NRF interview Flashcards
Intro to yourself
- history, year out - reflected on what enjoyed and missed
- pursued MSc in Bus Analytics
- term 1 - collab data analysis - valuabke role non-lawyers have within legal sector - use of tech + data to innovate internal ops and services
Why the business and legal operations role? Number of key components that stand out:
as quickly expanding area of legal sector - offers the opportunity to make significant personal impact providing innovative solutions to complex problems
- Tech and data focus - innovate business strategies, optimise processes and identify commercial opportunities, in client-facing + collab role
–> valuable at outset of career
- Rotational Structure - gain in-depth understanding of range of business areas and problems - e.g. consulting clients, developing technologically enabled solutions or streamlining processes
- business and technical skills training - to develop professional skills
fast-paced environment
Why do you want to work at NRF?
Broadly - Draw on data and tech to make significant personal impact providing innovative solutions to clients and within NRF
Number of components of Norton Rose Fulbright compliment this…
Collaborative and diverse
Global outlook and focus on progress - appealing - learnt value on masters
Mishcon showed value in non-lawyers collaborating w/ lawyers to provide unique legal service
Tied w/ rotational structure - varied work AND building own network
Clients
Serving global corporations and financial institutions - offers opps to help these clients unlock their commercial value - utilising data and tech to draw unique insights and innovative business strategies
Esp at moment - companies suffering from COVID e.g. HSBC
Corporate Responsibility
- keen gained - through work experience and Mishcon - opp to help NRF and clients achieve sustainbily goals through data-driven and innov sols + as leading global firm, sets precedent for legal sector on global scale
What do you know about the firm? What does NRF do?
NRF is a global law firm, serving leading corporations and financial institutions with full business law service
Industry focus across: financial institutions, energy, infrastructure, mining, commodities, transport, tech and innovation, life sciences and healthcare
Offices inc: Melbourne, Brussels, Sao Paolo
What does the business and legal operations team (NRF) do? NRF Transform
Role: advise businesses on issues of legal risk and opportunity and driving commercial value for both clients and Norton Rose Fulbright
inc. client services: enhanced service, end-to-end delivery and maximum value through investment strategy in emerging technologies + optimise resourcing
+ range of core services - inc. strategic legal consulting, legal operations advisory and delivery, tech management, analytics
Recent news story - commercial story that would impact the firm
Following impact of COVID on businesses and world - 2 interesting outcomes
1. COVID → shift in business strategies and business model - across all aspects
HSBC shifts from west to east as profits dive
Indicative of big corps and financial institutions facing challenges - require NRF Transform to improve revenues - e.g. streamline process, identify opportunities, use data and tech to gain insights and inform business strategy
- Changing business priorities and strategies
BLM + COVID - emphasis on diversity and inclusion
NRF clients will need support to alter policies, resource changes
E.g. Schneider Electric’s boss - making point inclusion on rise but still big improvements to be made
What will you do on the graduate programme? What rotations are available? Which would you want to do?
Engage in a range of tasks - broadly, will have 4 rotations across 2 years
Specifically, taks would inc.
- multidisciplinary role - collab w/ clients + NRF globally, inc. laywers, paralegals and business analysts - working w/ to help clients assess a particular problem, offering solutions or to execute plans
Completing specific tasks related to a broader brief, including the assimilation and analysis of data
The role also involves working and researching projects in-house, generating new ideas and propositions to boost NRF’s brand and profile
Rotations inc.:
- legal operations consulting
- pricing
- business solutions
- client consulting
- commercial management
- innovation
- legal product design
- resource management
rotations appealing: blended range - e.g. consulting rotations for ops to work w/ clients to define and deliver solutions
+ innovation or legal product design - to review and develop new tools + ideas for delivery of legal work
What challenges do you think the legal sector will face in the next 10 years?
Broad - this past year has shown it is hard to predict what challenges will face legal sector and firms
BUT what will differentiate firms is how quickly they can adapt and innovate to meet needs of clients and remain profitable - central to this: incorp of tech
COVID
Challenge to NRF and clients
Shown value in remote working - which also can be of use moving forward
Tech: able to use real time data to quickly adapt to changing circumstances, identify risks, platforms w/ clients
It has also exposed the value in ethical business, would expect to see a shift in priorities of businesses e.g. increase in inclusion and diversity - which also leads to improved performance, innovation and employee satisfaction
Cyber threats - remote working → more exposed
Tech: evolve cyber security
Client demands
Strong platforms to communicate w/ clients
Achieve efficiency - optimise
Data and tech central
E.g. use of AI to improve efficiency of mundane or time consuming tasks - e.g. extracting key data from large volumes of contracts
Why NRF Transform
NRF Transform - innovative approach to providing business services - big changes occurring internally and in legal service offered to clients
→ Offers the opportunity to make significant personal impact providing innovative solutions to complex problems
Collaborative and diverse - diverse skill set and experience - learnt benefits of this on Master’s + w/ global outlook + Mishcon introduced value that non-lawyers can have in legal sector
–> working in multidisciplinary teams - huge value in knowledge sharing - through rotations esp. useful
Opp to harness data and tech - through Master’s have gained technological skills - advanced computational and software - key benefits
To gain insights, formulate new strategies, identify commercial value and improve processes
Why NRF > Mishcon?
- Mishcon sparked interest in role data analysis and tech can play in legal sector,
Graduate role - rotational structure - gain insight into range of business areas - legal services diff: NRF global - clients inc. financial institutions and corporations
–> interested in helping clients utilise data and technology to maximise commercial value - both through identifying opportunities and risk
esp. at momment - e.g. HSBC looking to relocate
Why do you want to work in tech in the legal sector? Why do you want to work in technology?
- personal impact, solve complex probs, data-driven and tech-focused sols - across range of tasks e.g. optimising and innovating processes, gaining insights, reducing costs,
- changing delivery of legal services - opp to join from different perspective, make sign impact
- collab and client-facing - e.g. improve internal opps and directly advice clients
Clients and competitors
Clients: E.g. AIG, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Citi
Competitors: E.g. Linklaters, Greenberg, Allen&Overy
Example tech to incorporate
Service provided to clients
- platforms between colleagues and clients to enable strong and intuitive communication
Internal operations
- Artificial Intelligence, to optimise business processes and remove the necessity of employees to carry out mundane tasks.
New ventures
E.g. outreach programme
E.g. financial savings
Key services provided by NRF Transform
Enhanced service - people - right expertise
End-to-end delivery - operations
Maximum client value - identify commercial opps and risks
How to get from structured to unstructured data
Unstructured e.g. webpages, video files, audio files, text documents
Value: gain insights from untapped resource
E.g. market sentiment, customer bejaviour, business data insights
Analyse data sources
Define the problem
Key decisions - e.g. tech to use and storage
E.g. AI
Understand data patterns and text flow - e.g. person, location, company
Text mine and data extraction - implement and influence project measure
