Authorized expertise firm SurePoint Applied sciences has acquired the authorized follow administration firm ZenCase in a strategic transfer aimed toward enhancing SurePoint’s follow administration choices for mid-sized legislation companies.
The deal, introduced as we speak, builds on SurePoint’s acquisition final yr of the authorized enterprise intelligence and analytics firm Leopard Options, and paves the way in which for SurePoint to mix ZenCase’s attorney-focused platform on the entrance finish with SurePoint’s back-office and monetary administration options and Leopard’s market information.
That mixture, SurePoint says, will allow it to create a unified, complete authorized follow administration platform for mid-sized legislation companies able to addressing expertise administration, monetary administration, and enterprise intelligence.
“With the acquisition of ZenCase, SurePoint is uniquely positioned to fully redefine follow administration, empowering legislation companies to seamlessly resolve issues that have been as soon as inconceivable,” mentioned Eric Thurston, SurePoint’s CEO. “Our mixed portfolio delivers a unified platform ushering within the subsequent era of authorized expertise.
“Corporations that embrace these instruments will acquire a single accomplice able to serving to them navigate the calls for of an evolving market and place themselves for long-term success in an more and more aggressive authorized panorama.”
Firm Backgrounds
Based in 1982 as Rippe & Kingston Methods to offer authorized and monetary administration software program to legislation companies, SurePoint rebranded in 2020 to raised align its identify with its dedication to offer legislation companies with trendy enterprise options. In 2021, the personal funding agency Aquiline Capital Companions took a majority stake in SurePoint.
Along with its acquisition final yr of Leopard, in 2022, SurePoint acquired Cole Valley Software program, developer of the CRM software program ContactEase, after which acquired Coyote Analytics, an organization that supplied monetary administration and enterprise intelligence software program for legislation companies. Thurston, a veteran business-transformation chief, turned the corporate’s CEO in 2023.
ZenCase, based by attorneys, is a contemporary, web-based follow administration system designed to simplify workflows, centralize info, and optimize process administration for legal professionals. Its key options embody automated time monitoring, data administration, doc automation, and process blueprints.
This newest acquisition, SurePoint says, will allow it to supply legislation companies an end-to-end platform that higher addresses each front- and back-office wants.
Instant Entry to Market Information
Whereas the plan is ultimately to combine ZenCase, SurePoint and Leopard as a rebranded suite of options inside a single platform, the corporate has not set a agency timeline for the combination. Till then, ZenCase will stay largely unchanged as a standalone product and preserve its personal branding.
Nonetheless, one instant profit to ZenCase prospects, already reside within the product, is integration throughout the ZenCase platform of legislation agency and market information from Leopard. ZenCase prospects now obtain complimentary entry to 4 of Leopard’s core experiences: its Benchmarking Report, Present Market Report, Present Agency Report, and its Competitor Match Software.
TJ Fraser, the Florida trial lawyer who based ZenCase and was its CEO, will stay with the corporate as normal supervisor. Olivia Mockel, who was president and COO of ZenCase, has been COO at SurePoint since August. Earlier than becoming a member of ZenCase in 2023, Mockel was CEO of PCLaw | Time Issues, a three way partnership of LEAP Authorized Software program and LexisNexis.
“The choice to deliver ZenCase into SurePoint’s complete suite of authorized tech options was a simple one, because it introduced a possibility to create a transformative platform that addresses the hardest challenges legislation companies face as we speak,” Fraser mentioned in a press release supplied by the corporate. “Collectively, we’re redefining what true follow administration can ship.”
Triad of Key Capabilities
In a briefing this week forward of the announcement, Charmayne Gien, head of brand name, artistic and marcom at SurePoint, informed me that the ZenCase acquisition closes the loop on SurePoint’s imaginative and prescient of making an interconnected triad of key capabilities – front-office performance from ZenCase, monetary administration from SurePoint’s personal expertise, and enterprise intelligence from Leopard.
Graphic courtesy of SurePoint.
As these merchandise are additional built-in, ZenCase will function the front-end cornerstone of SurePoint’s portfolio, the corporate says, offering legal professionals with important instruments akin to automated time administration, data administration, doc automation, process templates and workflows.
That front-end platform will likely be built-in with and backed by SurePoint’s accounting capabilities and Leopard’s market intelligence.
“This integration creates an unparalleled ecosystem that equips companies with the instruments wanted to sort out important expertise challenges, establish development alternatives, and harness market intelligence for data-driven decision-making,” the corporate mentioned.
Jen Lapierre, a communications advisor working with SurePoint, mentioned that the acquisition is about extra than simply increasing the corporate’s product lineup. She mentioned it’s going to permit SurePoint to function an end-to-end expertise accomplice for companies, serving to them “resolve issues that have been inconceivable earlier than” by connecting key enterprise capabilities.
“In the end it’s enabling SurePoint to be a single accomplice for companies,” she mentioned. “Earlier than they might have wanted two, three, 4 completely different sorts of best-of-breed options to deal with all of those various things. However now, below a single roof, they’re in a position to deliver collectively all of those capabilities to resolve their most-pressing challenges.”
With this deal, SurePoint is betting {that a} mixture of front-office ease-of-use, strong monetary instruments, and AI-powered enterprise intelligence will show a successful method for midsized legislation companies. The important thing query going ahead will likely be how shortly and seamlessly SurePoint can execute on the imaginative and prescient of a unified platform.
