“Documents are to lawyers what cars are to Holden”

Martin Telfer CIO, Minter Ellison Lawyers
The plinth of firm efficiency;
LAWYERS WEEKLY;
27 August 2003

FAQs

What is the purpose of conference?
What if I know nothing about Precedent Automation?
Who should attend?
MCLE
Why Telephone Presentations?
Questions and Feedback

What is the purpose of the conference?

Whether it be a letter of advice, or a complex document, the conversion of the intangible advice or agreement to a paper-based tangible is often all most clients have to show for their bills. While the production speeds, methods and formats vary, and client expectations with them, documents still remain the cornerstone of legal services. Our aim with the conference is to expose attendees to the latest thinking and tools in the area of document automation, and nudge along any tempted to rest on their laurels.

While you might not be able to keep up with all the leading edge ideas, the Conference audio, and getting to meet world leading colleagues, will allow you to continue to reap benefits, and swap notes with friends at this annual event. It will also give you the grounding necessary for providing documents and knowledge via the web as some some clients are starting to expect.

What if I know nothing about Precedent Automation?

If you know very little about document assembly etc, grab this rare opportunity to learn from world leading speakers, and local colleagues. By the end of the Conference, you will be up on the very latest developments, while hearing about pitfalls from numerous case studies. To ensure that you are comfortable with the basics, view a video showing an example here (requires Flash). You could also read an introduction to document assembly by Seth Rowland here, andget a panoramic view of the document assembly landscape, as of early 2006 by Marc Lauritsen here.

Who should attend?

Those who want to "push the envelope" in the document automation sphere. This is not the occasion for those who believe the pen is always mightier than the mouse. While the speakers include an "IT sceptic" whose first love is the content of documents rather than the tools, the issues will be not "should you automate", but "how much" and "to what extent" you should automate document production. Automating the wrong documents can be just as big a productivity/profit drain than no automation.

So, who should attend:

• Inhouse lawyers inspired by Laura Owen's suggestions.
• Managing Partners, and Group Practice Leaders from large and small firms, so they give some direction.
• Practice Support Lawyers, Staff and Consultants so they can add to the services they offer.
• Sole Practictioners as they can team up with consultants and other lawyers, and move much more quickly than their large firm colleagues.
• The firm IT and Administrative staff, and consultants so they can support the lawyers who have the vision.
• Those in small firms should consider bringing their external IT consultants/suppliers.

Considerable discounts are provided to additional people from the one firm to facilitate a wider understanding of the importance of IT to lawyers.

MCLE

If a particular activity is relevant to your immediate or longer term professional development and practice of law, you can be entitled to claim one MCLE Unit for each hour of your actual attendance (not including breaks). With a planned 6 hours of seminars daily, it gives you the perfect solution for complying with your MCLE requirements.

Why Telephone Presentations?

It allows us to have leading-edge overseas speakers who would not otherwise be able to participate. As the OS-based speakers have commitments which preclude travel to Australia, the telephone presentations followed by live questions with locally driven slide shows/screen shots/demonstrations offer a greate alternative.

Questions and Feedback

We invite you to suggest speakers, topics, or technologies you think we should explore or wish you knew more about. Who's the person you've always wanted to see speak? Who is doing groundbreaking work that we should feature? Drop us a line at simon @ sinch. com. au , and tell us your suggestions.