The colours chosen for a logo significantly influence our subconscious perceptions. When you consider that 93% of purchasing judgments are made on visual perceptions, it’s no surprise that colours can subliminally convince prospective clients that your firm is the best choice out there.

To unpack the psychology behind a firm’s colour scheme of choice, 99designs analysed a range of design projects created on the platform to identify the logo colours and brand traits preferred by legal industry clients. We then compared these against the colours that global industry leaders use to figure out what’s going on behind the scenes of some of the world’s biggest firms. Whether it’s giving off an air of quiet sophistication or promoting power, youth and vitality, here’s what the colour of your logo says about your law firm.

Keeping it simple 

It makes sense that lawyers want to be perceived as professional, discreet and sophisticated, so it’s no surprise that an austere, minimalist aesthetic features heavily in the logos of leading law firms.

These top firms have a preference for logos with a single dominant colour, and either a neutral secondary colour or no secondary colour at all. When secondary colours are used, they’re usually neutral: think black, whites and greys that let the dominant colour do the talking.

Smaller firms are more willing to experiment with wider and wilder colour palettes, branching out in hues of two or more different shades. For younger or more niche firms this could be a way to communicate a more progressive and modern edge.

Modern classics

Often, there is a tug of war that occurs over how law firms perceive themselves, and how they wish to be perceived by potential clients.

Somewhat contradictorily, firms tend to have a preference for coming across as both classical and youthful. This can, in part, be put down to a desire to impart a sense of modernity amid the years of history and tradition that underpins the legal industry.

The colour red

The relative popularity of red in legal logos may be attributed to a desire to inject a sense of vigor into the staid tradition of the legal profession. Almost one-fifth of 99designs clients and legal industry leaders opt for this vibrant hue in their branding. It’s a passionate colour, and one often associated with youth and vitality. It’s also a colour signifying power and carrying connotations of strength and victory: a suitable signifier for the adversarial nature of the legal profession.

Blue is the professional’s choice

Among 99designs’ legal clients, blue comes out as favourite making an appearance in 63% of legal logos. Light blue signifies trust and dark blue represents professionalism, so it’s little wonder that this colour palette is popular with firms looking to add a touch of sophistication and credibility to their operations.

However, blue isn’t just the most popular logo colour choice for legal clients – it is a favourite among all industries.

The below graph compares the most popular law firm logo colours among 99designs’ legal clients, legal industry leaders and across all industries.

Data visualizations designed by MH Designs.

The colour black

Black is another popular choice: present in just under a fifth of legal logos. The colour is sleek, modern and commanding: everything a top-tier firm should be.

The colour green

Green is another popular choice, appearing in over a quarter of legal logos created on 99designs. It’s a versatile colour that is vibrant and youthful, but still signifies growth, rebirth and prosperity.

Choosing the right colour for your firm

So now that you understand the importance that colour plays in the perception of your firm, how will you create a logo that fits with the image you want to portray?

The design and colour scheme of your logo will come down to your firm’s unique personality and brand.

If your brand veers towards masculine rather than feminine, colours like brown and dark blue will reflect this to prospective clients. If you’re looking to hit a serious tone in your branding, consider colours like blue and black to give your firm a sense of gravitas. These colours also project luxury and sophistication. If you’re looking to appeal to a mature market, dark blue is a no brainer.

If you seek to inject a sense of freshness and modernity into your firm’s culture, opt for green hues. However, if you want to stand out from the crowd, a powerful, red will convey power, energy and vitality.

In an industry that favours rationalism and reasoning over impulse and intuition, even the simplest logo has the powerful ability to appeal to the subconscious emotional responses of other legal industry players, as well as future clients. Intentionally or not, your law firm’s logo speaks volumes about how your firm is perceived, and it is a decision that should be made with care.

One such area we see this is with the increasing number of lawyers freelancing, moving from one short-term contract to another. This trend is driven by both sides of the equation. For firms and companies, budgetary pressures have hit full-time head counts hard. Increasingly unable to recruit full-time resources, many firms are looking to get around restrictive head counts with ‘off the books’ short-term contract appointments.

Although initially born out of necessity, short-term contracting is becoming not only a convenient option for law firms but is also delivering many benefits.

Firms are in an incredibly fortunate position. The very same market pressures which are reducing full-time head count are driving larger volumes of higher calibre candidates into the short-term market talent pool”, says legal recruitment specialist, Jacinta Fish.

These candidates come armed with fresh ideas and new ways of doing things, so we often see law firms extracting great value from these contractors in the short period they are placed with them, all without having to pay the overheads associated with full time employees.”

Contractors also help firms move around the various peaks and troughs of work load, helping them manage large or unforeseen projects without overworking their full-time employees, which can lead to poor engagement and burn out. Taking on a contractor can be a good way for firms to test resourcing structures such as expansion or extending their range of services.

Another benefit to firms is the productiveness of short-term contractors. As we know, firms can also be incredibly hierarchical, with most lawyers having a plan and timeline for ascending the ladder, however for contractors, this is not a distraction and we find they are more focused on being as effective within their contracted role.”

The benefits of short-term contracting also work the other way for candidates.

The rise of the ‘gig economy’ has seen many lawyers actively looking for work that is more flexible and less restrictive. The ability to broaden their experience across a breadth of firms, cases and projects is not only convenient but also delivers real time career satisfaction’, says Fish.

For contractors, the possibility that the contract position might evolve into a permanent position is real and something we see often. Many firms will offer contractors permanent ongoing work but the exciting part for contractors is that they will have had a chance to ‘try before you buy’ and will know whether the culture and opportunities within a firm are suited to them.”

And of course, a big benefit is income. Short-term contracts are well re-numerated, so many are finding the combination of more choice, flexibility, career experience and higher income not only a viable, but preferable.”

