In major news indicative of the direction of the legal services industry globally, EY — the entity that encompasses Ernst & Young companies worldwide — has entered into an agreement with Thomson Reuters to acquire Pangea3, the legal managed services business.
This follows EY’s acquisition last August of Riverview Law, a UK-based alternative legal services provider (ALSP). EY says these acquisitions further its depth and capacity to serve corporate legal departments worldwide and will bolster the ability of EY Law practices to help clients transform their practices and deliver meaningful value to their businesses.
Founded in 2004 by David Perla, former Monster.com general counsel, and Sanjay Kamlani, former OfficeTiger CFO and general counsel, Pangea3 pioneered the outsourcing of U.S. legal work to legal professionals in India. It was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2010 in a deal valued at roughly $40 million. Pangea3 employs more than 1,000 legal professionals across eight service delivery locations on three continents.
“This new enhanced offering will make EY one of the leading professional services organizations for global legal advisory services and legal operations services, including legal function advisory, managed services and technology,” Mark Weinberger, EY global chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “The acquisition is an example of how EY is working to provide clients with holistic solutions, which are enabled by technology.”
EY said the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019, subject to the satisfaction of various closing conditions.
A recent report by Thomson Reuters documented the accelerated growth of ALSPs in recent years, noting that two years ago, the sector was still nascent and poorly defined, but that now ALSPs make up a market that is “better defined, quickly growing, and broadly adopted.” The report said that revenues for ALSPs grew from $8.4 billion in 2015 to $10.7
