Consilio Has Agreed to Acquire the Adecco Group’s Legal Consulting and eDiscovery Business Units of Special Counsel, including D4 and EQ

Acquisition marks continued growth in Consilio’s Advisory, Risk & Compliance, eDiscovery solutions

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Consilio, a global leader in eDiscovery, document review, risk management, and legal consulting services, announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Adecco Group’s D4 and EQ, the legal consulting and eDiscovery (“legal solutions”) business of Special Counsel. The Adecco Group will retain the legal staffing and legal permanent placement units of the Special Counsel business which will be transitioned to LHH Professional Recruitment as part of its global Talent Solutions transformation. The acquisition of the business units continues to expand Consilio’s expertise particularly in the areas of document review, legal process outsourcing, and Cyber Incident Response.

The acquisition will create greater scale and resources for Consilio to deliver an enhanced client experience, increase the breadth of its U.S. and International data operations, continue to broaden its Risk & Compliance solutions, and further strengthen Consilio’s depth of expertise.

“Client demands, under increasing caseloads and data volumes, are calling for greater efficiency and scale, flexibility, and ability for legal service providers to deliver differentiated value through enterprise solution offerings,” said Andy Macdonald, CEO of Consilio. “This is a significant step for Consilio and Special Counsel’s legal solutions business, to bring together our respective strengths to provide additional opportunities for our multinational client base and to cultivate the next evolution of growth for our team.”

“The combination of Consilio and Special Counsel’s legal solutions business was truly complementary, with both organizations being highly regarded for the long-standing client relationships, excellent service experience, and deep market expertise,” said Laurie Chamberlin, Head of Professional Recruitment and Solutions North America at the Adecco Group. “This divestment is in line with our global Talent Solutions transformation and enables us to amplify our U.S. legal recruitment practice, while the legal solutions business unlocks new growth potential and access to Consilio’s complete suite of solutions, expanded ability to serve cross-border matters, and the ability to scale secure technology solutions that address rapidly evolving client challenges.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in Q4 2021. Barclays acted as exclusive financial advisor and Smith, Gambrell & Russell acted as legal advisor to the Adecco Group. Truist Securities acted as financial advisor and Debevoise & Plimpton acted as legal advisor to Consilio.

About Consilio

Consilio is a global leader in eDiscovery, document review, risk management, and legal consulting services. Through its Consilio Complete suite of capabilities, the company supports multinational law firms and corporations using innovative software, cost-effective managed services, and deep legal and regulatory industry expertise. Consilio has extensive experience in litigation, HSR second requests, internal and regulatory investigations, eDiscovery, document review, information governance, compliance risk assessments, cybersecurity, law department management, contracts management, legal analytics, paper discovery and digital printing, as well as legal recruiting and placement. Consilio employs leading professionals in the industry, applying defensible workflows with patented and industry-proven technology across all phases of the eDiscovery and risk management lifecycle. ISO 27001:2013 certified, the company operates offices, document review and data centers across Europe, Asia, and North America. For more information, please visit us at www.consilio.com.