Many of you will recall our popular post last year featuring a very embarrassing memo/speech (apparently) leaked from a Blake Dawson partner. The partner (allegedly) involved unwittingly left the memo in an office elevator, only for an “under appreciated” secretary to find it, copy-type it, and email at it to us so that we could all enjoy. The memo revealed an array of extraordinary Blake Dawson insights that were (seemingly) clearly meant to stay intra-firm. Take this snippet, for example:
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 the firm mistook a 1980′s ghetto blaster for a computer!
… p p p p p p pump up the jam!
Folks, we’re pleased to report today that the story doesn’t stop with the (allegedly) leaked memo. We received the following email from an anonymous Blake Dawson spy over the break (thanks for your excellent work!):
I see that your news about Blake Dawsons IT troubles … I just read through it. Ha ha. Whoever wrote it is spot on although they know nothing about computers. It’s a bit unfair to have a go at the IT team for those troubles though. The noisy computers are a faulty sensor in our crappy Lenovo desktops. It makes the fans spin fast. Doesnt happen as much anymore.
The fuzzy monitor is actually Lenovo’s fault too. This is old news. They sold us a monitor that didn’t match well with our model of laptop. The resolution is terrible. You would think that a company like Lenovo would get that right.
Our printers aren’t that slow – I don’t think this is a problem at all. We recently resolved our Billback problem. Billback are the devices that allow us to charge printing to matter codes – We haven’t been able to accurately do that for years. We bought Canon printers and they weren’t compatible with Billback. Don’t know who chose Canon.
Telstra? We’ve been dirty on that since. We put up with service problems for a long time from them as they were a good customer of ours. We had some big network outages because of them. Then they ditch us for another law firm because they were cheaper. It shows that loyalty doesn’t mean anything anymore. LOL.
Consistent with our post earlier this week, we put the substance of these allegations to the Blake Dawson Chief Executive Partner and Media Spokesperson asking for a comment, as well as a request that they:
… make my day, make my dayyyyyy
but niether got back to us.
So we will leave it up to our readers to decide if Blake Dawson is technological, or technotronic. What do you think?
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Billback compatible printers? Large firms still charge clients for ordinary office printing? Sounds like both Telstra and Blakes are “cheap” in their own special ways.
Thanks for this! I just couldn’t stand to live any longer without knowing the reason for Blakes’ fuzzy monitors and sluggish printers.
In my opinion Blake Dawson just isn’t a top tier law firm anymore. They’re revenue is significantly less that the top 5 firms in Australia, It’s not really involved in many significant deals. Cash cows like BHP are drying up and we are seeing a few big names leave the place. We don’t hear as much about their latteral recruitment anymore either.
It’s probably a tough time for their a/c’s and lawyers too. Not much opportunity to make it to partner and work which wouldn’t be regarded as ‘career making’
You have to feel sorry for the IT department at Blake Dawson. These computer stories are a bit harsh Firm Spy – can’t we lay off the support staff? They are just trying to do a job with limited resources. I would imagine that the lawyers at Blake Dawson are perfectly happy with their computers. Let them be the judge.
the latest comment about telstra is interesting. further speculation that blakes wanted to move away from telstra after telstra ditched blakes?
yes!! If you are in a Blakes office outside of Sydney, every IT system is slow. It’s like we were forgotten about during the last server upgrades or something.