing Partner, Humphreys Law

Partner Approach

Humphreys worked with certified consulting partner Hoffbrand Consulting and values this model, “I have a firm to run and we don’t want to have to employ an in-house IT team. Hoffbrand Consulting provided us with an incredibly high level of service, not only with the setup but ongoing with continuing support for our increasingly sophisticated use of the NetDocuments software,” explains Humphreys. It also means that Humphreys Law can welcome new members of staff into the firm with the knowledge that they will feel comfortable and benefit from the technology very quickly due to the user-friendly interface and online training from Hoffbrand Consulting.

To minimise cost and enable the firm to get started quickly, Hoffbrand Consulting started with a simple configuration whilst still incorporating several specific requirements, “We were on-hand during the implementation to provide advice as needed. All users were trained, on time and within budget using online resources which meant the firm began to reap the benefits of using NetDocuments immediately,” explains the consultancy’s founder Paul Hoffbrand, Humphreys adding, “The level of knowledge around NetDocuments is impressive and the relationship with NetDocuments provides tangible value to our firm. Paul is basically a very responsive and energetic virtual IT director for us. It’s a good fit.

“The level of knowledge around NetDocuments is impressive and the relationship with NetDocuments provides tangible value to our firm. Hoffbrand is basically a very responsive and energetic virtual IT director for us. It’s a good fit.”

Henry Humphreys, Managing Partner, Humphreys Law

Key Results

Humphreys Law now manage documents and emails securely and easily in the cloud, without additional server hardware requirements and maintenance, “We’re now saving all business-related documents and emails in NetDocuments and completed the move away from OneDrive almost immediately.”

Treating documents and emails as assets and making management and governance a priority has delivered far-reaching benefits. With NetDocuments in place, Humphreys Law has information governance and control of valuable assets. Humphreys can take on new business with the knowledge that client data is stored safely in a risk-free and trustworthy true cloud system, “By standardising the way everyone works with a matter file, NetDocuments supports our ambitious plans and maintains our high client service standards, by efficiently managing our documents and emails.”

The firm deals with a wide range of high value transactions but what doesn’t change is that everyone needs to know the same information, at the same time, “The firm can’t risk using a system that’s not really focussed on document management. For example, with email, the NetDocuments plug-in allows everything to be visible, at the same time, we don’t need to rely on cc. For us, any single email could be super important – we need to have them all at our fingertips.”

Humphreys says that, usability is key, “Will lawyers use it? The quid pro quo of working flexibly is that everybody needs to work consistently using a common methodology so that all transactions look the same. Software needs to be so easy that people just use it.” Humphreys cites the NetDocuments cabinet functionality as an example, “The cabinet feature means we can divide our deals so it’s very easy for people of all levels to find the information they need.”

Flexibility a must

“Law gets a bad rep for crazy hours. Part of that is because you need to be where you can access the data so if that means being in a specific building it means you have to stay there. With mobile you can work from anywhere,” and Humphrey explains this is a reality at the firm. The team can be fully remote, “It’s very, very flexible. Everyone has a laptop and working in a way that suits them is positively encouraged.” When considering security around working in the cloud Humphreys is pragmatic, “I think even the legal sector is over worries about the cloud. Firms know things can be better. Clients do want to understand how you do things though – so having software with the highest-ranking standards helps with that.”

Whilst he admits it’s far easier to embrace innovations and new technology when you’re starting from scratch, it’s an imperative for all firms. “Increasingly, the really smart graduates are looking for environments where they can work flexibly.” It’s not just about productivity, it’s about talent acquisition and retention, “We want to recruit the best talent, then when you add the best tools – that’s your competitive advantage.

“Increasingly, the really smart graduates are looking for environments where they can work flexibly. We want to recruit the best talent, then, when you add the best tools – that’s your competitive advantage.”

Henry Humphreys, Managing Partner, Humphreys Law

To learn more about NetDocuments and how you can work smarter with an intelligent document management system, click here to request a personalized demo.