Case Study: Linklaters achieves major voice productivity gains and faster document turnaround with BigHand

Linklaters turns to BigHand for true voice productivity

Linklaters, a leading global law firm, faced the challenge of replacing a patchwork of analogue and standalone dictation systems with a single enterprise solution that supported mobile working, multiple languages and voice over a Citrix terminal-server environment. Cultural resistance from fee earners and specific technical issues—such as terminal-server audio buffering that misreported playback position and delayed stops—meant the firm needed a scalable, Citrix-compatible digital dictation platform. Linklaters selected BigHand and its BigHand3 product to address these needs.

BigHand redeveloped its recording module and upgraded Linklaters to BigHand3 v3.1, delivering real‑time recording/playback, low-bandwidth optimisation and remote synchronisation over Citrix. The vendor managed a phased rollout (more than 2,500 users in phase one, expanding to about 3,200), provided project management, support and minimal training, and enabled centralised, global transcription workflows. As a result — and credited as the largest digital dictation deployment in the global legal sector — BigHand helped Linklaters achieve faster document turnaround, reduced overtime, maintained fee-earner:secretary ratios, greater flexible/home working and opportunities for language-specific virtual teams, with further pilots underway for BlackBerry dictation and potential hardware savings.

Linklaters

Dave Bennett

Head of Information Systems Development