BEST COLLABORATION INITIATIVE 2018

Moore Blatch and Bermans – EscalateWINNER

“My business represents over 5,000 small creative businesses. They are crying out for this sort of service and for the legal and financial profession to work differently to deliver it,” said one judge of Escalate, the collaboration between Moore Blatch and Bermans. “This is a good example of firms thinking outside the box to deliver something a client actually needs.”

The commercial dispute market for SMEs has been fragile for a long time, with high upfront costs, considerable financial risks and a slow process preventing access to justice for claimants. Escalate is a process designed to give SMEs that access through a cashflow-centric solution. It removes all financial risk from the claimant, including protection from adverse costs. The delivery process is changed to target prompt settlement and ensure all disputes have an outcome rather than be lost or left unfinished. It has fixed fees, guaranteeing the claimant will always be the main beneficiary of any award.

Escalate is a two-stage process. Firstly, it targets a negotiated settlement, using corporate recovery specialists with a track record of rapidly recovering assets to negotiate for the claimant using our bespoke pre-action protocol, and encouraging the defendant to settle quickly without litigation. If the defendant is unwilling to settle within three months, Escalate will, acting on a fully conditional basis, begin preparing for litigation with the back-up of the adverse costs insurance. All fees and associated costs are funded by Escalate on the client’s behalf all the way up to a High Court resolution.

“I think the idea and execution is genius,” another judge added. “I like the fact that it’s aimed at creating access to justice and that brainpower has been used to identify the key component parts and the build back up again to deliver the solution. I can see why clients would love it and I wish them well.”

Another concurred: “It’s a clever, clever concept growing out of greater collaboration across a number of industries to give SMEs real prospects of recovery without having to spend exorbitant legal fees or having to write off debt.”

Highly commended: TrustLaw (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

TrustLaw’s pro bono advice service works with thousands of lawyers across the world and judges agreed that “it is commendable work on a global scale.”

Commended: Michelmores

Michelmores’ partnership with Oxygen House designed to bring the concept of sustainability to the fore in Exeter, was “a great example of how two professional service companies, both legal and non-legal, can collaborate to improve energy efficiency and more generally seek to influence the wider community to become more sustainable,” judges said.