I found a few sections in Deloitte's In-house Insights Report, “Trusted navigators in complex and challenging environments”, prepared in response to the September 2022 survey of New Zealand's in-house legal community, fascinating. They were questions about the skills of the in-house legal profession, and in particular: What legal skills do you consider will be most important for you to be able to perform your role in the next 2 years and What non-legal skills do you consider will be most important for you to be able to perform your role in the next 2 years. If they are skills that a lawyer ..read more

As an in-house lawyer or lawyer in a firm, you may have heard about the benefits of using technology to improve your legal processes and get better outcomes. You may have seen some impressive demos or testimonials from vendors who claim to have the perfect solution for your needs. But how do you decide which technology or approach is the best for your situation? How do you navigate the overwhelming amount of information and noise in the market? The truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Different technologies and approaches have different strengths and weaknesses, de ..read more

An area where improvements might easily be made to overall contracting speed is in the approvals process ..read more

  I found the latest podcast by Ron Baker and Ed Kless in The Soul of Enterprise (The Time Tax: The Crime of Stealing Customers’ Time) very thought provoking. I recommend it highly. It is based on an article by B Joseph Pine II and James H Gilmore – Competing for Customer Time. While there is ongoing discussion about the hourly billing model and lawyers charging for their time, the focus in the podcast and article is on the value of the client’s time and how to avoid wasting it. Pine and Gilmore come out strongly: "While not crimes against humanity, time-wasters are certainly offences ag ..read more

  It's not uncommon for someone to show some initial interest in a legal automation project, get excited seeing how it could make a real difference in their work and that of their team, and then be told that it is not possible. What can you do in that situation ..read more

  A common concern we hear when talking to prospective clients about legal automation is that they haven't got a budget, and they don't think they can get one. Often, however, this is before we have discussed the size and cost of the problem or the opportunity to be addressed and the expected benefits, and therefore, it needs more context before a price can be agreed and a budget could be obtained. What should you do before worrying about price and budget for an automation project ..read more

Looking ahead to the coming year, I think (maybe with a bit of hope thrown in) several key themes will be key. This is what we will be focussing on helping our customers with, and in our own business ..read more

When evaluating new technology, a proof of concept can be a very helpful way of ensuring you get what you think you are getting while avoiding unnecessary costs. However, we sometimes see proof-of-concept projects that go off the rails, don’t achieve the expected outcomes, and cost a lot of money. There is one particular mistake that we frequently see people make ..read more

When selling a house, an owner has a choice about whether to sell the house "as is, where is" or to do it up before putting it on the market. It might seem like an unnecessary amount of cost and effort to replace the kitchen, bathroom, and 20-year-old carpet when you won't be the one who is around to enjoy using it. Why not just let the new owner put things in how they want them? But not everybody in the market to buy a house wants to go through the whole effort of a significant renovation. Those that do are probably DIY renovators looking for a bargain. The number of people willing to take o ..read more

Introduction:  As legal automation experts, we understand the immense potential of improving and automating common legal processes to save time and streamline operations. We have a great track record of delivering successful automation projects for in-house legal teams with very strong returns on investment.   However, law firms have been different.    We have realised that merely automating tasks may not always yield the expected benefits for law firms. The true value – and requirement - lies in a holistic transformation, where automation plays a crucial role bu ..read more