When one of their young stars, Katherine Smith made the move to the US to support her partners career, the Jenkins Legal team knew they faced losing a highly motivated, intelligent and successful lawyer.
Rather than resign themselves to this loss they decided to trial an ‘offshoring’ situation with a twist. The firm had grown to a size where the lawyers on the ground needed the support of someone dedicated to the clients in the same way they are. The situation is different to traditional offshoring (which is done to save money) as Katherine knows all her clients. Because she has worked in the office here in Australia she is in tune with Jenkins Legal Services culture and values.
Katherine set up in the US with her partner, a laptop and webcam and continued her role and position at Jenkins Legal Services. And the outcome has been amazing for all involved. The frustration for Katherine at not being able to work as a lawyer in the US (due to our Australian Law degree not being transferable to the US) has been eliminated as she finds working for Jenkins Legal Services from the US just as satisfying as being in the office. She Skype's in daily to catch up on any client news as well as just to check in.
While the time difference was first feared to be an impediment, it has turned into an advantage. Katherine is able to work on documents overnight and have them ready for clients when they sit down at their computers in the morning.
Jenkins Legal Services was set up in 2014 to be totally cloud based from its legal software system to online legal libraries, document sharing and accounting. This allows Jenkins Legal to achieve optimal efficiency which saves time and money- both of which are passed onto their clients.