Our by Design teams

Our Human approach to Innovation

We tailor our approach to your specific needs. We do that by creating the perfect mix of market-leading lawyers and specialist teams, process, technology and tools, whether standalone or combined. Here is a selection of the by Design teams and services that we draw on to support you on innovation projects and ensure CMS is always delivering day-to-day quality, efficiency and value to clients.

Innovation Team

Innovation is central to our strategy, our culture and how we deliver the very best service to clients. Our dedicated Innovation team leads this approach,recognising that unless we galvanise our own people to explore new ways of getting things done, we’re not going to be able to do the same for clients. The team also co-ordinates the right mix of people, processes and technology in practice for clients, involving Partners, lawyers and the specialist teams below. It also horizon scans and tests third party technologies to advise clients on how best to use these based on our experience, saving you time, money and mistakes.

You can get in touch with the CMS by Design team: bydesign@cms-cmno.com and individual team contacts are included below.

Legal Service Designers

Our Legal Service designers help you identify challenges, test ideas and co-create solutions. Using a human-centered design approach, we put people at the centre of any innovation or new idea, to make sure the benefits are tangible, and the use of technology is accessible. The team also offers design thinking workshops to help in-house legal teams develop their own approach to innovation.

Main contact: john.craske@cms-cmno.com 

Legal Operations and Project Management

Our talented, qualified project managers have extensive legal and management consultancy experience. They provide a structured and commercially driven project management framework, to ensure we manage each stage of your matters in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. The team also provides process design and improvement services to increase efficiency and unblock workflows. 

Main contacts:  Stefania.Callisto@cms-cmno.com and LegalOpsAndProjectTeam@cms-cmno.com

CMS Evidence

The scope and scale of evidence related to regulatory and internal investigations have become enormous. How you collect, manage and forensically analyse that volume of data is both complex and vital. CMS Evidence is our eDisclosure service, tailored to you by a team of legal technologists and data analysts designed to save you time and money. The CMS Evidence team have access to cutting edge tech tools for the processing, investigation, review and redaction of evidence – all hosted in-house to provide maximum efficiency and value when undertaking any sort of disclosure or evidence review exercise. 

Main contact: kevin.bannon@cms-cmno.com 

Client Training Team

We understand that every business is a tech business. That’s why our Client Training team created D-Code, our flagship programme of webinars and other resources to de-mystify AI, blockchain, Big Data, AdTech, agile contracting and more. Our Client Training team also provides a wide range of legal and skillsbased training, working closely with other by Design teams on innovation and change projects for clients.

Main contact: claire.walker@cms-cmno.com 

Legal Services Units

Our Legal Services Units (LSUs) in the UK and Europe give you access to our strong in-house paralegal teams, international networks and legal process outsourcing, to ensure you benefit from measurable cost savings, full scalable support and flexible resourcing. We are particularly skilled at meeting the needs of your large scale, multi-jurisdictional matters and complex process-led volume projects. Find out more about our Legal Service Units (LSUs). 

Main contact: fiona.letham@cms-cmno.com 

Legal Technology Tools Team

The Legal Tech Tools team unlocks the potential of our key legal tech tools. By providing support to you and our lawyers the team advise on when and how to deploy legal technology to drive efficiency and then customising the tools to meet the specific needs of the project. Our legal tech tools include powerful collaboration portals, deal management platforms, and AI contract review tools.

Main contacts: anne.slattery@cms-cmno.com and legaltechtools@cms-cmno.com

CMS Flex

Flex is our flexible resource offering. Led by experienced internal recruiters with many years’ experience in the legal industry, we understand the resourcing needs of our clients. Drawing on our own pool of consultants, but also working with our Legal Services Units, internal teams and external flexible resource providers such as Obelisk, Elevate and F-Lex we can work with you to find the ideal interim or flexible resource for your needs.

Main contact: becky.lowe@cms-cmno.com 

Knowledge Team

Our Knowledge team provides knowledge audit and advisory services to clients and connects our innovation projects to our large team of specialist Professional Support Lawyers. We can also advise on external legal knowledge resources, knowledge sharing best practices, know-how and search technology as part of any initiative.

Main contact: colin.fisher@cms-cmno.com  

Document Automation Team

Our Document Automation team has more than 20 years’ experience of automating documents and there is an extensive library of over 700 automated documents available for use internally on our HotDocs platform. Our in-house team can automate your documents and can also make these available directly to you or your clients through a secure intuitive portal. For queries on Document Automation please contact Matthew Corton, Head of Document Automation, Production and Design, who can ensure your query is routed to the best place.

Main contact: matthew.corton@cms-cmno.com

Developers on Demand

Our team of developers, technologists and legal design specialists helps create bespoke mobile and web-based, legal tech applications using our low-code development platforms. Real world examples include our Dawn Raid, Data Breach and Patent Portfolio apps and the creation of a dedicated portal to help automate key contracts in the Energy sector. Some of these apps might have commercial potential and we can explore partnering with clients to roll them out profitably.

Main contact: eugen.stokes@cms-cmno.com 

Law-Now eLearning

Our eLearning team provides high-quality eLearning solutions for our clients at competitive rates. The team creates rich eLearning experiences for projects, bringing topics such as compliance and information security to life whilst capturing key data about who has completed the training. Find out more about Law-Now eLearning.

Main contact: kajal.kavia@cms-cmno.com

equIP

equIP is our unique programme to support IP rich start-ups, helping them scale quickly. It offers discounted legal support for any sector of law and any level of fee earner in our business as well as access to fantastic networking and investment connections. Staying close to tech start-ups in many jurisdictions also gives us a unique insight into the latest trends and early developments in the legal tech market. Find out more about equIP. 

Main contact: natalie.pringle@cms-cmno.com 

Law-Now

Keeping abreast of business-relevant industry regulation and legal know-how is a challenge. To help you stay up-to-date, Law-Now is our market-leading online knowledge portal and email news service. It covers 75 areas of law and 20 sectors across 30 jurisdictions in multiple languages. Find out more about Law-Now. 

Main contact: cms-lawnow@cmslegal.com

You can find out more about CMS by Design by browsing our webpages or you can download our CMS By Design brochure. If you are unsure about how innovation could help your business you can also get in touch with the CMS by Design Innovation team: bydesign@cms-cmno.com to find out what mix of innovation tools / teams are available from CMS by Design and how your business could benefit from them.