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International Edition

Desktop decisions

Desktop automation has been around for years. Ghost was written in 1996 to enable IT support people to clone a computer. ZENworks was introduced by NetWare in 1998 to help manage server and desktop configurations across the network: it is very far from being a new idea. What is interesting about it, however, is that it never stops evolving.
7 minute read

International Edition

Keep your cool

In today's legal services market it is important to keep abreast of the changing needs and concerns of companies involved in disputes. In this way we can develop the supportive role that both in-house and external legal advisers play in guiding clients towards the resolution of disputes.
6 minute read

International Edition

Equal Opportunities, Employment and Diversity: Trust in me

"We aim to become a trusted adviser". A hackneyed phrase, much used in the mission statements of professional services firms, but there is often little real understanding of what it really means. Like "putting clients first", it sounds good and is designed to make clients feel they are at the centre of things.
7 minute read

International Edition

Consolidating communications

What started out as a necessary upgrade to our business-critical telephony systems soon became an opportunity to achieve much more. In the past two years we have achieved 50% organic growth and, with similar ambitions for the future, our key business goals are improving customer experience and productivity while managing costs.
6 minute read

International Edition

Banking on experience

Outsourcing is one of the major trends in the legal industry at the moment. Whether it is moving peripheral administrative tasks to a third-party provider or moving your entire IT department to a subsidiary in India, accessing low-cost workforces is the flavour of the month for the legal manager.
7 minute read

International Edition

Code comfort

"Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; he who would search for pearls must dive below." So wrote John Dryden in 1678. And so, too, every solicitor makes minor mistakes in his day-to-day work - inconsequential errors and misjudgements. But so what, you may ask, if beneath the surface the client is getting the pearls of a first-rate job? And let us not forget that the standard is generally very high. Clients are, by and large, well served.
7 minute read

International Edition

Susskind predicts demise of lawyers in IT-led future

Top business lawyers have played down talk that increasing commoditisation and use of IT will bring about the death of the industry, following claims made by leading technology expert Richard Susskind. The predictions come in Susskind's new book, The End of Lawyers?, in which he says the legal profession needs to undergo a significant transformation to avoid extinction. He argues that lawyers need to ask themselves what elements of their workload could be undertaken more cheaply and efficiently as "the market is unlikely to tolerate expensive lawyers" for work that can be better done by "smart systems and processes"
4 minute read

International Edition

The Bar: A fruitful search

It is widely documented that web users are increasingly using search engines as a path to access relevant information. As more information becomes accessible on the internet, business people need a simple and accurate way of finding what they want. These requirements may be for research, for finding goods, services or even trading partners and suppliers. The internet has become an integral part of modern business communications and this raises the question of how much attention your business pays to ensuring that its content is properly accessible to search engines.
8 minute read

International Edition

Top of the pile

You tell me that I am one of your key clients - you say your place on our panel of legal advisers is vitally important to your firm as it gives your people stimulating work, we add kudos and attract other clients to your portfolio and the volume of fees we pass your way is invaluable. You often say the words 'key client', but to be frank I do not know what this means to us. We have a number of advisers on our panel and it is often very difficult distinguishing between them. They all have the technical capabilities to do the work we need. A couple stand out, I suppose, because of the personalities involved. But my legal department does not feel any real loyalty or affinity to one firm. You cannot differentiate one in terms of service excellence and added value. And so I suppose that is why I find it strange when you say how important my company is to your firm. I do not have any 'key' legal advisers.
7 minute read

International Edition

The learning commandments

Without good content, you cannot succeed. Targeted relevant information, pitched at the right level and directly related to the audience's work, makes good e-learning. At Lovells we tend to avoid most generic off-the-shelf content because, for us, one size does not fit all. Senior partners need different content from new graduates. Variation is also required by practice stream.
7 minute read

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