Page 35 - CCCA Magazine Winter 2017

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everything to our OneDrive or Share- in helping people to use it properly. And
Point in a single decision with no dou- remember, not all solutions need a huge Helen Mackay, BCA, LLB, has
ble handling (and not to Outlook fold- investment of time or money. There are been an in-house lawyer and
ers for later fling), using Teams rather many apps with basic freeware solutions a champion of the in-house
profession for more than 20
than email for internal communications that you can trial to see if they are right years. As a former President and
and being fully paperless. All are great for you. Some of our favourites are noted CEO of the In-House Lawyers
disciplines that have saved me huge in the sidebar. Association of New Zealand, her
time and effort, but like all disciplines, One useful approach we use to work passion for the profession led her to co-chair the
require personal diligence. Inbox Zero is out technology needs for in-house teams foundation committee of In-House Counsel World-
one of my greatest challenges as I used is to create user stories. These are com- wide, with the CCCA’s Cathy Cummings.
to use my Inbox as a task list rather than monly used in software development to Helen now leads fexible in-house legal services
allocate and schedule chunks of time defne the problem the technology is in- provider Juno Legal, which connects in-house
using my calendar and follow-ups. I am tended to solve. For examples of user sto- lawyers into businesses and gives in-house lawyers
getting better the more I do it. Focus on ries, go to Matt’s blog at newlaw.nz. Then great opportunities to work fexibly. Her consulting
work focuses on strategy, high performance and use
progress, not perfection! Matt has set make friends with your IT team and put of legal technology in in-house legal teams and she
our Outlook to open in Calendar, not some real effort into understanding their advises widely across New Zealand and Australia.
Inbox, as he says, "Your inbox shows point of view, and then share your user You can meet Helen at the 2018 National Confer-
other people's priorities; your calendar story with them and ask for help. ❚ ence, where she will be MC.
shows your priorities."
5. don’t blame the system.
We hear from many legal teams that their
document management system is terrible here is a list Cool Tech
or their matter management tool is rub- of our favourite
bish. When Matt gets in there, he fnds for In-House Counsel
out the system was just implemented apps for in-house
poorly: key functionality that would help counsel to trial:
in-house counsel was never turned on, the
software was bought fve years ago and
dumped on the company server never to
be upgraded, or information is being col-
lected and collated but no one is asking ■ For internal communications: ■ For business card, whiteboard
what the purpose of the information is slack or Microsoft Teams and document scanning:
and whether it is necessary or useful to offce Lens
■ For task management: Trello or
report on.
Lack of training is also a key fac- Microsoft Planner ■ For email and communications:
tor. How do you expect new lawyers to Blackberry hub
■ For knowledge management:
come in and fnd their way around your atlassian Confuence ■ For time recording: Toggl
system without any training or guid-
ance? Optimizing the use of any technol-
ogy requires some upfront investment

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