Modern Law Magazine Issue 66

EDITORIAL
BOARD
Ryan Braddock,
Vice President and
Sales Director, Speech
Processing Solutions
Securing Hybrid
Working
The appetite amongst staff within the legal sector for
flexible and hybrid working has grown significantly,
this is clear from a survey we conducted in conjunction
with Legal IT Technology; we found that 63% of legal
professionals want to work flexible hours, compared to
just 22% pre-pandemic. Employees should be able to
work seamlessly between the workplace and home, and
there needs to be ease of connectivity between people
in the office and those working remotely.
We found that a big concern for law firms wanting to move
towards a hybrid working model, is how to ensure sensitive
documents can be sent and received securely, if employees
are working remotely? The answer is of course, cloud-based
applications and platforms. It’s simply not possible for onpremises
solutions to be as secure as the cloud; with security
tech requiring significant scaling and investment, this clearly
cannot be achieved with on-premises. Encouragingly law
firms are starting to see where a cloud-first strategy fits in;
60% of respondents to our previously mentioned survey,
confirmed that over half of their software is now made up of
cloud-based SaaS products. This figure reinforces the growing
popularity of SaaS and an increasing reliance on this type of
software delivery model.
For law firms looking to use a cloud service provider for software,
platforms or infrastructure, there are real tangible benefits; for
example, a firm can access the required services at a regular,
guaranteed (often low) cost, with the added advantage that the
provider manages support of the systems. In addition to managing
support, a cloud service provider will also handle maintenance and
will provide extremely high levels of security, not least because
their businesses and reputations depend on it. The use of firewalls,
encryption and multi-factor authentication are now commonplace,
as is adherence to security certifications, this helps to ensure that
industry-leading levels of security are available.
In addition to security concerns, we found that a key challenge for
law firms is how to produce a range of high-quality documents
including briefs, contracts, case materials, and records of client
communication in a timely and efficient manner. The solution
is another easily available SaaS product speech recognition
software, which when integrated with workflow software, can
help to streamline the entire document creation and management
processes, all in one place and all securely in the cloud. We all know
cloud is the future, and now, so is hybrid working.
Dave Seager,
Consulting Adviser,
Matrix Capital
Relevant continued
competence training
is a phone call away
August saw the much-anticipated SRA Assessment of
continued competence, which is to be an annual report.
In some areas the findings were quite damning of the
profession and the concerns expressed by the LSB last
summer seem to have been reinforced. So much so that
the SRA has indicated a thematic review and promised
new guidance for solicitors, individuals and firms in 2024.
“We will assess whether and, if so, how solicitors are meeting
their obligations to keep their knowledge and skills up to date,
including ethics, professionalism and judgment and technical
legal practice. We will also review supervision arrangements
within these firms.”
There seems little doubt that the new regime will both usher in a
greater insistence on individuals identifying knowledge gaps and
learning needs and evidencing that they have recorded these and
addressed them, but also offer stricter instruction on the firm’s
management, (the COLP,) overseeing and supervising the process.
As the Gazette’s John Hyde so aptly predicted at the start of
the process in 2022 - “In short, the days of ticking boxes are
long gone. The SRA wants to see evidence that FIRMS are
taking competence seriously (and documenting the evidence).
Those that do not can expect a knock on the door, or even a
dishonourable mention in the annual incompetence hit parade!”
Accessing learning events or webinars is obviously not an alien
concept for the legal profession, nor is it difficult. However,
will that easily attainable CPD be the right subject matter or
relevant for an evolving profession, working in new ways and
increasingly collaborating with other professionals?
Today’s clients have more complex issues, needs and naturally
greater expectations, which means they expect a joined-up
approach to problem solving and forward planning. In our
experience the newer generation of forward-thinking lawyers
are recognising and embracing the need to work closely with
accountants and certainly financial planners.
Consequently, it would be logical for law firms to look to their
financial planning associates to ensure their knowledge is kept up
to date in all the areas where legal and financial overlap. In areas
such as IHT mitigation options, the complexity of pensions on
divorce, cashflow modelling, or even how to work properly with
clients in vulnerable circumstances are good examples.
Certainly, at Matrix Capital we have given this serious thought
and developed a library of relevant training resources for our
legal colleagues. We hope if you have done your due diligence
and chosen your financial planning partners well, similar
support should be a phone call away.
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