Some examples of the sorts of short-term contract roles Jacinta Fish FlexIt has placed include:

• A financial services business took on a senior finance lawyer for 2 months on a maternity leave contract. This short term contract led to the creation of a new role for the contractor.
• A senior mergers and acquisitions lawyer originally hired for 12 months to assist with project work was subsequently offered a full time position with the business.

Experienced lawyers as well as recent graduates are benefiting from short-term contracting arrangements. Although larger firms continue to increase their graduate intakes, law graduates are still finding it more difficult than ever to find full-time positions and clerkships.

For graduates keen to get moving with their career, short-term contracting can help them get that foot in the door and give them an opportunity to prove themselves” says Fish.

Competition between graduates is tough, so many see short-term contracting as no longer inferior to long-term positions but as a clever way to broaden their experience and improve their employment prospects.”

With the benefits flowing both ways, short-term contracting promises to be a win-win for firms and lawyers alike.

Further Information

For more information, or to learn more about the benefits of short-term contracting for you, or your firm, contact:

Jacinta Fish at Jacinta Fish FlexIt

• P: (03) 9039 9990
• E: hello@jacintafishlegal.com.au

Melbourne Office

Level 3, 356 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

This post is proudly sponsored by Jacinta Fish FlexIt.

This June, we caught up with Peter Jidesten, CEO of new tech startup iDefendo, to talk file transfers, blockchain technology, and how his company is helping individuals and businesses to protect their intellectual property rights.

What is iDefendo and how can the platform help individuals or businesses?

“iDefendo is a file transfer service that targets IP intensive and creative businesses.

In addition to just transferring files from sender to recipient, we also create a digital timeline of events that can be used to prove that you really did send a specific file at a specific date and time and that a recipient really did download it at some other specific date and time.

These time stamps are then inserted into a blockchain to make them immutable so that you can use them to prove that what you claim happened really did happen. We call these logged timestamps ‘Digital Witnesses’ because that’s really what they are. They don’t prove anything by themselves, but they corroborate our users’ side of the story, and as an iDefendo user you can access them all in an Evidence Binder that we create automatically for you.

We believe that it’s generally good for business and progress when people dare to share their ideas.

It’s our hope that our system can help generate needed trust by making it transparent to the parties in a transaction that everything is logged and provable, and that our digital witnesses are present as a deterrent for anyone who might otherwise think about behaving badly.”

How to did you come up with the idea for iDefendo and what made you decide to use blockchain technology for file transfers?

“We, the founders of iDefendo, have a background as content creators and buyers and sellers of publishing and usage rights. In that space, creators have a very real fear of getting their music, images or ideas stolen. We also talked to inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs and found the exact same worries in those spaces.

It became clear to us that the point in time when people feel the most unprotected is when they send out their content without a contract in place, so we designed iDefendo to be the tool that you use at that exact point.

Making use of blockchain technology was really almost unavoidable; trust-between-parties-who-don’t-know-each-other is more or less what blockchains are all about, with their distributed ledgers that can be verified by all parties.”

Blockchain technology has been around for a while. What is iDefendo’s key point of difference?

“Indeed, blockchains are not new anymore, and the hype around them is slowly starting to fade. Personally, I welcome that as I think it will make it easier for people to see where blockchains really are the better solution instead of just the hottest buzzword. I’ve seen more than a few implementations where blockchains were shoehorned into solutions where virtually any other data storage technology would have made more sense.

That said, in the right place a blockchain database that can be verified by all stakeholders can create the trust that acts as the grease that makes business run smoother.

But blockchains are highly technical and not necessarily easy to wrap one’s head around. That’s what we hope iDefendo will change by making blockchains useful to all and greasing the wheels of whatever business they are in.”

Being able to prove authorship of documents, when documents were sent and downloaded (and by who) can be critical to a favourable outcome in litigation, particularly in an intellectual property dispute. Has iDefendo experienced much traction in the legal sector and was this something you anticipated before launching?

“When we set out to build iDefendo, our primary target was people in our own backyard – freelancers of all kinds, photographers, songwriters, designers and software developers among others. But when, in preparation for the launch, we spoke to several different lawyers, it soon became clear that legal professionals not only very quickly grasped what we were trying to achieve, they also saw the use for it within their own areas of expertise. Because it’s exactly as you say: being able to prove something is often key. Sure, as a creator of something you generally own the copyright to that something, but how do you prove that? If the something happens to be sensitive or secret, you can’t really register it anywhere. And it’s not always clear from the outset what will be valuable in the future, so even if you could register it you might not be aware that you should until it’s too late.

iDefendo addresses both these problems. First, our digital witnesses are based on cryptographic hashes of whatever content they represent. That means that we don’t have to know anything about the content, or even see the file itself. All we need is the hash – the fingerprint – of the content. And secondly, we automatically log everything so that our users don’t have to worry about forgetting to log something that later will prove to be important.”

In the light of the recent Facebook privacy scandals involving Huawei and Cambridge Analytica, many users are concerned about sending information, particularly commercially sensitive information, using online services. How does iDefendo address these concerns?

“Information security is extremely important to us, for obvious reasons. We’ve built the system using best practices in all areas, with industrial strength end-to-end encryption both while files are in transit and when they are ‘at rest’ within our system. As soon as we don’t need the files anymore because the share has expired, they are securely wiped from our system.

We keep only the files we must keep in order to fulfill the file transfers. And as I mentioned earlier, for highly sensitive information that should never leave the security of the computer or local network, our digital witnesses can still be used without our servers ever seeing the content at all. All we need is a cryptographic hash, and that hash can be created locally within the user’s browser. Cryptographic hashes are the result of one-way hash functions, meaning that they can’t be ‘decrypted’ or leak any information about the content they represent.”

