Johnson Hana is Ireland’s only alternative legal solutions provider, and is both an ‘on-demand’ lawyer business and managed legal services consultancy.

Background: I am a qualified solicitor and have practiced for 3 years both in private practice and now in-house. My legal career started in Matheson where I spent 5 years, qualifying on to the Real Estate team. This decision was driven by the fast-moving practice area, the global top-tier clients and the talented people that worked on the team. Now, as Legal Counsel and Operations at Johnson Hana my role is broader, with both an internal and external focus. I provide legal support to the business, while also managing projects and developing relationships with our valued clients. While it was a big shift from an established corporate to a rapid-growth SME, it has been a fantastic first year with Johnson Hana.

What drew me to Johnson Hana: I was initially drawn to Johnson Hana as it represented big change and innovation within the legal industry, which I was eager to be a part of. In my early meetings with the Johnson Hana team their enthusiasm and drive was palpable. Even as a young company, they had already built up an impressive client list (many of these coming from referrals), who I was very excited to learn about and work with. With my role I am able to combine both legal practice and account management, working closely with clients to facilitate the smooth and efficient delivery of our services and directly interacting with our consultants to enable career flexibility and development. This unique role has presented many great learning opportunities and the chance to really add value within the company.

Johnson Hana business model: Johnson Hana is Ireland’s only alternative legal solutions provider, and is both an ‘on-demand’ lawyer business and managed legal services consultancy. We work with a technology-enabled community of smart-working lawyers with a common purpose: to drive change in the legal solutions marketplace for the benefit of all in the industry.

We aim to fill the vacuum that exists between high-value partner led legal advice and lower-value process driven legal work, helping our clients scale back on unnecessary legal spend, while never compromising on quality. Our “on-demand” experienced lawyers (with varying specialities) help to augment in-house legal teams on a flexible basis and our fully outsourced legal solutions include the provision of technology systems, project management services and highly-qualified teams of lawyers for our clients’ “large data” projects. These managed legal solutions cover a wide range of areas including large-scale due diligence and commercial contracts review, data subject access requests, discovery and investigations, regulatory compliance, group complaints / tracker mortgage process, compulsory purchase orders / right of way registrations.

Closing thoughts: Our business model creates value and generates trust by offering in-house legal and compliance departments a solution which allows them to focus on core work, get their valuable time back and to get the most out of their legal budgets. It is hugely rewarding being able to provide this assistance and to makes fellow lawyers’ lives easier. Despite the huge disruption and uncertainty caused by Covid this year, we remain a resilient and motivated team. I hope to see the business continue to expand, working to consistently improve the experience of our existing clients while welcoming new clients and consultants to the Johnson Hana community.