US managed legal services provider Harbor has agreed a deal to acquire law firm financial software specialists AAC Consulting.
The purchase gives Chicago-headquartered Harbor greater expertise in helping law firms manage their full revenue cycle, including billing and income collection.
Virginia-based AAC Consulting is a specialist technology consultancy that advises law firms on using Aderant financial management systems – a suite of legal billing software. AAC supports clients with Aderant-related issues such as systems assessments, project management, upgrades, data conversion and post-implementation support.
Matt Sunderman, CEO of Harbor, said: “Wherever a law firm is in modernising its revenue cycle, Harbor can meet it there, whether that means rethinking its operating model, moving to the cloud, running its systems day to day or using AI across the business to improve working capital.
“Financial systems are one important piece of that, and AAC has earned the trust of some of the most respected firms in the market.”
Ben Starkie, president and CEO of AAC Consulting, who will join Harbor as managing director of its enterprise solutions practice, said that clients approach them for the problem-solving abilities of its staff who know Aderant “inside out”.
He added: “Joining Harbor gives our team more reach into large firms, including in the UK through Harbor’s London and Belfast teams, more colleagues to support a project and a strong foundation for the years ahead.
“Our clients keep the team they know, now backed by far deeper resources.”
Starkie will be joined by the rest of the AAC team at Harbor’s enterprise solutions practice, working alongside Harbor’s finance systems staff. Both companies’ current clients will remain working on active projects with the same teams as before the deal.
Harbor’s latest purchase marks its fourth acquisition since investment firm Bay Pine bought a majority stake in the company in June last year.
In July this year, the company acquired UK-based legal training specialist iTrain, expanding its presence in the UK legaltech market. The deal is expected to strengthen Habor’s ability to help clients realise a return on their legaltech investments through training to improve adoption rates and drive behavioural change.
This followed Harbor purchasing UK-based HR consultants CE Global Partners in June, a move designed to expand Harbor’s human capital management advisory practice that it launched in May.
And in November last year, the company acquired Encoretech, a US technology training firm for the legal sector, aiming to accelerate its technology adoption capacity and change management abilities.
Law firms have been slow to embrace the rising influence of legaltech on their financial systems. According to the International Legal Technology Association’s 2026 Technology Survey, most firms have moved email and document management to the cloud, but only 60% have done the same for time and billing management, with the largest law firms the most reluctant to make this change.
However, one in five law firms said they aim to replace their time and billing systems in the next year, the survey found.
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