Johnson Hana Appoints Went and Keohane To Board
24 Aug 2018)
Johnson Hana, a start-up which focuses on providing high-value, low cost legal services to businesses, has appointed David Went and Tony Keohane as Directors. Johnson Hana was set up by barrister Dan Fox (pictured) in 2015. The company is supported by Enterprise Ireland. Current directors include Stuart Margetson (Chairman) a former Partner in leading law firm, Matheson, Dan Kiely, entrepreneur and founder of Voxpro and businessman David McFarlane.
David Went served as Group Chief Executive of Irish Life & Permanent plc from 1998 until his retirement in 2007. He was formerly Chief Executive of Coutts Bank in the UK and Ulster Bank in Ireland. He is a former Chairman of the Irish Times Ltd and of Trinity Foundation. He is a qualified barrister. He was also a non-executive director with Goldman Sachs, VHI and Allianz.
Tony Keohane is the current Chairman of Ervia and Repak. He is a former CEO and Chairman of Tesco Ireland (2006 – 2013).
Speaking today, Johnson Hana founder and Chief Executive, Dan Fox, said that the David and Tony would bring invaluable experience from the most senior quarters of Irish business; “The legal sector is ripe for innovation and disruption and there is an urgent need to tackle unsustainable legal costs for businesses. We are hugely encouraged that both David and Tony recognise that there is now an opportunity to transform the way large businesses consume legal services in this country and that they have identified Johnson Hana as the company that can lead this transformation.”
On his appointment, David Went said: “Based on decades of experience working for large corporate and institutional bodies, I recognised that businesses in Ireland have been and are currently inadequately served by traditional law firms. Whilst I have an appreciation for the specialised services and advice lawyers can provide in certain circumstances, there is a large volume of legal work that can be standardised, commoditised and performed more efficiently than is currently the case. By demanding the disaggregation of legal services businesses can achieve massive cost savings. Other jurisdictions have woken up to this reality. What attracted me to Johnson Hana is that they are the first company to recognise this problem and to do something about it.”
Johnson Hana provides outsourced legal and technology solutions at dramatically reduced costs to Irish businesses and to Irish law firms. The firm matches client requirements for labour intensive legal services such as commercial contracts, discovery, regulatory compliance work, document reviews, legal research and data protection with a panel of highly qualified lawyers who are attracted by the flexible working arrangements that Johnson Hana facilitates and bespoke technology platforms which help to minimise spend. On a like-for-like basis, Johnson Hana charges more than 50% less than would be expected for similar work from a large Irish law firm.”
Issued on behalf of Johnson Hana by Gordon MRM
Contact: Ray Gordon