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Fulcrum GT Recognized on the 2023 Inc. 5000

Following three years of strong revenue growth and international expansion, Fulcrum GT joins the prestigious list for the first time, ranking in upper half of America’s 5000 fastest-growing private companies

CHICAGO, August 15, 2023 – Inc. revealed today that Fulcrum GT, provider of the leading digital business platform for legal and professional services firms, Snap Direct, ranks No. 2417 on the 2023 Inc. 5000, its annual list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The ranking is among companies in 32 different industry verticals and against significant competition across the most impressive private businesses in the U.S.

The prestigious ranking provides a data-driven look at the most successful companies within the economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent, entrepreneurial businesses. Facebook, Chobani, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other household name brands gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

“We are honored and thrilled to have achieved this remarkable milestone of making it onto the Inc. 5000 list. This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team, the trust of our clients, and our commitment to driving innovation in the tech industry.” – Ahmed Shaaban, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Fulcrum GT

The Inc. 5000 class of 2023 represents companies that have driven rapid revenue growth while navigating inflationary pressure, the rising costs of capital, and seemingly intractable hiring challenges. Among this year’s top 500 companies, the average median three-year revenue growth rate ticked up to an astonishing 2,238 percent. In all, this year’s Inc. 5000 companies have added 1,187,266 jobs to the economy over the past three years.

For complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, location, and other criteria, go to www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc. magazine, available on newsstands beginning Tuesday, August 23.

“Running a business has only gotten harder since the end of the pandemic,” says Inc. editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. “To make the Inc. 5000—with the fast growth that requires—is truly an accomplishment. Inc. is thrilled to honor the companies that are building our future.”

About Fulcrum GT

Fulcrum GT is the leading provider of secure, reliable business solutions designed for professional services firms including legal, accounting and consulting firms. The Fulcrum Digital Business Platform simplifies and standardizes business operations to help firms run smoothly, efficiently, and effectively. From first interaction through deployment of solutions and then through ongoing day-to-day operations post go-live, the company emphasizes a partnership approach to its client relationships, with solution experts remaining available long-term to provide support, advice, and assistance. With more than 26 patented products, business processes and qualified Partner Packaged Solutions, Fulcrum GT is SAP’s designated preferred partner for law firms and other professional services organizations. For more information visit fulcrumgt.com.

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Media Contact

Vicki LaBrosse, Edge Marketing

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More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2023 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2022. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2022 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to four decimal places.

About Inc.

Inc. Business Media is the leading multimedia brand for entrepreneurs. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of our community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating our future. Inc.’s award-winning work reaches more than 50 million people across a variety of channels, including events, print, digital, video, podcasts, newsletters, and social media. Its proprietary Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to rank the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The recognition that comes with inclusion on this and other prestigious Inc. lists, such as Female Founders and Power Partners, gives the founders of top businesses the opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, slated for October 31 – November 2 in San Antonio, visit http://conference.inc.com/.

Part 1: In Conversation With…Jonathan Hall, Vinson & Elkins

Fulcrum’s Casey Beck speaks with Jonathan Hall, Senior Director New Business Intake & Conflicts at Vinson & Elkins about his approach to risk management at his prestigious international firm.

MLB London Series – Chicago Cubs vs St Louis Cardinals

On Saturday, June 24 2023, Fulcrum GT with a VIP group of law firm leaders are attending the MLB London Series Baseball match between Chicago Cubs and St Louis Cardinals.

Article: Navigating Enterprise Platforms and Best-of-Breed Software

Fulcrum-Navigating-Enterprise-Platforms-and-Best-of-Breed-Software-PDF-2 Download

How to fine tune your approach to New Business Intake

Author: Casey Beck, Assoc. Director, Risk Management, Fulcrum GT

Law firms, particularly lawyers, face growing challenges when accepting new business requests and the process is an essential part of every lawyer’s responsibility. Fulcrum’s Upfront solution gives lawyers higher levels of confidence in data quality and new business decisions because its intelligent workflow reduces the number of questions lawyers need to answer. It simplifies compliance in areas like AML and KYC, making it easier to adhere to firm policies and external compliance standards. By implementing best practice acceptance pertinent to the firm, lawyers will spend less time registering matters and more time working on them.

The Following ProTips act as an essential guide for anyone looking to revamp and restructure their approach to New Business Intake, regardless of whether you use Upfront or another platform to manage NBI risk.

