Consilio announces intent to acquire LOD and SYKE

Consilio, a leader in legal technology solutions and enterprise legal services, has come to an agreement to acquire Lawyers On Demand (LOD), a pioneer in flexible legal talent, and SYKE, a premier legal technology consultancy headquartered in the UK. This acquisition will extend Consilio’s Enterprise Legal Services (ELS) business to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia, expand its current UK business, and further amplify Consilio’s overall global presence.
Since its creation in 2007, LOD has built a community of 4,500+ legal practitioners providing clients with on-demand expertise to meet clients’ needs. The practitioners include lawyers, legal engineers, legal operations consultants, paralegals, and risk & compliance professionals across 25 countries. LOD’s clients include 27 members of the FTSE 100 and 54 members of the ASX 200. In 2021, LOD began its relationship with SYKE, Europe’s top legal technology consultancy driving legal system implementations, optimization, and commercial contracting services. “The Flexible Talent market remains fragmented and we continue to explore opportunities to create impactful solutions for legal teams as they face an unprecedented amount of talent concerns, as a result of historically high attrition rates, budgetary freezes, and legal industry salary increases out of reach for many corporations,” said Andy Macdonald, chief executive officer of Consilio. “This acquisition brings LOD’s and SYKE’s deep expertise in flexible legal talent and legal technology consulting onboard while unlocking greater scale and capabilities for our clients.” “Consilio has a great story as it has a history of bringing very strategic acquisitions into its fold to become the global leader in legal consulting and services, as well as the world’s largest eDiscovery provider,” said Simon Harper, founder of Lawyers On Demand. “We’re excited about our shared culture and the vision for what we can offer together to global legal teams. I’ve watched the growth of Consilio’s enterprise legal services business over recent years and look forward to combining forces to reflect client needs and to establish one of the largest legal flexible talent and advisory companies in the space.”
“As we have been strategically ramping up our global Enterprise Legal Services offerings, our clients are asking us to serve them on a global basis more and more every day,” said Robb Hern, SVP of Enterprise Legal Services, Consilio. “The similarities between our companies in terms of culture, commitment to employee experience and client experience, and operational excellence have been remarkable. Consilio clients will immediately benefit from the in-market expertise LOD and SYKE can offer combined with our existing global enterprise offerings.” On completion of the acquisition, UK private equity firm Bowmark Capital will realise its five-year investment in LOD and SYKE – a period defined by considerable growth. Alvarez & Marsal served as Consilio’s financial and tax due diligence advisor on the deal. Jones Day served as Legal advisor and William Blair & Company as financial advisor to Consilio. Rothschild served as financial advisor for LOD and Stephenson Harwood provided legal advice to LOD and SYKE.