Linklaters is aiming to get its fee earners focusing on new ideas under the guidance of the firm's first-ever head of innovation, Shilpa Bhandarkar.

Bhandarkar has returned to Linklaters after almost three years away, during which time she co-founded group communication and calendar app Coo, and she is now aiming to draw on her experience on both sides of the fence to offer a new perspective to the firm's lawyers.

"I was a lawyer doing those deals where it's 3am and you're thinking: 'There must be an easier way to do this.' But I've also worked on the business side, so I have an understanding of the value that the business support teams can add when they work well with lawyers," she says.

She left Linklaters in September 2015 after a spell as a business manager for Africa, while she also previously spent six years as the the magic circle firm's India COO. Immediately prior to her return, she spent 18 months as legal network director at legal technology company Lexoo.

"That experience will be hugely helpful," she adds. "Having worked in the technology space, my experience gives me an advantage in terms of settling back in at the firm in this new role."

Bhandarkar's new role at Linklaters will see her take responsibility for scaling up the firm's innovation efforts.

She will oversee the firm's in-house innovation committee, which is currently working on a number of projects relating to legal technology, financial technology, blockchain and smart contracts.

Bhandarkar has her sights set on taking innovation to fee earners and plans to use her position to "speak to fee earners about innovative ideas they might have, or ideas that are already being used in one practice that should be used across others".

"We already have an informal process through which we get ideas from our fee earners and associate pool." Bhandarkar adds. "We are working on how to formalise the process of harvesting those ideas and making sure that the right ones get executed."

"We have a coding club that we trialled and was a success. A couple of great ideas came from that," she says. "Those were are all associate and fee earner-led ideas, so that is something I want to tap into."

In the short term, Bhandarkar says she is in "information-gathering mode", getting her head around ongoing projects including work on a derivatives information tool and the AI technology already used by the firm. Looking further into the future, however, her focus will be on client needs and expanding the firm's innovation and efficiency work.

"My team and I will be leading on blockchain and smart contract research, as well as engaging with legal technology startups and academia. The aim is to work with partners, fee earners and clients to make sure that our approach to innovation is coherent and wide-spanning."