Alternative law firm Plexus has bolstered its presence in the market again, opening an office in Sydney and appointing a NSW director.
Former vice president of CPA Global and head of group legal services at Alliance & Leicester, Joshua Box, has joined the firm from the UK where he ran his own consultancy business, Ocean House Professionals, which provided specialist services for corporate in-house legal teams, law firms and other specialist corporate support teams. The Sydney office is predominantly client focused, with some capacity for lawyers to undertake work. However, a majority of the firm’s talent is still based in Melbourne, where the firm has recently located to larger premises.
Director Andrew Mellett said the firm had continued to experience growth in the market and in recent months had added an additional 10 staff, including support staff and lawyers. “We have seen the Australian legal industry mature in its adoption of alternative legal services,” said Mellett. “Instead of growing internal legal teams, many of our clients are coming to us when they have a significant project on or a spike in demand.”
Plexus already offers legal services at between 60 and 70 percent less than most top law firms, yet Mellett is determined to improve this even more and has engaged the services of a former general counsel to assist the firm in increasing the effectiveness of legal work and productivity. “We want to decrease the cost of legal services by 80 to 90 percent on what law firms charge,” he said. “We hope that in the next 12 months we will have three or four offerings which will allow us to go to clients and provide them with a more efficient option than most law firms or other alternative legal providers.”
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