How much does it cost to use iDefendo?

“We have a subscription-based fixed per-seat-per-month pricing that allows virtually unlimited use of the service.

So there are no per-instance fees, once you’re a subscriber you’re free to use the system as much as you want. A subscription costs $120 per user and year, or $12 per month and also includes all necessary storage of the files you send. There is a free tier as well, where we offer much of the same service but that doesn’t include the blockchain-based Digital Witnesses that are automatically created for our paying customers.”

You mention that iDefendo logs everything. How is this compatible with companies’ data retention policies?

“Blockchain records are, as you probably know, immutable. That’s a core feature of the technology, and it’s the primary reason why we use them in iDefendo.

But the immutability might be a problem when you need to clean out something, for compliance or any other reason. To counter that, we’ve built technology that lets users invalidate records that should no longer point back to their owner. By doing so the records are effectively rendered unreadable, and only the owner can re-validate them later as long as they retain the key.

So basically, to remove a record, the user only needs to throw away the validation key in a manner that is consistent with their retention policies. iDefendo does not store these keys in our system at all, so we cannot be called upon to divulge them even if we are subpoenaed.”

Further Information

To learn more, visit iDefendo.

This article is sponsored by Vobis Equity Attorneys. 

Lou Stojanovski and Tom Catalovski Construction Director NSW, Probuild

The “SOPA (Security of Payment Act) Toolbox” app has been developed by Director of Keystone Lawyers and expert in construction law, Lou Stojanovski.

Mr Stojanovski says he developed “SOPA Toolbox” to solve a problem he frequently sees with contractors missing out on progress payments because they are unaware of the security of payments system and deadlines. He also sees builders fail to respond to claims on time forcing them to make payment on claims they may otherwise dispute.

The app reminds builders and subcontractors of deadlines and takes them through every step in what can be a complex process.

Mr Stojanovski said “SOPA Toolbox” is an example of how technology is changing the way consumers interact with the law.

The app interprets the flow of the legislation for users, guides them through the steps in the process and provides downloadable relevant documents” Mr Stojanovski said.

Important dates are automatically stored on the user’s calendar and reminders prompt you what do next”.

“SOPA Toolbox” takes the guess work out so you don’t miss out on getting paid. It is a must-have tool for everyone in the construction industry Australia-wide” he said.

At $9.95 per month, it is a cost-effective solution that avoids the expense of a lawyer unless it is absolutely necessary.

The Security of Payments Act gives all contractors undertaking construction work and suppliers of goods or services the right to receive ‘progress payments’ for work performed. It sets down maximum payment deadlines and the option of adjudication if payment is not made on time.

The app has been configured for variations in legislation across each Australian State and Territory. While it does not replace the importance of carefully reading contracts, it is a simple tool that can track progress claims and responses to help ensure construction industry workers are paid on time.

Further Information

“SOPA Toolbox” is currently available for iPhone users via iTunes. An Android version is in development. A free trial is available. Subscribe to access to all features.

For more information visit www.sopatoolbox.com.au or download the app from iTunes.

Keystone Lawyers is based in Newcastle NSW but serves clients nationally.

NATIONAL GOLDEN GAVEL FINALS AND AWARDS DINNER

Date:		Friday, 20 October 2017
Time:		6.30pm – 10.30pm
Venue:		Clearview Glass Boat, Sydney Harbour
Table of 10		$1,590.00

BOOK DINNER – TABLE OF 10

ENQUIRE HERE

SPECIAL GUEST JUDGES

The Hon Justice Margaret Beazley AO, President, Court of Appeal

The Hon Justice Lucy McCallum, Supreme Court of NSW

The Hon Justice Julie Ward, Chief Judge in Equity, Supreme Court

Mr Morry Bailes, President-elect, Law Council of Australia

It’s an exciting era of other-worldly developments that presents smart Australian lawyers with a rare opportunity to advance their legal expertise in a new niche area. The question is: what laws currently govern commercial activities, such as mining, in space?

Star laws: Current legal framework and regulation

The current legal framework that governs space activities and regulates ‘space law’ is administered by the United Nations (UN). Key devices are the Outer Space Treaty (the Treaty) and the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOUS). The Treaty was negotiated at the height of tensions between the Russian Space Agency and NASA as they both fiercely competed against one another during the Cold War.

The Treaty provides for the free use of space for exploration and scientific investigation, and for States to be responsible for the private activities of their national persons. COPUOUS is the body that administers the Treaty and ensures that no space or celestial bodies are claimed by nations – a fundamental principle of current space law – drafted to prevent an era of ‘space-colonialism’.

The International Institute of Space Law (IISL) has said that there can be no ownership of celestial bodies, as there is no territorial jurisdiction or the existence of a territorial sovereign competent to confer titles of ownership. Although the Treaty evidently promotes the use of space for exploration and scientific discovery, IISL has seemingly defeated the claims that anyone could have to ownership of any celestial areas or bodies.

If this is the case, however, how can companies claim ‘space-land’ and even ‘space-resources’, to mine, use or build upon, if there appears to be no ownership?

Galaxy quest: the global space industry

The United States, China, and Russia, as the major powers in space exploration, have policies, legislation, and guidelines that foster or restrict engagement by their citizens with outer space. Russia’s current policy regarding space exploration is that the cosmos should be used to obtain scientific data and to utilise extra-terrestrial resources.

China has set up policies that provide for the registration of objects and persons that go into space in order to collect resources, seemingly authorising such activity by its citizens and companies.

