Multinational law firm launches alternative legal services platform 

The European law firm Fieldfisher launches Condor Alternative Legal Solutions (Condor) – a multi-product alternative legal services platform and the brain-child of derivatives partner Luke Whitmore.  It offers clients a flexible range of lower cost technology-efficient and process-efficient services beyond traditional City-based law firm services.  The platform is being led by Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Georgiou (who was previously the head of the Securities & Derivatives Group at Ashurst), alongside Derivatives Partners Guy Usher and Luke Whitmore.

Condor will initially focus on the derivatives and securities financing markets with services aimed at banks, custodians, asset managers, insurers and corporate treasurers.

The initial range of services includes:

• Trading Documentation Unit: a specialist trading documentation negotiation unit operating out of Belfast for negotiating derivatives and other financial markets agreements on a fixed cost basis.
• Data Extraction and Analytics: bespoke technology-assisted solutions for legal, regulatory or documentation reviews and issue identification based upon document digitisation, data extraction and data analytics.
• Large-Scale Documentation Project Delivery: delivery of large-scale documentation and documentation remediation projects combining legal and regulatory advice and documentation negotiation with project/process management and technology-assisted counterparty outreach.

In the future, Fieldfisher is looking to expand its range of services beyond financial services and to offer it to clients across all sectors of the firm.

Commenting on the launch Chris says, “Fieldfisher has always looked at new and innovative ways to support clients more effectively.  Condor uses an intelligent allocation of resources and technology to deliver highly cost-effective fixed price solutions to our clients.

“Our Variation Margin Managed Service – a comprehensive offering which helps clients implement the new requirement to exchange variation margin for non-centrally cleared derivatives – has garnered a lot of interest.  We’ve already secured engagements from global investment banks on this and other regulatory developments.

“Ultimately the Condor platform is designed to make our clients’ lives easier and more cost-effective without compromising on either quality or service.”

Guy Usher, a Partner and head of the Derivatives & Structured Finance Group, adds, “This is the first step in the evolution of Condor and our alternative legal services model. In these changing times, with endless amounts of regulatory change, clients are looking for ever faster and cheaper solutions.

“Some technology platforms already in the market can capture data from standardised industry documents – but Condor has additional value by also providing legal input.  This means that more sophisticated and bespoke data models and analytics can be developed, even for less standardised documents.

“With Brexit, MiFID II, bank ring-fencing and other regulatory changes looming we see a huge demand for this product.”