Freeths appoint Intelligent Office to deliver its support services
Intelligent Office UK (IO), the leading provider of PA, document production and administrative support services to the legal sector, has been appointed by Freeths to deliver its reprographics, mail and courier, front of house, records management and core goods procurement.
The contract, which went live at the end of March 2018, saw 36 staff transfer to IO from the firm’s Nottingham and Oxford offices.
Peter Smith, CEO at Freeths, commented:
“At Freeths, we excel at providing outstanding training and development for our lawyers and we want our support staff to benefit from the same opportunities. After considerable due diligence, we decided to embark on a partnership with IO as their commitment to continuous improvement of the provision of the support services, as well as the continuous development of the members of the team through training and management support, was hugely appealing.”
Rachel McCorry, CEO at Intelligent Office, said:
“We are delighted to welcome the transferring staff to the Intelligent Office family. Freeths’ culture of strong ethics, integrity and entrepreneurial spirit emulates that of our own and we very much look forward to working in partnership over the coming years as we deliver trusted, and high quality, support services to the firm.”
Freeths is the fourth new managed services client IO has commenced working with since November 2017. The firm joins other new clients Shearman & Sterling and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, alongside another UK Top 100 law firm headquartered in the south-west.
During the same period, long-standing client Farrer & Co also renewed their contract for another term.
About Freeths
Freeths is one of the UK’s leading national law practices, ranked as a top 60 law firm with a turnover for 2016/17 of £72m. The firm offers services to both commercial and private clients across the entire legal spectrum.
Freeths operate from offices in Birmingham, Derby, Leeds, Leicester, London, Manchester,
Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield and Stoke. Although mainly regionally based, the firm has a wide range of clients throughout the UK with many clients having strong international connections.
Freeths’ client base reflects their strength and their nationwide service delivery. They are committed to continuous improvement and their increasing success as a business is built on achieving success for their clients. The firm works in close partnership with clients, providing positive, practical solutions and clear, comprehensible advice.
Across the board, the firm is ranked in legal directories in the top tier for 21 legal categories, with a further 50 rankings for other specialisms.
Freeths are ranked 50th in the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies to work for 2017. The firm also won the ‘Firm of the Year’ category in the UK Diversity Legal awards 2015.
About Intelligent Office
Intelligent Office helps firms in the legal sector change for the better, improving the quality of support delivered to partners and fee earners and helping firms save time and money. It achieves this by taking charge of administrative and secretarial services, leaving the firm’s management free to concentrate on growth and partners free to develop and manage their practices.
The result: flexible, modern and professional support services; improved service for clients; increased profitability for the firm; and better opportunities for support staff.
The majority of Intelligent Office’s services are delivered on site at clients’ premises and include PA, reprographics, mailroom, facilities, matter management, front of house and core goods procurement. Intelligent Office also provides document production support both on-site at clients’ premises and via three onshore shared services centres.
With more than 800 staff operating across 48 client sites and three onshore shared services centres, Intelligent Office is the leading provider of office administrative and secretarial services to the UK legal market. Clients include The SRA, Shearman & Sterling, Gowling WLG, Penningtons Manches, Wedlake Bell, Capsticks, DAC Beachcroft, and Boodle Hatfield.