Info about the UK (and Ireland?) here
General Regional Info
What does the team do, are they organised into subcommittees? What is happening in the region that might be relevant? Useful links?
House Style (Standard Styles – or other?)
Who are the precedent providers (if any) and key suppliers relating to documents and the ecosystem
What are the court (or CPR) rules around documents? Are the court going paper-less? etc
News
Show posts tagged with a specific category here
Events Info
Is it possible to show details of upcoming events specific to this region?
Meet the Team
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Andrea Bowyer – Norton Rose Fulbright LLP
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Annette Brown – Milbank
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Maria Clancy – BigHand
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Angela Crossland – BigHandCommittee Chair
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Martin Dentith – Simmons & Simmons
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Joanne Humber – Humber AssociatesMembership Secretary
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Julie McCarthy – BigHandTreasurer
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Sheila Quansah-Solomon – Allen & Overy LLP
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Clare WallerSecretary
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Kim Walton – Dentons & Pinnacle
About Andrea
With strong expertise across enterprise applications, Andrea has particular knowledge within the document management, production and productivity space. Following 12 years at regional law firm Ward Hadaway, where she implemented Standard Styles and most recently acted as applications lead on the Windows 10 / Office 2016 desktop refresh project, Andrea is now an Applications Analyst at Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, where she intends to maintain her focus on product optimisation and user experience improvements.
In her spare time Andrea enjoys the theatre, is an avid bookworm and a fan of The West Wing, sci-fi and TED Talks. She has an unnatural love of the number 1013 and is an occasional collector of law firm pens. She is interested in psychology and neuroscience, along with politics and can be found running a Polling Station during elections.
Committee Roles
Committee member since January 2013
About Annette
As Head of IT for Milbank in Europe, Annette is responsible and accountable for the smooth running of the Firm’s information technology systems in the London, Frankfurt and Munich offices. Annette manages the IT team who are responsible for delivering day to day IT/helpdesk support, IT Training, System Management and IT Infrastructure & Projects. Recent IT projects Annette has worked on have included the migration to Office 365 online and the office move to 100 Liverpool Street.
Committee Roles
Committee member since January 2015
About Maria
Maria Clancy is the UK & EMEA Document Solutions Manager at BigHand. She has over 30 years’ experience working in law firms, in a range of roles including training, compliance and business development. Her career spans both niche top-ranked Legal 500 firms and large corporate practices. As a self-employed consultant she has helped law practices to attain the Investors in People, Legal Aid Franchise and Lexcel accreditations.
In her current role, she assists professional services customers to meet their document production objective, supporting their journey to successful adoption of their chosen solutions and ongoing efficiency improvement. Maria is also a member of the Professional Services Marketing Group.
Committee Roles
Committee member since February 2020
About Angela
Angela has been involved in the world of legal IT for over 20 years, working with both law firms and software providers during this time. She has a passion for empowering users through education, as well as by providing solutions that are intuitive to use. Combine this with a love of problem solving, along with a keen attention to detail, and you can see why she’s found the legal document lifecycle has plenty to keep her interested.
Committee Roles
Committee Chair
Committee member since November 2013
About Martin
Martin has worked in the legal IT sector for over 15 years, working with a variety of UK Legal 500 law firms. Currently with Simmons & Simmons LLP he is the defacto go-to person for all things document related within the Simmons & Simmons family. He has a passion for delivering intuitive and innovative solutions to streamline the document creation and maintenance process and also works closely with the M&BD department to deliver legal documents that are more engaging to the client, alongside delivering a strong brand experience.
Committee Roles
Committee member since September 2022
About Joanne
For more than 25 years Joanne Humber delivered IT training programmes to law firms and corporate legal departments across the world – initially through her own company and for 8 years as Director of Training for Phoenix Business Solutions. Since leaving Phoenix she has worked as an independent technology skills consultant. She also actively promotes the Legal Technology Core Competency Certification Coalition (LTC4). LTC4 was founded 11 years ago by training and IT professionals in the US and UK to address the skills gaps which exist within the global legal industry. Joanne’s experience of working with law firms of all sizes clearly demonstrated the need to improve technology skills in a way which is relevant to the way they work. LTC4 Core Competency Learning Plans are workflow based and are now recognised as providing an industry standard for both lawyers and support staff.
Committee Roles
Membership Secretary
Committee member 2014 – 2020, returned in October 2021
About Julie
Julie McCarthy is a Product Specialist in Business & Document Productivity at BigHand, building interactive templates in the legal sector. She previously worked for Advanced/Tikit and specialised in template design and training. She has over 20 years’ experience working in a variety of sectors ranging from legal, wealth management and media. Julie is passionate about creating an interactive and enjoyable environment that supports learning.
Committee Roles
Treasurer
Committee member since December 2016
About Sheila
Sheila Quansah-Solomon is the Productivity Applications Manager at Allen & Overy LLP. She has over 40 years’ experience working in law firms, starting her career as a Personal Assistant and later as an IT Software Training Consultant. Over the last 32 years working for Allen & Overy LLP she has held various positions, starting as a Word-processing Operator she progressed to a Systems Analyst, IT Trainer for the Document Production department, IT Helpdesk Support Analyst, Documents Service Line Leader, Document Expert Analyst, Document Application Support Team Leader, Document Technology Specialist and in the last 3 years as a Productivity Applications Manager.
She is a founding member of the UK Document Excellence Group (UKDEG) and has chaired and presented at various Word Excellence Day and UKDEG events. Before joining Allen & Overy in 1990 she worked in numerous blue chip firms as IT Training Consultant developing and delivering high-end bespoke technical training on software applications.
In her current role, she assumes a global product service responsibility for core document production applications, assisting with technical thought leadership, offering deep subject-matter expertise and 4th-line support for complex problems. She engages with application Vendors, key business users and IT representatives to ensure that document production strategies are aligned with the Firm’s business and IT strategic objectives including developing the future strategy for the firm’s core document applications.
She has in-depth knowledge of document production applications and systems including MS Office especially Word, document comparison and metadata stripping applications, document automation systems. She also has good knowledge of document management systems and is familiar with best practice technology and document production procedures and policies.
Committee Roles
Committee member since October 2004
About Clare
With too many years working with law firms’ documents than she would like to admit to, Clare is passionate about making Microsoft Office work for you and a specialist in legal document production.
Committee Roles
Secretary
Committee member since February 2014
About Kim
Kim has worked in and with law firms for over 30 years. She has been a supporter of the DEG since its inception and has been on the Organising Committee since 2006. Kim has attended most of the Document Excellence Days (formerly known as Word Excellence Days), presenting at several including running some fun Vendor challenge sessions. Kim is a strong advocate for the use of the DEG standard style initiative, having implemented this in her firm in 2013.
Kim is passionate about finding ways to improve the document production process and working with Vendors to improve their products. She has many years experience in template development and implementing house styles, fixing document issues, working with document automation products and many other tools that are used in the full document production lifecycle process.
Committee Roles
Committee member since 2006
Contact Info
Who and how to contact
Call to action
Would you like to host an event? Do you have an idea? Would you like to volunteer in your region? Would you like to join the regional committee?