Field Fisher Waterhouse Enhances Firmwide Information Management With Recommind

European Law Firm Rapidly Implements Search and Expertise Location Using MindServer Platform

LONDON, December 5, 2007 – Recommind, a leading provider of enterprise search, automatic categorisation and eDiscovery systems for enterprises and law firms, has announced that European law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse has within a space of three months rapidly completed the roll-out of Recommind’s MindServer™ platform, enabling lawyers and support staff to more effectively search, access, and manage information across both the firm and external sources via their new intranet based ‘KnowledgeSearch’ application.

MindServer’s concept-based search capabilities have enabled Field Fisher Waterhouse to take an holistic approach to managing and locating information, covering its own document databases as well as other data repositories such as stored emails, library catalogues, plus external search engines and websites.  As a result, the information returned by searches has been significantly enriched with additional context from a myriad of sources, delivering a far greater depth and breadth of insight and knowledge than was available using the firm’s previous information management tools.

“When selecting a new information and knowledge management system, we were conscious that – with no legacy knowledge management system to take account of – we could really make use of recent developments in search technology and implement the system that most perfectly matched our needs,” said Jane Bradbury, Knowledge Management Director at Field Fisher Waterhouse.  “We selected Recommind’s MindServer platform because ‘out-of-the-box’ it provided our lawyers with a powerful document search as well as the ability to seamlessly locate subject matter experts, regardless of their location. The contextual search and expertise location capabilities have greatly increased knowledge and information sharing across the firm, and has been particularly important given our rapid growth.”

The feedback from partners, lawyers and support staff has been unanimously positive – users at all levels from trainee solicitors to business development managers to solicitors and partners have seen a significant saving of time in locating relevant information.

“Recommind has provided a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all our search needs,” continues Bradbury. “MindServer’s ease of use and the intuitiveness of its interface have meant that very little training is required.  Now that the ‘Google Generation’ – who has been accustomed to using search tools throughout their education – are entering the workplace, having such an impressive information management tool is helping us to best support our most recent entrants into the profession.”

The full implementation of the MindServer platform has given Field Fisher Waterhouse an invaluable “expertise locator”, which automatically ranks lawyers according to their relevant experience based on documents they have authored and cases they have been responsible for, without any additional work on their part.  For a swiftly growing firm with relatively new European offices, this is proving to be a very effective and quick method of discovering the location of experts in various fields.  It also serves to spread such knowledge across all firm employees, rather than keeping it concentrated in the minds of senior partners.

Expertise location is also being used by the Field Fisher Waterhouse business development team to provide insight for new business opportunities, enabling easy identification of lawyers who have already worked with particular clients or within certain industry sectors. 

"As businesses grow and offices become more widely dispersed, it is vital that all workers have an effective means of sharing and using information,” said Bob Tennant, Recommind’s CEO.  “Field Fisher Waterhouse has enabled its workers to unlock the value of the data it holds through the intelligent automation of information management.  Not only are existing workers being empowered through better and quicker information retrieval, but the firm is able to attract high-flying law graduates to further enhance its reputation as one of Europe’s fastest growing full service law firms.”

About Field Fisher Waterhouse
Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP is a full service European law firm with offices in Brussels, Hamburg, London and Paris and exclusive relationships with leading firms in Spain and Italy. With a reputation for providing an excellent all-round service to an impressive list of domestic and international clients, the firm has 118 partners, over 200 other lawyers and over 300 support staff. The firm's main practice areas are corporate and commercial; finance, IP and technology and real estate.

About MindServer
Recommind's MindServer is a comprehensive software suite that integrates an enterprise's numerous applications and information repositories, enabling fast, easy access to relevant information. The platform substantially reduces the time and costs involved in conducting research, while improving the quality of work delivered to the end user. Using patented search technology, MindServer dramatically improves access to a wide variety of information across large, distributed enterprises and returns results in context for more accurate understanding and "actionability" of the information. MindServer utilises powerful concept-based search capabilities to connect relevant information in document management, records management, portal and e-mail systems and myriad other applications and databases with the users that need it.

About Recommind
Recommind’s enterprise search and categorization platform automatically organizes, manages, and distributes large volumes of information from multiple sources. With faster access to the right information, organizations can save time, enhance the quality of work product, increase the value of information assets, and improve competitiveness and profits. Recommind customers include Bertelsmann, BMW, Cleary Gottlieb, Davies Arnold Cooper, Novartis, Lewis Silkin, Shearman & Sterling and the Australian Government.  Recommind is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, London, and Bonn, Germany.

For more information, email info@recommind.com, or go to www.recommind.com.