Customer Stories

3 Stories of Staying In-Sync in the Midst of a Pandemic

When it comes to technology, law firm Walker Morris has over 450 users to think about. It’s a large firm servicing a national and international client base with a full service offering. As such the firm covers many specialties, filled with wide-ranging needs and preferences. Today, three Walker Morris representatives share their story:

Abbie Thomas, a corporate paralegal
Lucy Gordon, a director in the employment team
Liz Graham, a partner in the pensions team

Bringing together their unique responsibilities and perspectives, Abbie, Lucy and Liz paint a more complete picture of how NetDocuments is used throughout the organisation, and how it helps their firm as a whole stay in-sync, even when working remotely.

“I’ve been incredibly impressed with the way that [NetDocuments has] worked remotely.”
Liz Graham, Partner, Walker Morris

Get Up-to-Speed Fast

Adapting to a new software platform can be challenging, especially with a tool that’s as central to everyday work as your document management system (DMS). But even for three different people coming to the table with varied levels of tech-savviness and doing different types of work, one thing was consistent across the board: NetDocuments is an intuitive platform that is easy to get comfortable with quickly.

“Because of the pandemic, I didn’t get much training on NetDocuments. But because it’s so simple, it was really easy to pick up and use. I never had any problems with it and I never found myself calling IT, asking a lot of questions.”
Abbie Thomas, Corporate Paralegal, Walker Morris

“I do find NetDocuments easy to use. It’s very intuitive.”
Lucy Gordon, Director, Walker Morris

“At first, I thought, ‘Oh Lord, I’m not going to be able to figure this out at all.’ But I did very, very quickly. It was intuitive. And if I could figure it out, I’m sure most people could.”
Liz Graham, Partner, Walker Morris

Everything in One Secure Place

Lawyers and law firms can find all sorts of ways to organize and store their files — not all of which are conducive to effective, efficient work. NetDocuments makes it easy to keep everything in one place, so you can find what you need when you need it, with confidence that our award-winning security features are protecting your confidential files.

“When I moved from my previous firm I found it easier – and more intuitive – than the system at my old firm, which helped to make the move smoother both for me and my clients.”
Liz Graham, Partner, Walker Morris

Stay in the Loop

As a corporate paralegal, Abbie Thomas is constantly juggling multiple projects for various partners and clients. Keeping track of all those moving pieces and people can be a real challenge, but thanks to NetDocuments and ndMail, Abbie can always get a clear view into a project’s status.

“With working from home, you don’t really get to hear the conversation. So I look on NetDocuments quite often to see what else is going on, because if you don’t, you might miss out unless you pick up the phone and call someone. But if I look in that correspondence file, I know it’s bounced back a few times and it’s progressing. It’s just useful to keep in the loop.”
Abbie Thomas, Corporate Paralegal, Walker Morris

Flexible, collaborative work Believe it or not, all three of our interviewees started working at Walker Morris in the midst of the pandemic — but it hasn’t slowed them down. NetDocuments has enabled them to successfully collaborate with colleagues and clients, whether working from home or in the office.

“NetDocuments works really well for anybody who needs to share anything across the firm or if you’re working cross-team — which is a lot of what we do. It’s perfect because you can access all the documents you need.

It works really well from the point of view of flexibility, and home working, because again, it enables people to pick up a file electronically, see at the current status of the matter, and pick it up from there. It gives an immense amount of flexibility for parttime working, or for so hybrid working with some people being in the office and some at home.”
Lucy Gordon, Director, Walker Morris

Assemble Document Sets

12X faster When you’re spread thin, even the smallest time savings can feel like a big win. But with SetBuilder, Abbie Thomas doesn’t just get a few minutes back here and there — she gets hours of time back. And that’s enabling her to deliver projects faster, with less stress.

“At a previous firm, it took about six hours to just build a small bible, and the platform used to crash all the time and delete everything — which obviously is heart-breaking when you’re busy. But building a bible on SetBuilder can take half an hour. Straight away, the time difference is just amazing.

Now, if someone now emails saying, ‘Can you pull together a bible?’ I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, no problem. I’ll get it done today!’ Whereas before it was like, ‘We’ll probably get it done at the end of the week.’”
Abbie Thomas, Corporate Paralegal, Walker Morris

Compare Documents Painlessly

Working in the highly-regulated area of pensions law means Liz needs to have an eagle eye on her clients’ files as she helps them navigate legal complexities and stay up-todate. One of the tools she depends on is the ability to compare versions of a document side-by-side, and keep each version in check.

“I absolutely couldn’t live without the NetDocuments side-byside comparisons. It’s really important, and I found that I was nervous the first time I tried it because it took me a long time to get used to that function on iManage. But on NetDocuments, it was really easy and I managed it without asking anyone.”
Liz Graham, Partner, Walker Morris

Saving Time and Staying Compliant

Everyone loves a win-win — and the way ndMail helps users save time while making it easy to stay compliant is a big one. Folder mapping and predictive filing help ensure that your emails and attachments get safely into the appropriate matter files right away.

“I can’t tell you the amount of time folder mapping saves compared with having to file emails and documents manually. It’s one of the biggest things for me. When I joined Walker Morris and realised that we had it, I was like, ‘Oh, thank goodness!’ because it is such a time saver. It really is.

From a compliance point of view, there is no excuse for not doing it because it’s so easy. If it’s something that is a pain, or it takes time, it can mean that some people don’t do it because they’re so busy, it’s an extra thing to do, but there’s no excuse not to do that at all.”
Lucy Gordon, Director, Walker Morris

To learn more about NetDocuments and how you can work smarter with an intelligent document management system, click here to request a personalized demo.