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The Stanford Center on the Legal Profession

Keep Calm and Carry On?: Disruption in the UK Legal Market and What It Could Mean for the US

May 5, 2014
12:45PM - 2:00PM

Room 280B
Stanford Law School

In many ways, the legal market in the United Kingdom is experiencing more far reaching changes than that of the United States.  Catalyzed by the 2007 enactment of the Legal Services Act which allowed for non-lawyer ownership of law firms, the UK legal market is seeing many new entrants changing the way legal services are offered and understood.  What are the most profound changes and who is leading the charge?  What are the implications for American firms, where reform to the rules has been slow in coming?  Riverview Law, one of the most closely watched of these new entrants, is a legal advisory outsourcing business offering a fixed-price model for both legal processing work and legal advice.  Karl Chapman, co-founder and CEO of Riverview, and Andy Daws, Vice-President of North America, will discuss the successes and challenges of the Legal Services Act, innovators changing the UK legal market, and implications for the US regulation of the profession and legal market with Ralph Baxter, Chair Emeritus of Orrick, and Stephanie Kimbro and Ron Dolin, fellows with the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession.

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This event is free and open to the public but registration is requested.

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Speakers

Karl Chapman

Chief Executive Officer, Riverview Law

Karl is Chief Executive of Riverview Law and has a long pedigree in starting, growing and managing successful companies.

After reading law at Birmingham University, Karl joined Guinness Mahon Investment Management (GMIM) in 1985. In 1987 he was Money Observer’s top-performing UK unit trust fund manager.

He left GMIM in 1989 to set up CRT Group plc (CRT), a consultancy, recruitment and training business. Under Karl’s leadership his team grew CRT, both organically and by acquisition, to a market capitalisation of over £600 million, sales in excess of £400 million with 2,500 employees operating from over 200 locations. In 1996 CRT sold 50.1% of its equity for £109 million to Knowledge Universe, a private US-based company whose major shareholders were Larry Ellison and Michael Milken.

Karl left CRT in 2000 and set up AdviserPlus Business Solutions in 2001. AdviserPlus is a leading advisory outsourcing organisation providing HR, and H&S solutions to organisations ranging from FTSE 100 companies to SMEs. He joined Riverview Law with effect from 1 June 2011

Karl is excited by the changes taking place in the legal market: “Rarely do market opportunities like this arise. The legal market is large, fragmented and has few brands. New entrants like Riverview Law, with no baggage and a total focus on the customer, stand a very good chance of building big and sustainable businesses.”

Karl is based in London and Lincolnshire and couples his passion for business with a long-standing love of Chelsea Football Club where, over more than forty years, he has experienced the lows and highs that come with an irrational attachment to a football team.

Andy Daws

Vice President, North America, Riverview Law

Andy is Riverview Law’s Vice President, North America and plays an integral part in our International and Business teams. His primary role is developing our international footprint and managing relationships with US and Canadian law firms and corporations that want direct access to top UK lawyers - with minimum hassle and maximum price certainty. Based in our New York office, Andy provides clients with a local point of contact for matters ranging from cross-border litigation and M&A transactions, through to less complex areas of commercial law.

Andy spells out Riverview Law’s message to overseas law firms and corporations: “You can instruct our team of top UK lawyers direct at fixed prices. We do things differently to traditional law firms because we’ve built our business from the customer up, not from the lawyer down. Our business model with its low overheads, bespoke end-to-end technology platform, first-class support staff and unique pricing structure means overseas clients can expect an exceptional service together with significant cost savings.”

Andy’s impressive business credentials have included senior roles with a major FTSE-listed company, and within the Legal & Regulatory division of Thomson Reuters. He joined Riverview Law from AdviserPlus Business Solutions in the UK, where he spent five years as Client Director. He was closely involved in the creation and delivery of the company’s ground-breaking advisory services offering, working alongside the HR and employment law teams of some of the UK’s largest multinationals. He is the recipient of several awards for business innovation and development.

With fourteen years’ experience delivering innovative services in the legal and regulatory marketplace, Andy is a regular conference speaker and panelist on the emerging paradigm and has contributed to several books on the subject. He is an adjunct member of the International Practice Committee at the New York City Bar, a guest lecturer at several leading US law schools and an Entrepreneur Mentor for the University of Miami Law Without Walls program. He also sits on the boards of an international NGO and a New York tech start-up. 

Andy relocated permanently to New York to take up his role with Riverview Law, along with his American wife and his young children, who he says are delighted to be living near their relatives on the ‘other side of the pond’.

Ralph Baxter

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Orrick

Ralph Baxter served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orrick from 1990 through March 2013.  Under Mr. Baxter’s leadership, Orrick expanded, diversified and extended its geographic reach, transforming from a domestic firm with California origins to its position today as one of the world’s most prominent global law firms, with more than 1,100 lawyers in 25 offices across the United States, Europe and Asia.  Mr. Baxter also launched several transformative initiatives that more closely align Orrick with its clients, including non‑traditional talent and pricing models, distinguishing the firm as a bold innovator in the legal industry.

