Legal Advantage, LLC Announces ISO 27001 Compliance
Tuesday, September 03, 2008
Bethesda, MD - Legal Advantage a leader in the legal support services industry is proud to announce that it is ISO 27001 compliant. ISO 27001 generally is regarded as one of the highest and strictest security compliance programs.
ISO 27001 is a management system that identifies, manages and minimizes a range of threats to business information. Compliance with this standard highlights an organization’s efforts to protect clients’ information and data. This compliance is intended to make information and information systems more dependent, to maintain confidentiality and integrity. This certification also ensures compliance with legal, statutory, regulatory and contractual requirements. In addition, ISO 27001 compliance improves corporate governance and assurances to stakeholders such as clients, investors, consumers and suppliers.
“Although our information technology (IT) procedures were always robust and conformed to the highest standards, this compliance will instill even greater confidence in our clients. They trust us with their confidential data and we take that trust very seriously” said Farrukh Baig, VP of IT. “Currently we are in compliance with almost all federal and state regulatory requirements. This was a step up to ensure additional comfort.”
Aqil Chishty, Senior Director of IT, said, “This compliance is another example of how Legal Advantage goes to great lengths to make sure that we are committed to providing the highest level of service to our clients. We do this while increasing quality and turn around times for our clients. Our goal is to provide access to our services through any medium with the highest security levels in place.”
ABOUT LEGAL ADVANTAGE: With over seven years of solid industry experience, Legal Advantage has carved a niche for itself in the intellectual property and litigation support Services arena. For intellectual property attorneys, patent agents and individual inventors, Legal Advantage offers services including Prior Art Searches, Patent Proofreading Services, Patent Illustration & Design Services as well as drafting of patent applications.
Legal Advantage also offers world-class services in litigation support services like Document Review, Legal Research, Trial Graphics, and Electronic Discovery. The real benefits derived from these services include reduced costs, faster project completion, and a higher quality end-product deliverable.
The firm has set the gold standard for legal support services with advanced technological capabilities, proven process methodologies, innovation, including consistently cost-effective and higher-than-industry-standard quality offerings.
Founded by seasoned intellectual property attorneys and litigators, Legal Advantage combines unparalleled dependability, accuracy, and client service - resulting in a stellar client retention rate that is among the highest in the industry.
Legal Advantage is headquartered in the Washington DC suburb of Bethesda, MD and has offices in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Hyderabad, India.
Legal Advantage completes 15,000th Patent Illustration and Prior Art project
Friday, August 25, 2008
BETHESDA, MD- Legal Advantage, a leader in the Legal Services Industry, is proud to announce the successful completion of its 15,000th Patent Illustration and Prior Art project earlier this year.
In announcing this historic milestone, Mirza Baig, CEO of Legal Advantage, said, " This is a result of our 110% commitment to being the best IP and litigation support firm out there. We continue to come up with several firsts in the industries including highly regimented and acclaimed training programs for new hires, six sigma process implementation, 24x7 operations, the best rated user friendly web portal and the utmost commitment to quality through our proprietary 72 point QC list for prior art and patent illustrations.
“Legal Advantage’s teams today in Bethesda, Washington DC, Chicago, New York, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Ottowa and Hyderbad, India ought to be very proud of what they have accomplished” said Samba Rao, Vice President of Operations. He continued “Our goal is to build on this and continue to be an embodiment of quality and service in the legal services realm"
For patent prosecution, Legal Advantage provides patent design, patent illustration, prior art search and patent proofreading services. “Legal Advantage’s mission is to be the marquee Legal Support Services firm in the world” Mirza Baig added.
“It took us seven years to get to achieve the 15,000 project level but at our current rate, we should be able to accomplish the same in less than two years now,” said Harold Pieroway, Senior Director of Account Services.
This continuous quest for perfection has made Legal Advantage the partner of choice for at least 50 of the AMLAW 200 law firms and many Fortune 100 corporations.
The Intellectual Property division of the firm operates 24x7, with more than one hundred people on staff to handle areas such as DNA and Chemical Sequencing searches, mechanical illustrations, judicial tracking, and e-filing, as well as an array of designs and utilities, ensure flawless workflow.
With a standard turnaround time of less than 72 hours, Legal Advantage is known for its quickly executed, yet accurate and impressive Intellectual Property searches and drawings that require minimal revision. This ensures swift deliverability, enabling clients to remain a step ahead of their competitors.
ABOUT LEGAL ADVANTAGE: With over seven years of solid industry experience, Legal Advantage has carved a niche for itself in the Intellectual Property Services arena. Legal Advantage offers a full suite of legal services. For intellectual property attorneys, patent agents and individual inventors, Legal Advantage offers services including Prior Art Searches, Patent Proofreading Services, Patent Illustration & Design Services as well as drafting of patent applications.
This aside, Legal Advantage also renders world-class services in Legal and Litigation support/services like Document Review, Legal Research, Trial Graphics, and so on. The real benefits derived from these services include reduced costs, faster project completion, and a higher quality end-product deliverable.
The firm has set the gold standard for legal support services with advanced technological capabilities, proven process methodologies, innovation, including consistently cost-effective and higher-than-industry-standard quality offerings.
