by Sharon Florentine • Jun 10, 2022

Legal services, software and cybersecurity solutions provider TCDI has acquired the eDiscovery practice from global professional services firm Aon. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Trivest Partners, a private investment firm specializing in growth-oriented founder-based businesses, has partnered with TCDI as a minority investor since early 2020 and is involved in this transaction, according to a statement from TCDI.

This is technology M&A deal number 539 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022. See more than 1,000 technology M&A deals involving MSPs, MSSPs & IT service providers listed here.

TCDI Acquires eDiscovery Practice From Aon

TCDI has been in business for 30 years and is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina with an additional office in Cleveland, Ohio. The firm offers eDiscovery, litigation management, forensics, cybersecurity and document review services to clients, including its proprietary software (CV Suite).

Aon is a British-American multinational professional services firm founded in London, United Kingdom in 1982 and is now headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Along with eDiscovery, the company sells a range of financial risk-mitigation products, including insurance, pension administration and health insurance plans. Aon has approximately 50,000 employees in 120 countries.

The acquisition will strengthen TCDI’s existing eDiscovery offerings and add advisory services such as information governance to its legal solutions offerings. The acquisition will add Aon NOMAD mobile processing platform, PHI/PII detection and post-data-breach support tools to the TCDI technology suite to further support law firms and corporations, according to the companies.

TCDI Acquires Aon’s eDiscovery Practice: Executive Commentary

Christian Hoffman, global cyber leader, Aon

TCDI founder and CEO Bill Johnson commented on the news:

“For 30 years, we’ve steadily built upon our innovative, client-driven technology, and this move supports our strategy to meet our clients’ expectation to increase our expertise and technology as the markets change. TCDI and Aon share similar cultures and ideas about how to serve clients and take care of team members.”

Christian Hoffman, Aon global cyber leader and CEO of cyber solutions for North America, added:

“We recognize the strength and significant contributions of Aon’s eDiscovery colleagues and know they have a positive future at TCDI focused on growth. Aon’s leading cyber solutions business will continue to focus on solving clients’ complex cyber challenges, while establishing strong commercial relationships to deliver supplementary services at scale.”

Legal Services M&A Activity

Companies within the legal vertical have remained an attractive target for M&A plays. Among the deals ChannelE2E has tracked:

• June 2022: Legal technology company Uptime Legal Systems acquired Flywhere Technology, which provides cloud services to law firms.
• September 2021: Frontline Managed Services acquired Logicforce, a legal IT consulting service.
• July 2021: Frontline Managed Services acquired legal IT services provider Glasser Tech.
• November 2020: Wilson Allen, which provides consultancy and software services to legal firms, acquired Capensys, a technology training company.
• October 2020: Private equity-backed Intelliteach acquired Hilltop Consultants, an MSP focused on the legal vertical.January 2020: CompassMSP bought Western Digitech, a Florida-region provider of legal IT services.
• January 2020: Legility, an IT consulting firm and operational specialist in the legal vertical, acquired eDiscovery specialist Inventus.
• January 2019: HaystackID, a Washington, D.C., company that specializes in eDiscovery services for corporations, acquired eTERA Consulting.
• January 2019: Trustpoint.One, an eDiscovery and legal solutions provider, acquired Kelly Legal Managed Services (KLMS).