To put into context the challenges being faced currently by firms, below are the results from a recent Fulcrum GT webinar poll detailing the most problematic areas of NBI:

It is important to have a well-documented and defined new business intake process. Ensure your firm has a variety of reasonably current materials – including policies, procedures, and protocols. Your business process should be standardized such that routine is followed regardless of request type. You must have good instructions to accompany the forms that include not just the how, but the why. Furthermore, your turnaround time should be quick enough to reduce impediments to taking in new business to ensure amenability. All of this will promote structure and compliance at your firm.

Your intake process should always establish the identity and probity of new clients. Ensure you are conducting adequate due diligence, checking beneficial ownership, and confirming client shareholder information. Furthermore, you should identify any high-risk industries in which a client might practice. To further mitigate risk, you might also check the relevant sanctions lists. The more structured and comprehensive your client due diligence process, the less likely your firm is to run into issues during representation.

The new business intake process should always assess the impact a new client might have on the firm. This impact can go well beyond ethical conflicts. Make sure your process seeks information that enables stakeholders of the firm to assess commercial or strategic conflicts which can affect existing client relationships.

Your new business intake forms should:

present existing client information for new matters (e.g., lawyer relationships, billing arrangements, addresses)
present or suppress questions based on region, matter type, and industry sector
encapsulate stand-alone forms to promote completeness, provide consistency
present relevant options, improve efficiency, and highlight where client-matter updates are needed

The information gathered in the intake process should be restricted to that which is necessary to open the client and/or matter. Information, specifically that which supports business development should be requested after the client relationship is established or the specifics of the matter are known.

Once a client-matter is opened, the associated information should be officially “owned” and proactively maintained by the responsible administrative department. For example, we recommend the Conflicts function own the official client name, Finance own billing arrangements and lawyer matter relationships, and Business Development own client and matter classification codes (e.g., industry, practice, area of law).

When a client-matter is reopened, the accuracy of the description should be confirmed to ensure the matter has not changed. Moreover, conflicts should be re-checked as should lawyer assignments, fee arrangements, billing arrangements, billing and payment history, and the terms of engagement.Changes to the existing terms of engagement should be reflected in an updated engagement letter.

Based on history of claims paid, conflicts and bad clients claims represent roughly two-thirds of all claims against law firms. Therefore, proper client identification and vetting is equally as important as searching and vetting conflicts. You can incorporate this into your conflicts checking process by making sure your team has the proper tools to know for whom they are searching.

Be sure to take the following into account:

Client identification – such as individual vs. entity, AKAs/FKAs

Background checks – depending on the nature of the proposed representation, identification of client owners or principals

Risk Mitigation – Declining matters if the nature of the client’s business, principals of client, past business dealings or background checks reveal risks that would put the firm in an adverse light, or be client aiding in defrauding others

Conflict reports should be organized to highlight potential conflicts and facilitate efficient decision making for partners and staff alike. The structure of conflict reports needs to remain consistent, including the ordering of information, with the most relevant information being called out. Client name and Search Parties are two of the most important items on a conflict report and should be clearly identified. We recommend including the Open and Closed Status of matters asconflicts can depend on matter status and whether a client is a current or former client of the firm. The report should include the Responsible Lawyer for the client/matter, so others know who to contact. We also recommend including the Last Work Date as inactive matters are not always closed in a timely manner, so last time entry date can aid in the resolution of a conflict on an inactive matter.

One of the most important issues when maintaining matters is to make sure additional parties that become involved in the matter after it is registered are identified and added to your conflicts database. Giving lawyers a simple means by which to do this is crucial. Failure to properly maintain matters can result in malpractice claims, potential disqualification, and reputational damage to your firm. Dataintegrityis of the utmost importance and maintaining matters should reduce the number of hits to review, speed up clearance time, and increase partner satisfaction as well as compliance.

It should be reinforced with everyone at your firm that its data integrity is only as good as the quality and accuracy of the data provided. Data integrity is critical to effective intake and conflicts risk management. Without each of these measures you cannot rely on your conflicts system to mitigate conflicts risk.

Correct: Validating the accuracy and completeness of complete legal names of all parties ensures accuracy of conflicts data.

Complete: Review of all new matter conflict requests, including the matter description, to ensure that all relevant parties to a matter and their appropriate relationship statuses are identified.

Current: Periodic reviews of open matters for readiness for closure or review of any needed updates to open matters.

Connected: Corporate family research and review of clients’ OCG’s regarding their expectations as to corporate family conflicts.

These ProTips have been offered as a means to focus your NBI risk mitigation efforts. In developing our Upfront product, we have designed a sophisticated solution to meet a range of intake and risk management issues. If you would like a demo of our solution or would simply like to gain our advice on your current system and processes, feel free to reach out on the following link to arrange an introductory call:

Book a demo