DLA Piper scoops accolades at Legal Technology Awards 2009

The UAE Legislation Library was the winner in the Firmwide Achievement Award as the best 'Fee-earner desktop/portal of the year.' DLA Piper CIO Daniel Pollick was highly commended for the Individual Achievement Award for the 'International - IT director of the year' category.

The judging was carried out by a panel of industry leaders who then carried out the second stage of judging via live presentations.

Rebecca Kelly, DLA Piper Senior Legal Consultant in Dubai, presented the UAE Legislation Library's submission at the awards following her lead role in developing the product with technology partner Affinitext. This product is a first for the region where no such service previously existed in the local market.

Jim Delkousis, DLA Piper Head of Litigation and Regulatory for the Middle East, explains, "In a very short period of time we have gone from practicing in a jurisdiction in which simply finding the law, let alone advising on it, was notoriously difficult, to a situation where our lawyers and key clients have access to probably the most sophisticated and user friendly online data base of a country's legislative instruments, in both English and Arabic. The advantages have been enormous, ranging from our ability to advise in the UAE on a consistent and efficient basis, to the ability to attract the best talent into the firm."

David Church, DLA Piper Regional Managing Partner for the Middle East, commented:

"This award recognises the enormous effort DLA Piper undertook to create this legislation library which is unparalleled in the region and sets us apart from our competitors. It allows us to deliver the best, consistent, timely advice to our clients, as well as provide them access to this resource, demonstrating the value-add service that we provide."

The other accolade went to DLA Piper's CIO Daniel Pollick who was highly commended by the judges, no doubt in response to the IT successes in 2008 ranging from a global document management roll-out to the introduction of a new practice management system.

Daniel commented, "This award reflects the hard work put in by the entire IT team across the world. It's terrific that the industry recognises what we are doing at DLA Piper."