Paul loves the LegalTech industry and helping legal teams with their challenges. And, did you know he used to be a semi-professional photographer?
NameHead of Sales, APAC
I currently live in Victoria, Australia with my wife, dog and two cats. I’m a dual citizen in the UK and Australia, but I’ve lived in Australia for the last 16 years. I am a proud Yorkshireman. I moved from a little village of 500 in North Yorkshire, to Sydney with a population of 3 and a half million. I spent 11 years in Sydney, then moved to another little village in country Victoria, north of Melbourne, with again, just 700-800 people. It’s nice to be back in a quiet environment, but still be able to have a “city-type” job; that is definitely a big plus of working online.
I used to be a semi-professional photographer! 📸
It started out as “you have a good camera; would you mind taking some photos at my wedding?” Then, thanks to word of mouth, I partnered with a good friend and work colleague in the UK and we spent many weekends and evenings shooting numerous weddings, charity events, and parties, which eventually led to food and fashion photography when I arrived in Australia.
Taking photographs is a lot of fun, but the post-production is a bit more tedious, and you can spend a lot of time manipulating images and getting them just right. Thank goodness we now all have great cameras on our phones and slick technology to share our images with others! 😆
I started in LegalTech in the UK around 27 years ago (ah those Unix servers and green screens – happy days!), and I worked in the legal space there for around 12 years. The UK company I worked for was acquired by a global legal technology player and that was my ticket to Australia and the rest as they say is history.
The fact that it is constantly evolving and there is always something new and exciting on the horizon. 🌇
Technology in the legal space has made leaps and bounds, and this makes the job interesting because there's always something new to talk about and there's always new ways we can engage with people and help them with their challenges. Their challenges today are typically the same as they were five years ago, but now there are new ways to address those legal pain points.
A successful team for me is a team that is embraced by the wider business that they support, because so often we see legal teams sat in isolation. They are regularly referred to as “the department of no,” they're a blocker almost in the business. So, if I see that they're embraced and viewed as a pivotal part of the business, that in my mind, is a very successful legal team.
It's three things...
I’ve worked in big corporate environments - huge teams, global businesses - and they don’t have the ability to be able to do something different. Being a voice in a smaller business is super important, and being able to try things is equally important. If they work, it’s great, and if they don’t work, we move on and try something different! Those for me are the key plus points of working for Xakia as a business.
In the Xakia matter management system, I recommending using the discussions tab on your matters to chat and share information with your internal clients and take the noise out of your email inbox.
To learn more about our cloud based legal matter management software, and how we can help improve productivity, collaboration and show the value of your legal team to the business, get in touch with Paul today for a demo.
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