Countdown 3, 2, 1: Australia set to enter the space race

A federal review of Australia’s space capabilities has been announced with a report to be released in March 2018. Many experts believe that Australia has the infrastructure and capacity to make significant breakthroughs in a $420 billion global space industry.

Currently, Australia ‘scrapes’ for satellite data from other countries, is unable to launch its own satellites into space and is falling far behind most countries with regard to space research and development. The review represents a transitional point with the potential to boom into the development and commercialisation of the Australian space industry.

This review, which is set to coordinate Australia’s space efforts, could unlock the industry for Australian lawyers. South Australia already has sixty space-related companies that have shown a keen interest in the outcome of the federal review.

The outcome of the federal review may present a unique opportunity for forward-thinking lawyers to hitch a ride in the space race by specialising in a new area of legal practice.

The United States has made significant progress in promoting the commercial exploitation of space resources. In late 2015, it passed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (Competitiveness Act), which directs the executive branch to facilitate commercial exploration for, and the recovery of, space resources by US citizens.

The Competitiveness Act entitles a US citizen to keep asteroid or space resources that have been obtained through commercial programs in space, allowing a citizen to sell or deal with such resources as they choose. This piece of legislation was passed under the Obama administration and has been heralded as a historical document likely to spur the development of off-Earth mining.

Guardians of the galaxy: the next chapter

There has been some discussion on the subject of space mining which focuses on the lack of sovereignty in space. Some commentators argue that this limits the possibility of profiteering from private investment.

However, especially with the advent of the Competitiveness Act, it would seem that the absence of territorial sovereignty actually provides the freedom for corporations to use outer space and celestial bodies as they wish. It is not necessary, for example, for corporations to own space or a celestial body for the purposes of using, mining or building on it. The principle of free exploration and use has its origins in the use of the sea, where the high seas are free from territorial sovereignty and every state has the right to enjoy the ‘freedom of the high seas’.

Evidently, corpus iuris spatialis (space law) is an area of law that is still evolving. It would seem that the only restriction on space resource usage is that such usage, according to the Treaty, must be for the benefit of all humanity. Due to the principle of free exploration, a company operating in space may not need to own space territory – and any structures created on celestial bodies would have ownership vested in their creator.

The journey continues

It will be interesting to see what exciting developments in the area of space law lie ahead at an international and domestic level and how the law develops to regulate the operations of corporations and individuals in space.

Starry-eyed Australian lawyers who are interested in tapping into new challenges and working in a rich and incomparably vast area of legal practice such as space law would be advised to get involved in this industry early … before it takes off!

Would you be interested in a career in space law if the opportunity presented itself? Let us know in the comments!

From everyday predicaments like whether you should go to the gym or go out for dinner with your friends; forego precious sleep and watch just one more episode of Mindhunter; to bigger life decisions like whether you are on track with your career or if it might be time to change course this year.

We are bombarded from all angles with social media noise about how to fix our biggest career problems ‘in 10 simple steps’ – and with so much conflicting information about how to be successful, it’s not surprising that many of us have come to doubt our natural instincts and decision-making strategies. Instead of pausing to listen to our inner voice we label it as an untrustworthy saboteur and quickly tune it out. How many times have you chided yourself for not making a decision you ‘knew’ at the time you should, but didn’t?

What value can your gut really offer in developing better decision-making skills and how can you use it to improve your career prospects this year?

How do we make everyday decisions?

When it comes to decision-making, our brains use two main systems:

1. Deliberative (conscious): researching, analysing, weighing benefits and deciding on the most logical approach based on facts.
2. Intuitive (subconscious): trusting your gut, following a ‘hunch’ or choosing an option that just ‘feels right’ based on past knowledge and experience.

In his book Thinking Fast And Slow, Daniel Kahneman refers to these two different but complementary systems as ‘slow thinking’ and ‘fast thinking’.

In our examples above, difficult decisions that take time and conscious thought, such as applying for a new job or making an important career move, generally fall under the cognitive end of the decision-making spectrum. Emotional decisions to do with relationships, on the other hand, correspond to the intuitive side of the decision-making spectrum.

For many years researchers believed that the conscious, pragmatic and objective mind was best able to make logical decisions; however, most experts now agree that a combination of analytical and intuitive decision-making yields the best results.

According to research published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes by researchers from Boston College, George Mason University and Rice University:

Intuition has long been viewed as a less effective approach to critical reasoning when compared to the merits of analytical thinking. Yet as society and businesses place a greater emphasis on the speed and effectiveness of decision-making, the intuitive approach has been identified as an increasingly important tool.”

How lawyers make decisions

Traditionally, lawyers are trained to ‘think slow’ and make decisions based on hard evidence and facts. It’s a form of industry-championed analytical thinking that begins in law school and carries through to legal practice with the primary goal of mitigating unnecessary risks. So when it comes to making career decisions it should come as no surprise that most law graduates and young lawyers fall into the trap of using a similar formulaic approach, based on measurable facts and metrics.

For example:

If I thoroughly research a potential employer, have excellent grades, gain as much relevant experience as possible before applying, nail the interview, have all my social profiles up-to-date and project a professional image, then I will be in the best position to secure an offer.”

Unfortunately, real-world recruitment practices almost never adhere to a clear and predictable formula. Having perfect grades and relevant experience is no longer enough. This is because the hiring process is largely intuitive. While your qualifications and experience are objective markers of your suitability for an interview your personality and likeability are an equally important (but often overlooked) subjective factor that plays an important role in your overall employability.

A hiring manager may be excited by your application on paper, for example, but choose not to hire you at the interview because of a ‘gut feeling’ that you will not fit their company culture. This could be because you did not show a demonstrated passion or interest in the type of work they offer.

In this situation, you might need an extra edge to push yourself over the employment line – one that blends a deliberative and intuitive decision-making approach to your legal career.

