Case study
Gordons Partnership Solicitors creates virtual data rooms in minutes with HighQ
Gordons Partnership Solicitors uses Thomson Reuters HighQ to collate, organise, and share documents securely, setting up virtual data rooms in as little as 15 minutes for commercial deals
Key results
- Virtual Data Rooms can be created within just 15 minutes
- Streamlines the collation, organisation, and sharing of documents and data
- Easy to use with no training or technical expertise
- Offers excellent value for money
Introduction
UK law firm Gordons Partnership Solicitors was an early adopter of Thomson Reuters HighQ, the modern, adaptable legal operations and business management software solution that simplifies legal processes, to provide virtual data rooms (VDRs), mainly for commercial deals. Established in 1994, and with 76 staff in two offices in London and Guildford, the firm has strong specialisms in health care, corporate and commercial work, and other areas, including real estate, employment, and family law. It finds HighQ easy and intuitive to use to collect, organise, index, share, and collaborate on documents. They can also set up VDRs in just minutes.
15 minutes
Time to set up a virtual data room
76
Staff across two offices
0 minutes
Training time required
The opportunity: A new structure for documents and data
Always embracing technological innovation, Gordons Partnership Solicitors could see the potential of moving physical documents and data into a virtual environment, especially one that is hosted in the cloud. As well as saving space, a VDR allows both parties of a transaction and their advisers to access or share everything they need securely and centrally, in a well- organised fashion.
Another lawyer said to me, 'We host a virtual data room in the cloud. It works rather well' and immediately I said: 'Where do you get it from?", recalls James Gordon, Partner at Gordons Solicitors. The firm was already a satisfied user of Practical Law, the legal know-how solution from Thomson Reuters. Having tested HighQ, Gordon was impressed by its ease of use and its capacity for organising, indexing, and sharing documents. “I thought, even I can operate this: it’s so simple, it’s so intuitive,” he says.
The solution: Logical organisation
The firm mainly uses HighQ for VDRs for commercial deals, although it is also deployed for disclosure by the corporate litigation team and by the real estate team for complex transactions.
Gordon explains, “The great joy of HighQ is that once you have set up your folder structure correctly, it will automatically generate an index, and then it’s all very methodical and easy to follow. HighQ orders everything very neatly, it numbers documents and tells you when they were created. It also tells you if documents have been checked or if any have been missed. And if you need to add people to the system or take sensitive files out of the data room, you can do that just as easily as taking books off a shelf.”
“This is a system that’s going to save you lots of time in the collection, ordering, and indexing of documents. Unlike lots of technical systems, it’s quite logical.”
James Gordon
Partner, Gordons Partnership Solicitors
He likes the ability to tag and highlight documents in HighQ to show clients or other advisers the key files or sections that require their attention. With hundreds of documents in the data room, it’s crucial to be able to focus on the most important ones, while keeping everything in one place. Another valuable feature is the usage tracking, which enables the firm to monitor who is using the system, when, and for what purpose — helping access matter progress and overall usefulness.
The outcome: VDRs delivered in no time
HighQ is so straightforward to deploy that Gordon and his colleagues have learnt to use it without training, support, or technical expertise. Setting up a VDR takes very little time — it can be achieved in just 15 minutes.
For Gordon, “This is a system that’s going to save you lots of time in the collection, ordering, and indexing of documents. Unlike lots of technical systems, where there’s a great deal of learning to do, it’s quite logical. You need to concentrate when you use it for the very first time, but after that you just find it quick and easy.”
He believes that HighQ offers good value considering what it can do and how much time it saves. Any law firm — even the most modest, with just one or two corporate lawyers — would find it worth having.
It works seamlessly. “To use a sporting analogy, it’s a bit like the referee in a football match. If you don’t notice the referee, then they’ve done a good job. If you don’t notice the VDR, because it works so well, that’s a good thing,” he adds.
“HighQ is a fabulous product. I only use around 5% of its capabilities, but it more than satisfies my needs, and always has.”
“HighQ is a fabulous product...it more than satisfies my needs, and always has.”
James Gordon
At a glance