The Nimble Boutique Firm Transforming with Legal Tech Podcast

Last month we launched the Transforming with Legal Tech Podcast and explored innovation in Hong Kong. In the latest edition, two boutique Australian-based law firms reveal how they have found client (and work-life balance) success in operating nimbly.The concept of ‘nimble’ is well-known to Charlotte Saunders, UX Researcher, who was involved with developing the new user experience for Westlaw, the smart legal research tool. For the duration of the project, Charlotte and her team ran user testing to hear feedback at every stage of the development process. New Westlaw today fits seamlessly into the day-to-day of legal practice, enabling its users to proceed with agility.
Three design partners joined Charlotte for this episode, including Danny King, Owner and Director at Danny King Legal. Danny is joined by Mark Wilson and Albert Cheung, who are Principal and Co-Founder and Associate at W Advisers respectively. Play the podcast for a deep-dive on how firms such as W Advisers and Danny King Legal achieve better outcomes for their clients with a nimble approach.
Podcast show notes
The nimble model
Coincidently, W Advisers and Danny King Legal entered the legal market in 2011, at a time when both founders identified the market’s appetite for relationship-driven legal advice.
Every start-up story is different, so what was it like for Mark? In Mark’s experience, back in 2011, there were a lot of corporate organisations and high net worth individuals looking to get more value out of the law. Mark’s legal guidance offered this, so his clients followed W Advisers and haven’t looked back since.
“I've had the good fortune to act for a lot of high net worth clients, and like large corporates, it's built on trust. But it's also built on the confidence that you're getting the right answer. In order to do that you obviously need experience and you need good tools to make sure you're getting the right answer every time,” said Mark.
Danny gained experience in the large law space before leaving to be a sole practitioner. While large law wasn’t the right environment for her, Danny experienced these early days as a bit of a launch pad.
“I started with a laptop on my couch…I'm very grateful for all the people that were there to support me emotionally because that was probably the hardest bit,” she recalled.
Danny treats every single client as precious, and during the podcast, she reminded our listeners that your ability to build dedicated relationships can make or break your business. But to be successful and compete commercially, you also need to be nimble. As Danny said:
“For me being nimble means we've got the right amount of people to do the right amount of work, and we're maximising our opportunity to make money without overworking our people or under servicing our clients.”
Driving innovation in mid-sized firmsYou may hear of large law prioritising innovation, but boutique firms like Danny King Legal also values legal tech and continuous improvement.
“If something is getting in the way of us leaving at five o'clock, which is our ultimate goal every single day, then we're going to try and find a tech solution to cut through that…we aim to match the perfect level of resourcing with our service outputs and minimise waste,” Danny said.
Over at W Advisers. The firm is big on utilising technology to serve clients efficiently and with precision.
“Everyone in our business enjoys working on complex problems, but also enjoys cutting through. We look for assistance