Watch Katherine Araniello, Head of EA and Office Services at Slaughter and May, discuss BigHand Workflow Management, how firms can bring EAs into AI adoption, build confidence through tailored training, and use operational data to make smarter staffing decisions.

Transcript

One of the things that I love and I take really seriously is leading by example, setting that culture, and embracing that culture.

Leading a team of 120 EAs, I’m really lucky to be in a position where I get to drive some of that.

But the biggest thing is listening. Finding out what’s important to my teams and making differences where I can. Sometimes I can’t. But the biggest thing is actually listening.

It’s fascinating to be in that space and a real privilege as well.

Q: How are you approaching AI adoption with your team?

The biggest thing for me is getting the EAs on the forefront of any change, rather than kind of take and do it to us.

Let us be in from conception to help shape and lead it for a number of reasons.

One, if you’re going to roll out anything to fee-earners, the EAs need to know how to use it, because they’re often that first line of support for the fee-earner if something isn’t working.

So we need to give them the time and space and the skills to know the system.

And two, if you want something to be a success, get us on board.

Q: How do you balance responsibility with innovation when exploring new technology like AI?

For me, it’s about engaging the teams that can help us.

Part of my role is speaking to the equivalents across business services. We’ve got a team called the Knowledge and Learning Team, and they’re the team that are responsible for rolling out any training and making sure that my team is definitely on their radar.

What you’re rolling out to business services as a function, great. Actually bespoke it to the EAs because we don’t know what we don’t know.

Things like getting prompting workshops specified for EAs is key, so the EAs feel that actually their needs are being met and tailored to.

Q: Does better operational data improve decision-making in a law firm?

Oh, without a doubt. I’m constantly being asked for more data in every proposal, decision, suggestion.

For me, it’s: how do I get that data? Is it kind of finger on the pulse? What’s that telling me? Or have I got data to back it up?

What I really like to do is have data first to see what that can suggest. What’s missing? What can I inform by it? And then I can start to base that decision around it.

Increasingly, I’m being asked: “How busy are your teams?” “What types of work are they doing?”

That also informs resourcing decisions. So if we’ve got a leaver, am I going to replace like for like, or actually does it make more sense to use that headcount and pull the resource somewhere else?

How busy are teams? I need to be able to see across each of the various teams who’s busy, who’s not, and where we can actually think more smarter.

So AI, data, absolutely, in every decision that I’m being asked to make.

Q: If firms want to benefit from AI, what do they need to get right first?

For me, I think you’ve got to, and I’m speaking as a Head of EA and Office Services, you’ve got to get people interested.

If you just foist stuff onto people without giving them the support, the time and the training that they need, it will just become something that they learn to live with.

You’ve got to find a way of cross-fertilizing ideas.

What I’ve done is I’ve introduced EA early adopters. The real power comes from individuals sharing experiences and stories.

If everybody’s using it in silos, they’re only going to be using part of it. So actually bringing those stories to life, those use cases to life, and encouraging people to embrace it.

Q: What has impressed you about how BigHand Workflow Management has evolved?

The most recent experience I had of BigHand prior to coming into this was using it as the digital dictation tool.

It was fundamental for when I centralized the evening document support team, because that was the tool where all of the work used to come in as a central function and then go out again.

So coming back in, for me, it’s re-exploring all of that and what it can do. I’m very much in the early stages of talking internally at the firm around what BigHand can do 14 years on.

I’ve been hugely impressed with the AI function. I had a little demo at your HQ a couple of weeks ago, and I think that will be a game changer.

I think there’s a lot that can be done.