Devon law firm's app wins award

A leading Devon law firm has scooped a national award at the inaugural Legal Innovation Awards for its ground-breaking iPhone App for clients.

Stephens Scown LLP launched its “My Lawyer” App in November 2014 as a way of allowing clients to keep track of their cases quickly and easily while they were on the move. The App allows clients to view documents, keep up to date with costs, pay bills online and diarise key dates.

Stephens Scown won the Client Management Innovation category of the Legal Innovation Awards beating a number of larger national law firms including Pinsent Masons and Hogan Lovells.

The judges were full of praise, commenting: “The judges were wowed by the My Lawyer App. They were impressed by its simplicity, transparency and shear usability and felt it can really make a noticeable difference for the future of client management.”

Stephens Scown’s managing partner Robert Camp said: “This is a great achievement for the firm and proves once again that we are right up there competing and winning against the biggest law firms in the UK. We may be much smaller, but I hope this shows that our commitment to client service and ability to innovate and improve sets us apart.

“We are always looking at ways to develop our client service and offer our clients something extra. The idea for our My Lawyer App was to make life easier for our clients and the feedback we have had so far shows that it seems to be doing just that.”

The App has been well received by the firm’s clients. Hannah Nobbs from Partridge Farm commented: “Like many farmers, paperwork is not one of our favourite things! The App is great because we can see what is happening really quickly and easily from our phones, without having to wade through lots of paperwork or make loads of phone calls. It really does make our lives easier – and when you are as busy as us, that is a fantastic thing!”

The Legal Innovation Awards is in its first year, and aims to recognise the people who are driving the legal profession forward by applying imagination and ingenuity to improve the delivery of legal advice.

Exeter-based creative agency Toucan Design was involved in the design and development of the App.

The My Lawyer App is available for use on iPhones and can be downloaded for free on the iTunes store. It will be rolled out onto other platforms based on client demand.

Stephens Scown has over 270 staff, including more than 50 partners, across its offices in Exeter, Truro and St Austell. For more information visit www.stephens-scown.co.uk