Legal solutions firm Epiq sees fertile ground in Latin America

The growth of international arbitrations, the passing of new data privacy legislations, an increase in class action cases, and evolving antitrust frameworks prompted Epiq, a global technology-enabled services firm serving corporate legal departments and law firms, to enter Latin America. 

“We’ve had an eye on Latin America for a while but the moment was now. We are starting now with an Azure datacenter in Brazil. We’ve built our architecture within the datacenter with a couple of software platforms deployed to be able to manage, process and review data,” Carla Swansburg (pictured), managing director of Canada and Latin America, told BNamericas.

The company, which was founded 25 years ago, offers data insights and analysis for litigation, arbitration, and investigation support. 

It also offers class action and administration services, cyber and data breach response, law department transformation, legal spend analytics, and legal operations support, including contract management solutions, among others.

Epiq employs over 7,000 people in 18 countries, with services running over 17 datacenters in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and now Latin America. Epiq supports 90% of the top global law firms and half of Fortune 100 organizations.

Investment figures for the Latin America entry were not disclosed. 

For the launch, Epiq assembled a team of native Portuguese and Spanish speakers to isolate data and meet privacy standards, initially in Brazil.

The country was chosen as launch pad for several reasons, according to Swansburg. One is the general data protection law (LGPD) taking full effect (with the application of sanctions for non-compliance) in August. 

Besides, Epiq’s key partner and cloud provider, Microsoft, has its sole Latin America Azure cloud region in Brazil, and the country has strict data residency and privacy laws for datacenter operations. 

Finally, Brazil’s legal sector “is booming more so than other countries in the region,” according to Caitriona Robinson, Epiq’s senior director for business development.

But other countries are also on the radar.

Colombia and Argentina are two markets with evolving data privacy legislations where Epiq has had discussions with local law firms, according to Swansburg. 

The company is equally eyeing opportunities in Mexico and Chile, which are the next Latin America countries where Microsoft will launch Azure regions. 

Despite the close partnership with Microsoft, there's no exclusivity. Epiq also uses AWS cloud and even operates on-premise data processing, depending on the case.

Epiq’s initial target will be multinationals, global law firms, and corporate legal departments it already works with elsewhere.

The main verticals being eyed include financial services, pharma, mining and oil and gas. 

An advantage for the Latin America operations is the expertise of Epiq’s “Canadian team with the financial services and natural resources industries,” according to Swansburg.

COMPETITION

Although Epiq is not a proper startup and boasts a broad profile of services, legaltechs are spreading their wings in Latin America. 

With different business propositions, they engage in stiff competition with established legal services firms.

This is the case of Chilean-based Lemontech, majority owned by Silicon Valley private equity firm Accel-KKR. Lemontech operates in 19 countries in the region, with more than 1,300 clients and 12,000 lawyers using its solutions, CEO Mariano Werner told BNamericas in December.

“We’ve set a very ambitious goal of increasing demand for our products by 300% over the next year [2021], with a main focus on Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia. We’re going to substantially increase our sales teams in these countries,” Werner said.

In January, Brazil’s EasyJur became the first Latin American legaltech to receive funding in the investment round from Google’s Black Founders Fund, which selects startups created by black people.

And the Brazilian Association of Legaltechs and Lawtechs (AB2L), created in 2017, reports now over 500 affiliates.

But there is room for growth, or at least for greater penetration.

A recent study to asses the impacts of COVID-19 on law firms and legal departments, carried out by AB2L in partnership with bar society entity Cesa, found that 78% of law firms in Brazil do not use lawtech and legaltech services.

Around 650 Brazilian law firms, from different fields and areas of focus, were surveyed.

The big consultancies are also eyeing bigger slices of the pie.

Recently, Bloomberg Law reported that PwC, KPMG, EY, and Deloitte have been bolstering their legal divisions reach and, as Epiq, are fine-tuning services and support for Spanish-speaking markets.

According to Bloomberg Law, along with several UK law firms, “the big four also are often out in front as they build relationships with small-but-promising legal tech companies, in efforts to grow their innovation-forward appeal to existing and potential corporate clients.”