Legal 500 Tier 1 firm, Mewburn Ellis, partners with sa.global to modernize practice management with evergreen
Mewburn Ellis has partnered with sa.global to implement evergreen, a cloud-based practice management platform, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365. The engagement will strengthen WIP and billing control, improve real-time financial insight, and reduce administrative burden through workflow automation.
sa.global, a specialist legal technology partner, announced a new engagement with Mewburn Ellis, one of Europe’s leading Intellectual Property law firms and a Legal 500 Tier-1 ranked practice, to implement evergreen, sa.global’s cloud-based unified practice management platform, built on the Microsoft Cloud.
Mewburn Ellis is recognized for their work across the full spectrum of IP protection and commercialization; from complex patent portfolio management and freedom-to-operate analyses to trademark protection, enforcement, and the IP dimensions of major commercial transactions. With offices across the UK and Germany, the firm has over 350 people including 50+ partners and more than 150 patent and trademark attorneys, solicitors, and IP litigators. Their clients span innovators, research institutions, and global enterprises across Life Sciences, Chemistry, ICT, and other technology-intensive sectors, with the firm regularly handling high-stakes matters including patent prosecution, trademark disputes, and domain conflicts.
As the firm continues to scale, leadership identified the need to modernize core business systems. The priorities were clear: tighter WIP visibility and billing processes, more accurate real-time financial insights, simpler time recording for attorneys, and a measurable reduction in administrative burden. The firm also needed a platform capable of supporting automation and AI at scale. With their existing on-premises finance system approaching end of life, Mewburn Ellis ran a formal evaluation of cloud practice management platforms. evergreen was selected following a competitive RFP process, assessed against requirements spanning workflow automation, reporting, integration, and secure cloud operations.
David Sinden, Financial Controller at Mewburn Ellis noted: “IP practices run on precision. A missed renewal or a disbursement error has real consequences for clients, and those risks are directly connected to how well firms track and manage disbursements, record time and activities, manage WIP, and control billing. evergreen gives us the control, transparency, and quality of insight that a modern IP practice requires. We selected sa.global because they understand the importance of accurate financial information and delivering a high-quality service to our clients. This platform strengthens our financial foundation today and positions us well for the future.”
“Technically we wanted a modern, cloud-first SaaS solution,” stated Andy Newland, IT Director at Mewburn Ellis. “By selecting evergreen, a platform that harnesses the power and flexibility of Microsoft’s Dynamics ERP, we have just that. Comprehensive integration capabilities via Power Automate, reporting via Power BI, and AI delivered into the heart of the software via Copilot make the solution complementary to our existing tech stack and internal skill set. I firmly believe this will be a foundation that we can build on as automation and AI become central to how IP work gets done.”
evergreen by sa.global will unify client intake, practice management, and financial operations into a single connected data model. The result: faster and more accurate billing, improved practice-wide transparency, and real time performance insight across the firm. The first phase will integrate with Mewburn Ellis’ proprietary case management system, Castle. A longer-term objective is to streamline and modernize the wider application landscape.
Complementing the core platform, evergreen, are sa.global’s end user applications that embed key workflows, such as time capture, approvals, and operational tasks, directly into the daily flow of work. This reduces administrative effort and improves consistency and data quality across the business.
“What stands out about Mewburn Ellis is their ambition and clarity. This is a firm that has grown significantly and is making a deliberate move to build the operational infrastructure that matches where they are heading,” said Stephen James, CEO, sa.global. “evergreen gives them a connected backbone for financial control and insight today, and an AI platform and framework they can extend as automation reshapes how IP professionals manage knowledge, workflow, and commercial performance. We are delighted to support them with technology designed with the future firm in mind.”
By implementing evergreen, Mewburn Ellis is establishing a modern practice management foundation to support continued growth, sharpen client service, and build the connected data foundation required for expanded automation and AI across legal and financial workflows.
