London—Dentons Helix has assisted FTSE 250 retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) with the transformation of its legal function into a model that is more agile, data driven and innovative.

The company appointed Dentons Helix, the Firm's new law offering for clients in the UK, to deliver commercial and real estate work in a unique way that enables the in-house team to be aligned with the strategic needs of M&S's business, allowing it to focus its attention on important strategic initiatives and value-adding business partnering. As a result of this greater focus and the partnership with Dentons Helix, M&S was able to move to a reshaped, streamlined legal team that was around 40% leaner following the transformation.

"We were looking for a law firm partner which was prepared to work with us to help us implement our transformation plan, enabling us to become strategic business partners," said Sarah Dickson, M&S Deputy General Counsel for Foods, Services and Retail. "The data we get from Dentons Helix is transformational – I can now see trends and advise my business partners on strategic issues in a way we never could have before." 

Dentons Helix resulted from a recognition that there is a disconnect between traditional private practice and new law approaches, neither of which are fully focused on enabling in-house legal teams to achieve their strategic objectives. The model which was implemented resulted from close collaboration between M&S and Dentons. M&S was very clear on what it was looking for and invested significantly in the process to ensure that the operating model was aligned with its transformation plan.  

The new model continues to provide the quality and depth of traditional external legal support, along with the technology and innovation, data and cost controls of managed legal services and new law offerings. This enables delivery across the spectrum of commoditised to more complex work in a streamlined and centralised way, providing a better experience for the business. The Dentons Helix team comprises a core dedicated team of legal ops professionals, lawyers, legal technologists and data specialists, who work together in order to deliver the mix of work required for each contract.

"As a result of our collaboration with Dentons Helix, we are now able to work with our business partners in a completely different way and concentrate on key strategic work to support the overall business transformation," said Patricia Howell, M&S's Deputy General Counsel for Clothing, Home and International, and IT. 

Ash Rees, Managing Director of Dentons Helix, said: "It's terrific that we have been given the opportunity to contribute to Marks & Spencer's transformation journey. Both teams moved mountains to get the collaboration off to a successful start while working remotely, including on-boarding the technology that underpins Helix. M&S have been true partners in this, working collaboratively but at the same time challenging us to create a new state of the art service to help them achieve the company's strategic objectives." 

"This is a new and innovative model, providing one seamless internal and external legal team that allows for greater efficiency and work-sharing between areas," added M&S General Counsel Nick Folland. "Working with Dentons Helix frees up our legal team to focus on the strategic goals of the M&S business, in line with our new business partnering model. The data that Dentons Helix provides as part of the service is invaluable, enabling us to analyse how we spend our time and make process improvements as a result. It also provides us with insights which we can share with our internal clients to help us become true business partners. This type of second generation innovation is very much how we are challenging ourselves to work going forwards."

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