WHEELING, W.V., October 27, 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Two innovative firms with growing global businesses, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, the law firm, and Williams Lea, leading provider of Corporate Information Solutions, today announced a new project based in Wheeling.
In this new partnership, which becomes effective November 14, Williams Lea will coordinate all of Orrick’s word processing needs, transcription production services and document services work. That work will continue to be conducted out of Orrick’s offices – primarily at its centralized operations facility in Wheeling, but also in Orrick’s practice offices. All of the employees of Orrick assigned to these roles have been offered their same jobs within Williams Lea’s new Corporate Information Center, which will be housed in Orrick’s facility in Wheeling and in Orrick’s practice offices.
Williams Lea projects that the partnership will not only improve the ability of Orrick to serve its clients but also provide a base from which to market support services to other law firms and other professional services businesses.
Orrick will continue to provide other support services – technology, finance, human resources, Web engineering, benefits, payroll and marketing – from the Global Operations Center in Wheeling. The firm also will continue to develop a U.S.-based out-sourcing business for other law firms.
Both firms anticipate that expansion will create an even greater demand for the kinds of jobs that have been created at the Wheeling facility.
“Our two firms share a vision for a basket of services we can provide from the Global Operations Center,” said Ralph Baxter, chairman and CEO of Orrick. “Now we have two successful, entrepreneurial, global enterprises committed to bringing service sector jobs to West Virginia.”
“For the same reasons Orrick has sought to consolidate its document and transactional processes in Wheeling, Williams Lea envisions the new Corporate Information Center as a strong platform for serving the corporate information needs of many of our global clients,” said Tim Griffiths. “We anticipate that building on the strengths of this enterprise will lead to further expansion of the facility and an ever greater contribution to the Wheeling economy.”
Williams Lea, with 6,500 employees worldwide, is a leader in the professional services outsourcing market. It is the only business services provider supporting law firms in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific, and the firm has been providing document, litigation and IT solutions to law firm clients since 1988.
Orrick pioneered the concept of consolidating a law firm’s support services when in 2002, it opened the around-the-clock operation in the historic Wheeling Stamping Building. At the time, California Lawyer magazine wrote: “Orrick’s move has revolutionized conceptions about normal law-firm structures.” Today, Orrick employs 131 people in Wheeling in a variety of positions, including information technology, human resources, accounting and marketing.
“The experiment has proven to be even more successful than we originally imagined,” said Will Turani, director of Orrick’s Global Operations Center. “Our talented pool of employees enables us to integrate seamlessly our operations with the firm’s 16 offices around the world. Whatever time of day someone needs assistance, whether he is in Tokyo or Milan, we have people here to take care of it.”
In addition to providing jobs to residents of the region, Orrick and its employees have made contributions in other ways. “We are proud to be a member of the Wheeling community,” said Turani. Orrick has been a supporter of the Wheeling Symphony’s “Voices in Music” program and contributed to the American Red Cross flood relief effort in 2004. Orrick employees mentor students at Wheeling Park High School in a “Partners in Education” program, and the firm has donated computer equipment to the school. In addition, Orrick Chairman Baxter is a board member of the West Virginia Education Alliance.
About Orrick
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is an international law firm with more than 750 lawyers in North America, Europe and Asia. The firm focuses on litigation, complex and novel finance transactions, and innovative corporate transactions. The firm’s present 15 offices are located in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, Pacific Northwest, London, Paris, Milan, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo and Taipei. For more information, visit www.orrick.com
About Williams Lea
Williams Lea is the leading global provider of Corporate Information Solutions. The company transforms the way organizations communicate and exchange their printed and electronic information. Its customized solutions are delivered by a unique group of people who evaluate, re-engineer and manage processes for greater efficiency. Current clients include some of the world’s leading organizations in the legal, financial services, investment banking, professional services, retail, telecommunications, automotive, energy and utilities, pharmaceutical and corporate sectors. For more information, visit www.williamslea.com
