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LOT HAS happened in 275 years. From mass industrialisation of the late 1700s to the invention of electricity, modernisation of warfare and the building of the first ever computer, the way in which lives are lived and jobs are worked has transformed. Global law firm Freshfields has been a first-hand witness to all of this since its founding in 1743, a claim few businesses still in operation today can make. Indeed, the company lived through the very creation of the term Luddite – a protest group of textile workers opposed to the introduction of automation and machinery during the Industrial Revolution. The term still carries tremendous relevance, for organisations spanning all industries are continually seeking ways to implement new technologies to optimise their outputs. CIO Jon Grainger is charged with ensuring that Freshfields leverages maximum benefit from current and future technologies, creating a frictionless end user experience for clients, legal 04
Video: 275 years of Freshfields history
partners and other employees. Grainger is a relative newcomer to the industry having joined in February 2017, and it is the coming together of legal practice and technology that enticed him to Freshfields. “This convergence still has a long way to run,” he says, speaking from the seventh floor of the firm’s brand-new offices in Manchester, UK. “I wouldn’t say we’re at a ubiquitous state with technology and law, nowhere near it, but certainly the relationship between law and technology has changed quite markedly. That’s something that