Resourcing specialist LOD and legaltech consultancy SYKE have extended a partnership forged last year to launch their first US office in New York. 

The office will offer in-house legal teams a range of services including secondments, managed services, legal operations consultancy and legaltech implementation.

In a joint statement LOD and SYKE said the new office would better place them to serve US clients, which include Google and Airbnb. 

“We’ve been doing more and more work for our multinational clients across the United States, so it’s a natural step for us to accelerate our business here with a location on the ground,” said LOD Group CEO Tom Hartley. “Supporting in-house legal professionals, giving them the autonomy and flexibility they strive for, has always been a cornerstone of our success so it’s very exciting to expand and grow this offering in the US.” 

LOD and SYKE, which is based in Leeds, forged their partnership in March last year, in a deal that saw Bowmark Capital-backed LOD invest an undisclosed amount in SYKE to help it further develop its legaltech consultancy. 

The companies’ New York launch follows a recruitment drive in the US for lawyers, paralegals, legal technologists and operations specialists. The office is led by US managing director Lewis Bretts, who has been promoted from his role of COO and chief legal engineer at SYKE and will maintain his existing management responsibilities, including overseeing client projects.

The new office also includes client solutions manager Lewis Davey, who joined LOD in London last year from a business development role at Shearman & Sterling, and Trayce Marcelle, a US legal operations and technology specialist who joined SKYE as head of US last year from Axiom. LOD’s website currently lists six professionals based in New York including Bretts, Davey and Marcelle. The two parties said more team members will be announced shortly.

“Our international clients have reacted extremely positively to the combined technology and people offering that our partnership with LOD provides,” said SYKE CEO and founder, Alistair Maiden. “Our full-service US office marks an evolution of that partnership, which has been driven by client demand. It also provides us with a great opportunity to explore greater integration – both in terms of the solutions that we provide to our clients and our two businesses.”   

LOD has more than 4,500 legal professionals globally generating annual revenue in excess of £55m. SYKE has around 130 lawyers and former lawyers who specialise in legaltech engineering and last year had projected annualised revenue of £10m. LOD’s investment enabled the company to expand into APAC and also invest in tech delivery centres in Europe, India, South Africa and South America.  

Australian legaltech company Lawcadia announced earlier this month that it was planning to launch in the UK as part of its global growth plans. At the same time, the firm is partnering with UK legal operations consultancy LEx360 to launch a new product – The GC’s Ultimate Dashboard – which provides reportable metrics for general counsel to demonstrate the legal function’s value to business leaders.