A UK firm transforming the way the legal sector operates has been acquired.
HyperLaw, which is located on the Staffordshire Technology Park in Stafford, was founded by experienced tech entrepreneur Mike Washburn in 2014.
Washburn (pictured, left) previously launched and sold ScriptSwitch for £50 million. In 2022 he said he had invested more than £1.3m in the development of HyperLaw, a provider of advanced case preparation and bundling software.
“The inspiration for HyperLaw came from my own personal, painful experience of fighting a legal claim, with my legal team regularly coming into meetings armed with 20-plus lever arch folders full of paperwork and being constantly charged for various people reading the same information,” he said in 2022.
“This got me thinking: how can we take a very traditional industry with laborious practices and bring it into the 21st Century through the clever use of technology?”
Now it has been acquired by Australian company Legal Ready, described as a global leader in litigation management technology.
The firms say the strategic acquisition – for an undisclosed sum – creates ‘an unmatched end-to-end solution designed for UK barristers, law firms, and government legal departments, enabling them to prepare and present cases with greater efficiency and strategic edge’.
It will enable legal teams to leverage AI-enabled tools to manage complex court materials and collaborate effortlessly across teams; transform unwieldy PDF bundles into individual documents that legal teams can analyse and work on, using the recently launched PDFUnbundler tool; and access a centralised, intelligent platform that streamlines the preparation and presentation of arguments in any legal setting.
“Efficient and strategic litigation management in the UK has been constrained by a bundle-centric mindset,” said HyperLaw managing director Washburn.
“Document bundling is an important feature, but not a complete solution. Joining forces with Legal Ready allows us to accelerate our mission of transforming case preparation.
“Our combined platform delivers a level of integration that the UK legal market hasn’t seen – blending advanced automation and collaboration with the security and transparency that our clients need to uphold the highest standards.”
Tony Kinnear, CEO of Legal Ready, added: “The acquisition of HyperLaw is a game-changer for the UK market.
“By incorporating HyperLaw’s brilliant bundling tech into our AI-powered litigation management suite, we are providing a toolkit to UK lawyers that is unmatched.
“Our goal is to ensure that all disputes’ practitioners have the most effective, secure, and collaborative environment possible to prepare their matters, all while maintaining a ‘people-first’, human-in-the-loop approach to technology.”