Why Weightmans chose Clio Operate from a field of 40 vendors

In recent years, the legal tech market has grown at remarkable speed, with new tools and platforms emerging almost daily. This broadening spectrum of products has been a double edged sword for law firms: offering wider access to more innovative solutions, while simultaneously adding an extra layer of complexity to selecting the right systems — requiring firms to carefully weigh myriad features and possibilities against their strategic goals and use cases.

For Weightmans, the road to choosing Clio Operate as its new case and matter management system started in late 2023, a move prompted by the imminent sunsetting of its former system.

Stuart Whittle, Weightmans’ Chief Technology Officer, says his search began at an industry event, where he saw first-hand just how many tech vendors had entered the legal market.

From the initial 40 vendors we spoke to, we looked at around 20 in more detail, evaluating them against nearly 90 odd criteria which included their time in business, revenue, numbers 
of customers, size of their customers, their exposure to the UK market and the capability of their systems.

“Some ruled themselves out, perhaps they were market-specific or didn’t have experience supporting a firm needing a higher number of seats, and we eventually narrowed the list down to four,” Whittle shares.

Putting the tech to the test

Weightmans then embarked on a six-month deep-dive vetting process to evaluate those four frontrunners, looking at their infrastructure, product development and implementation process, and customer service. To ensure a thorough assessment, the firm brought together 17 key stakeholders from across functions and teams, including secretaries, senior lawyers and partners, to better understand how different business areas and roles were using the firm’s current systems (and what the shortfalls were), what they needed from a new one, and how each candidate measured up.

“While I’ve worked at Weightmans for 33 years, it’s been over two decades since I’ve done any case handling — and ultimately, people work in very different ways, so it was crucial to involve different people in this. For a system implementation to succeed, it can’t be just an IT project, because the IT team aren’t going to use the tool at the end of the day. Getting directors, department heads, team managers and people across the business to understand the rationale for using the system is key,” he explains. This input was used by Whittle to put together a 67-page document setting out all the use cases, describing how the firm intended to use the new system and what the proof of value would look like.

Following comprehensive testing, the shortlist was reduced to just two candidates. Eventually, Clio Operate emerged as the preferred vendor, conditional on contract negotiations and the completion of a proof of value, which Weightmans spent six months carrying out in 2025.

What tipped the scales in Clio’s favour

Whittle notes that, in his case, it was the Clio team and a shared view of what the system architecture should look like that tipped the scales in favor of Clio.

I went into the [selection] process thinking I was going to buy a different system, but I came out of it very much in favor of Clio Operate.

“It was partly because of Ben [Nicholson, GM Clio for Enterprise UK] and Phil [Swinburn, Staff Product Manager at Clio Operate]. When I listened to them talk about how lawyers work, it sounded like me. I don’t need to explain to them why a corporate lawyer doesn’t want a feature, but a collections one might. And while the hierarchical nature of the system’s architecture is complex, it is the way I have talked about building workflows for 20 years,” he explains.

Conceptually, having a base structure and then layering on exceptions for different work types and clients has got to be the right thing to do. And that’s how they’ve built Clio Operate.

Next stop: Implementation

As Weightmans prepares to roll out Clio Operate imminently, Whittle is already building on his previous implementation experience to make the process as smooth as possible, starting with the people element. This, he says, can be harder to get right than the actual technology itself, as a new system often means changing the ways people have worked for years, and bringing them on the transformation journey can be challenging.

“The language we’re using when we talk about the rollout of Clio Operate is very different to the one we’ve used in other implementations. We are talking about adoption now: it’s not simply about usage. For us to succeed as an organization, we must align everyone’s objectives around adoption — from my training team to the department heads. This is an important strategic decision for Weightmans, and it’ll take time to roll out, so we’ve got to make sure that everyone’s focus is on embracing the technology and getting all the benefits out of it.”

To help build this firm-wide alignment, Whittle has put together an implementation task force, selecting representatives from each department with the seniority, charisma and curiosity to help drive the transformation journey forward.

“The role of these champions is threefold. Their first objective is making sure that when we configure the platform, they are comfortable that it will work for their department. The second, and most important task is helping with adoption. Our IT trainers can show every department how to use the system, but they can’t articulate the thought process behind why we’re doing things in a certain way. The third responsibility is getting people on board when we do go live — so dealing with the resistance from employees who are upset that we’ve taken something away from them and given them something that’s unfamiliar.”

Rethinking workflows for a new system

While the implementation of Clio Operate will not include a full revamp of the firm’s workflows, some processes — even small ones, like filing an email — will likely change as a result when they are recreated in an entirely new system with a different logic, architecture and features.

“Some things will be different, given that the way we wrote some processes and workflows in our previous platform was tied to that specific architecture,” he explains.

What we must do now is take a step back and think of the outcomes we were trying to achieve with those workflows, so we can work with Clio to understand the most effective way to achieve that same results using the new technology.

Weightmans has chosen to roll out the new CMS in a phased, department-by-department approach, starting with practice areas with less rigid workflows and automation (such as M&A) and then moving to more workflow-intensive ones, like personal injury defense and collections. This plan will help Weightmans’ teams get up to speed with how Clio Operate works and build up an in-depth understanding of best practices to configure the system, notes Whittle. He also says that the team is keen to keep the system as simple as possible — with minimum customizations — to cater to all skill levels and thus lower the barrier to adoption.

Whittle estimates it’ll take around a year to get the first teams up and running with the new CMS. “The implementation is not just about Clio Operate — we need to think about data migrations, entities and client matter inception, and understand how the CMS will interact and integrate with our tech stack. We also need to figure out the infrastructure behind it and what the right setup for users is — looking at things like screen size, CPU and RAM to ensure people get the best experience of using the system,” he says.

Working closely with Clio will be key in driving the success of Weightmans’ transformation — it is precisely why Weightmans will collaborate with Clio’s solution architect to find the best avenue to meet the firm’s needs and goals. “His role is to make sure we’re using Clio in its most effective way; my role is to make sure I’m delivering what the business wants, and there’ll be a compromise between those two things,” he explains.

Once the rollout is complete, he says adoption will be used as the key measure of success. The firm will draw on Clio Operate’s comprehensive usage-logging capabilities to develop data-driven metrics. After six to eight weeks — which Whittle says is the critical adaptation period — the firm also plans to conduct surveys to gauge how well the users are adjusting to the new CMS and how their experience of using it compares with the previous system.

Whittle sees room for broader collaboration with Clio, especially following Clio’s acquisition of the AI-powered legal research platform vLex completed in November 2025. He’s also recently begun acting as chair for Clio Operate’s user group — a small, select group of Clio Operate customers and users who help guide product development, feature innovation, and the overall Clio Operate roadmap. However, he highlights that his focus right now is getting the Clio Operate implementation over the line, working with Clio to ensure all the details of the process are covered: “Experience has taught me where all the intricacies are. What I don’t know right now is all the answers. The fun part is figuring that out.”

This article was originally featured in Briefing Magazine, July 2026.