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8 ways LawHawk's cloud based document automation could help your in-house team

Posted by Gene Turner on 20-Nov-2016 10:51:22

In this earlier post, 7 Key questions for in-house lawyers considering if document automation could help your organisation, I looked at 7 key questions that an in-house lawyer can consider when thinking about whether document automation could help them and the business they support.

In this post, I've set out 8 potential benefits from using a cloud based document automation solution.  While most of these benefits relate to document automation generally, I've also noted some of the benefits in working with a partner like LawHawk which can allow you to access high quality document automation solutions more easily - as a managed service, where you only pay for agreed deliverables, without the costs of trying to figure it out yourself.

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Topics: Future of Law, In-House Legal

7 Key questions for in-house lawyers considering if document automation could help your organisation

Posted by Gene Turner on 13-Nov-2016 18:42:35

 

Document automation is not just for lawyers in firms

While the LawHawk system has been designed to make it easy for law firms to pick up document automation to provide better service to their clients at a low per-use cost, it is also suitable - probably more so - for in-house teams. 

In-house teams don't have an obsolete business model to protect - they simply have more work than they can get through, and a more urgent need to find solutions - for them and the businesses they support.

To work out if document automation could help you, consider these 7 questions:

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Topics: Practise of Law, In-House Legal

Welcome to a new LawHawk - Allen Li

Posted by Gene Turner on 13-Nov-2016 18:31:39

I'm really excited that Allen Li has joined LawHawk, starting 14 November. Allen has most recently been working as a derivatives lawyer in London for a global bank, and experiencing first hand the global trend toward automation and its significant benefits. Before that we worked together at Buddle Findlay so I knew what a great asset he would be for LawHawk and its customers when he came back to New Zealand. 

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Topics: LawHawk

How technology can make you a more successful lawyer

Posted by Gene Turner on 31-Oct-2016 07:20:21

I recently wrote an ebook on technology, and how it can help lawyers be more successful, after speaking at a conference and finding there was real interest in the topic.  Covering more than 50 different technologies, it has been downloaded many times, but the Law Society was also interested in adapting it into an article for LawTalk, which they have now done.

You can read the LawTalk article here, and it is also set out in full below.  The full ebook (which contains some more detailed information, a number of graphics, and more hyperlinks to the various suppliers) is also still available for download here: http://info.lawhawk.nz/tech-and-disruption-ebook.

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Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Legal Technology

How partners can make happier senior associates

Posted by Gene Turner on 23-Oct-2016 11:40:24

My earlier post (Senior associates: 10 ideas for taking more control of your career) struck a chord with a number of people, with the number of shares and comments I received confirming that there definitely is an issue with Senior Associates (and senior in-house lawyers too), and a desire to do something about it. Interestingly, a number of Senior Associates also told me they would have liked to have shared it, but were concerned about how their Partners would have reacted. Food for thought on how those relationships are going... 

While my core message for Senior Associates was to take control of their own lives, they can’t do it alone and depending on where their mind is at, how confident they are, and their history with the firm, they might not make a start by themselves. However, they might if their supervisor or someone else who is looking out for them gives them a nudge and a few tips on where to start.

So I wanted to provide some tips for Partners and Directors of law firms who know a Senior Associate who has more potential than they have been using and who they would like to help kick on. You don’t have to be a direct supervisor – in fact, it might work even better if you are not, or if two or more people are involved as mentors. This framework can also work for less senior team members too, but I think it should work really well for Senior Associates, who have greater ability to take individual action.

I really like the framework outlined below, even more because it's come from someone who really knows his stuff, and is being used in real life at ASB Bank.

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Topics: Practise of Law

Meaningful work a key to recruiting and retaining talent

Posted by Gene Turner on 01-Oct-2016 07:00:00

As I've written about before, purpose and meaning are big things for me in gaining and maintaining motivation, and it's increasingly important to younger lawyers coming into the profession.

LawTalk recently published an article I wrote on this containing six recommendations for how you and your team can find meaning and satisfaction.  You can read it here, and the full text is also set out below.

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Topics: Practise of Law

Don’t (just) automate, obliterate: Why it’s time to re-engineer the way we work

Posted by Gene Turner on 24-Sep-2016 14:45:43

I recently wrote a post for the Institute of IT Professionals Techblog which I came across through Buddle Findlay partner Amy Ryburn, who writes a number of excellent posts for it too.  The topic was re-engineering, and the potential to re-imagine the way we work, not just automate what we currently do.  

I think this opportunity is there across all areas of work, but particularly around Government procurement, where some recent posts by Ian Apperley have highlighted some areas for improvement.

You can see the post here, and the full text is also reproduced below. 

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Topics: Practise of Law, Procurement

Senior associates: 10 ideas for taking more control of your career

Posted by Gene Turner on 16-Sep-2016 18:30:32

A recent piece of research shows that senior associates really are an unhappy bunch of lawyers. This recent story showed that 40% of them in the United Kingdom even regret having become a lawyer in the first place. Given that senior associates are the best of those remaining after the REALLY unhappy ones have already moved in-house or left the law entirely, that’s a disturbingly high percentage!

It has also been my own experience that senior associates are the least happy group in a law firm, scoring significantly lower in staff satisfaction surveys.

This post looks at some possible reasons for this and offers some suggestions.

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Topics: Practise of Law

Stuff: LawHawk spreads wings with online legal templates

Posted by Gene Turner on 12-Sep-2016 12:42:28

I recent had the opportunity to talk with Tao Lin from Stuff about the changes that are happening in the legal profession, and how they can benefit small businesses here in New Zealand.  She has published a story  "LawHawk spreads wings with online legal templates" which you can view in full here.

It's great to see the continued interest in LawHawk as we continue to spread the word about automated online legal documents in general, and what we are doing at LawHawk in particular.  It's also good to see recognition of the great work that Simmonds Stewart have done in making quality legal documents more available - in New Zealand, and now in Asia.  Andrew Simmonds and his team have led the way in seeing the issue of availability and doing something significant about it.

As Andrew and Katherine Beck both note, the real opportunity is not to replace the relationship between clients and lawyers, but to create opportunities for a better relationship.  More informed clients, working with efficient lawyers who can do work for them a lot more cheaply - and still make a good profit.

You can read the full story below.

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Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Document Automation

Fantastic opportunity for 1/3 of Small Law Firms

Posted by Gene Turner on 04-Sep-2016 13:41:03

I found this recent blog by Robert Ambrogi fascinating: More Exclusive Survey Results: Few Small Firms Implementing New Technology. In it he reviews findings of a new survey of small-solo law firm management in the United Stated conducted by Thomson Reuters Solo and Small Law Firm group, to which he has been given exclusive access. The survey covered firms of 1-29 lawyers, which would be the size of most law firms in New Zealand (85% of which have 5 or fewer lawyers).

The results showed that two-thirds of firms will implement no changes in technology for at least a two-year span. Supporting this, only a quarter of small firms say they will spend more on technology and infrastructure, while 72% say their spend will remain the same, and 4% say they will spend less. More optimistically, this could indicate that it is increasingly becoming possible to access great technology, via the cloud, much more cheaply than used to be the case, but I don’t think that is what they meant!

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Topics: Practise of Law

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