Leading lawyers share their experiences, future lawyers ask the questions
On Thursday 29 November Legal Cheek is partnering with Addleshaw Goddard for an evening of commercial awareness discussion and networking with its lawyers and graduate recruitment team at the firm’s Manchester office.
The focus of the session will be on how technology is changing law and business. With the Financial Times’ ‘Innovative Lawyers’ report citing Addleshaw as one of the most tech-savvy in the UK, the firm is well-positioned to discuss the disruption taking place in the legal profession.
Manchester is a particularly important location in this respect, with Addleshaw’s office in the city a key part of its firm-wide Intelligent Delivery strategy, that brings together legal technology, new resourcing models and smarter delivery of traditional legal services.
The session commences from 6pm with a panel discussion, featuring banking partner Richard Oman, banking associate Nick Parkin, real estate partner Cathy Fearnhead, and Mike Kennedy, a trainee carrying out his training contract with the firm’s legal innovation and technology team. This will be chaired by a Legal Cheek journalist.
There will then be drinks, nibbles and networking with the lawyers on the panel, trainees and members of Addleshaw Goddard’s graduate recruitment team. Apply to attend.
The speakers’ involvement in legal tech
Richard Oman has worked closely with Addleshaw’s legal tech team to roll out the Conditions Precedents management system, allowing the CP process to be streamlined and digitised. He has also been involved in several large projects in relation to the restructuring of some of the Big Four banks, which leveraged technology. Currently Richard is working on a number of tech projects relating to banking.
Nick Parkin has also worked with the legal tech team on Conditions Precedent and in the past worked on other projects with the team, mainly post completion reports needed for clearing bank clients. He took a leading role in working with the legal tech team on designing and implementing the Conditions Precedent management system and on other projects such as automating post completion reports needed for clearing bank clients.
Cathy Fearnhead has worked with the innovation and legal tech team on projects in relation to large real estate matters, and on a separate project to develop a collaborative system allowing for the disposal of a large gas network across the UK, involving several third parties and other law firms all working within the Addleshaw Goddard system. She is also heavily involved in similar matters involving large disposals of land being managed with technology and large corporate deals involving sale of properties, leveraging tech to deliver these projects on short timescales and lower fees.
Mike Kennedy is carrying out his training contract within Addleshaw’s legal innovation and technology team. He is responsible for bringing artificial intelligence (AI) into the firm (via software provider Kira Systems) and has worked on a variety of projects across the firm, both client facing and internal. He splits time between developing products and marketing to clients and working on improving internal efficiencies by introducing improved systems within the firm. He is also the lead on R&D into further AI/natural language processing/machine learning software and blockchain.
Apply to attend. You’ll be asked to submit a CV and two questions for the panel. Please note that the details of those offered places will, subject to consent, be shared with Addleshaw Goddard’s graduate recruitment team.