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How can productivity and remote working go hand in hand?

On 25 May 2021, LPM’s editor Kayli Olson was joined by Karen Edwards, director and head of business support, Hedges Law; John Turner, chief operating officer, Ellisons Solicitors; and Guy Phillips, VP international business, NetDocuments.

Kayli Olson, LPM |Editor|
John Turner, Ellisons Solicitors|Chief operating officer|
Karen Edwards, Hedges Law|Director|
Guy Phillips, NetDocuments|Vice President|

How can SME law firms make the most of remote and hybrid working for the future? What have the benefits been so far? With so much transformation, the chance to seize efficiency, productivity and collaboration seems so close, yet risks remain within the realm of remote working.

Both Hedges Law and Ellisons Solicitors have undergone digital transformations over the last year and, in LPM’s 25 May webcast, leaders from both firms discussed how they’ve navigated the last year of change and opportunity. Accompanied by input from legal tech vendor NetDocuments, they also addressed the question of how to progress flexible working hand in hand with productivity.

Chaired by LPM editor Kayli Olson, we heard from:

• Karen Edwards, director and head of business support, Hedges Law
• John Turner, chief operating officer, Ellisons Solicitors
• Guy Phillips, VP international business, NetDocuments

Applications of cloud
We heard how both firms have addressed moving to a more cloud-based platform. Edwards explained Hedges Law has benefited from moving to a Google workspace infrastructure, which has both enabled remote working and made collaboration and plugging in new tools far easier. “What do you want to achieve in the future? Are your goals around improving client services or productivity, for instance? You can plug new applications into the system to support that. The world is your oyster.”

Phillips, at NetDocuments, added that the last 12 months has seen a huge acceleration towards cloud systems: “Hesitancy has been removed now and, as a result, firms have seen productivity benefits.”

But all agreed security will continue to be a priority item in future. “Security around document management has become more important since remote working, and suppliers need to step up to that,” said Phillips.

Cultural issues
With hybrid or remote working upending the working model, both law firm leaders agreed new pressures could appear in future around culture and recruiting talent, especially if firms’ policies don’t line up with professionals’ needs.

Turner, of Ellisons Solicitors, put forth the question: “What does our culture look like? It’s hard to pin down, but you can see it when it goes wrong. We’ve bullet-pointed our core values, as we don’t want to ever be in a position where our working from home policy conflicts with our culture.”

And Edwards agreed that technology and culture had to feed into one another, pointing out that encouraging people to embrace innovation should always be an important part of firm culture.

Hear more about these firms’ cloud transformations and other insights in the full video above. Or, watch it on Youtube.

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