Norton Rose Fulbright strengthens legal tech consulting offering

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has strengthened its legal tech consulting offering with the hire of George Steven.

George joins the firm from DocGovern, a consultancy specialising in document automation services for in-house legal teams and law firms, where he was chief technology officer. Prior to this, George was at AbacusNext (owner of HotDocs) and was head of consulting at Nalytics, an AI data search company.  

George will be part of NRF Transform, the firm’s global change and innovation programme. He will support the firm’s clients in their use of legal technology, in particular document automation and associated legal engineering tools. This includes advising on the selection, procurement and implementation of those tools.

George will work closely with Stephanie Hamon, head of legal operations consulting at Norton Rose Fulbright, who advises clients on commercial and business management strategies for in-house legal departments. Legal technology plays an increasingly important role in the management of legal functions. George and Stephanie both sit within the legal products and consulting group of NRF Transform.

David Carter, global lead of NRF Transform and chief product officer, commented: “We’re delighted to welcome George to the team. He combines an excellent understanding of the legal tech market with a strong commercial outlook, gained from advising some of the world’s most sophisticated organisations. We’re excited to bring together George’s legal tech experience with Stephanie’s knowledge of in-house legal function best practice, to support to clients on all aspects of their internal operations.”

Stephanie Hamon commented: “In-house lawyers’ roles have evolved and they need to manage their own teams like a business. Increasingly, technology underpins this, whether its automation, workflow, visualisations, analytics or tools to support specific functions of the legal team. George has a fantastic skillset and I look forward to working together him to support our clients.”

George Steven commented: “NRF Transform provides a great platform to support clients in their use of legal technology. The team already has considerable technology capabilities, and through legal operations consulting, is able to help in-house legal functions to leverage technology to address strategic and practical issues. I look forward to working with the NRF Transform team to help the firm’s clients reach their objectives.”

NRF Transform aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the firm’s use of people, processes, technology and data to deliver client services. The team also provide “new law” client services through consulting and product offerings, based on use of these. NRF Transform includes a legal technology and innovation group as well as a full stack applied technology ‘dev ops’ group, both of which have advised on award-winning mandates. Most recently, the team worked on a complex, multi-jurisdictional cyber litigation matter, recognised in May 2021 as Legal Week’s International Law Firm Innovation of the Year.