In naming Mr. Baxter among the “Most Innovative Managing Partners” for the second year in a row in 2012, Law360’s editors noted that Mr. Baxter “has left an indelible mark not only on [Orrick]… but also the larger practice by upending traditional career models, rejiggering payment structures and transforming the business of law in many other innovative ways.”  Mr. Baxter led Orrick in establishing the first global insourcing center among law firms – Orrick’s Global Operations Center in Wheeling, West Virginia – which marked its 11th anniversary in 2013.  Originally home to the firm’s administrative support functions, the GOC today has a large staff of career associates andother legal professionals and has brought 350 jobs to the city.

Recognized as one of America’s “100 Most Influential Lawyers” by The National Law Journal, Mr. Baxter is a frequent speaker on business leadership and the evolution of the legal profession.  Mr. Baxter is the founder of the Law Firm Leaders Forum, one of the most significant gatherings of law firm leaders that annually examine the critical issues facing the legal profession.  2013 marked the 18th anniversary of the forum.  He also serves on the Advisory Board of Harvard Law School’s Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry as well as Stanford’s Center on the Legal Profession Advisory Forum and Georgetown Law Executive Education Advisory Board.

Mr. Baxter has also led the firm’s efforts to contribute to the communities in which Orrick and its lawyers and staff work and live.  He plays an active role in Orrick’s innovative Community Responsibility Program, which he helped create in 2001 to orchestrate the firm’s pro bono legal services, financial support and volunteer efforts.  The program ensures that the firm’s resources are strategically organized and deployed to maximize both their community impact and the number of Orrick lawyers and staff who have a chance to participate directly in the firm’s sponsored activities.

Mr. Baxter is active in numerous civic leadership and public interest organizations, particularly in West Virginia and California. In West Virginia, he co-chaired the Governor’s 21st Century Jobs Cabinet from 2006 to 2010 to help lead efforts to improve education and economic development in West Virginia.  He also serves on the West Virginia Workforce Investment Council,  the Board of Directors of The West Virginia Education Alliance, is a member of the West Virginia Roundtable and is a board member of Imagine West Virginia.

In April 2009, Mr. Baxter was inducted into the June Harless Education Hall of Fame at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, in recognition of his leadership in educational issues.

In California, Mr. Baxter has served on the state Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth.  He also served for many years on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Partnership, a group of business and government leaders dedicated to promoting economic growth and development in San Francisco.  Mr. Baxter was a member of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Trade Mission to China in 2005 and a member of San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown’s Trade Mission to China in 1997.

Prior to his election as Chairman and CEO, Mr. Baxter practiced employment law and led Orrick’s Employment Law practice, which he founded in 1980.  He was recognized as one of the “Nation’s Best Litigators in Employment Law” by The National Law Journal.  During his years as a practicing lawyer, he lectured and wrote extensively on developments in the law, and testified on employment law issues before the California State Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Prior to his career in the law, Mr. Baxter taught sixth grade at the Scott Montgomery Elementary School in Washington, D.C.

Ron Dolin

Research Fellow, Center on the Legal Profession;
Instructor of Law, Stanford Law School

Ron Dolin received his B.A. in math and physics from U.C. Berkeley before heading to Geneva to work at CERN, the high-energy physics lab. After a few years there, he left for graduate work in computer science, obtaining a Ph.D. from U.C. Santa Barbara with his dissertation on scalable search. Ron ended up as one of the first 100 at Google, and left after several years to get a law degree from U.C. Hastings. Ron is an angel investor, focusing on legal technology startups, and teaches legal technology and informatics at Stanford Law School. Ron is working on a program on legal innovation at Stanford’s School of Design with SLS alum Margaret Hagan. Ron recently gave a keynote talk about the injection of innovation in big law at the G100 meeting of the CIO’s of the 100 largest law firms at the ILTA 2013 conference in Las Vegas.

Stephanie Kimbro

Co-Director, Center for Law Practice Technology;
Founder, Curo Legal

Stephanie Kimbro, MA, JD, is Co-Director of the Center for Law Practice Technology and Founder of Curo Legal. She is the recipient of the 2009 ABA Keane Award for Excellence in eLawyering and the author of Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver Legal Services Online (2010), Limited Scope Legal Services: Unbundling and the Self-Help Client (2012), Consumer Law Revolution: The Lawyers’ Guide to the Online Legal Marketplace (2013), and Online Legal Services for the Client-Centric Law Firm (2013). She is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services and a future Fellow of Stanford Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession, starting in the summer of 2014. She has also founded a company, Game On Law, to develop games related to legal services, including one for Illinois Legal Aid Online.

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The Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, founded in 2008, supports research, teaching, programs and public policy initiatives on crucial issues facing the bar. Building on the legacy of its predecessor, the Keck Center on Legal Ethics and the Legal Profession, the Center focuses on issues of professional responsibility and the structure of legal practice. Central concerns include how to enhance access to justice, sustain ethical values, improve bar regulatory structures, and effectively respond to the changing dynamics of legal workplaces.

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