The Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday that Prime Minister Julia Gillard had “called on Labor MPs to stop damaging internal leaks that … derailed the party’s election campaign”.
At some point today, we expect that a similar communiqué will be made by the Blake Dawson partnership to lawyers and support staff as a result of what is purportedly the firm’s own potentially damaging* leak. An anonymous tipster, purporting to be an “under paid and under appreciated” Blake Dawson secretary, sent us the following “copy typed” email of a document he/she alleges was found in the firm’s elevator on Wednesday (thanks very much for your excellent work – FS appreciates you!):
It’s now been around 12 months since Gilbert & Tobin successfully took on Telstra as a client from Blake Dawson. It should be worth reflecting on a few important points.
Firstly, our attitude to clients absolutely needs improvement. When Telstra notified us of their desire to use Gilbert & Tobin for their legal services, we attempted to “retaliate” by moving our telecommunications and internet services from Telstra to Optus or another provider. This would have been seen for what it was immediately by Telstra. Tit for tat. I’m glad that we did not go through with this although our reasons were based around cost rather than keeping on good terms with Telsra. It would have also sent a clear signal to our other clients that we’re only using their services because they use ours (ANZ comes to mind).
“Tit for tat”? Sounds like Blakes needs to follow Freehills‘ lead and keep their clients top of mind. Fortunately for Telstra, sanity prevailed, and it gets better:
Secondly, the loss of Telstra marks our complete fall as a technology law firm. 5 years ago, Blake Dawson was highly regarded for its technology legal practice and internal computer systems. Both are now left wanting. My computer screen is still fuzzy, my secretary’s computer sometimes sounds like a hair dryer and our new printer is as slow as the old one.
Sounds like just about any professional services firm in the country, really. And we suspect that Blakes won’t be faking picking up any of those coveted IFLR awards for its tech law practice anytime soon. But how can Blakes possibly edit its Wikipedia page with fuzzy screens?
We lack any kind of imagination with computer systems and seem to just follow what other law firms are doing. The market sees innovative computer systems in law firms as one selling point if they are looking for technology law services. Our current large computer project is upgrading Windows. Big deal. Our website is a perfect example of this mess. I understand that the software behind it (chosen in 2007) was never suitable for the task and we’ve been trying to get rid of it since. Who made that mistake?
Whoops. Maybe they should have hired these guys.
We can look at many clear examples related to the points I have discussed above. Let’s not. Instead, I would like to see these addressed in our longer term strategies. [ends]
Blakes spies: are the firm’s IT systems really this bad? Is the technology practice really in freefall or are these the melodramatic rantings of an underutilized IT partner? We emailed Blake Dawson National Media Manager Lisa Macnamara to find out if she knew the answer. Here is what she wrote to us:
Dear Firm Spy, We have no knowledge of the document and the assertions in it are incorrect. Telstra is a valued client of the firm. Regards, Lisa
Hmmm… which assertions are incorrect? All of them?
Send the Firm Spy your news and views!
* If it is true. The anonymous Blakes secretary admitted that they don’t know who the memo was written by and who it was addressed to/intended for.
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