Meet Brian Sweeney of Keyhouse, a new member of the Dye & Durham family

Keyhouse had been looking for some time to expand in order to provide better services to its valued clients in Ireland’s legal sector. Brian Sweeney explains why Dye & Durham is such an excellent fit for Keyhouse — and how its customers will benefit.?

Keyhouse is a big player in the Irish legal tech sector. So much so, in fact, that when news broke that Keyhouse had been acquired by Dye & Durham, it created a bit of a stir in the industry.?

“It caused ripples, for sure,” Sweeney said in a recent interview. “But it’s been positive feedback, because we get this huge amount of additional resources, both from an investment point of view and also in terms of market knowledge as we become part of the Dye & Durham family.”?

Keyhouse provides innovative cloud and tech solutions to law firms across Ireland and the U.K., helping them deliver services more efficiently and ultimately driving greater profitably. It works with the majority of the top 500 law firms in Ireland.?

But the company has not only been trying to expand in the Irish market, Sweeney explained — it wanted to go international as well, and Dye & Durham provided the opportunity to do so.?

“We now have access to Dye & Durham products that are really beneficial to our customers so we can bring those products into the Keyhouse portfolio and give them a one-stop shop offering,” he said.??

That includes Dye & Durham’s third-party systems, including search facilities, AML, quote conversion and onboarding applications and compliant modules.?

The acquisition also allows Keyhouse to invest further in its technology and services so it can continue to help law firms get optimal results.?

“We’re all about helping law firms to do better, that’s the bottom line, and joining the Dye & Durham family ensures they’ll thrive.”?

Sweeney, who has both a law degree and a tech degree, started up Keyhouse in the mid-1990s with two partners to offer practice management systems to law firms.?

“Within 10 years, we came from No. 4 or 5 in the pecking order to become the dominant player in Ireland,” he recalls. “We developed our own software, we built up our relationships, we built up our technology and we built up a way of communicating with lawyers — because it’s all about communication, and communicating to them what their needs were.”?

From 2000 to 2010, the company grew rapidly and then began redeveloping its software from the ground up with input from its clients, providing Keyhouse with both a deep understanding of their needs and their fears when it came to technology.??

In 2019, Keyhouse migrated to the cloud and was emphasizing its importance to clients. But few expressed much interest.?

And then came the COVID-19 pandemic.?

“That accelerated the buy-in to Keyhouse’s cloud solution — it was a major catalyst,” Sweeney recalls.??

“When they bought into it, they started to understand the benefits. That was hugely important to us; it changed the mindset entirely, and we made sure there was almost no difference in the user interface. The system looked the same, it felt the same — that was the real winner. Disruption was kept to a minimum, and that’s always critical.”?

Sweeney is happy to be part of a company founded in Canada — his brother lives near Toronto, and he’s travelled to Canada in both summer and winter. “It’s a tale of two countries,” he says with a laugh about the weather extremes.?

He feels it’s important to decompress, saying it’s hard to do your best work if you’re stressed out and exhausted. So he’s active in sports, especially rugby, and loves film, music and going to live concerts.?

One of his favourite concerts? David Bowie in 2003.?

“He was just amazing,” Sweeney says wistfully.?