University helps law firm to win top award
Sunderland University has helped a North East law firm win a national award for innovation.
Business specialist law firm Muckle LLP has won a Legal Practice Management Practice Excellence Award for Innovation.
It came after teaming up with the university and Innovative UK to develop a new product that automates part of the firm’s debt recovery process.
The technology – developed in-house at Muckle – rapidly speeds up a number of back-office elements behind debt recovery.
The new system can set up a debt 15 times faster than it currently takes a human.
Judges were particularly impressed by the story behind the technology.
They also liked the law firm’s culture of embracing innovation, most recently through its knowledge transfer partnership agreement with Sunderland University.
This partnership, which is supported by Innovate UK, has been a key part of developing debt recovery system which improves efficiency and collection success rates for clients.
Julie Parr, director of business improvement at Muckle, said: “We’re delighted to win against such tough competition.”
Professor Jon Timmis, deputy vice-chancellor (commercial) at the University of Sunderland, said: “We are delighted to hear about Muckle LLP’s award working on projects which ultimately have a beneficial impact on the North East and beyond.”
Working with debt recovery manager Beverley Oliver, Ms Parr devised the automated system which was developed by the firm’s in-house data scientist Allen Roberton.