14 Dec TickerTV Interview
Progressive Legal interviewed by Ticker
Progressive Legal interviewed by Ticker – Shifting Legal Strategy, with Ian Aldridge
Read the transcript of this interview below:
Interviewer: Covid-19 could not have come at a worse time for many Australian law firms and business owners, as we know for Progressive Legal founder and CEO Ian Aldridge. It was all about shifting his strategy and he’s here on TickerTV to talk about it. Welcome to Ticker. How are you Ian?
Ian: Thanks so much for having me, very good.
Interviewer: Thanks for your patience. I know it’s been a busy show here, so hopefully you enjoyed some of the chats. But let’s get into what you’re been up to. How has Covid-19 affected law firms and their clients this year?
Ian: I guess like every business, the disruption that has happened as a result of Covid has thrown a massive spanner in the works for all businesses and professional services and their clients.
We’ve really seen a major reset of the way that law firms interact with their clients and how they obtain instructions, how they even know what their clients look like and validating and verifying their identities.
You wouldn’t believe it, but The Law Society of NSW on a daily basis, was bringing out constant updates for lawyers of how much the pandemic would affect their day to day operations and laws being passed through parliament almost on a daily basis to allow, little things like execution of documents and electronic verifications, etc. Normally you would need to be present, even just signing normal documents, and see them.
You need to sign statutory declarations, to do that you have to see their face. You can verify their identity by various means.
I think it was a massive shake up to the legal industry. It has hit most law firms like a Tesla truck.
Interviewer: That sounds like a nightmare. You know, the way you put it there, the fact that you need to be there. Everything’s in place and then it just gets flipped on its head completely. That is a challenging year, absolutely. Tell us about the opportunities that you’ve seen Covid present for small business owners this year.
Ian: I think at the end, it’s going to be an interesting period over Christmas, where we look back like we do every year on a year. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like this year to look back and see what’s happened. And I think we’ll finally realise the effect and the opportunities that it’s presented this year in hindsight.
Little things like there is suddenly an enormous amount of great talent pool that business owners can potentially draw if they want to make the next moves next year with some really key staff. Making sure that you know because that’s a process that takes three months usually for a hire for the next person.
Then there’s a whole bunch of great talent that’s on the market right now looking for work that wasn’t there last year before covid.
Ian: Also in terms of new products, that gentleman that was just on here before, launching a new product, they’re going through the list, to be sure all of it is done.
If I can tread water right now and just survive and just get through to the next year, I’m sure there’s going to be an enormous amount of opportunity.
Even if they are just meeting a budget, meeting their expenses and, and just getting through to the other side, I think for most businesses that’s going to be it for 2020.
But launching a new product or launching a new range or investing in some of the things that they were going to do for quite some time, there’s procedures, there’s policies there.
You know, legal protection, selecting a new, expert for their business or coach or accountant or lawyer or someone else on their team that they need. All of those things and content creation. I think this is all going to be part-and-parcel of what we see come out from Covid.
Interviewer: For sure. Let’s just talk about the future just with legal services specifically. So how do you think legal services might change in terms of embracing technology, cloud solutions that we’re seeing a lot more of in terms of the actual delivery of these services?
Ian: I think you’re going to hear and you’ve already heard it obviously over and over and over again, this the “new normal”. What is it going to look like in 2021?
But we’re already seeing it now. The embracement of technology in the delivery of any sort of professional services is going to be paramount if they weren’t already there and investing in technology, investing in their software and automation and communication with their clients, all that sort of stuff.
If they weren’t there already, they’ve been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century: having everything electronic, everything in the cloud, all that sort of stuff.
It’s like there are a lot of businesses that were caught off guard and had to move very quickly to make sure that their operation was nimble enough and be able to have all their staff suddenly work remotely. It’s a big change.
And face to face now, I think people are starting to realize that in the days where traditionally you want to have one of your professional service advisors just down the road if you need to do anything face to face.
But I think now people really do realise that it really doesn’t matter where you are, you can provide these services.
There’s obviously nothing beats face-to-face, but this is as good as it gets right now.
And I think people realise that you can actually do quite a lot, over the phone or on Zoom or any other sort of video conferencing. We’re going to see this more and more and more.
Interviewer: Yeah, absolutely. Ian thanks so much for your time. Where can we jump online to find out more in terms of what you’re doing?
Ian: At progressivelegal.com.au. We do corporate, commercial, IP, trade marks, workplace and dispute resolution for the growing business.
Interviewer: I enjoyed the chat. We’ll talk again soon. Okay. Take care of yourself.
Ian: Thanks a lot. Pleasure to be here.
Ian Aldridge is the Founder and Principal Lawyer Director at Progressive Legal. He has over 15 years experience in advising businesses in Australia and the UK. After practising in commercial litigation for 12 years in major Australian and International Law Firms, he decided to set up a NewLaw law firm in Australia and assist growing Australian businesses. Since then, he has advised over 2,500 small businesses over the past 6 years alone in relation to Intellectual Property Law, Commercial, Dispute Resolution, Workplace and Privacy Law. He has strived to build a law firm that takes a different approach to providing legal services. A truly client-focused law firm, Ian has built Progressive Legal that strives to deliver on predictable costs, excellent communication and care for his clients. As a legal pioneer, Ian has truly changed the way legal services are being provided in Australia, by building Legal Shield™, a legal subscription to obtain tailored legal documents and advice in a front-loaded retainer package, a world-first. He has a double degree in Law (Hons) and Economics (with a marketing major). He was admitted to the Supreme Court of NSW in 2005.
