Clutch Group merges with management consultancy business

Legal process outsourcers Clutch Group has merged with legal management consultancy business Morae Legal Corporation. The combined entity will be called Morae Global Corporaton and will offer general counsel and their companies a consolidated way to manage people, processes and technologies in their law departments.  Shahzad Bashir will serve as President and CEO of Morae Global Corporation. Before launching Morae Legal, Mr Bashir was co-founder of Huron Consulting Group, the global professional services firm, and founder of Huron Legal. Abhi Shah, founder and CEO of Clutch Group, will now serve as vice chairman of Morae Global Corporation’s board.  'We are thrilled to be merging with Clutch Group, which has been a highly successful global eDiscovery provider for more than 10 years with a strong brand,' says Mr Bashir. 'We now have a true global footprint and more scale to better serve our clients, which tend to be large global corporations. The deal is a game-changer and will be a catalyst for our continued growth.' 

Expanded capabilities

Mr Shah said that the combination of 'Clutch Group’s extensive experience in financial services and Morae Legal’s deep knowledge of the energy and life sciences sectors will create a market-leading organisation for general counsel and CCOs around the globe. The proven business development engine and expanded capabilities and offerings that Morae brings position our business to serve our clients at a much faster pace. We are extremely excited about the opportunities this transaction will create for us and, most importantly, our clients and our consultants.'  Leveraging the two companies’ combined existing locations, Morae Global’s footprint extends throughout the United States with offices in Houston, Chicago, New York and Washington, DC and internationally, with offices in London, Bangalore, Zurich and Hong Kong.

Fragmented

 'Combining Morae Legal and Clutch to launch Morae Global marks a continued reinvention of the way legal consulting services are provided to law departments,' says Mr Bashir. 'Currently corporate law department consulting procurement is highly fragmented, and companies must rely on myriad service providers to navigate the fragmentation. Our innovative model will offer general counsel and their companies a consolidated way to manage their people, processes and technologies in their law departments.'  Morae Global will continue to offer Clutch Group’s eDiscovery and Managed Review services along with information governance and discovery consulting services. The transaction is expected to close within 15 days. Morae’s Board of Directors will increase from five to seven members.