In a major shakeup of the ediscovery industry in Australia, Australia’s e.law has acquired the assets of CCH Workflow Solutions from parent company Wolters Kluwer Asia Pacific.

Both companies competed for the growing niche market for document capture, processing and review in preparation for disclosure in court.

Privately-held elaw has emerged as the largest independent player in the Australian ediscovery market, while many of the major Australian law firms engage their own dedicated in-house teams.

According to a statement, the decision to sell the ‘Workflow Solutions’ assets “comes following a strategic review of the Wolters Kluwer’s Asia Pacific Portfolio.”

Dave Lampert, CEO of Wolters Kluwer Asia Pacific said "although the Workflow Solutions unit has been very successful, and we are extremely proud of the market position it has achieved, litigation support is not part of our longer term strategic plan in the Asia Pacific.

“In reaching this agreement with e.law, we believe that we have arrived at an outcome that delivers significant benefits to all concerned. The customers and staff of Workflow Solutions will benefit from e.law’s understanding of, and long term commitment to, the litigation support business.

“Wolters Kluwer Asia Pacific will be better positioned to concentrate on executing our long term strategy of being the leading provider of information services and software applications to Tax, Accounting and Legal Professionals

Allison Stanfield, Director and CEO of e.law Australia said, "We are very pleased to announce e.law Australia’s purchase of CCH Workflow Solutions. We feel both businesses are complementary and look forward to delivering a greater depth of evidence management services to our clients".

e.law is a privately owned Australian company providing specialized e.forensics, e.discovery, e.courts and e.information management advice and services to the legal profession, corporate and government organisations.

e.law has been in operation since 1999 and was established by Allison Stanfield and Bruce Grant who both still head up the organisation. There is approximately 50 fulltime staff with casuals used extensively on a project by project basis.