National firm sees digital innovation as firm-wide affair

After its inaugural two-day hackathon, the firm saw why digital innovation concerns all teams across the organisation.

Lander & Rogers highlighted how digital innovation is a firm-wide affair as it concluded its inaugural hackathon.
 
An intensive event which saw mixed teams from all levels of the firm collaborating with external coders and designers to create new solutions, the hackathon “demonstrated that digital innovation is no longer just the domain of the IT team in a law firm,” said Genevieve Collins, Lander & Rogers' innovation partner.
 
“All of us can and must work to bring about an innovation culture, recognising that our best ideas can sometimes come from the most unlikely sources,” she added.
 
Those ideas resulted in the development of a new work platform, client Apps and an innovative portal to improve client experience and create greater process efficiency during the hackathon.
 
The teams combined individual interests and teamwork to complete their prototypes and pitch them to a panel of judges, including guest judge Jodie Baker, former Managing Director at virtual law firm Hive Legal and now Managing Director of start-up, Xakia Technologies.
 
The results were exactly what were expected from the event. Myles Tehan, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Hack Days Australia, who facilitated the Hackathon,  said, "A well-crafted hackathon unlocks creative thinking, solves complex problems, and promotes technology with a focus on ‘real’ opportunities or challenges that are relevant to the organisation.” 
 
“The inaugural Lander & Rogers Hackathon was a fantastic event and I was very impressed at how quickly the diverse set of stakeholders came together and engaged with the challenge that had been allocated to them.
 
“The quality of the final pitches reflected the depth of innovative thinking whilst showcasing the benefits of what can be achieved through intense, creative collaboration over a period of two days," Tehan said.
 
The hackathon was an avenue to bring together different stakeholders of the firm for efficient innovation, said Lander & Rogers CIO Sam Sofianos.
 
“The Hackathon was a powerful vehicle to bring together business partners, lawyers and technologists to achieve rapid creation of several new and smart solutions, which will ultimately allow the firm to streamline existing services and deliver new services to our clients,” Sofianos said.
 
“It has literally cut months off several projects through rapid requirements gathering and prototype development,” the firm’s innovation chief added.
 
Meanwhile, Collins stressed how essential that the firm continue to be innovative not only to provide the best experience for our clients but also to ensure efficient and effective processes and technology are in place.
 
“The aim of our Hackathon was to generate innovative thinking and develop these ideas—that would otherwise take months to get to prototype stage—at the same time. Working to the deadline of a pitch presentation at the end of two days created the necessary incentive for lawyers to overcome their tendency to focus on stumbling blocks,” she said.
 
“The results will see our firm redesign and eventually replace an existing legacy system in file opening and conflict checking with a new firmwide platform. It will also see us develop concepts for portals, reporting tools, and apps, as well as generating some creative ideas for innovations to further improve service delivery for our clients,” the senior lawyer noted.


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