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Adapting to remote working arrangements in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic should not have been such a shock to the system for legal practitioners – those using LEAP’S offerings have found the transition to be more seamless than challenging.
Using tech to change how legal services are delivered
Sydney-based boutique firm Advantage Legal was launched, founding principal solicitors Leigh Davidson and Ana Jaglic say, on the premise of embracing innovation and technology so as to deliver “tailored, practical and cost-effective” legal services and solutions to clients. By doing so, the pair posit, they commit themselves to changing the way that legal services are delivered in NSW.
“ “This approach has consistently allowed us to produce a high-quality and cost effective, agile services to meet our client’s needs. In today’s modern digital world, our clients are demanding more from their lawyers. The client’s demand and are entitled to expect accessibility, collaboration, and transparency when dealing with their lawyers,” the pair tell Lawyers Weekly.
— Leigh Davidson & Ana Jaglic
“Traditional legal engagements interaction with the clients is no longer acceptable, and it is fading. We use a range of different online services and solutions to help our clients with their everyday legal needs. We believe that ongoing dedication to legal innovation is essential in providing an exceptional legal service to our clients while remaining competitive in today’s modern digital world.”
Innovative and tech-savvy practices should be “enthusiastic” adopters of forward-thinking and integrative technologies, Mr Davidson and Ms Jaglic continue, as they will allow firms to continually improve excellence and service delivery to clients of all stripes.
“We believe that innovation in the legal profession matters – and for years now, LEAP has consistently helped us to achieve our goals. We feel that unlike many other providers – LEAP actually listens and works creatively with their clients to help us to deliver legal services.”
Mark Burgess, CEO of LEAP Developments, says that the provider has been striving over the past decade to get law firms to leave what he calls the “outdated” client-server environment behind and “modernise” practice management with LEAP’s cloud-based software.
Those who have been on board with such an approach, he says, will have found that remote or flexible working in the age of coronavirus was not such a radical or revolutionary upheaval in the day-to-day.
““Legal technology that enabled remote working made perfect sense to us pre-COVID-19, and this forward thinking has played a large role in making this transition to remote and flexible working a seamless one for our clients,” he explains.
— Mark Burgess
“We recognise that change is never an easy thing and we’re really satisfied with the way we have been able to gradually lead our clients into this new way of working. It’s times like these that we’re able to step back and be appreciative of how our forward thinking and planning has allowed us to be prepared for unforeseen circumstances, such as those we’ve faced this year.”
This was the experience of Advantage Legal, which was dedicated to ensuring a consistent delivery of service to its personal injury compensation and commercial clientele.
“We do not compromise on our ability to deliver the best possible outcome on every single matter. We develop an integrated approach of delivery, engagement and reporting with our clients, which embeds quality assurance and strategy points throughout the life of their matters,” Mr Davidson and Ms Jaglic outline.
“This process is enabled by partnering with tech-savvy specialist such as LEAP, who understand lawyers and how we operate and are dedicated to legal innovation and creating a system where our transition from office work to work from home was effortless and efficient, without any disruptions to our business or our client’s cases.”
Changing the nature of one’s work is never an easy task, Mr Burgess sympathises, but adds that those who experienced a more seamless transition at the outbreak of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns were those who had been ablet to better utilise available tech platforms, including LEAP desktop and Microsoft 365 on their home devices.
“No complex terminal server or remote access software was required for this. It was important our clients could not just work from home, but work from home productively, LEAP plus Microsoft 365 delivered the most productive work from home solution on the market, well in excess of any purely browser-based system,” he details.
“Effective communication was the next challenge we were the first to market with integrated Microsoft Teams and shortly thereafter Zoom so that lawyers could continue connecting with their colleagues and clients. Both integrations are easily accessed in LEAP, Microsoft Teams additionally facilitates the sharing of documents and matters for the purpose of easy editing, reviewing and discussing between staff members.”
Advantage Legal were among those able to make the most of such options: “The most recent product features and enhancements of the LEAP product, such as seamless integration of Microsoft Teams and Zoom is a testament to their understanding of our own legal and business needs,” Mr Davidson and Ms Jaglic recall.
“For instance, most of our clients are time poor, or simply unable to attend face to face meetings. With that in mind Advantage Legal always offered online service and video link to our clients. The newly introduced Teams and Zoom features will help us to even more streamline delivery of legal services through active client engagement, collaboration, and improved accessibility.”
Another aspect of daily legal practice that has become abundantly clear in the age of coronavirus is that practitioners both value and need to be able to operate in ways that make sense to them.
LEAP Developments product manager Hilal Kabakoz acknowledges this, noting that commercial decision-making for business owners is just as essential as keeping pace with the breakneck speed of the legal marketplace and the ever-evolving regulatory and professional landscape.
“Amidst all of these considerations, practitioners need to also make sure that their clients are the primary focus. In light of this, firms need reliable and stable practice management software in the background that complements their existing procedures and enhances their processes,” she muses.
““Traditionally, lawyers and clients meet face-to-face to discuss legal matters. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, lawyers have had to change the way that they communicate with their clients and colleagues. LEAP is currently the only legal software provider to integrate with FaceTime, Apple/WearOS watches, Microsoft Teams and Amazon Alexa. These integrations give users the ability to make face-to-face video calls with their clients from any location, record billable time on the go, share documents and matters while working remotely, and even voice control LEAP without being near a computer.”
— Hilal Kabakoz
It has been fantastic, Ms Kabakoz goes on, to hear from the provider’s clients that such integrations have made life easier for them.
“Recent feedback has shown that 92 per cent of our users reported that LEAP’s FaceTime integration has helped them save time. They also commended the ease of use in connecting them to their clients and colleagues, particularly during a global pandemic,” he says as an example.
“Widely known and used by the general population, these familiar integrations aimed to make working remotely an easier transition for our clients so that they could continue to conduct business as usual despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For Advantage Legal, LEAP’s capacity to gauge what might be critical for business efficiency in accordance with the firm’s embrace of agile and flexible working was a real difference-maker in 2020.
“It was inspiring to see that the recently updated LEAP’s Help Centre acknowledges the evolving needs in delivery of legal services and helps with the digital cross-functional collaboration, by providing instantaneous access to information and problem-solving tips that allow us to run our practice efficiently while working remotely,” Mr Davidson and Ms Jaglic submit.
The revamped Help Centre the pair refer to underscores LEAP’s ongoing commitment to innovation, by way of allowing clients to receive support and learn more about how they can improve the firm's procedures in way that suits them, regardless of whether they're working at home or in the office.
Finally, an additional (but no less important) benefit from such innovative approaches to legal practice in this time has been the flow-on accommodation for the health and wellbeing of legal practitioners.
Mr Burgess surmises that, from a wellness perspective, “by facilitating flexible and remote working through our software, LEAP clients have been able to achieve a healthier work-life balance”.
“Working remotely has allowed a lot of the workforce to spend more time with family members or engage in more personal interests. For lawyers wanting to experience this work-life balance and work remotely, cloud-based practice management software like LEAP enables this,” he deduces.
More broadly, what this unusual year has taught Australia’s legal profession is that being innovative and ahead of the game means having the ability to operate as a “fully-functioning, efficient and productive law firm from anywhere, at any time”, Mr Burgess concludes.
“Despite having a scattered workforce and reduced touch-points with clients, firms that leverage legal practice management software are able to stay in business and can continue providing superior client service,” he says.
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