Modern Law spoke to Susan Henry, Operations Director at Foresight, about the company’s exciting growth plans for this year, and how the partnership with handl Group has enabled further opportunity for investment and innovation in technology, taking the business to the next level.
Foresight is an industry-leading, nationwide provider of expert witness services, providing an expert witness panel to support criminal, immigration and family law cases. Dedicated to helping legal professionals save time and work smarter, Foresight sources the most suitably qualified and relevantly experienced experts to support your case. With almost 15 years’ experience, Foresight is well-versed in the full breadth of legal cases and provides expert witnesses to criminal solicitors, family solicitors, local authorities, barristers and private clients. Drawn from all over the UK, Foresight’s nationwide panel covers a huge range of clinical and forensic medical, psychological, psychiatric, accountancy and IT disciplines. According to Foresight’s Group Operations Director, Susan Henry, “Tracking down a suitable expert witness can be an extremely time-consuming process – especially when it comes to the more obscure expert witnesses that we have in our network – so this quickly becomes a costly process for legal professionals and local authorities. Instructing Foresight minimises that process and delivers highly experienced, renowned and qualified experts, enabling clients to spend more time on other important matters.” Susan continues, “Once our clients select their chosen expert we then maintain communication, updating them on their report’s progress and managing their deadline, delivering a quality report that creates a convincing picture of evidence for their case.” Foresight was acquired by the handl Group in May 2018, and Susan says, “It has definitely been a learning curve for both Foresight and the handl Group. But not only has the Group allowed us to springboard off their business model and strategy, to take Foresight forward, the result is also well above anything we could have imagined in terms of
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progress. The power behind the Group and its aspirations for success are becoming reality, and it’s great to be seen as an important piece in the strategic jigsaw. And the belief handl has shown in us has given us the confidence to think bigger and better in every aspect of the business.” The acquisition has proved an exciting opportunity for both Foresight and handl, as Foresight looks to strengthen its service offerings assisting in the administration and the provision of quality expert witness evidence. To take Foresight to the next operational level, the company has also benefitted from additional investment into innovation across its IT platforms and systems, resulting in the technologies that are used in the civil sector also being implemented and applied to the criminal and family sector. Susan adds, “So, from the innovation and technology point of view, Foresight has not just been able to move the goalposts, we’ve actually widened them to include previously unachievable opportunities.” Equally important, according to Susan, is the synergy from the Group’s customer base. She emphasises, “One of the things that we do well is connect with our customers. The boundaries we had as a small company have been removed and we have more customer opportunities now through handl, and more doors are opening to us. The customer journey has always been central to Foresight’s operations and now, from an operational perspective, the adoption of Group practices has resulted in understanding and strengthening each part of that journey to ensure that we provide the best possible