Smart Data, Intelligently Delivered: doeLEGAL, Inc.

“Our clients need to make informed decisions based on the “smartest” data available to do what’s best for their businesses. We enable their best outcomes.”

The rise of technology has led to swift changes in the way we communicate, conduct business, and live. Technology is rapidly evolving and businesses are embracing the digital era and the technological movement in order to stay ahead in the digital game. When it comes to building a successful business or legal team, it is important to embrace technology to help you adapt and keep up with the latest trends, and maintain steady growth. A lack of knowledge about the technologies that are available means corporate legal departments and law firms are missing out on more efficient ways of running their practices and potential greater revenue.

Headquartered in Wilmington, DE, doeLEGAL has built an incredible reputation within the legal community and takes pride in providing state-of-the-art, advanced information management technology offered with a predictable cost. A provider that delivers premier legal solutions that elevate your control and raise your efficiency while lowering overall costs, doeLEGAL serves medium and large Fortune 500 corporate legal departments as well as law firms in more than 35 countries.

doeLEGAL: A Proven Partner To Reach Successful Outcomes

doeLEGAL was founded in 1971 to help clients streamline their businesses with typewriters and adding machines. In 1976, the firm added WANG Word Processing systems to its portfolio which at that time were revolutionary in their abilities to store, retrieve and produce high-quality documents. In order to improve the processes and streamline cases and matters using this technology, doeLEGAL perfected its legal skills. As PC’s became more mainstream the company developed the ability to implement additional applications for its legal clientele and began to introduce time and billing functions, database and spreadsheet capabilities and later litigation support software.

The President and CEO of doeLEGAL, Thomas Russo says, “we were installing, training, and supporting all of these legal functions for corporations and law firms all over the mid-Atlantic area. In 1998, we created a hosted system for one of our law firms to handle a large legal application on a temporary basis. That temporary application led us early into the hosted legal application space. By 2000, we had converted many of our clients into hosted situations, doing the same installing, training, and supporting their legal applications, but able to save them time and money because we no longer had to get someone on site to perform these operations. We could act much more quickly and developed the successful formula that we use today. By 2004, we had created our own hosted, web-based e-billing and matter management application for corporate legal departments which we call ASCENT.”

Today, global corporations around the world use ASCENT to control cases and costs and drive successful legal outcomes. And while doeLEGAL has a unique perspective for where technology has catapulted the legal office over the last 50 years, it maintains a profound respect for the early technology. The company’s office is home to the world’s largest single collection of antique office equipment as a museum to honor that history, helping them remember where all this incredible office technology started.

Standing Out Among Competitors with a Clients-First Approach

doeLEGAL is guided by its clients’ business challenges, feedback, and perspectives in everything it does. The firm works hard to uncover their business problems and needs and then collaborates on the best ways to address them. And one of the very best components of hosting and using your own application is the ability for your entire team to constantly think about ways to enhance functionality and the user experience. Thinking like a client allows everyone on the team to participate and feel like they are a part of the creative process.

Thomas Russo states, “Our latest Version 8 that rolled out on April 2 of this year is a perfect example. We collected ideas from all of our employees and many of our client users and incorporated them into this Version 8 release. While not everything makes it into the application, the process of engagement from our team and clients drives a very rewarding experience. One lesson we’ve learned is to be cautious of “bleeding edge” technology. Over 50 years you see a lot of technology come and go, but the critical nature of the data we maintain for our legal clientele must be grounded in practical working solutions that can be maintained, configured, and supported over many years to come. So we are careful to upgrade our applications with state-of-the-art technology that has a strong business impact, not simply technology that is “hot” at the moment.”

doeLEGAL is built over the last five decades on sound technology that the firm could implement, train, and support at the extreme level of client engagement. This is the driving force of doeLEGAL and its core philosophy.

Crafting the Future Roadmap

doeLEGAL recently launched version 8.0 of its flagship enterprise legal management software, ASCENT. The successful upgrade happened for all global users on April 2, 2018. With so many clients already providing positive reviews and comments on how the new capabilities and fresh new user interface will benefit them, doeLEGAL anticipates this new release will allow the firm to strengthen its competitive advantage and the business value it provides to corporate legal departments.

Thomas Russo recalls one such comment that came from an associate general counsel of a global Fortune 100 manufacturing corporation. The client appreciatively said, “The new dashboards in ASCENT v8.0 let us analyze every data element that the system collects and provide a real-time view of our matters and spend. We can now make more informed decisions and take action more quickly, ultimately improving our value and productivity.”

The launch of ASCENT v8.0 also kicks off doeLEGAL’s new corporate positioning: “Smart data, intelligently delivered.” This means that doeLEGAL provides all clients with data in the form of real-time, advanced information management tools and elevated support that give them anytime, anywhere control over cases and costs to make more informed decisions and drive successful outcomes. Smarter data leads to better-informed teams that make more confident decisions.

“We intend to continue to grow and expand our legal technology offerings so our current and future clients can confidently dominate their respective markets. And as our clients dominate their markets, doeLEGAL will confidently dominate the legal technology market as the number one provider of advanced information management technology,” says Thomas Russo.

A Glimpse of the Leadership

Thomas Russo, President, and CEO: One of the legal industry’s foremost professional services and technology experts, Tom helps corporate legal departments and law firms re-imagine their business processes to reduce costs, increase productivity, and drive successful outcomes. doeLEGAL’s portfolio of advanced information management tools and elevated support automates these strategic business shifts by intelligently delivering smart data and providing legal teams anytime, anywhere control over their cases and costs to help inform decision making and drive successful outcomes.

Tom is actively involved in educating the legal community about the power of technology. He teaches technology strategy and innovation to Widener University Law School students at their Wilmington, Delaware campus, where he is also a co-founder of the Corporate Counsel Technology Institute (CCTI). He’s involved in continuing education programs through the National Judicial College, where he teaches judges about advances in legal technology both in and out of the courtroom.

“We ensure each client’s success is our first priority. By having a client-focused approach ingrained throughout our company, each and every person on doeLEGAL’s team goes above and beyond to deliver on that promise.” - Tom Russo, President & CEO of doeLEGAL, Inc.