What might happen for New Zealand legal services and lawyers?
Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Document Automation, Document Assembly, legal practice, Law Firm Management
More houses, more contracts... What the Housing NZ legal team did
It was great to see our customer Housing New Zealand profiled in LawTalk 917 for their success in working with us on document automation.
You can read the article on the Law Society website here, and the full text is set out below.
If you would like to discuss how document automation could provide similar benefits for you, please get in touch!
Topics: Future of Law, Document Automation, In-House Legal, Document Assembly
Employees want to work in a growing firm – what’s your plan?
Hinge Marketing recently released the results of its Employer Brand Study. Given some of my previous research, one question in the study was particularly interesting to me: what’s most important to prospective employees of professional services firms?
Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Document Automation, Legal Technology, Document Assembly, Law Firm Management
How do law students and graduates choose where to work? (Part Three)
It was incredibly interesting, informative and inspirational to get the views of Geordie Johnson and Milan Gandhi.
If you have read Parts One and Two, you’ll know that: (i) Geordie is the students / young lawyers (NZLSA) representative on the New Zealand Council of Legal Education; and also graduate at Russell McVeagh) and (ii) Milan Gandhi is the founder and director of The Legal Forecast, a “not-for-profit run by early-career professionals who are passionate about disruptive thinking and access to justice”; and also research clerk at McCullough Robertson.
Is it possible to summarise and add my two cents? I’ll give it a go:
Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Law Firm Management
How do law students and graduates choose where to work? (Part Two)
Last week, Geordie Johnson (students / young lawyers (NZLSA) representative on the New Zealand Council of Legal Education; and also graduate at Russell McVeagh) shared his views on what matters to students and graduates when choosing where to work. This week, we hear from Milan Gandhi (founder and director of the Legal Forecast, a “not-for-profit run by early-career professionals who are passionate about disruptive thinking and access to justice”; and also research clerk at McCullough Robertson). The Legal Forecast is hosting a Disrupting Law event in August. which looks like a great initiative! I can't recall seeing anything like this in "my day", so things are clearly changing!
Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Law Firm Management
How do law students and graduates choose where to work? (Part One)
Crap – I’ve just realised I’m no longer a young-buck. Gene has asked me to look at something, because I’m “closer to the young people than [he is]”. “Closer to”?! Here I was, assuming I belonged to the youngest generation of lawyers (millennials), when gen Z is now coming through and making their mark on the profession.
What are these young lawyers looking for when deciding where to work?
Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Law Firm Management
In my last blog, I discussed how suppliers to in-house lawyers must understand the needs of in-house lawyers, before being able to effectively help them. Over two days and three evenings at ILANZ 2017, I realised that this requirement to understand is ongoing. New Zealand in-house lawyers are an evolving bunch who continue to learn themselves. So what did I take away?
Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Document Automation, In-House Legal
You may have seen me talk about using legaltech to achieve great outcomes. You may have nodded your head in agreement. After all, who wouldn’t agree that getting a great result is, well, great? But what does this actually mean?
There are a lot of legaltech options out there. If you’ve tried one piece of legaltech, and been left feeling like the guy on the right, you’re not alone. This happens all too often. With so many providers (sometimes appearing to offer the same solution), you have to find one that can solve problems you have, in the way that suits you, in the way they said they would. Don’t part with your money or your time, until you know this will be the case.
Topics: Practise of Law, Legal Guides, Future of Law, Document Automation, Procurement, Legal Technology, In-House Legal, Document Assembly, Law Firm Management
Just under a year ago when I launched LawHawk, in an interview with LawTalk I said that “Document automation will be the way lawyers work – the key is how you will do it.”
I also said “I know people have been saying ‘change is coming’ for years without it happening, but this time it really is.”
“Yeah right!” a lot of lawyers would have said.
But things really are changing quickly in this space, and you can see this in the exhibitors at LawFest, New Zealand’s leading legal technology conference. This year there will be three specialist document automation solutions that I am aware of, none of which were available in New Zealand this time last year. Automation of legal documents is becoming mainstream. It is happening, even if you cannot see it, as this example demonstrates.
Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Document Automation, Document Assembly, legal practice, Law Firm Management
Baby boomers and millennials – can’t we all just get along?
“It’s those with the most experience that can contribute the most knowledge to new technologies.”
There’s been a lot of press in New Zealand recently about the growing division between the baby boomers and millennials/gen Y. For example, Bill English has said the age of eligibility for superannuation will rise to 67 from 2037 (i.e. it won’t directly affect the baby boomers). For a few years now, the house prices in the most popular areas of NZ have been out of reach of most millennials. This blog isn’t intended to discuss the economic and social arguments behind these situations we find ourselves in. I am, however, interested in how the stereotypical differences in mindsets between the generations can make innovation tricky within organisations. How do we get the best outcomes, in light of these differences?
Topics: Future of Law, Document Automation, Legal Technology, Document Assembly