Financial services giant completes acquisition of law specialist

Chris Price

Financial services giant EY has announced that it has completed the acquisition of a Wirral based legal services firm.

The accountancy firm has bought Riverview Law for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition will support the expansion of EY Law legal managed services globally and extends the existing EY Law offering.

Riverview, which has offices in Manchester and Bromborugh, specialises in legal innovation and operating model transformation, as well as further driving the current EY technology approach to legal managed services.

Kate Barton, EY Global Vice Chair – Tax, said: “The acquisition of Riverview Law helps give EY first-mover advantage in legal managed services as a fast-growing segment of the legal market and further establishes EY as a leading disruptor of legal services.

“The combination of Riverview Law’s strong technology practice and the international reach and multidisciplinary approach of EY offers an attractive alternative to traditional legal service models and can be scaled to serve EY clients across the globe.”

Cornelius Grossmann, EY Global Law Leader, said: “The parameters of competition are changing. An increasingly globalized landscape coupled with greater sophistication in technology and innovation are providing a catalyst for the wholesale disruption of the legal market.

“We are seeing the redistribution of legal services to non-traditional players who can offer law functions the specialist tools, services and technologies they need at a point that is both cost effective and leading class.

“The acquisition of Riverview Law will help to enhance and scale the EY Law legal managed services offering and bring new levels of efficiency, risk management, service transparency and reduced costs of routine legal activities to EY clients.”

There are now more than 2,200 law practitioners in EY member firms across 81 jurisdictions.
The addition of the Riverview Law platform can help organizations to manage legal instructions coming into the function, re-direct work that does not require legal input, triage work that does require legal support to the right team and help manage all stages from case opening to case closing, including document creation.

The acquisition also combines a broad spectrum of quality, risk management and dashboard tools and a dedicated client support team that understands the culture, risk appetite and demands of legal services clients, helping them to streamline their legal function so that legal teams can focus efforts on key tactical and strategic legal work.

Chris Price, EY head of Alliances tax and chief executive of EY, said: “Organizations face the dual challenge of growing cost pressures and increased regulatory complexity.

“With pressure to do more with less, legal functions are looking to new, disruptive operating models that provide the right service, with the right quality, at the right price.

“Additionally, as legal departments are charged with mitigating risk across a broader set of business objectives they are looking for legal service providers with a more expansive skill set that includes industry-specific, commercial and non-legal expertise as well as knowledge in digital, data privacy and cybersecurity.

“Through the acquisition of Riverview Law EY clients will have access to a different approach to the provision of legal services with knowledge, value and innovation at the heart of that offering.”

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