Deloitte adds Teju Deshpande and team from legal IT specialist Oya Solutions
Deloitte US has welcomed Teju Deshpande and “other professionals” from Oya Solutions, a consultancy specializing in contract lifecycle management for legal departments.
Deshpande and the Oya team will join Deloitte’s legal business services practice, strengthening the contract lifecycle management offering, according to a release from the Big Four firm which avoided any use of the term “acquisition.”
Deshpande, now a principal based in Deloitte’s Chicago office, brings more than 25 years of experience in the technology and legal services industries. She has deep expertise helping legal departments transform operations via technology, process reengineering, and outsourcing.
Deshpande co-founded Oya in 2019 and served as CEO of the firm, which has 19 employees according to LinkedIn. The firm helps legal departments select CMS technology platforms, implement platforms such as DocuSign, and follows up with services in user support, training, and system admin.
Prior to founding Oya, Deshpande spent ten years at Mindcrest, a Chicago-based legal process outsourcer, where she served as VP of marketing and client solutions. Deshpande was also previously a strategic planning manager at Sun Microsystems. She holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, a master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Florida State University, and a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University, India.
"The addition of Teju and the Oya team will further enhance Deloitte's impressive breadth, scale, and quality; as well as our ability to provide a singular destination for the corporate legal business services buyer," said Rich Levine, managing director, legal business services, Deloitte Tax LLP.
The addition will continue the growth of Deloitte’s legal business services practice, which helps corporate legal departments upgrade e-discovery and contract management operations. The practice was launched last year.
In the US, Deloitte and its Big Four rivals are in most states prohibited from co-owning law firms or operations that provide legal advice, so their services focus on related technology and administration consulting. Globally, however, Deloitte offers traditional legal advice in markets with less strict regulations such as the UK. The firm’s global legal practice has more than 2,500 lawyers.
“Our research indicates that increasing digitization of contract management is a high priority for most organizations," said Mark Ross, principal, legal business services, Deloitte Tax LLP. "Our clients are embracing the need to better understand how contracts are managed, with a true appreciation of data's power. However, they need help in assessing, and reengineering end-to-end CLM processes, as well as identifying and implementing enabling technologies. Teju and the Oya team's arrival at Deloitte further accelerates our ability to support our clients' contract management transformation efforts."
