The great and the good of the legal IT community were out in force this February for a reception to mark the retirement of Janet Day as director of IT at Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP).

Day, who has spent her entire career in the legal sector, started out at Allen & Overy (A&O) in 1970, initially as secretary to then senior partner Jim Thomson, before joining the IT department.

As a result, she was at the coalface when legal IT made its first inroads into the legal profession in the early 1980s, when A&O installed its first mainframe computer and replaced typewriters with word processors.

Reflecting on her career, she says of the key attributes of successful IT directors: "You need to have the skin of a rhinoceros, as there will always be people who say it won't work.

"You also need an eye for detail, and you have to have to have the sales capability – the belief that what you are doing will work and the ability to sell that conviction to your team." (pictured L-R: IT journalist Joanna Goodman; Emma Sarson, BigHand; Lesley Hills, Allen & Overy; Janet Day; Jan DeCerce, director of IT and operations, Lewis Silkin; Bruna Pellicci, global IT director, Ashurst)

Among the attendees at the reception, which was organised by Day's BLP colleague Jane Livesey, was Jan DeCerce, director of IT and operations at Lewis Silkin. "The Janet Day the world knows is the lady who made it okay for other women to head up the IT function in what was – and some may think still is – a man's domain; and who always, no matter what, had a view on all things legal IT. The Janet Day I know is a very supportive, loyal and dear friend who I hope will remain so for many years to come," says DeCerce.

Although Day spent a period mid-career as an IT consultant, she is best known within the IT community as BLP's IT director, having joined legacy firm Berwin Leighton six years before its merger in 2001 with Paisner & Co to create BLP.

Over time, the merger came to be regarded as one of the most successful UK law firm combinations as it proved the catalyst for a period of rapid expansion under the stewardship of Neville Eisenberg, who was recently voted in as senior partner after completing a 16-year stint as managing partner.

Day recalls the period running up to the merger as being frantic but ultimately rewarding.

"There were five weeks between the vote and all of the systems going live – everyone had to be moved onto the same systems and have the same phone number and email address. I've never worked harder in my life. But we agreed what we needed to do and how to do it and set about doing it."

Having stepped down from her full-time role, Day will continue to retain an interest both in BLP and legal tech. She is chair of the Adelaide Group, the networking group she established at her old firm for its female lawyers and their clients, and she is also a judge for the inaugural Legal Innovation Awards, which are hosted by Legal Week and take place in London on 22 May.

And, no doubt, she will be keeping a close eye on developments in legal IT. "There will be an increasing emphasis on security as the people who are snooping become more sophisticated," she predicts. "And I believe advances in artificial intelligence will have a major impact on the profession."

(pictured L-R: Stuart Walters, global IT director, Olswang; David Wood, head of business projects, BLP; Janet Day and husband Stuart; Anthony Barrett, of nQueue Billback) 

The Legal Innovation Awards will recognise the people driving the profession forward by applying imagination and ingenuity – click here to view the shortlist.

• This year's Strategic Technology Forum will focus on processes and the role IT plays in driving law firms towards their strategic goals – click here for more information.