Since 1999 Our Institutional History

Turning knowledge into a shared working resource

In the early 2000s, we upgraded our computer and operating system infrastructure and moved to a shared server system. This structure, in which everyone in the office could draw on the same pool of information and documents, brought filing, access to information and sharing within the team together on one digital infrastructure. It allowed us to carry out our legal work in a more orderly and coordinated way.

During the same period, we began using digital legislation and case-law databases. We complemented printed legal sources with electronic research tools. Easier access to legislation and court decisions improved our research, our legal assessments and our drafting of pleadings and contracts.

Using researched information in a file, sharing it with colleagues and being able to reuse it in later matters was an important step in the development of our institutional memory. The approaches followed in files, the legal reasoning and the knowledge gained in practice became a shared body of expertise that can be passed on and built upon.

The administrative and technical structure that supports legal work

Within the firm, we established our IT and accounting units. We organized the operation of our technological infrastructure and our administrative and financial affairs within defined duties and responsibilities. These investments were concrete steps in our approach of supporting our legal expertise with technical infrastructure, orderly records and planned operations.

The work we carry out across different areas of law showed that individual disputes and the legal needs of companies call for different methods of preparation and follow-up. We gave filing, deadline tracking, legal research, the drafting of pleadings and contracts, hearing preparation and client updates a more systematic structure through the division of tasks and supervision by the responsible attorney.

Bringing institutional operations to written standards

In the 2010s, we turned the infrastructure built in the previous period into a more comprehensive institutional operation. We put the firm’s work, transactions and processes into writing in an institutional working handbook. We created a shared point of reference for the division of duties, responsibilities and working methods.

Written processes made it easier to preserve the knowledge gained within the firm, to pass it on to new colleagues and to apply it consistently in daily operations. We developed the programs we prepared for each practice area, and our departmental structure, together with shared working standards.

We extended digitalization, covering legal research, file and document management, task tracking and communication within the team, across the firm’s operations as a whole. While integrating our IT infrastructure with the needs of different units, we treated preparation, implementation, recording, review and improvement as a shared responsibility for quality.

A clear division of tasks and supervision by the responsible attorney

Defining duties clearly, being able to monitor the work done and conducting every legal matter under the supervision of the responsible attorney became the foundation of our institutional working order. Orderly records, written processes and knowledge sharing within the team strengthened the clear assumption of professional responsibility and the review of work.

We built the practice adopted at our founding, regular client updates, into our written operations. We organized explanations about the status of the file, important developments, required documents and stages that call for a decision as a complementary element of legal work.

A practical internship program and the transfer of knowledge

We put in place, as an institutional program, a dedicated, practice-based internship program for trainee attorneys. Trainees began to take part in active training and practical work in the firm’s different units.

We structured the program so that, alongside legal research, file review, preparing pleadings and hearings and managing deadlines, it enables trainees to learn how the different practice areas operate and to understand how tasks relate to one another.

Professional ethics, confidentiality, responsibility, client communication and work discipline formed the core elements of practical training. We placed importance on passing on legal knowledge through day-to-day work and on young lawyers developing with a sense of responsibility.

Evaluating interrelated areas of law together

Cross-border transactions, the changing needs of companies and files touching on more than one area of law developed our multidisciplinary approach. An investment together with its contracts, a corporate transaction with tax and employment law, and a dispute with documents and parties in different countries each called for a broader review.

Commercial, corporate, tax, employment, administrative, real estate and foreigners’ law and similar interrelated areas, we assessed together within the needs and strategy of the same file.