Johnson Winter & Slattery (JWS), a 60-partner corporate law firm in Australia, has announced it is rolling out Cisco video and collaboration solutions across its five offices. The law firm has partnered with Cisco to deploy an integrated collaboration suite including Cisco WebEx, Cisco Jabber, Cisco TelePresence and Cisco Show & Share.

The comprehensive collaboration suite delivers benefits externally from a client management point of view, as well as internally in terms of professional development and training.

Corporate law is a complex domain. Clients engage law firms because the matter requires collaboration, time and face-to-face discussions. Given the sheer distance between capital cities in Australia, face-to-face discussions are often substituted for phone calls. Cisco TelePresence allows clients to tap into the experience of multiple lawyers across different cities in a realistic, face-to-face environment. This enables greater mutual understanding and better problem solving for these complex issues.

A professional services firm is only as good as its staff and of course JWS is no different. Its stellar reputation is testament to the retention and development of its lawyers. The high-quality video conferencing technology has enhanced the professional development of all of JWS' lawyers, enabling standardisation of training across nationwide offices. As these sessions are also recorded and archived, they are more readily available to all staff in the firm and to lawyers away from the office on secondment or maternity leave. Staff have reported that viewing the archived sessions is an efficient method for quickly building knowledge on the latest legal changes.

The day-to-day operations of the firm have also been streamlined as a result of the introduction of Cisco Jabber and Cisco TelePresence. Teams are able to collaborate and communicate via TP, instant messaging, voice, and desktop sharing to increase productivity and speed of decision-making and business processes. This in turn creates a better service for clients.

Johnson Winter & Slattery is the latest in a line of law firms to invest in a collaboration suite, highlighting how Cisco collaboration technology is ideal for helping to untangle the complexities of modern law, both through improved liaison with customers and enriched professional development for staff.