Orrick Marks Wheeling Transformation With a Renaming: The Global Operations & Innovation Center

On Monday, Orrick marked the extraordinary transformation of the firm’s Wheeling facility with a renaming. Going forward, it will be known as the Global Operations & Innovation Center, recognizing the team’s role as the engine of the firm’s efforts to innovate and transform the client service model. Chairman Mitch Zuklie and other senior leaders were in town to celebrate with the team.

“Our Wheeling team has been at the center of our focus on transforming the legal services delivery model,” said Mitch. “The new roles, sophisticated analytics tools and innovative processes we are developing and delivering here enable the firm to offer a whole new suite of solutions to our clients.”

When the center opened in 2002 – the first insourcing center of its kind in a U.S.-based law firm – its focus was on providing higher quality, more efficient back office support. But by 2009, the team became part of the firm’s client service delivery and today is an integral part of delivering sophisticated legal work to clients worldwide.

“The GOIC is an incredible story about innovating in West Virginia, drawing on local talent and equipping them with transformational technologies. We really have a special team: from the 19 founders who are still with us today to the hundreds of employees, Williams Lea employees and document review specialists who comprise our team today,” said GOIC Director Kelly Cullen, who leads our U.S. career associate program and heads the Wheeling office.

The GOIC is home to Orrick Analytics, today the most sophisticated AI-based data analytics operation among big law firms. “It’s been really exciting to see the evolution of the Wheeling operation from back office center to an engine of the firm’s innovation effort – with technology and task-based experts integrated into everything we do,” added Wheeling-based Orrick Analytics Director Daryl Shetterly, who was recruited by Chief Innovation Officer Wendy Curtis to build and leverage Orrick’s Wheeling platform and talent pool seven years ago.

Services and solutions delivered from the GOIC have contributed to Orrick being named the Financial Times’ Most Innovative Law Firm in North America for the past three years.