The famed competitive spirit inherent in the Australian psyche is not confined to the world of sport. Granted, this is where it is most clearly evident, but, as England’s cricketers steel themselves for another quest to recover the Ashes, it is worth noting that Australian panache and aggression are making waves in a rather more cerebral arena. Welcome to the cut-throat world of legal IT down under – a world of innovation that law firms closer to home might do well to emulate.
Australian law firms have long been a source of progressive innovation in areas as diverse as case management and workflow, litigation technology and online services for clients. Tough economic conditions and an entrepreneurial spirit among business leaders have helped forge a palpable dynamism in the legal IT sector, one that Kaye Sycamore, regional director for Thomson Elite in the Asia-Pacific region, puts down to the fact that Australia has, for many years, been a buyer’s market: “In Australia there are only a finite number of people looking for legal services, which leads to the buyer having greater power. Law firms have been used to this for the past 15 years, in which the drive to enhance service delivery, increase productivity and reduce costs has become ever more pronounced.”
