Document Nirvana
By Andrew Pike Date : 1 September 2009

After 25 years in practice as an attorney, my biggest stressor remains the amount of paper which I need to process each day.  No matter how efficient my secretary, over any given period more and more of my desk starts to disappear and paper seems to accumulate exponentially.  The reason is obvious:  as I set aside one document which I think I will deal with later, so a backlog of paper starts to accumulate.   As the backlog accumulates and takes up more space, so I become more inefficient.  Paper then starts to accumulate at an exponential rate, finally clogging up the system and having me work at 50% productivity......

Admissibility of e-Documents
By Andrew Pike Date : 1 September 2009

I remember being at university a couple of decades ago and struggling with the law of evidence concerning electronically stored records.  That remained a bit of a mystery to me for some years until, thankfully, along came the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act which made life far simpler.......

Document Management as part of your Risk Management Practice
By Andrew Pike Date : 1 September 2009

Enterprise wide risk management (ERM) is one of the great recommendations to come out of the various King Commission reports on corporate governance.  ERM covers risk management across the entire spectrum of every organisation and is simply a great way to make your organisation more resilient.

The irretrievability of archived documents
By Andrew Pike Date : 1 September 2009

As a practicing attorney I have been waging war on paper for over 25 years.  One of the biggest administrative issues, on which I have always been admittedly susceptible, has been the war on accumulating paper.

Saving you time, saving you stress, putting your client first
By Andrew Pike Date : 1 September 2009

I am sure that the bank which uses a catch-line similar to the heading of this article will forgive me for the adaptation.  However, in a profession where time means money, saving time will mean making money by the putting the client first.

Instructing Counsel, 101
By Andrew Pike Date : 1 September 2009

I remember when I was an articled clerk in early 1980’s how flummoxed I felt when my principal gave me instructions for the first time to brief Counsel.  We were running a huge MVA matter (as it was then called) and I didn’t really have a clue where to start.

Fighting the war on paper
By Andrew Pike Date : 1 September 2009

Fighting the war on paper?  Enter the cavalry in the form of Globaldox and Sohodox for large and small law firms.  These software packages provide: