What first attracted you to the flexible work that Juno offers, and now you're here, what do you love about being on the Juno Team?
After 20 years practicing law in traditional - and highly structured - environments, I wanted a change. The idea I’d been kicking around was an on-line business that used my legal experience, and Transact Legal Documents was born. Initially, it took my full focus but, because so much of building the business is outsourced to app developers, I reached the point where it didn’t need my full-time attention. That’s where Juno came in. What attracted me was, quite simply, the flexibility. Juno starts with the assumption that you will be managing your time and energy across several different commitments – operating your own business, raising kids or something else that’s important to you.
Can you tell us more about Transact and how you manage to balance your life to ensure time for your personal projects?
Transact aims to provide high-quality, on-line legal documents, with the initial focus on commercial leasing documents. Rather than just selling Word templates, we’ve designed a web-based app that guides customers through the process and is smart enough to generate summaries, provide reminders and help fast-track the preparation of the next document. Like Juno, it’s a niche offering and doesn’t try to be all things… Rather, it aims to fill a gap in the existing offerings out there in the legal sector and give people options.
Juggling all of this - building a business, lawyering, family and life generally - requires flexibility and that means you need some control over your time. Something that’s difficult with the demands of traditional legal practice.
Did you have any reservations/challenges to making that change and how did you overcome them?
Reservations - none at all. In terms of challenges, it’s a different style of working life from the old 40 hours and upward in a CBD office. It pays to be disciplined in shifting between roles, otherwise you lose the time and focus needed to keep your other objectives on track.
Can you tell us what makes a successful Juno engagement for you and for the client, particularly from a remote-engagement perspective?
Communication. You parachute into an environment that’s usually under pressure. You don’t fully understand the business and how it operates and you don’t know the people. You might have decades of experience behind you, but the devil is always in the detail. Great communication is the difference between getting by and really making a difference.