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Harvard scholarships to shake up Aussie firms’ innovation
The constantly changing legal landscape is dependent on disruptive technologies and innovation, which is the key focus for two exclusive Harvard scholarships.
Naomi Neilson
Herbert Smith Freehill’s Hilary Goodier, who leads Alternative Legal Services (ALT) at HSF, is one of only two women awarded the Chief Executive Women’s (CEW) Harvard Disruptive Innovation Scholarship, and is “excited” about the learning opportunity.
Ms Goodier added the learnings could be beneficial for more than just the firm, as the entire legal sector can benefit from innovation and transformative changes.
While there is a lot of innovation coming out of the US in terms of change in law firms, Ms Goodier said she believes some firms and in-house teams are struggling with how to harness and cover new technologies, “but it’s a matter of scale”.
“Due to the sheer scale of the US legal market, they are struggling with the size of the transformation and the journey ahead. I see the UK leading the charge,” she said.
Ms Goodier noted that Australia fits somewhere in the middle and because of proximity to Asia and its smaller size, “we tend to be a bit more nimble”.
As such, Australia can adapt to the changes where the US’s size and scale may make this impossible. It is, however, still a leading platform for innovation and can provide a range of information and ideas on managing and implementing innovative technology.
The Disruptive Innovation program allows innovators to examine the strategies applied to some of the world’s most successful disrupters and analyse how some sectors and industries affect organisation’s technologies and competitive forces.
Ms Goodier said the legal sector is undergoing “immense change” because clients are looking for the “best legal services in the market”, including approach to innovation.
“Our clients are already on the change and transformation journey and they are really insisting that their law firm follow suit, so I think there is still so much opportunity in this space to be working with the client to look at how we can implement innovation,” she said.
Ms Goodier is attending Harvard as a CEW scholar to learn from leading disrupters of innovation across a diverse range of industries. She said it is an “amazing opportunity” and is “really going to test my thinking and help me push the boundaries of law”.
CEW is an organisation representing Australia’s most senior women leaders from the corporate, public service, academic and not-for-profit sectors. It removes barriers and ensures equal opportunity through targeted programs and scholarships.
“I’ve always been an admirer of the organisation and the members and it’s aspirational of me to one day hope that I would be in a position where I would be invited into the organisation. I’m really quite honoured and consider it an ambassadorial role that I am going to represent them,” Ms Goodier said.
CEW scholarships committee chair Colleen Harris said mastering innovation is critical for leaders in the 21st century: “This scholarship will help Hilary take her knowledge of disruptive innovation to a whole new level.”
“Acquiring the right skills at the right time can make all the difference in the careers of talented executive women.”
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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