Opus 2 International Partners with Singapore’s Maxwell Chambers

Australasia News

04
Nov
2016

Editor

Opus 2 International, a worldwide litigation services and software development company, today announced its partnership with Singapore’s Maxwell Chambers, the world’s preferred venue for dispute resolution in Asia.

Through this partnership, Maxwell Chambers’ clients receive preferred rates on the full portfolio of Opus 2 services, including the company’s renowned realtime and daily transcription service that has been shown to make hearings run more smoothly and efficiently. These services are the ideal complement to Maxwell’s nearly two dozen best-in-class hearing facilities and they can be integrated with Opus 2’s e-bundle and professional evidence presentation services.

Opus 2 and Maxwell Chambers represent two sides of the same coin with a shared vision for enabling the ‘hearing rooms of the future’, today. By combining modern venues with modern software and services, the two entities facilitate unprecedented efficiencies for arbitrators, streamlined methods for managing testimony, evidence and lawyer insight, and remarkable reductions in the time to resolution. Ultimately, this partnership furthers the Maxwell Chambers’ mission to be the premier destination for local and international arbitration and Opus 2’s strategy to improve the practice of law in jurisdictions around the world. 

Opus 2 International was founded in 2008 by Graham Smith-Bernal, the professional court reporter who innovated realtime transcription in the 1980s and revolutionised litigation by creating LiveNote, the software company he sold to Thomson Reuters in 2006. 

“We are pleased to be working with Maxwell Chambers to offer their clients premier transcription services and state-of-the-art hearing room technology,” said Graham Smith-Bernal, founder and CEO, Opus 2. “As an innovative software company, it is important for Opus 2 to align with other entities that value the importance of modern purpose-built infrastructure and comfortable surroundings to conduct efficient arbitration hearings.”

“Singapore, with its reputation for impartiality and integrity, world-class ADR institutions and outstanding dispute resolution professionals, is recognised as a preferred venue for ADR in Asia,” said Katherine Yap, Chief Executive, Maxwell Chambers. “The infusion of premier Opus 2's services into our modern facilities is part of our continuous effort to provide best-in-class dispute resolution facilities and an arbitration experience which is second to none.”

In addition to the preferred transcription service rates to Maxwell Chambers’ clients, Opus 2 will also offer its internationally-acclaimed Opus 2 Magnum cloud platform for managing key documents, exhibits, transcripts, facts and lawyer work product, to the legal parties and arbitral panels engaged in hearings at Maxwell Chambers.

With Magnum, a complete master set of arbitration content is provided to each party—claimants and respondents, as well as members of the arbitral panel. At the same time, each party retains secure, private access to its internal work product associated with that content, including notes, tags, private documents and more. Parties can quickly search, annotate, categorise and organise documents into custom binders, and mark-up and commentary can easily be shared among designated users. Essential thoughts and legal strategies remain with one central set of materials rather than distributed within labyrinthine email threads or displaced or lost amongst piles of hardcopy documents. All materials can also be hyperlinked for expedient review of key evidence.

Opus 2 Magnum can be used at the inception of a matter or during the main hearing preparation phase. Magnum can also be used to “curate” the arbitral record as it develops over time, lodging key documents by date and facilitating seamless sharing of the record with the arbitrator—a big convenience, particularly in international arbitrations. Users can bring Magnum to hearings with access via a local server to provide assistance during the most crucial stage of a case. Evidence presentation services are conducted by a “hot seat” operator, saving significant amounts of time during cross-examination by displaying documents and other media on display screens for witnesses and other users.