by Fiona Bird
I joined Rice Speir in June of this year as practice manager. My journey to this point has been varied and enriching. I spent 3 years at a large CBD law firm in a corporate services position and prior to that I enjoyed 18 months working in a boutique law practice in Newmarket.
Five years ago I came to New Zealand from a career as an interpreter and translator to the Italian government based in Florence, where I brought up my children and lived for 24 years. Before that, I was studying law at University in Glasgow and would never have imagined that I would end up living in New Zealand.
My move to NZ and the businesses I have been working with have allowed me to draw on past experiences and identify specific areas within the legal sector where, as practice manager, I can implement continual excellence programmes with successful results.
It’s a beautiful thing when a career and a passion come together. Rice Speir embodies this sentiment. It is a growing and innovative law firm which acknowledges the benefits of adopting new practices to improve and ensure the employee and the client experience.
The qualities of an effective practice manager can be broken into four categories – organisational communications, internal processes, productivity and giving feedback.
As part of ensuring our top quality service to clients, over the next few months, I will be drawing on these categories to implement exciting plans for the firm, kicking off with the following:
● System improvements to continually enhance the provision of outstanding service to our clients by maintaining deadlines, cost-effectiveness and clear communication at all stages; and
● A wellness programme for the team including a mission nutrition plan and values recognition.
Spring is the best time for innovation and here at Rice Speir we are looking forward to this new season full of great initiatives and projects to ensure that we are, as always, giving the absolute best to our clients and our team.
Looking forward to updating you in our next newsletter!
