Zoom – The New Way To Do Business

This article is not sponsored by Zoom and maybe I should really say “video-conferencing or face-time or Skype or (Insert your preferred video-conferencing tool here) – the new way to do business”.

The reality is that Zoom has become McLaughlins Lawyers’ video-conferencing tool of choice and I am unapologetic about that bias.

When the Covid restrictions and guidelines were imposed months ago now, the majority of our staff very quickly moved to remote working from home.

We quickly set up remote computer access for all our staff to our dedicated servers and with our phone system were able to seamlessly handle telephone calls with no impediment to our clients contacting us.

We continued to be available and to work without a hitch.

What became quickly apparent, because we were initially all working from our individual homes, was the need to collaborate face to face with colleagues and to socialise face to face.

Zoom has enabled us to meet those needs. We have a daily morning social catch up by Zoom for whoever wants to check in – you know – the water cooler, or first morning coffee, catch up on what people watched on TV the night before.

We have zoom meetings between staff during the day whenever there is a need to collaborate. The screen sharing capability makes that collaboration on documents probably better than standing over someone’s shoulder in the office as they discuss a document.

As we have now started to transition back into the office we are discovering a great balance that enables the staff to work from home or the office depending on what works best at the time for them, their team, and their family.

We have permanently set up video conferencing facilities in the McLaughlins office on a large interactive screen that enables large zoom meetings to easily be held.

We will continue to use Zoom video conferencing even as the restrictions lift. It enables us to more easily and conveniently interact with clients giving them advice and taking them through documents without the need for them to leave their home or work. That can be a huge saving of time and avoiding unnecessary interruption in a clients day.

See our earlier articles below during March and April about ways we have adapted to enable witnessing of documents and Wills and taking instructions for Wills. Some of these changes are temporary during the Covid crisis but some will be here to stay and will become part of the new way we do business for the convenience of everyone involved.

• Special rules for signing wills during the Covid-19 pandemic – do i still need 2 independent witnesses?
• Settify – Wills Lawyers enlist tech to serve rising client demand during self-isolation.
• New Queensland titles office ways for witnessing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

If you need assistance on a legal matter contact our team on (07) 5591 5099 and a member of our team will be happy to help.  McLaughlins Lawyers, your experienced Gold Coast lawyers, we stand beside you and are here to help you when you need us.

 

Author: Ian Kennedy

Director: Ian Kennedy and Sophie Pearson

Date: 26 June 2020