New Zealand impressions by Susan Rodgers
Auckland skyline
Kia ora to you all. I’m part-way through my month-long visit to New Zealand, building on the groundwork laid by our implementation consultant in Auckland, Beck Roberts, preparing our business for forecasted growth and learning lots about the Māori legal system alongside the LEAP Legal Software crew.
On a personal level, Auckland is a beautiful city with a friendly population. Geographically, it’s surrounded by volcanoes and mountain ranges across the North Island, South Island and neighbouring smaller islands. These unique features are fascinating to geologists and travellers. Regularly walking down to the harbour and back up to my apartment is fairly strenuous exercise on hilly terrain. My fitness is improving no end.
Sam, Nick, Yvette, Beck, Susan, Olivia, Mackenzie, Kyle, Muhammad and Paula dining out in one of Auckland’s many eateries
Professionally, I’ve observed the nuanced differences and similarities between New Zealand and UK legal systems.
For the former, a big area of difference is there being no hierarchy in courts. Instead, there’s one court to cover everything. The same is true for land and property registrations which is one combined source, not disparate entities as per the UK. A further point of difference is the mixture of common law and civil law, unlike the UK’s common law doctrine.
For the latter, I actually notice more similarities to the Scottish side of the legal market, around conveyancing particularly. Plus, the abundance of rural consumers with requirements for land sales, farming insurance matters and other countryside-specific demands is something we’re familiar with from our Cumbrian and Irish clients in the UK. As such, we can apply our proven expertise to the New Zealand setting and serve clients optimally.
Obviously, this is an extremely simplified viewpoint. That’s because I’m still observing and I’m still learning – and loving every second of my Kiwi experience. The LEAP team, too, is deployed on the ground, immersed into New Zealand’s ecosystem and listening every day to Antipodean lawyers. Together, we’re developing our knowledge, expanding our skills and supporting law firms even better with their technology projects.
Kyle, Beck, David (back row), Susan, Olivia, Nick (middle row), Sam, Mackenzie, Yvette and Muhammad (front row) bonding over a game of bowling
This brings me conveniently onto the subject of software. New Zealand’s growing legal industry is embracing technological advancements. When we’re contacting law firm leaders to introduce the concept of LEAP, they’re very receptive to discovering its superior functionality in relation to case management and integrated legal accounting tools via Xero. It’s great having feet on the ground for face-to-face, on-site support which enhances our existing remote services support offering.
So, whether it’s larger practices located in the cities, or small-to-medium sized businesses in outlying regions, Jayva’s got local representation in Auckland to help all types of law firms streamline processes, boost efficiencies and take advantage of innovative systems like LEAP. Auckland’s a perfect city base as it provides quick network links to southern areas of the North Island as well as easy connections to the South Island.
Jayva’s speciality is legal technology. Our LEAP Certified Consultancy and Gold Xero Partner accreditations evidence this. New Zealand’s thriving legal sector can benefit from our dedicated, high-quality training and consultancy services. We’re here to empower law firms to use technology as an enabler of digital transformation in order to achieve success.
Get in touch to enquire about our technology services by visiting www.jayvaglobal.com/services, emailing info@jayvaglobal.com or calling +44 (0) 333 20 20 995.