Getting the edge: Conscious analytical thinking and raw gut instinct

Employers favourably regard applicants who demonstrate high emotional intelligence, well-developed self-awareness and the capacity to make sound decisions. Spending time developing your interpersonal skills, learning how to communicate effectively, and honing your ability to formulate an opinion on raw data and your intuition is one way to achieve this.

Employers also want staff who are actively engaged in both self-development and professional development. If you apply for a role with a corporate firm, for example, a simple way to position yourself ahead of your competitors is to make a calculated career move by pursuing an online Master of Laws (Business Law) .

Expanding your career arsenal through further study shows a potential employer that you have a thirst for knowledge, are committed to developing your professional skillset, are actively engaged with the latest trends in your industry, are eager to refresh your existing skills and to build a solid career with their company.

These are qualities that all employers seek in a new hire. This is especially so as they are making an investment in you and will see your potential long-term value to their company.

Developing intuitive thinking in your career

In an interview with Fast Company, Angela Jia Kim, co-founder of women entrepreneurs’ network Savor The Success, outlines some questions to ask yourself to understand your gut feelings:

• “Do I feel good around this person or choice?”
• “Does this person or situation give me or take my energy?”
• “Do I feel empowered or disempowered?”
• “Am I going toward an adventure or running from fear?”
• “Am I listening to my lessons learned from the past?”
• “Would I make the same choice if I had a million dollars in my pocket now?”
• “Do I feel respected and valued?”
• “Am I trying to control the situation or am I leaving room for expansion?”

Intuitive thinking can boost your career by helping you to:

1. Make faster and more accurate decisions

Your ability to follow a hunch and quickly assess a work situation develops with time. In many cases, sound professional decision-making skills are tied to your level of knowledge or experience in a given area. This is referred to as domain expertise, meaning that the higher your level of knowledge in a subject area, for example, where you have climbed the ranks in your industry the more effectively you will be able to make intuitive decisions.

Invest time in further study related to your speciality, read online journals and industry news, listen to podcasts and inform yourself about new developments that impact your current or future roles. A strong baseline understanding of such issues flows on to helping you make faster and more informed choices, which are attractive qualities in any employee.

2. Be in a position of power at interview

If you are offered an exciting job, it does not always mean that you should take it. Our gut is often our best tool to navigate personal and professional relationships. Consider a situation where something seems ‘off’ about your selection panel at interview. Maybe the company values do not align with your own, or perhaps you have an off-putting sense that you may be discriminated against because of your gender or cultural background. You may dislike your new employer or feel that taking the job is not the most strategic career move.

Trust your instincts – if something makes you feel uneasy about a job you are under no obligation to accept it. Remember that simply because a job is highly competitive does not mean that you should blindly take it, especially when everything in you screams that it is the wrong decision.

3. Know the right time to make a big career move

If you are in an unsatisfactory work situation, and things are not improving, your gut is often the first indicator. Pay attention to warning signs such as a constant heavy or nagging sensation, experiencing discomfort or anxiety, feeling ill-at-ease throughout the day, sensing a continuous sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

In this situation, going with your gut involves coming to terms with the fact that your work situation is unlikely to improve and using your analytical brain to decide on a change.

Bear in mind that listening to your gut takes time and practice, so be kind to yourself and don’t expect immediate results. Your intuition is not a voice that comes over a loudspeaker, but something much more subtle. It’s an inkling that reveals itself only when you quiet your mind. It makes you want to go in one direction over another for reasons that you may not be able to fully articulate.

Conclusion

While legal reasoning and analytical thinking focus on breaking down complex problems into small digestible parts, intuition is about looking at the bigger picture. Making career decisions based on intuitive reasoning looks to patterns and your long-term career goals.

Your career is more than the sum of its parts, which is why it is important to consider and trust your instincts. Every day your intuition makes millions of rapid assessments that tell you whether something is right or wrong – it will let you know which direction your career should be taking you.

Relying on your inner voice is a skill you can learn. It’s a habit you can cultivate in your personal and professional life. Cultivating your gut instinct can not only help you get, and keep, a job in today’s competitive market but also help you make healthier and more confident decisions about your life.

This post is proudly sponsored by Southern Cross University. For more information on jump starting your legal career in 2017, click here.

Gone are the days of a job for life, and thank God, how boring. Today we must all be ready to adapt and embrace change. The only certainty in our professional and personal life is that things will change whether we are ready or not. So instead of fighting it, make it happen the way you want. Consider the benefits of slash careers, write your own story and don’t be limited by the scepticism and fears of those around you. And remember, even when you feel lost and uncertain and second-guess yourself, don’t worry, it’s normal, we’ve all been there. Just hold strong and have faith in yourself and if all of that is too hard, then just pretend until your ego catches up to your success!

I wanted to be a famous actress

For me, the attributes of embracing change, remaining adaptable and having a love and understanding of language have all been integral to my career. These attributes were incubated in the performing arts. Yes, I wanted to be a famous actress. I know, not the most common starting point for a lawyer.

Or … maybe a lawyer

After studying performing arts at UWS Theatre Nepean and taking up acting, I then found myself
teaching … something I had never planned on doing. Then, with the intervention of a good friend, I decided to take the leap and study law.

I remember being terrified because I really didn’t think I had the brainpower. I was always the fun, bubbly, arty one … not the serious lawyer. Thankfully, my brain cells managed to multiply and I ended up practising law for about nine years before moving from the legal arm at one of the big four banks to the frontline as a bank manager.

Now I am thankful for the skills I’ve picked up along the way because they enhance my client-centric focus in my current role at Nexus.

Opportunity doesn’t knock, it whispers!

