iManage’s acquisition of RAVN Systems has been one of biggest LegalTech stories of the year to date. With the deal, announced in May, being widely hailed as an example of AI climbing another step higher in it’s coming-of-age process.

At Legal Geek, we’ve been pondering matters a little further and found ourselves wondering how, five months after acquisition, life has changed for London-based RAVN Systems under ownership of US-based document management solutions provider iManage.

So when we saw Robert Florendine, Solutions Architect at RAVN, at the Legal Geek conference, we felt we had to ask what the new set-up was like.

“It is really interesting and what I have observed the most is that the pace of change has been very gradual,” said Florendine, speaking to Legal Geek on the sidelines of the start-up alley.

“At RAVN, we have some employees who are integral to our product who really love working in a start-up culture.

“So if iManage had turned up and given it the big ‘I am’ that wouldn’t have gone down well.

“But there has been a light touch. We’re considered within iManage as the AI centre of excellence and we are still at the same offices at Clifton Street so it has felt like business as usual.  

“The biggest difference is that with iManage’s tech being installed in 70% of the top 200 US law firms, we’ve gone from having to knock on doors in the legal world to having 3,000 clients.”