Former Financial Times general counsel Tim Bratton is set to join the Berwin Leighton Paisner-backed Lawyers on Demand (LOD) in September as practice development director. Jonathan Brenner (pictured), co-founder of LOD, told Legal Business he was ‘delighted’ to get the high profile Bratton on board.
Bratton joins in a newly-created role to help drive the growth of the legal service provider with in-house teams and law firms.
Bratton, who joined the Financial Times (FT) in 2000, is a regular blogger and user of Twitter, tweeting under the name @legalbrat. He became GC of the business newspaper in 2003 and has been director of intellectual property since 2011.
During his time at the FT, Bratton used a variety of innovative internal and external processes that enabled the publisher to reduce costs, including team ‘on-shoring’, launching a small Belfast-based team, IP fixed fee outsourcing and implementation of an ‘all-you-can-eat’ tender model.
LOD co-founder Simon Harper said: ‘When we began searching for someone to lead practice development for LOD, we knew they needed the right aptitude to move into a business role in an innovative and entrepreneurial growth company – Tim has these skills in abundance. Tim is a trusted voice in the legal marketplace, with a reputation for legal innovation, and he already embodies many of LOD’s values so it’s great to have him on board.’
Bratton commented: ‘I have known Simon for over a decade and watched with interest as LOD has grown. I am fascinated with innovation in the legal sector and engaged LOD lawyers while I was in-house so really understand the benefits to clients. With the recent explosion in alternative legal services, it seemed a perfect time to join LOD and I hope that my knowledge of being a GC with first-hand experience will help us continue to deliver for clients and expand the business.’
LOD recently launched LOD On Call, a new pay-as-you-go model to complement its secondment model. LOD On Call offers clients access to LOD lawyers who can perform all the legal functions remotely.
LOD has established itself as one of the most high profile ‘alternative’ providers of legal services since its launch in 2007, with the firm expanding substantially in recent years. The business was spun out of BLP in 2012. LOD, which provides experienced and vetted legal ‘temps’ without the infrastructure costs of a law firm, currently has around 120 lawyers on its books.
david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk
