How do you get the best out of yourself and your legal team?
"This entire spring you can send in nominations for the 2021 Golden Hourglasses! During the nomination period, judges share what's on their minds and how they look at the various awards. This week Harm Cammel (Voxius) on the Innovative Legal Education Award and the Team Spirit Award.
Cammel has been working for legal departments and law firms for over 17 years where he focuses on strategy, organization and operations development. He is a partner at Voxius and also teaches Strategy, Operations & Innovation at the Master Legal Management of the HvA and at the Legal Operations Academy.
Harm Cammel
It is therefore logical that the development of legal services across the board - of services, working methods, teams and employees - is close to his heart. "With the Golden Hourglasses, we put the spotlight on initiatives that contribute to this. It is therefore a great pleasure to be a member of the jury," says Cammel. "Legal services are gaining momentum and corona has further reinforced that. Skepticism is beginning to disappear: change turns out to be quite possible and produces visibly beautiful results. Meanwhile, there is so much attention on legal tech and innovation that you can fill your week with white papers and seminars. All this attention is good, but fortunately it has become clear that it is not about what vendors offer: it is about what organizations and clients really need. And about how lawyers and their teams can play their roles even better, more efficiently and more enjoyably."
Greater focus on other competencies
Developing from the user's perspective requires additional skills, Cammel said. "Some must initiate change, others must be comfortable working with it, but everyone must be open to it. Think about understanding customer needs, improving work processes, working data-driven, incorporating new tools and working better with suppliers and customers."
Cammel did not see the necessary competencies for this adequately reflected in traditional legal education. "Hence, in addition to my strategy & operations work, I have been involved in broader education for years. It is wonderful to see how more and more initiatives and educational institutions are focusing on these broader competencies. The past two years really represented a breakthrough, full of examples of collaborating with other disciplines, working with users, working on concrete projects, starting and then learning and honing along the way as in the 'real' world. I hope we will be able to highlight great new initiatives again this year. That gives them recognition and also gives a solid push towards further improved and more accessible services."
Development requires good team spirit
In addition, the rapid shift to remote working confirmed that development requires more than attention to processes and tools. Individual development, good cooperation and engaged leadership are just as important, Cammel outlines. "How do you make sure everyone feels involved and knows what's going on? That everyone continues to develop individually? That all team members stay inspired and connected? That requires good leadership and a healthy team culture. The importance of people focus has been highlighted again this past year. That is why we are presenting a one-time Team Spirit Award this year: we would like to highlight how teams got through this crisis and what that means for the future. The legal sector has shown itself to be resilient and flexible; we are very much looking forward to all entries!"