How Lander & Rogers turned verification into a competitive advantage

Why Lander & Rogers uses Atticus

Lander & Rogers brought on Atticus over eight years ago. In that time they've used it to build a competitive advantage in capital markets verification, creating a faster, more streamlined process that makes their clients' lives easier. "We've not seen a similar product in relation to verification," says Simon Davidson, Partner.

For clients, what used to feel like an insurmountable task has become routine. The verification process – boxing-up statements and figures, attaching evidence, collaborating on responses – is straightforward, the workspace is intuitive, and progress is visible from start to finish. It also makes them a more desirable firm to work with. "If the firm's doing things to make a client's life easier, then a client is going to be stickier."

How Lander & Rogers verifies

Verification at the firm covers prospectuses, investor presentations, bidder and target statements and related documents.

Clients work directly in the Atticus workspace, with sections assigned to the relevant team members.

"Anyone who's done it the old way and then gets to use Atticus has just loved it straight away."

Atticus also removes the administrative work that used to dominate verification, freeing junior lawyers to focus on the quality of responses instead.

"It takes away the things that people hate. Things that are distracting them from actually growing as a lawyer. If you free people up from those mundane tasks, they perform better during their day."

The features they can't go without

Version Control

On active transactions, documents change constantly. Atticus carries linked evidence across to new versions automatically, so the team only needs to focus on what is new or has changed.

"Our team only has to spend maybe 45 to 60 minutes adjusting a few little bits and pieces. That was previously a huge exercise that we tried to avoid - now it has been reduced to almost nothing."

Dashboard

The dashboard gives both the legal team and the client a live view of progress across the matter.

"They get more comfort through the process because people can see it more easily. They can see how much has been done, and how much is to be done."

The impact

Eight years in, the most significant change is the firm's ability to manage deals on tighter timelines while managing risk.

"It's allowed a lot more flexibility in the way we approach IPOs or capital raisings," Simon says. "We can manage change and be comfortable that that change is not increasing risk."

Before Atticus, a client pushing for a faster timeline or a significant change put the firm in a difficult position. "The response used to be: we can do that, but you're at risk that your verification's not going to catch up." Now the answer is different. "We can lodge tomorrow, we can manage that, and we're comfortable that by tomorrow morning we'll be ready to sign off."

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