Univar GC extends legal team with Elevate and new law firm formed by founders of Valorem Law Group

LOS ANGELES – Apr 23, 2018 – Elevate, a global law company, today announced it has partnered with the new law firm ElevateNext, formed by the founders of Valorem Law, and with the legal team of Univar (NYSE : UNVR), to design, build and operate the law department of the future. Univar will collaborate in the development of tailored, scalable process innovations, and Elevate will develop and deploy proprietary technology, consulting and managed legal services, alongside law firm ElevateNext, with the goal of reducing legal spend by 50 percent.

“We are working with a law company integrated with an innovative law firm to design, optimize and manage a full spectrum of services,” said Jeffrey W. Carr, Senior VP, General Counsel of Univar. Carr, former General Counsel of FMC Technologies Inc., and a former ACC Board member active in the ACC Value Challenge added “Our legal team’s vision of ‘Legal Optimized, Problems Prevented,’ furthers Univar’s focus on operational excellence.”

Univar will tap Elevate for process consulting and legal services, and Elevate’s Cael Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) software will provide Univar’s legal team with an integrated platform to manage intake and demand, matters, AFAs, contract review, and reporting and analytics.

“Univar has an ambitious vision for the law department of the future,” says Patrick Lamb, co-founder of new firm ElevateNext with Nicole Auerbach. “We will help the Univar legal team to not only optimize existing legal processes and, more importantly, prevent legal problems from arising in the first place.”

Liam Brown, Founder and Executive Chairman of Elevate adds, “We are thrilled to work with Jeff, the Univar team and ElevateNext to rewrite the playbook for significantly reducing legal spend for law departments.”

About Univar

Founded in 1924, Univar (NYSE : UNVR) is a global chemical and ingredient distributor and provider of value-added services, working with leading suppliers worldwide. Supported by a comprehensive team of sales and technical professionals with deep specialty and market expertise, Univar operates hundreds of distribution facilities throughout North America, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Univar delivers tailored customer solutions through a broad product and services portfolio sustained by one of the most extensive industry distribution networks in the world. For more information, visit www.univarsolutions.com

About Elevate

Elevate is a global law company, providing consulting, technology and services to law departments and law firms. The company’s team of lawyers, engineers, consultants and business experts extend and enable the resources and capabilities of customers worldwide. Elevate is the most-used law company according to the 2017 State of the Industry Survey published by the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) and has been ranked as a top global legal services provider by Chambers & Partners for four years in a row. It has also been ranked on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies list for two years in a row, including No. 53 in 2016.

About ElevateNext

ElevateNext is an innovative law firm formed by the founders of Valorem Law Group, Patrick Lamb and Nicole Auerbach. Lamb, Auerbach and Valorem are nationally known for having pioneered the move to “alternative fee arrangements” for commercial legal work, their commitment to unwavering client service and their focus on outcomes. In keeping with their practice of regularly re-imagining the delivery of legal services, Lamb and Auerbach partner with the law company, Elevate, to bring their collective vision of the future of law to reality. ElevateNext provides a one-stop shop for clients interested in sophisticated commercial representation using the Valorem model, backed by the cutting-edge technology, consulting and operational support of Elevate. Learn more at elevatenextlaw.com