BELFAST, Ireland (April 20, 2017) – Axiom, the leading alternative legal services provider, announced the official opening of its new Belfast Centre of Excellence located in the Lincoln building. The new space represents a significant expansion of the company’s Belfast operations and the third relocation for growth since the Centre’s launch in 2012. The Centre will now accommodate anticipated hiring for the next two years, with offices for approximately 350 team members and legal professionals.
Axiom’s expansion has been fueled by client demand and supported by Invest Northern Ireland. Congratulating the company, Brian Dolaghan, Invest NI’s Director of Technology and Services said: “Over the last five years Axiom has created valuable legal services employment opportunities in high quality roles to service FTSE 100 companies around the globe from Belfast. Its growth to date is extremely encouraging and reflects the continued expansion of Northern lreland’s legal services cluster which offers innovative delivery models and world-class technology solutions.”
Belfast has served as an executional hub for delivery of what Axiom calls an industrialized approach to legal and commercial contracting – a model which leverages standardization, automation, technology and tools to drive efficiency. While that industrialized model may be applied to a wide swath of ongoing and project-based work, including enterprise contracting and M&A support, the avalanche of regulatory reforms occurring this year and projected in the years to come has made Belfast a nascent hub for regulatory response and compliance engagements.
The Belfast Centre has also seen growth in commercial contracting engagements across the life sciences sector, in the banking sector around derivative documentation, and around diligence in M&A. “Axiom’s unprecedented growth in the Belfast represents the perfect confluence of client demand, market demographics, unique delivery model and our distinctively different culture,” said Al Giles, Executive Vice President and Head of Commercial, Axiom.
That unique culture, which has been well recognized for its ability to attract and retain talent, extends to innovative, industry-leading professional education, as well. The emerging field of regulatory response and derivative documentation, for example, transcends both legal and finance but is dominated by those with legal backgrounds. In response, Axiom offers both its lawyers and the larger Belfast legal market an introduction to this burgeoning field through collaboration with the University of Ulster.
In addition to this program, Axiom has offered continuing education for team members in conjunction with Queens University Belfast. The program is offered to Axiom’s legal professionals to enhance their career progression through business skills (project management, client relationship supervision), legal skills (contract law and negotiation skills), financial skills (capital markets and financial instrument) and leadership skills.
Axiom’s dedication to its Belfast team members goes far beyond education, into meaningful career progression. Over the past year, a full quarter of Belfast employees have received promotions to more senior positions necessitating the hiring of (and additional space for) new law graduates.
Continued Giles: “Our journey to Belfast was strategic, not accidental. Axiom’s robust hiring and continued plans to do so are a testament to the quality of legal professionals in Northern Ireland.”
About Axiom
Axiom, a recognized leader in the business of law, provides tech-enabled legal, contracts, and compliance solutions for large enterprises. Axiom’s solutions combine legal experience, technology, and data analytics to deliver work in a way that dramatically reduces risk, cost and cycle-time. The firm comprises 2,000 lawyers, professionals, process engineers and technologists who serve over half the Fortune 100 across 15 regions and 3 centers of excellence globally. www.axiomlaw.com