To me, life is like reading a book. You don’t turn to the last page to find out how it pans out. You want to see how it develops.

If someone pointed me out to you in the theatre while portraying Hermia in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and said, “Wow… she’d make a great general manager for a bank in 20 years’ time”, you’d laugh. For me, this is the most exciting thing about my career to date. I never saw any of it coming.

As my father once said to me, “opportunity doesn’t knock, it whispers, and you have to be listening.”

My journey into the law was amazing and a turning point for how I saw myself and my potential. Can you believe it? I was awarded first-class honours! And while I loved law and its practice, I didn’t like the way the traditional firms operated so, embracing change yet again, I moved to Hobart and began a PhD in bioprospecting.

Eventually, I came back to Sydney and worked in a couple of law firms including Truman Hoyle, which embraced my non-traditional lawyer personality. The more I practised law the more I became interested in what my clients did. I used to call it the “so-what” factor.

The law books say you can’t do it, but so what?

Really … a banker?

I contemplated work in business and ended up as legal counsel at Westpac. My inquisitive nature is never quelled and I started looking on the bank’s intranet to better understand its business. I thought the frontline sales team could do with some co-ordinated support, so I put together a proposal for a new job for myself. It coincided perfectly with Gail Kelly’s move to create a customer-centric culture. A series of secondments upskilled me to the extent I was then appointed as the bank manager at Hurstville, one of the top four branches in the country.

It was amazing. I loved it. Again I could feel my brain cells multiplying. It was a completely different skill set. Everything I had learnt as a lawyer actually hindered me. I had to learn to retrain a lot of things, even just simple communication.

I realised that legal language is terrible. After my experience as a bank manager, I now approach it differently. I can appreciate the mindset you get into as a lawyer, it is challenging, but it doesn’t work for everyday Australians, and that is who we are servicing. Communication fascinates me and I learnt that bankers are very good communicators because they are sellers. Lawyers traditionally aren’t.

And back to law … but no longer a “handbrake!”

Now back working as a lawyer I appreciate just how difficult it is to run a business unit. It’s a completely different skill set and I have huge respect for my clients and the work they do. What we do as lawyers is such a tiny facet of their business. It’s not everything, not the be all and end all. When you’re in a law firm you can trick yourself into thinking it’s a really important thing. It’s not, and for business it’s a headache and they don’t even want to think about the headache. No one wants to know about it.

The challenge is to be seen as part of the solution, not part of the problem.

When I was moving into the business arm of Westpac, the people who gave me a shot were more interested in my performing arts background. That’s what gave me the edge. My legal background was a concern to them. A lawyer in their minds was a handbrake. But a lawyer can be part of the solution.

What people think they need isn’t necessarily what they do need, and that’s where the skill set of the lawyer and the skill set of the banker come in. The theatrical background and love of teaching were integral to my success in the national manager role at Westpac, especially upskilling regional bank managers. Everything is simply a problem to be solved.

Many businesses and legal firms talk the talk when it comes to collaboration and collective wisdom, but few walk the walk. They baulk at bringing in people with different skill sets. That’s not the case at Nexus. It’s all about complete collaboration and striving for success. It’s all client-centric. Law is the only industry that thinks it doesn’t have to concentrate on customer service. My skill set from Westpac is a perfect fit – for me, the client is at the centre of everything.

Good business structure involves flexibility and strength. Those attributes apply to a good lawyer and a good law firm.

So remember … enjoy the journey, own your path and don’t apologise for taking a different route. Often it’s the choices that fill us with the most fear and make the least sense that end up defining our success and happiness.

What do you think about the prospect of sticking with one career for your entire professional life? Is the diversity and constant interest of a slash career something that interests and excites you? Let us know in the comments!

Using complex and antiquated language is a time-honoured tradition among the legal profession:

“a fortiori”, “forthwith”, “thenceforth”, “whereupon”, “ab initio”, “dictum”

Most historical legal jargon is so dry and complex that it has required defining in thick legal dictionaries, just so that lawyers can understand what they are saying in court.

But hold on to your wigs and gowns because the power is about to be handed back to the professional.

LexisNexis has just thrown down the gauntlet by challenging the legal community to contribute new legal jargon and definitions for the Online Australian Legal Dictionary. The competition is a first-of-its-kind digital crowd-sourced initiative. 

It’s a lawyer-off! 

This is a fantastic opportunity for the legal community to come together, celebrate the rhetoric that marks the transformations affecting the legal profession, and showcase their wordsmith capabilities,” says LexisNexis Managing Director Australia, Joanne Beckett.

A tournament of Australia’s brightest legal minds, the initiative is seeking submissions of colloquial lawyerly terms and definitions through a social media #LegalLingo campaign with the best 25 submissions, as judged by a jury, included in the online version.

This revised edition of the Australian Legal Dictionary will shine a light on emerging areas of law, such as elder law, social media, electronic conveyancing and assisted reproduction. It will also include a range of non-legal subject areas, such as business and commerce which is reflective of the expanding roles of lawyers.

Winners Aren’t Losers

If successful, your words will be immortalised in the next online Australian Legal Dictionary, 2nd Edition in August 2016. You can also revel in everlasting bragging rights since your name will be attributed as the author of your entry.

Applications close 20 June 2016.

So go on … embrace your competitive streak and get word-weaving!

How To Enter & Further Information 

For entry details, click here.

The Australian Legal Dictionary is a comprehensive online and hard copy reference work with over 28,000 legal terms and definitions, presented in an Australian context.

The revised edition includes 3,000 additional entries, including several terms and definitions supported by Australian legislative and judicial authority, and not commonly found in American or English legal dictionaries.

Now don’t get too ahead of yourselves, this doesn’t mean I started working for free!

