Dallas private equity firm Trinity Hunt Partners, which is sponsored by the Lamar Hunt family, is betting on a growing trend of lawyers outsourcing part of their grueling trial work to outside specialists.
The firm on Wednesday took a majority stake in Florida-based IMS ExpertServices, which connects expert witnesses with attorneys who need them. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but some financing was provided by Chicago private equity lender Freeport Financial.
Law firms are more often outsourcing this type of work, like trying to locate an expert witness to testify at trial or a consultant to help with investigations.
Trinity Hunt has made four investments in companies in the legal process outsourcing space since 2006. IMS is the firm’s third deal in litigation support services, specifically.
“Items like the placement of expert services take a lot of time and bandwidth away from attorneys when they could be practicing law,” Trinity Hunt Principal Blake Apel said in an interview. “They’re much better situated to go out and find highly-specialized experts that an associate going through LinkedIn may not be able to.”
Apel said they had been in touch with IMS for almost three years. The company was founded by Bill Wein in 1992. He will remain as chief executive of IMS and retain a stake in the business.
“In seeking a partner, we were attracted to Trinity Hunt’s prior and current investment experience in the legal services industry,” Wein said in a statement.