Founded by seasoned intellectual property attorneys and litigators with over 25 years of legal experience, Legal Advantage combines unparalleled dependability, accuracy, and client service - resulting in a stellar client retention rate that is among the highest in the industry.
Legal Advantage also has a full range of Litigation Support services ranging from Electronic Discovery and Document Review services to Contract management and memo writing services.
Legal Advantage, LLC Establishes “Customer Bill of Rights”
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
BETHESDA, MD- Legal Advantage is pleased to announce it has formalized a “Customer Bill of Rights” designed to solidify Legal Advantage’s continued commitment to its clients and ensure an enhanced customer experience in all aspects of its business and services. Legal Advantage is the first company in the patent illustration, prior art search, document review, and legal research to memorialize a Customer Bill of Rights.
Legal Advantage, LLC appoints Louis A. Charest, Vice President, Document Review
Monday, February 25, 2008
New Business Development Professional to Lead Legal Advantage’s Expansion of Document Review Service Offerings
BETHESDA, MD- Legal Advantage, LLC announces the addition of Louis (“Lou”) A. Charest to its management team to focus on further developing document review services. In this senior business development role, Mr. Charest adds to Legal Advantage’s mission of providing timely and affordable document review services to law firms and corporations throughout the domestic and international markets.
Lou Charest is a nationally recognized sales executive with over 25 years of professional leadership experience in the legal support industry. Prior to joining Legal Advantage, he co-founded Recordtrak, a record retrieval company that pioneered a cost containment strategy for mass tort litigation and insurance record procurement, which generated in excess of $250 million in revenue. As Executive Vice President of Recordtrak, Lou executed sales agreements with Fortune 500 companies as well as the nation's top Am Law 100 firms. He oversaw Recordtrak's nationwide expansion into Texas and California that produced $10 million in sales revenue per annum. Most recently he served as a Senior Consultant for Medical Copy Service and Medical Research Consultants. His three decades of senior management experience, proven sales methodologies, and entrepreneurial vision have resulted in transformative growth for the legal support industry.
“I have had the great privilege of working with some of the leading law firms and corporations on large-scale litigation support projects including document review, document coding and other discovery services. My role with Legal Advantage is truly a great fit given the company’s commitment to providing the highest level of quality and value for document review services,” said Lou Charest.
“We were looking for a business development executive with world-class skills who can lead our accelerated growth in document review. Lou’s track record of success with almost every AmLaw100 firm for litigation support business gives us the senior leadership experience that we were seeking. We are pleased to welcome Lou to our growing team,” said Mirza Baig, CEO of Legal Advantage.
“We are uniquely situated to provide the highest level of quality legal support and with Lou’s addition we will be able to further emphasize that message with the rest of the industry. From the very beginning, we have focused on foundational level training of at least 500 plus hours for our legal associates, state-of–the-art facilities, secure and trusted delivery mechanisms, and a holistic approach to engagement management with local delivery capability. This has enabled us to distinguish ourselves on quality, effieciency, and service” said Ashar Akhtar, Managing Attorney of Operations.
Managed by experienced US-licensed attorneys, Legal Advantage maintains a staff over 35 permanent full-time professional legal associates with extensive experience in document review. Every legal associate undergoes an intensive training program on American jurisprudence and is continuously evaluated for advanced comprehension, accuracy, and productivity. With expertise in subject matter coding, substantive privilege coding, deposition summarization, and dedicated first- and second-level quality control teams, Legal Advantage provides comprehensive document review capabilities with unparalleled turnaround times. Currently Legal Advantage has about 150 full time employees with about 80 staff members devoted to intellectual property prior art search, patent design, and patent illustration services. Legal Advantage plans to add an additional 100 full time legal associates by the end of the year.
Legal Advantage, LLC appoints Ashar Akhtar Managing Attorney-Operations
Monday, December 10, 2007
New Managing Attorney Enhances Legal Advantage’s Role in Document Review Service Offerings
Bethesda, MD-Legal Advantage, LLC announces the promotion of Ashar Akhtar to Managing Attorney—Operations. In this expanded role, Mr. Akhtar will continue Legal Advantage’s mission of providing timely and affordable document review services to Law Firms and Corporations throughout the United States and abroad.
With over seven years of experience as an attorney in metropolitan Washington DC area, Mr. Akhtar understands the intricacies of large-scale document review and legal research.
He previously held a number of positions at both private law firms and large federal government contractors. Additionally, he has contracted at several Am Law 100 law firms as well as Fortune 500 corporations and has worked on large scale document reviews for a number of federal agencies and corporate clients representing varied industries, including, investment banking, public health, and financial regulation.
“During my time in private practice, as well as my time contracting with large law firms and corporations, I was fortunate to be able to work at organizations that genuinely cared about providing quality legal advice. These days, the emphasis seems to be so much more so on quantity, whether it is the number of large clients, or the amount of billing hours an attorney accumulates. This is especially true in the document review part of the e-Discovery process, where diligence and thoroughness is often compromised for speed. In this sense, making the step to Legal Advantage was perfect. I was able to find an organization whose corporate culture emphasized excellence in litigation support services. It sounds cliché, but it really is nice to find a company that promotes quality over quantity. The unique thing about Legal Advantage is that we have the facilities and manpower already in place to deliver large-scale document review, and that makes the ability to focus on superior service that much easier. With this promotion, I am very much looking forward to continuing with the professional and ethical value system in which I am comfortable.”
