Major modernisation
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It’s time to modernise the way law is practised and delivered. How smart are law firms working?
Adrian Jones at Tikit dives into the busy life of the SME law firm and points to where it can leverage technology to work smarter
Aaron Hopkinson at Brother UK discusses how technology is liberating the legal sector
Paul Walker at iManage on how firms are taking inspiration from the consumer world and demanding smarter working
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The term ‘smarter working’ has been used across media in recent years to encompass many things. Hopefully, we’ll see the ‘smarter working’ initiatives, which have come about in the legal industry, continue to evolve as the market changes – and not regress back into meaning just ‘work’.
Firms really have to prepare themselves in a way that will be well received by all who come in contact with them. This means preparing working policies that lay the ground as to what is and isn’t acceptable for agile working. It means making sure you have the technology and security capability available to enable staff to work in such a way that they are well trained and themselves prepared to face the threats that are out there. And it means being flexible enough to react to the need of their clients, whatever the demand may be.
WORKING PROGRESS
Firms need to be flexible and work smarter. No one wins anything by sitting in a cubical, staring blankly at their computer screen, with a stack of documents falling off the side of their desk, while the AC blasts too harshly overhead and the copier is jammed for the third time that day. This is 2018, it’s time to stop working like we’re in the 90s.
Luckily, there have been some fundamental shifts in the ways law firms operate – the traditional image of a law firm is slowly, but surely, changing as technology and new players disrupt the market.
HIVE MIND
The last few years have seen a tremendous amount of change in the way people live, work and interact with one another. The biggest driver for this is, of course, technology. “We live in a digital world. Everything we do as consumers is online and easily available,” says Adrian Jones, product development director at Tikit.
LIBERATING LAW
It’s been forecast that by 2020 as many as half of UK employees could be working remotely, and while legal firms might initially have been slower on the uptake than other sectors, momentum in the industry has gradually built. Aaron Hopkinson, product and solutions manager (scan and mobile) at Brother UK, discusses how technology is liberating the legal sector.
