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开花结果 企业成长。他们构成了我们在苏州潜在客户群的 一个主要部分。” 为了表明事务所对这个新兴市 场的重视，赵晓红与另一名企业融资合伙人已从 上海调到苏州，他们的主要任务就是发展新客户 及为苏州现有客户提供服务。 赵晓红计划在未来一两年内将苏州分公司规模 扩大到40名律师。 在金杜庆祝苏州分所正式开业前的一个月，香 港吴少鹏律师事务所亦在苏州举行了其在大陆第 三家代表处的开业庆典。吴少鹏律师事务所是首 个在苏州开代表处的香港事务所。其新办公室负 有特殊使命，主要是为苏州及长三角地区的台资 企业提供法律代表及法律咨询服务。 该事务所自2000年以来便与台湾事务所信和国际 律师事务所联合向苏州的台湾投资者及企业提供法 律意见，办事处的成立令现有业务更加巩固。 吴少鹏律师事务所的管理合伙人吴少鹏表示：“ 在苏州，尤其是在当地有“小台北”之称的昆山市有 不少来自台湾的企业及投资者。苏州对与台湾及 国际相关的法律服务的需求日益增强。” 目前，台湾律师事务所尚无法在中国设立办事 处，吴少鹏律师事务所通过聘请台湾法律顾问到 苏州办事处工作，解决了供应不足的问题。 吴少鹏指出：“香港一直扮演着沟通台湾与内 地的桥梁。作为一间香港事务所，我们的任务是 提供一个平台，让内地、香港及台湾的律师能够 相互交流合作，为大中华地区客户提供更优质的 跨边界法律代表服务。同时，我们也致力于为改 善海峡两岸关系作出自己的贡献。” 通常，对于新外地事务所的进入，本地事务所 会有不同反应。但总体而言，苏州本地律师界对 这两间新事务所的进入持欢迎态度。 苏州新天伦事务所的管理合伙人兼江苏省律师 协会副会长邵吕威律师表示：“随着苏州国内外 企业数量不断增加，本市对法律服务及其他专业 服务需求增长强劲。” 邵吕威指出：“苏州政府出台了若干措施推动 服务业发展，我们欢迎国内及香港一流事务所来 苏设点，因为这些事务所将推动苏州经济持续增 长，带动苏州服务类公司不断发展。” 他补充道：“本市著名律师事务所的数量就很 好地证明了这里法律服务市场的繁荣程度。它 们的进入虽然给本地事务所带来了一定压力， 但这种压力会促使我们优化管理结构，提高服 务质量。” 外商直接投资的不断涌入以及本地企业的进 一步成熟，为苏州的律师事务所提供了一片发 展沃土。 www.legalbusinessonline.com
BlackBerry and iPhone updates on horizon In news this week to excite those tied to their mobile e-mail, RIM, the BlackBerry company, has announced its next-generation device, dubbed “BlackBerry Bold”. The new handset features 3G mobile capabilities, wifi (802.11 a/b/g) and Bluetooth connectivity, a half-VGA (480x320 resolution) colour LCD, built-in GPS and a 2 megapixel camera. For those looking to use their BlackBerry as a music player, the device also allows the addition of an SD card and software to sync your iTunes play lists. With such impressive specs, the only real competition in that space is likely to come from Apple’s iPhone. Vodafone and Singtel (Optus etc) have already announced that they will be carrying the device and the rumour mill is rife with stories of a 3G version. Now lawyers will just have to convince their IT departments to support it. Industry musical chairs Job-hopping has been a feature of the legal IT world over the past month. In Australia, Paul Wyatt joins the ranks of those moving on from LexisNexis Visualfiles. His new role is BDM for NSW with Law In Order, which specialises in litigation document management, e-discovery and document copying and scanning. On the international front, Kaye Sycamore, one of the founders of Keystone (now Aderant), has resigned from her role as vice president international at Thomson Elite. Sycamore is off to join start-up Chrome River with fellow Elite alumni Alan Rich, Dave Terry and Anne Becknell. Chrome River (www.chromeriver.com) looks interesting. It’s a law firm-orientated expense reporting system, utilising the still emerging (at least for law firms) model of software as a service. We really like the way their products page has customised pitches for CFOs, CTOs, managing partners, lawyers, practice group leaders and others.
Microsoft release XP SP For the law firms still using Windows XP (that’s almost everyone), Microsoft has released Service Pack 3 as an automated download. As with any of Microsoft’s service packs, it’s probably worth waiting a few months until the not insubstantial bugs are ironed out. The most significant appears to be an issue where systems are going into an eternal reboot cycle. From the discussions on the web, the issue appears to be related to AMD processors although Microsoft is yet to issue an official statement on the matter. New practice management player Clickone, a new practice management product, has quietly slipped into the Australian market (www. clickone.com.au). The software, which appears to be aimed at small to medium-sized law firms, claims to be able to provide time recording, trust accounting, billing, contacts management and matter management. A little digging on the domain name reveals that the business is owned by J Cheng and B Janowski, both partners at Australian firm Berrigan Doube Lawyers. It will be interesting to see how the product fares or whether it will simply be sucked into the LexisNexis vortex like everything else. DocsCorp partners with DocAuto Australia-based firm DocsCorp has continued its impressive foray into the international market with the announcement of an alliance with similarly branded US firm DocAuto. DocAuto is primarily known for its Interwoven Worksite plug-ins to enable “matter-centric” work, but had also previously developed a PDF application, MakePDF. The deal means that DocAuto will discontinue development of MakePDF, with current users being offered special pricing to migrate to the DocsCorp product, pdfDocs. With DocAuto’s client base of over 300 law firms, the move will give DocsCorp access to an even greater chunk of the US market. Chris McLean is an IT specialist, former lawyer and currently director of information management at Sparke Helmore. E-mail chris.mclean@sparke.com.au
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