Former senior general counsel at Telstra Mick Sheehy has joined PwC Australia to lead NewLaw, which aims ‘to help empower in-house legal departments to transform their function, as part of the next wave of disruption challenging Australia's legal landscape.’

Building the future

As the former senior general counsel of finance, technology, innovation and strategy at Telstra, the firm says Mr Sheehy has been at the forefront of challenging how traditional legal functions operate and develop. The innovation agenda he drove at Telstra saw his team acknowledged as one of the country’s most innovative, and freed up more than 40,000 hours of ‘low value’ work. NewLaw focuses general counsel and legal departments on being ahead of the curve as changes in technology and resourcing pressures continue to escalate. It helps devise strategies to more cost effectively manage matters and navigate a myriad of technology solutions. Once the right strategies are in place NewLaw provides managed legal and outsource solutions to tackle the more routine but high volume work. Mr Sheehy said, ‘this is about building legal departments of the future. If we can hone their focus with the right information, they can make far more strategic resourcing decisions. This means everything from how a general counsel can use technology to automate through to what to do when a complicated transaction lands on your desk.’

More with less

Mr Sheehy warned, ‘legal departments that don’t have a transformation and technology strategy will soon find themselves playing catch up as data drives insight and value.’ Mr Sheey added, ‘importantly, we understand cost is a powerful lever when legal departments are negotiating budgets with executive teams and boards. We think there is a better, more efficient way to do business that can help these teams scale up across volume and continue adding value, at a reduced cost.’ PwC Australia’s financial advisory managing partner, Tom Seymour, explained ‘it doesn’t matter what your area of expertise is - whether it’s finance, law, tax, marketing, human resources - in-house teams are being asked to do more with less.