HP in good hands with the law
Hewlett-Packard racks up $50 million in recent deals with law firms, part of an effort to offer more industry-specific products, the tech company is expected to announce on Monday.
The company is also launching a Web site highlighting its goods and services for the legal profession. The move is part of an effort by HP to offer more industry-specific products to businesses, particularly small and midsized companies.
"By understanding and responding to the diverse needs of law firms nationwide, HP is striving to be nothing less than the preferred technology provider for law firms large and small," Jim Milton, a senior vice president at HP, said in a statement.
Earlier this year, money flowed in the other direction as HP racked up fairly large legal bills during its fight to acquire Compaq Computer.
One of the largest of the new deals is with San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster; HP is providing mobile data access to more than 1,000 of the firm's lawyers. The law firm recently signed a three-year, $15 million contract for various goods and services, including an HP StorageWorks storage area network, desktop and notebook PCs, industry-standard HP ProLiant servers, BlackBerry devices, and software.
The tech company said it also signed a multiyear deal worth an estimated $20 million with an unnamed Southern California-based law firm. The deal includes providing the firm with storage, ProLiant servers, desktop PCs and services. The tech company also pointed to a $13 million deal with a New York-based law firm, as well as a $2 million deal with Pillsbury Winthrop. For the Pillsbury deal, HP said it beat out IBM and Dell Computer.
HP closed a smaller, $1.8 million printing deal with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the Palo Alto-based firm that represented the company during the proxy fight. Wilson Sonsini said it is replacing older printers with new HP color and black-and-white machines.