Pinsent Masons appoints Director of Client Solutions

The new global role is intended to act as a bridge between the firm's 50-strong team of innovation delivery professionals and the firm's clients and the wider market, and will report into Alastair Morrison, Pinsent Masons' Head of Client Strategy and Board member.

David will be tasked both with ensuring that Pinsent Masons continues to develop its understanding of clients' objectives and priorities in respect of new forms of service delivery, and working with the Head of Client Strategy to inform the Board's position on corresponding investment and development priorities.

Further, David will be engaging with clients to help foster a greater understanding of the growing portfolio of process and technology solutions offered by the firm to support legal operations functions.

David joined Pinsent Masons as Director of Knowledge in 2012, prior to becoming Director of Knowledge and Innovation Delivery in 2016. He has played a pivotal role in driving widespread adoption of the firm's SmartDelivery solutions, evolving from a real estate-focussed product to a suite of technologies and processes now used widely across the firm's institutional client base. Revenue from matters that rely heavily on SmartDelivery account for upward of £50m of firm revenue a year.

David Halliwell says:

"This is an exciting role during a time of unprecedented change in the marketplace for legal services. The emergence of new roles illustrates the extent to which our clients understand that legal expertise forms part, but not all, of the overall solution to a business challenge or opportunity. It's most obvious when you speak to a head of legal operations, but equally evident in the extent to which conversations around client solutions often involve the chief operating officer, chief technology officer, chief risk officer and so on. I am excited to hear more about what we can do to help our clients combine people, process and technology to make businesses work better, turning legal services from a cost to an enabler of value."

Alastair Morrison says:

"Pinsent Masons has been transitioning from being an expertise-based law firm to a professional services firm with law at its core, and the creation of this role is an obvious next step in that evolution. David is exceptionally well-placed to ensure that we are collaborating with our clients and others in the marketplace to develop solutions which are relevant and meet their needs."

Pinsent Masons operates a number of businesses and technologies which complement legal resource. In 2013 the firm was in the vanguard of legal firms to offer contract legal resource through its Vario business, which has subsequently launched into Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. In 2016 the firm appointed Andrew Henderson from RBS to grow its Public Policy unit, while in 2017 the firm acquired consultancy Brook Graham to help clients develop effective diversity and inclusion strategies and also hired Chris Richardson from EY to lead the firm's Forensic Accountancy Service.