Instead I joined a law firm that is part of the ‘NewLaw’ wave. It is a dispersed law firm, with a completely different approach to the traditional. I am a bit of an enigma now, as I am my own boss, but still part of a team, giving direction to some and taking direction from others.

Since making the shift I have been asked – many times – by other lawyers whether I made the right choice. So I thought I would provide a little insight into a typical week for me and you can judge for yourselves … 

Monday

When I was a lawyer for a big, traditional law firm, Monday mornings usually meant hours lost to team meetings, frantic time entries, and reviewing and replying to a disturbingly large number of weekend emails from my supervising partner, colleagues in our team, and clients.

Since I made the decision to work for myself, away from traditional firms, this kind of frustrating lost time is no longer an issue. Instead, I spend my Monday at an office space I share in the centre of the Sydney CBD with a range of professionals, from a variety of different businesses, working my way through a list of work matters I made for myself on the weekend. Without any other distractions, I can focus on just those items, and finish them faster, and to a much higher quality, than I would have been able to do if I was still working at a traditional firm.

As I walk home, I can’t help but think that the traditional law firm model is overly focussed on billable hours, and as a consequence rewards inefficient delivery of legal services, and excessive negotiations and discussions between lawyers on non-material matters. No one wins from this arrangement.

That’s exactly why I needed to break away from this style of legal work, before I lost my love for the law altogether.

Tuesday

I have sports training this morning.

Rather than spending the entire time thinking about work, I can instead think about how all this exercise is good for me, and try to make it to the end of the session without falling over.

Finding the time to do things for myself, while working in a traditional firm, was incredibly difficult. Even if I did try and train before work, it meant getting up ridiculously early to ensure I wasn’t seen as a ‘late arrival’ for coming in 15 minutes later than everyone else. While lunchtime training or after-work catch-ups with friends always seemed good in theory, they inevitably never happened with any consistency as there was always some piece of work that came in right at the time I had to leave.

Today’s training session ends and I’m ready to start the working part of the day. The way in which I structure my day is now all up to me, and there is no one to judge me on how I structure my day but myself. As long as I meet (and exceed) client expectations, that it the only standard I set for myself. It is a good feeling.

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning, I am working from my home office when a client contacts me to ask if I can assist in registering some intellectual property rights for them. This isn’t my area at all, but I know someone who can do it and am glad for the opportunity to be able to refer work to a colleague.

If I were still working at my old firm, I would have felt an obligation to take on this work myself, and charge for it – even though it is out of my area of expertise.

Now, I work with a group of lawyers and administrative support staff that share a similar view on how to practice the law. The first people to come together and formalise this structure decided to create a nexus of lawyers and call it … well, Nexus Law Group.

As soon as I joined Nexus, I no longer had to spend hours on the administration and insurance aspects of a sole practice. Nexus covers that for me, and does it in a much more professional and structured way than I would be able to do alone. Being allied with Nexus means I can finally get on with being the lawyer I wanted to be, and focus on those parts of the law in which I am skilled.

So now, when this intellectual property matter comes in on a Wednesday morning, I can tell the client that I will refer it to someone I know and can trust to do it for them. I even get a financial benefit for the referral from Nexus. The distributed system pioneered by Nexus works, and works incredibly well, for everyone involved.

Thursday

Now that I’m reaching the end of another working week, I try to remember what it was like when I was shackled to the routine and inefficiencies of a traditional firm.

Not once this week did I feel obliged to get to the office at 8am and work until the last person leaves – whether that is at 5pm or midnight. Instead, I can respond to my clients when they need me. I can work on ways to build my business and ensure I can continue to do what I love. Most importantly, I now easily find the time to see my wife, my family and my friends.

That’s it. Nothing else exists to cloud my thinking or to get in the way of my personal happiness or professional success.

Traditional law firms require you to give up a part of yourself to be successful, and some do this better than others. I don’t judge those who succeed at big law firms. I just know that for me, this new way of doing law makes me happy and gives me purpose and drive. I have met great people who think the same as I do, and I see these relationships having great benefits in the short and long term.

Friday

Yes, Friday! I still have a lot of things on my list, but I still feel in control.

A client calls me to suggest a drink after work. He is a really nice person, and when we see each other we might chat about work, but it never feels like a ‘business development opportunity’ that I need to debrief a business development team about on Monday morning.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’ve worked a hard week this week. There were new matters and new clients to meet and build relationships with. Old matters flared up again at inconvenient times. I still had to take care of administrative matters like filing emails, preparing invoices, chasing outstanding bills, and writing articles.

But a hard week with Nexus, as a consulting principal and master of my own destiny, is not destructive in the same way I found it to be working for a big law firm. I can do everything I mentioned above, and more, next week and the week after that.

I no longer feel like I have survived this week. I feel like I succeeded.

That is the biggest difference for me, working with a dispersed law firm.

Change is a lot like a Rubik’s Cube.

Challenging, frustrating and hard to predict.

Like that sly red puzzle piece that shifts the background of your professional game, change bides its time – only making its big move when your attention becomes too focused on solving one side to the puzzle. After all the progress you have made, this can send you reeling back to square one.

For the Australian legal industry, changes are happening everywhere. From the way the business of law is carried out to tech disruption, innovation and entrepreneurship, the traditional model for the practice of law is being re-written everyday.

Who Is Making Waves?

On Tuesday this week, General Assembly held an event in Sydney on Tech Disruption & Entrepreneurship in the legal industry, inviting an expert panel of industry thought leaders to participate and speak about these changes and their likely sources.

Image courtesy of General Assembly.

In the public sector, this is referred to as ‘crystal-balling.’

Although multiple theories were raised about the source and direction of tech disruption, it is perhaps useful to think about ‘who’ is likely to drive these changes into the future, rather than ‘where’ they are coming from.

