Over the last 17 years, Harper Macleod have grown from a two‐partner firm with one office in Glasgow to one of Scotland’s leading full‐service law firms — with over 400 employees, five offices, a £22 million annual turnover and an enviable client list. And while many established firms struggled to survive the economic downturn, Harper Macleod have gone from strength to strength.
As Partner Donald Munro explains, “we have thrived, even during recession, by offering value for money to our clients. We constantly have to look at our own supply chain and choose the best value and quality‐focused solutions for our offices. That was really the genesis of our switch to LexisNexis.”
Switching sides
For years, Harper Macleod had been using several different products to find the practical guidance they need and track down the right cases, legislation, forms and precedents. But last year, they had an inkling that taking a full subscription to LexisPSL, covering 25 different practice areas, could help them lower their costs and simplify their setup without compromising on quality.
According to Munro, “it wasn’t a complete leap into the unknown, because we’ve used LexisNexis products in the past — including LexisLibrary — and we were very comfortable with the company’s excellent reputation.”
“However, we had to be sure that if we made such a major change we were not going to negatively impact the firm.”
So they decided to put LexisPSL through its paces, during a rigorous four‐month trial run.
Trial run
45 of Harper Macleod’s heaviest users of practical guidance, across four different offices, put LexisPSL to the test — carrying out real, everyday tasks and giving us their honest feedback, without pulling any punches.
And we made sure there was always someone from LexisNexis available to give them helpful pointers and sort out any teething problems.
LexisPSL exceeded their expectations, on every level. They found the new system more intuitive than what they’d been used to. And they also said the search function was more powerful, returning more useful and relevant results.
“Compared to what we were using, there are extra layers and more depth of content, allowing us to drill down much more deeply across our practice areas and obtain better quality analysis,” says Munro.“In some areas of research there were also significant time savings. You get to what you are looking for more quickly, which all goes to the value of the product.”
Part of this is down to the way that LexisPSL and LexisLibrary work seamlessly together. Once you’ve found the practical guidance you need in LexisPSL, you can simply follow the direct links to the underlying case law and authority in LexisLibrary, the UK’s most authoritative and comprehensive legal library.
Another big time saver is the YourStyle function, which allows firms to easily put precedents into their own house style. As Munro explains, “in a large document, YourStyle can save several hours in formatting and administration.”
And Harper Macleod were particularly impressed by the legal updates feature, which allows individual users to receive news and developments specific to their practice area — making it easy for them to stay in the know and at the very top of their game, without wasting valuable time searching for it.
A clear winner
After four months of using LexisPSL day after day, Harper Macleod were convinced. “The commitment we received from LexisNexis throughout the whole process went above and beyond”, says Munro.
“At the end of the evaluation it was not a remotely difficult decision to make the switch. In terms of value and delivering the best solutions to our customers we absolutely had to change to LexisPSL.”
Harper Macleod are now using LexisPSL and LexisLibrary to get the answers their clients need, across all of their offices — the ultimate seal of approval.
“We constantly have to look at our own supply chain and choose the best value and quality‐focused solutions for our offices. That was really the genesis of our switch to LexisNexis.”
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