Mr. Akhtar graduated from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia in 1997 with a B.S. in Commerce/Finance and then earned his J.D. from the College of William & Mary School of Law. He is currently enrolled in an M.A. program for Library & Information Science at the University of South Florida and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association.
Mirza Baig, CEO of Legal Advantage, LLC, stated “This well deserved promotion is a result of Ashar’s extreme dedication and success within our organization. He has been quickly recognized by his co-workers and our clients as an expert in managing large and complex document review projects.”
About Legal Advantage
Legal Advantage, LLC is a leading provider of cost-effective legal support services. Our document review, patent illustration, trial graphics/animation, patent proofreading and immigration application processing service offerings enable law firms and corporations to work more efficiently and effectively. To date, we have successfully completed over 15,000 projects for law firms and corporations throughout the United States and abroad.
Legal Advantage, LLC Appoints Regional Sales Director – Los Angeles, CA
November 11, 2007
BETHESDA, MD, – Legal Advantage, LLC, a premier provider of legal support services to clients throughout the United States and abroad, announced today the appointment of Brian McLaughlin as Regional Sales Director for its Los Angeles office. With more than 8 years of experience in executive sales roles, Mr. McLaughlin is ideally suited to lead Legal Advantage’s efforts in the Los Angeles legal marketplace, as well as directly contribute to the company’s overall growth in the Southern California region.
“In our search for another member of our sales team, we were seeking a sales professional with a solid understanding of the legal marketplace who could accelerate the growth of our core patent illustration services and further expand our document review service offering. We are confident that Brian’s consistent track record of success in sales will help us to realize our aggressive expansion plans in Southern California. We are pleased to welcome Brian as the newest addition to our nationwide team of sales professionals” stated James Eglin, VP of Sales and Marketing in making this announcement.
Mr. McLaughlin has held senior sales positions at a number of legal and employer service companies, including Bowne & Co, IKON Inc, and ADP.
“Over the years, I have been fortunate to work with a number of industry leaders that are renowned for the quality of their service and their ability to save clients a considerable amount of money from their current legal spend. With increased pressure on organizations to reduce the costs pertaining to large and complex litigations, our legal support and document review service offerings will be very favorably received by the market. With our technology, experience, staff and optimized processes, we are uniquely positioned in our industry and I’m excited to be part of the team,” said Brian McLaughlin.
Legal Advantage, LLC Appoints New Director of Sales – Washington, DC
October 17, 2007
BETHESDA, MD, October 17, 2007 – Legal Advantage, LLC, a premier provider of legal support services to clients throughout the United States and abroad, announced today the appointment of David Hemperly as Regional Sales Director for its Washington DC office. With more than 15 years of experience in executive leadership and sales roles, Mr. Hemperly is ideally suited to lead Legal Advantage’s efforts to continue to serve the DC legal marketplace, as well as directly contribute to the company’s overall growth in the metro DC region.
“In our search for another Sales Director, we were looking for a sales professional with high customer-serviced selling experience who could accelerate the growth of our core patent illustration services and win the rapport of law firms and corporate counsel. We are confident that David’s consistent track record of success in sales will help us to realize our aggressive expansion plans. We are pleased to welcome David to our quickly growing team of professionals whom are focused on providing the industry’s highest quality legal support services” stated James Eglin, VP of Sales and Marketing in making this announcement.
Mr. Hemperly has held senior sales positions at a number of legal and marketing service companies, including Peer-Web, Inc., Active Interest Media, Neopost, Inc., and Yellow Book USA. As National Accounts Manager/Sales Manager of Peer-Web, Inc., Mr. Hemperly led successful client accumulation with 200% growth in revenue, and helped the company secure numerous marketing Fortune 1000 customers. In addition, Mr. Hemperly held several Account Manager positions at Neopost, Inc., a leading supplier of mailing and document handling products company to law firms, where he grew revenue 120% in less than 15 months and was promoted to Regional Specialist Account Manager. While at Active Interest Media and Yellow Book USA, Mr. Hemperly won several industry awards and revenue grew 146% across the first year, and coordinated regional sales of web-based advertising increasing revenue by 140%, respectively.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been blessed to work with companies that delivered a very high quality of service, where they were well positioned in rapidly emerging growth areas. With the continued financial pressure on law firms to stick to their core legal services while exploring other options for their administrative tasks, our legal support services, patent illustration, document review, and trial graphics offerings are poised for record growth. With Legal Advantage’s [technology, team of people, and processes/resources,] Legal Advantage is ideally positioned to participate and gain market share in this growth and I’m excited to be part of the team,” said David Hemperly. “I’m confident that the strong management team of Legal Advantage, along with my skills will help us position ourselves as the recognized leader in this legal support services space.”