Herbert Smith Freehills has appointed Jacquie Hodgson as its Head of Alternative Legal Services (ALT), Johannesburg in South Africa. Hodgson will provide support to further expand on the successful foundation laid by the existing Johannesburg-based team over the past two years.
ALT combines legal expertise, process efficiency and the latest technology to handle high-volume or document-intensive work more efficiently and cost effectively for clients. The ALT team comprises lawyers, technologists and legal analysts, who together provide a seamless round the clock global service.
“We are delighted to welcome Jacquie to lead the Johannesburg ALT team,” says Edward Baring, Managing Partner in the Johannesburg office. “We are confident that Jacquie’s varied experience across private practice and in-house, combined with her specialist knowledge of alternative legal services, will equip her to lead ALT Johannesburg during the next phase of its growth and evolution. A combination of global expertise and local knowledge and talent is what we believe sets us apart.”
Lisa McLaughlin, Director of our Alternative Legal Services business in UK, US & EMEA, says, “The demand for our services continues to grow exponentially, not only in South Africa but across our global network. We now have 11 ALT hubs employing over 350 staff across the globe. The firm’s decision to invest skills and resources to develop an ALT capability in South Africa has been a resounding success in terms of our global offering, and, as we begin to work more closely with South African clients, our ALT team is increasingly being viewed as a key differentiator for us in the local market.”
Hodgson is a qualified attorney who has held a variety of legal roles prior to joining Herbert Smith Freehills, most notably at Webber Wentzel, where she trained and then practiced in the corporate team, and at Exigent, where she was instrumental in expanding access to innovative legal services into the local South African market as VP of Legal Solutions.
Herbert Smith Freehills’ pioneering global Alternative Legal Services business comprises lawyers, technologists and legal analysts, located across eleven hubs: New York, Belfast, London, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
Together, the team provide a seamless, round-the-clock service across a wide range of products and services, in support of sectors including Banking, Construction, Energy, Infrastructure, Mining, Government, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Real Estate and Wealth and Asset Management.
