In this episode, I’m joined by Caryn Sandler, Partner and Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer at Gilbert & Tobin. G+T are well recognised as being leaders in innovation in the legal profession. One thing that shines through from this interview is that at G+T, innovation isn’t about shiny objects, bells and whistles or technology in and of itself. At the core of G+T’s approach to innovation is people. Finding ways to develop their people’s capability, bring in new skill sets, break down silos and facilitate true collaboration. None of this is lip service – listen to just a few minutes of my chat with Caryn and you’ll hear her passion for and dedication to her team.
Caryn’s role involves the innovation of tools and services to support the firm’s legal service delivery. Her team works across transformation, knowledge management, legal tech, managed services and project management to implement innovation within the firm. But G+T’s innovation arm doesn’t stop there; they also have an external advisory capability – an additional business arm that leverages the skills and knowledge from their internal innovation journey by working with clients to optimise their own internal legal functions. Pretty smart business thinking if you ask me!
In this episode, we explore what innovation looks like at G+T and while we’re at it, we unpack some of the buzz words – what do “project management” and “process reengineering” actually mean.
Here’s a summary of the things we talk about:
2:08 What does innovation mean at G+T?
6:07 Valuing innovation in the same way as billable work
7:46 How to incentivise and measure innovation
9:20 Qualitative, quantitative and client satisfaction measures
10:55 How to decide where to start!
13:00 Continuous improvement is an iterative process
14:00 Investing in legal project management
16:40 Unpacking the buzz words
18:04 A multidisciplinary approach to innovation
20:25 Who should you get for legal operations professionals?
21:35 G+T Innovate – consulting capability to help in house teams innovate
27:20 Ideas vs implementation and keeping people accountable
28:42 Where to start your innovation journey
Links
- Gilbert + Tobin Lawyers website
- Connect with Caryn on LinkedIn
- Subscribe to Doing Law Differently on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify
- Connect with me on LinkedIn
- Want to share how you’re Doing Law Differently? Get in touch here.
