In episode 8 of the more than marketing podcast, we sit and talk with seasoned document specialist and legal professional, Leanne Bentley. Leanne has almost 35 years of experience working in the London legal sector with 25 years experience in Document Production teams in some of the biggest firms in the country. Leanne speaks with us about her expertise in document management and illustrates just how important the document’s role is within the law firm business.
Leanne Bentley is the founder of WonderWord Training, a service offering document training to legal professionals, ensuring that their document management is of 100% accuracy all of the time. Leanne has a roster of Best Practice Principles and Methods designed specifically to meet the needs of the modern lawyer.
“It’s a piece of software. So it works in a specific way and it follows specific rules. And if you don’t follow the rules and you try and force it to do stuff that it doesn’t want to do, then you’re going to have problems.”
Listen to the show
It’s common knowledge that a significant portion of a law firm’s workload revolves around document management. The tasks of reviewing, revising, drafting, editing, and exchanging these documents internally and externally often serve as fertile ground for mistakes and errors. One small error can over time evolve into an enormous knot of inconvenience and be devastating for time management and client expectation. Leanne wants to remind people that technology is here to serve us, but doing so involves following a certain set of disciplines. With the right training and a better understanding of the softwares used in document management, law firms can enable themselves to become exponentially faster and more efficient.
Leanne also discusses her experience working within the legal sector, commons problems she saw amongst many of these firms and her personal takeaways from these things.
“If you’re using a bad process, if you’re using a tool incorrectly, if you’re using the wrong tool, if you’re using work arounds, if you’re using that tip you mate in the hallway gave you 20 years ago, that’s probably not a good idea.”
Further Reading
Best Practice Practice
This is Leanne’s number one rule. Stay out of trouble. Following the correct processes every time embeds the skill in your routine and ensures that you never see issues by cutting corners or veering off the goal.
Time efficiency is the goal
There is an enormous amount of time spent in law firms fighting with documents and not communicating about issues regarding them, over time this causes deep rooted issues which can bigger problems. Investing time now into understanding word processing and formatting can and will save you time.
Be inquisitive!
Ask questions! The overall point that Leanne wants to emphasise here is to be clear and address issues early. That is the crux of 99% of all document issues that the lega industry faces.
You can find Leanne on LinkedIn and email her at: leanne@wonderwordtraining.co.uk
Want to learn more?
Our newsletter is packed with actionable advice and free resources. Plus, you’ll get the show sent straight to your inbox when they’re live, so why not subscribe?
Got a question? Maybe you’d like to be a guest on the show? Email podcast@consortiumbiz.co.uk