Linklaters and Lovetts have created new management positions to drive innovation and collaboration. Magic circle firm Linklaters has appointed Stewart Chippindale as director of legal operations, a newly created role ‘designed to drive greater collaboration across the firm’.

Meanwhile, commercial debt recovery firm Lovetts has hired Pritti Amin as operations manager to ‘oversee the rollout of new products and services as the company seeks to expand its client offering’.

The new appointments reflect a growing trend among law firms to incorporate technology in their practices. Last year, Taylor Wessing created an innovation manager role and Clifford Chance launched two ‘innovation units’.

Gideon Moore, firmwide managing partner at Linklaters, said: ‘Clients are increasingly demanding a wider set of services from their legal advisers and expect each of these to be delivered with the same level of exceptional quality as our legal advice.’

Tony Williams, principal at Jomati Consultants and a former managing partner at Clifford Chance, said: ‘Firms are becoming more open to a level of change and it is right for them to look afresh. It is about getting lawyers to think outside of their own practice area.’