Nicola Shaver on design thinking for lawyers & law firms

Nicola Shaver is the global Director of Knowledge Management at Paul Hastings LLP in New York. In her role, she focuses on opportunities to optimize processes and introduce tools that will improve efficiency and productivity, and on leveraging the firm’s intellectual capital to better serve clients.

Nicola has worked in the legal services industry for over 15 years in three different jurisdictions. Nicola is passionate about finding innovative solutions to existing problems, building a culture of innovation within law firms, and instilling an empathic approach to design.

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Some of the items we cover in the episode include:

• How Nikki got to NYC – her story of working in three countries
• Nikki’s move to KM – Nikki’s view of KM, and why she thinks it’s such an exciting role to be in
• What she sees as the key components of a KM role
• What are some of the items that will help lawyers actually want to continue to practice law
• The shift in technology, processes, and the way law is practiced
• What is design thinking
• What components makeup design thinking
• What are the steps of design thinking
• Empathy
• Define
• Ideate
• Prototype
• Test
• Execute
• Why empathy is one of the key components of any problem-solving exercise
• How Nikki was first exposed to Design Thinking
• How her firm explored the concept of design thinking
• How to promote the concept to lawyers and have them be engaged
• What is one key stage, after which, the lawyers will be hooked
• What is a range of time investment required for a design thinking workshop
• Some amazing tips to help you out if you’re trying this out for the first time
• Some key takeaways for Nikki after having put design thinking into
• How design thinking can help tap into the “big brains” of lawyers