INTERVIEW Deborah Witkiss - Insight Legal
“For many legal industry professionals, moving to a legal IT business can be viewed as a natural progression.”
Deborah Witkiss, Professional Services Director, Insight Legal
The key to successful Legal IT
The legal sector has truly embraced IT as means of gaining competitive advantage but like any other sector it
struggles to find IT staff with the right skils. Comms Business talks to Deborah Witkiss, Professional Services
Director at Insight Legal about how she is approaching that problem
Comms Business Magazine
(CBM): How would you
characterise the use of IT in
the leagal sector today?
Deborah Witkiss (DW): e
legal industry is utilising more
technology than ever before.
Law rms understand that
in order to be considered as a
leader in their respective elds,
incorporating both legal IT and
the knowledge to power it is
now essential.
With new technology
allowing legal systems to
operate more eciently, there
has been an inevitable rise in
legal businesses overhauling
their legacy systems with new
and more exible IT software.
Not only has this opened up
a window of opportunity for
legal professionals to work more
productively, it has also created
a wealth of new careers for
professionals considering a more
tech-centric path.
CBM: For existing staff could
this be seen as a career
move?
DW: For many legal industry
professionals, moving to a legal
IT business can be viewed as
a natural progression. With
a wealth of experience in
delivering legal services to
clients, in legal nance or in
practice management, they
are extremely well placed to
understand the exact needs of
a legal software user, applying
their knowledge of previous
roles to help deliver the level
of support clients need to get
the most value from their
technology investments.
CBM: But why make the move?
DW: ere are a number of
factors which could motivate a
Deborah Witkiss, Professional Services Director at Insight Legal
legal professional to make the
move over to a career in legal
IT. For example, working in
legal IT allows professionals to
still pursue their interest in law
but also to dip their feet in new
waters, by focussing on dierent
aspects of the industry whilst
supporting their peers with the
knowledge to help them get the
most from their legal software.
CBM: How then can you impact
legacy IT upgrades.
DW:For a legal IT company,
delivering the solutions which
streamline industry processes
and helping practitioners to
operate with eciency and
compliance should be the
core focus of the business. To
achieve this, suppliers must rst
understand the exact needs of
the modern practitioner and
build their oering accordingly.
Legal practitioners are
very well placed in this
scenario. With a wealth of
hands-on user experience,
industry professionals can
oer invaluable insight into
the specic legal IT services
practitioners both want and
need from their provider and
the support required to ensure
users can navigate these systems
with maximum eect.
Having this level of expertise
in-house can also be essential
for future product development.
By feeding insights from past
users into the roadmap, legal
software suppliers can follow
the right course of innovation,
developing a system with the
functionality needed to deliver a
high level of user experience.
CBM: So what benefits are you
offering to you clients?
DW: e advantages of a
professional legal background
not only benets the
development of a supplier’s
oering, but extends across
the company’s client support
network. Having likely
experienced rst-hand issues
with legal IT systems, they can
recognise key pain points in
the user journey and use their
knowledge of the system to help
professionals tackle issues they
are experiencing.
What’s more, legal
professionals will already have
an understanding of the rules
and regulations that law rms
must comply with. By hiring
from within the sector, legal
software rms can build a
strong client support network
and reassure users that they
are talking to an experienced
professional, who understands
their problems and knows
eective ways to resolve them.
e traits of industry
professionals oer huge value
in all corners of a legal IT
business. From decision maker
to technical support a wellgrounded
knowledge of the
legal sector can be the key to
providing an eective service
for every customer, whilst
driving innovation to maintain
the company’s competitive
edge.
28 | Comms Business Magazine | December 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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