New Platform Breaks Down Law-Firm Silos in Just Ten Years

The demonstration of TogetherLater lasted eight minutes. The implementation takes ten years.

This was not treated as a discrepancy at the launch. Several managing partners thought it sounded refreshingly deliverable.

TogetherLater is the first collaboration platform built around the reality that a law firm consists of people who own the same business but consider being helpful to one another a potential transfer of wealth.

Its founder, Toby Ormsby, says every project takes precisely ten years. Not “up to”. Not “depending on complexity”. Ten.

“We can connect the systems immediately,” he explained. “The remainder is obtaining permission for that to have been a good idea.”

The first three years establish whether the practice groups accept that they work for the same firm. At launch customer Hargreaves Crake, this has produced a qualified yes, subject to compensation, billing attribution and whether London gets to tell anyone else what to do.

Corporate has agreed to call itself a practice group rather than a sovereign jurisdiction. Tax has reserved its position. The Paris office has signed a separate announcement describing an alliance.

Years four to six concern what may be shared.

Documents are relatively straightforward. The existence of clients is more delicate. One partner has agreed that colleagues may learn his client’s name once they can demonstrate they already know it.

The platform supports this through a feature called Open Discovery, in which search results confirm that relevant information exists without suggesting you are the sort of person entitled to see it.

A notification reads: A colleague may be able to help. Your request to identify the colleague has been referred to the colleague.

Years seven to nine align incentives. This phase was initially called Changing Compensation, but sales improved significantly when the wording was removed.

It is essentially a very sophisticated intercom installed in a building where occupants receive a bonus for keeping their doors bricked up. The sound quality is exceptional. You can hear them declining to let you in from almost anywhere.

At the demonstration, a litigation partner tried referring a client to employment. TogetherLater identified the right lawyer in less than a second. Negotiations over credit began immediately and are outside the service-level agreement.

Year ten is the launch.

By then, the original sponsor has retired, the firm has merged and the incoming managing partner has been elected on a promise to move away from his predecessor’s initiatives.

TogetherLater is ready for this. Its Continuity package transfers the unfinished project into a new programme with a new name and a fresh ten-year horizon. All earlier expenditure is preserved as evidence of commitment.

Subscriptions begin on signing. The software is priced per user; implementation is priced per generation of leadership.

There is one encouraging customer story. A junior lawyer at Hargreaves Crake needed help, walked to a different floor and asked someone. The matter progressed that afternoon.

TogetherLater has asked to interview her about the breakthrough.

The request is awaiting clearance from both floors.