Exigent is recognized at the African Legal Awards for process efficiencies and costs savings achieved with one of the world’s largest mining companies
26 September 2017— Leading legal technology and alternative legal services provider Exigent has received the Innovation Award at the African Legal Awards, hosted by Legal Week on 8th September in Johannesburg. The award recognizes Exigent’s innovative approach to creating efficiencies and improving processes in collaboration with its client, Anglo American. The award-winning optimization project supported the Anglo American Group Legal South Africa team in achieving cost savings of 50 percent across the whole department and improving their overall turnaround time to the business from ten to three days.
Selected as a winner by an independent panel comprising of senior individuals in the legal sector, the alternative delivery model implemented by Exigent and Anglo American is the product of a close collaboration between the two organizations and a shared drive to maximize efficiency of the legal function. Exigent worked with Anglo American to implement the global mining company’s efficiency strategy: Anglo American is now able to service the business more efficiently and ensure the legal team’s expertise is utilized to the fullest extent possible and not diverted by routine, time-consuming tasks.
The implementation of this innovative alternative delivery model focused on enhancing Anglo American’s in-house legal team’s capacity and supported the team in lowering turnaround time to one-third of historical standards (from ten days to three from receipt of instruction with a 99.96% deadline achievement). Combining Exigent’s work on high volume/low risk contracts with internal improvements on other sections of legal delivery, the Anglo American Group Legal South Africa team reduced costs by more than 50 percent.
The innovative use of Exigent’s outsourced support helped the in-house team to reduce its reliance on external/panel firms and empowered the legal department to extract better value from remaining providers. Through appropriate resourcing, the allocation of tasks to the Exigent team and effective project management, the in-house legal team can now focus on their core areas of expertise and strategic business objectives. Exigent’s work to standardize contract templates also means duplicate work is reduced and consistency of output and productivity are improved.
David Holme, CEO of Exigent, commented: “We are always thrilled to receive an award, but to share it with Anglo American is a real honor. We are proud to be partnering with Anglo American as it celebrates its one hundredth anniversary. This award demonstrates how the company continues to thrive on a mix of smart thinking, business relevant technology and great quality people. Anglo American’s Head of Legal: South Africa, Kevin Lester, is an innovative leader for the legal industry globally.”
“GCs can really change the narrative around legal departments as a key business function – It’s possible to deliver measurable results to the broader business by having the courage to believe that the legal team can be an agent of positive change. It’s our mission at Exigent to empower this transition to an improved, smarter, value-driven legal function that takes the whole business to a better place.”
“Kevin and his team deserve all the plaudits today. We had a combined vision which was so important in making this work, but they really made it effective for their business by being consistent and determinedly visionary. We look forward to continuing to work with Anglo American to make their legal processes even smarter, and hope GCs will take some inspiration and believe real and meaningful change is possible.”
Valentina Moressa
Global Communications Manager
vmoressa@exigent-group.com
+44 (0) 7515 2645 14