The answer lies in exploring a demographic that itches for innovation and independence – Gen Y.

By 2025, 75% of the workforce will comprise Gen Y workers. Some of the main things valued by this generation are to undertake work that is meaningful, that makes a difference and is flexible. Gen Y workers place a high value on independence, a work/life balance and to have options for career development. They want hard work to be rewarded in the form of professional recognition and promotion.

But Gen Y are also known as the entrepreneurial generation.

65% of participants in a study recently conducted by Bentley University said their ultimate career goal was to start their own business. With 12,000 law students graduating from law schools around the country each year, and only 60,000 employed solicitors nationwide, it stands to reason that young lawyers are likely to spearhead major changes in the industry by disrupting traditional business models, pushing for varied work conditions and forging alternative career pathways.

Evidence Of Innovation

There is already evidence of young lawyers innovating to close gaps in the market. Some are launching startups to solve industry problems while still in law school.

LawFunder, a crowd-funding platform launched by Sean Roche, aims to harness the power of crowd-funding legal causes to help solve access to justice issues. BeyondLaw, a legal job search website founded by ANU Alumni Anthony Lieu and Max Burke, aims to shed light on broader career opportunities for law students. Other services such as LawyerQuote, described as the legal WebJet, are cropping up to offer price comparisons for legal services.

Elsewhere, the desire to effect change and provide a better experience for users of legal services has seen the birth of NewLaw firms.

Marcus McCarthy, founder of Nexus Law Group, describes NewLaw firms as falling into six broad categories:

1. Dispersed law firms – Nexus Lawyers, Keypoint
2. Lawyer placement agencies – Orbit, Plexus, Bespoke, Advent Balance, Lexvoco, Vario
3. Virtual firms – Hive Legal, Nest Legal
4. Online document retailer firms – LawPath, LawCentral, LegalVision
5. Fixed-fee firms – Marque Lawyers, View Legal
6. Hybrids – combinations of the above. For example, General Standards, LawAdvisor.

Tech disruption is giving rise to new business models, new ways of offering legal services with an overall focus on creating value for users of legal services.

What Are The Future Implications For The Industry?

To maintain a competitive advantage, both BigLaw and SmallLaw firms will need to adapt to the ever-shifting ‘law tech’ landscape. In the coming years, the biggest threat to traditional bricks and mortar firms is likely to be an inability to adapt quickly enough and keep pace with industry changes – whether these changes come from the online space, technology or demand by consumers of legal services (for example, reduced or fixed cost fees).

The most successful firms will be capable of pushing the envelope and developing new ways of doing business that benefit both client and lawyer. They will be able to respond to changes demanded by Gen Y and, in doing so, attract fresh and talented lawyers.

The most forward-thinking firms will embrace:

• technology as a tool to create greater value for clients
• content marketing to generate new leads and potential clients
• social media
• other emerging forms of digital marketing

Is Content Marketing Relevant For Law Firms?

After going through a recent rebrand, Dechert LLP, a law firm based in the United States, learned several powerful lessons.

In the process of rebranding, it found that one of the best ways to raise a firm’s profile is via thought leadership rather than channeling its entire budget into advertising – a common and increasingly ineffective strategy utilised by most firms in Australia. In fact, other studies have found that you are more likely to survive a plane crash than click on a banner advertisement online.

In the United States:

• Only 25% of firms have a content marketing strategy
• 47% currently have no strategy but plan to put one in place in the next 12 months
• 28% have no strategy and no future plans to put one in place

This is why content marketing is so important.

Content marketing gives your firm a pulse.

It breeds goodwill with potential clients and creates an informed client base.

The focus is on how firms can be a resource for their clients. Many Australian firms are beginning to see the value in content marketing by running niche blogs on their websites which offer useful tips and industry insights. Others provide commentary on recent decisions handed down by the Courts and the likely implications.

If your law firm can:

• establish itself as a thought leader;
• become a trusted resource; and
• create an emotional connection between itself and a potential client

that person will be more likely to convert into a loyal and ongoing client.

NewLaw Models, Content Marketing & BucketOrange Magazine

The potential for tech disruption and NewLaw models to create waves in the legal industry is not isolated to firms finding new ways of adapting to the shifting landscape.

By using innovation and technology as a tool to reach out and connect with new audiences, there is also great potential to do good and, in the process, to lift the profile of the legal industry among everyday Australians.

This is where BucketOrange comes in – as an online publication, it operates at the biting point between the law and technology, harnessing the power of the digital space both to connect with and help young Australians avoid preventable pitfalls in life.

By educating, informing and inspiring the community about the law in ways that are important to their everyday lives, and connecting users to legal services where necessary, BucketOrange aims to make the law less scary and more accessible to the community as well as to contribute to the development of preventative law.

BucketOrange is not only a way for everyday Australians to find relevant, interesting and useful legal analysis. It is also an effective medium for lawyers to:

• build a strong personal profile as industry thought leaders
• inform, entertain and inspire
• engage in work that has a social impact
• show the community a human side to the law
• reach out to a potential new client base in a meaningful new way.

Conclusion

The future of the legal industry in Australia will depend on which lawyers are best able to reach out and form an emotional connection with clients and other industry players. There is infinite potential for innovation and for those changes to flow on to users of legal services in the form of education, improved access to justice and reduced legal fees.

While increased take-up of technology has the potential to improve communication between clients, it also has the capacity to open a dialogue between law firms that facilitates collaboration, rather than competition, for business.

The real winner, out of all of these changes, will be future users of legal services.

What factors do you think are behind recent developments in the legal industry? To get in touch about writing for BucketOrange Magazine, send us an email – we’d love to hear from you.