I will still remember in my first week of working in this profession a senior partner describing to me the good old days of working with type writers. He lived through one of the biggest changes in the way the profession worked when type writers left and computers took their place. Efficiency increased, costs were reduced and the quality of work improved. However some members of the profession never quite grasped the change and to this day I hear stories of senior partners who refuse to turn their computer on or use them to store paper on!
As many of our clients and colleagues would be aware Anderssens is fast approaching a paperless office. This is proving to be another exciting challenge to the profession on the same scale as that experienced all that time ago. Personally I have been looking forward to 'taking the leap'. The time, expense and hassle involved with maintaining both paper and electronic files will be a thing of the past. Working in the area of Environment and Planning I have always been conscious of the large expense my clients are put to in preparing for trials. While all paper cannot be spared it is exciting to know it is being reduced significantly by our firm.
As part of the transition I have read articles on the "generational gap" that will no doubt develop during the process. As a result, I thought that would be an obvious advantage in my being a younger member of the profession. Having said that, working in such a dynamic, vibrant firm as Anderssens this could not be further from the truth. Everyone, regardless of position or age has recognised its advantages not just to us as lawyers but to our clients. We are now ready to take the leap and I for one am excited about no longer being tethered to paper.
