Avsnitt
-
Last month we launched the Transforming with Legal Tech Podcast and https://insight.thomsonreuters.com.au/legal/resources/resource/transforming-with-legal-tech-podcast-episode-1-innovation-in-hong-kong (explored innovation in Hong Kong). In the latest edition, two boutique Australian-based law firms reveal how they have found client (and work-life balance) success in operating nimbly.The concept of ‘nimble’ is well-known to Charlotte Saunders, UX Researcher, who was involved with developing the new user experience for Westlaw, the smart legal research tool. For the duration of the project, Charlotte and her team ran user testing to hear feedback at every stage of the development process. New Westlaw today fits seamlessly into the day-to-day of legal practice, enabling its users to proceed with agility.
Three design partners joined Charlotte for this episode, including Danny King, Owner and Director at https://dannykinglegal.com/ (Danny King Legal). Danny is joined by Mark Wilson and Albert Cheung, who are Principal and Co-Founder and Associate at http://www.wadvisers.com/ (W Advisers) respectively. Play the podcast for a deep-dive on how firms such as W Advisers and Danny King Legal achieve better outcomes for their clients with a nimble approach.
Podcast show notes
The nimble model
Coincidently, W Advisers and Danny King Legal entered the legal market in 2011, at a time when both founders identified the market’s appetite for relationship-driven legal advice.
Every start-up story is different, so what was it like for Mark? In Mark’s experience, back in 2011, there were a lot of corporate organisations and high net worth individuals looking to get more value out of the law. Mark’s legal guidance offered this, so his clients followed W Advisers and haven’t looked back since.
“I've had the good fortune to act for a lot of high net worth clients, and like large corporates, it's built on trust. But it's also built on the confidence that you're getting the right answer. In order to do that you obviously need experience and you need good tools to make sure you're getting the right answer every time,” said Mark.
Danny gained experience in the large law space before leaving to be a sole practitioner. While large law wasn’t the right environment for her, Danny experienced these early days as a bit of a launch pad.
“I started with a laptop on my couch…I'm very grateful for all the people that were there to support me emotionally because that was probably the hardest bit,” she recalled.
Danny treats every single client as precious, and during the podcast, she reminded our listeners that your ability to build dedicated relationships can make or break your business. But to be successful and compete commercially, you also need to be nimble. As Danny said:
“For me being nimble means we've got the right amount of people to do the right amount of work, and we're maximising our opportunity to make money without overworking our people or under servicing our clients.”
Driving innovation in mid-sized firmsYou may hear of large law prioritising innovation, but boutique firms like Danny King Legal also values legal tech and continuous improvement.
“If something is getting in the way of us leaving at five o'clock, which is our ultimate goal every single day, then we're going to try and find a tech solution to cut through that…we aim to match the perfect level of resourcing with our service outputs and minimise waste,” Danny said.
Over at W Advisers. The firm is big on utilising technology to serve clients efficiently and with precision.
“Everyone in our business enjoys working on complex problems, but also enjoys cutting through. We look for assistance from our technology to cut through - cut through to the answer, cut through to the result, cut through the process and get to the end for the client as quickly as we can,” said Mark.
During the podcast, Albert also described how he and his colleagues benefitted from Mark’s... -
Transforming with Legal Tech Podcast Episode 1: Hong Kong InnovationThomson Reuters is pleased to launch a new podcast series on transforming with legal technologies. For episode one, Polly Poon, Senior Proposition Manager - Legal Tracker, Thomson Reuters Asia and Emerging Markets, spoke with two special guests based in Hong Kong.Polly welcomed Sebastian Ko and Elizabeth Beattie on the program, who both have demonstrated their passion for innovative legal developments in the region. Sebastian is a ‘legal tech’ entrepreneur and chairs the InnoTech Law Hub of the Law Society of Hong Kong. He is legally qualified in Hong Kong and the U.S, and has practiced in Magic Circle and Am Law 100 firms. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is a Hong Kong-based journalist at Thomson Reuters, covering policy changes, legal tech and market developments for Asian Legal Business. Prior to working for Thomson Reuters, Elizabeth reported for the Guardian, Sunday Telegraph, SBS and Al Jazeera.Podcast show notes5 critical drivers of innovationTaking a close look at the local state of Hong Hong in respect of innovation drivers in the legal sector, Sebastian shared some industry insights during the discussion. In September 2019, the Law Society conducted an innovation value chain survey to take the pulse on the innovation priorities of the 11,000 solicitors and registered foreign lawyers in Hong Kong. Sebastian discussed his favourite insights from the survey, including the five critical drivers of innovation experienced by private practitioners.“There are five critical drivers for innovation. Productivity and operational efficiency, work quality, risk management and cost and budget control in decreasing order of importance. These were shared by in house lawyers. But interestingly, competitive edge, team coordination and management outranked risk management. Plus, cost control factors like client demand, talent retention market growth were identified priorities, but not critical,” said Sebastian. Legal landscape in Hong Kong Polly invited Sebastian to weigh in on the unique legal industry in Hong Kong, to contextualise it in comparison to other jurisdictions. In response, he said:“The [Hong Kong] legal profession tends to be a bit conservative and it's quite reserved when it comes to trying out new tech or other innovations. But we are seeing interesting changes among the first movers, which unsurprisingly tend to be the international firms and legal departments and global banks and tech companies. “Hong Kong has about 930 law firms. Nearly 89% of them are small, medium-sized firms with five partners or less. These firms generally don't have access to in-house IT professionals and have a very small IT budget. A lot of work is yet to be done on basic building block projects such as digital transformation and going paperless campaigns. How to to doc [document] management easier, take the friction out of the file tagging and data reuse. Well, these are key steps for more advanced technologies like machine learning and natural language processing,” said Sebastian. What does innovation mean to you?As this session’s podcast host, Polly had a particular interest in the concept of innovation, in how it is subjective to interpretation. Polly queried Elizabeth on the topic, as well as asking how innovation can play out among firms and organisations. “I think this is a really interesting one. For many law firms. Innovation does mean technology, but it can also mean adopting new ways of thinking or working as well. For some law firms, innovation is about new types of hiring, putting greater focus on D&I [diversity and inclusion] changing the physical space of the offices, or perhaps it comes in the form of offering staff new types of training. When I think of innovation within law firms, it's often about creating an environment where people can experiment and communicate readily. Sometimes technology is the...
-
Saknas det avsnitt?
