Twenty Questions

In this occasional series, we put law firm personalities under the spotlight and find out a little more about them with the aid of twenty questions. Stepping up to the plate in this issue is Linder Myers’ IT manager, Kim Carmyllie, who should have been a doctor apparently…

Years in legal
19
First job in legal
Teaching secretaries how to use electric typewriters and the first word processors. They taught me document layout, I introduced them to the joys of not having to completely retype a document because their boss had changed one word.
First computer you ever used
HP-85 – It was my Dad’s and I used to play the skiing game on a 3 inch square green display
Current role
- IT Manager – Linder Myers, Manchester
- Overall responsibility for anything with a plug!
- Chief baker of chocolate brownies
Notable achievements in role
Proposing we use Citrix within 3 weeks of starting the job. It was a significant unplanned spend, but it’s a huge success and means our fee earners can work anywhere in the world, access their email and time record (and they do!)
Current challenges of role
Trying to get it all done well and quickly ready for the next one despite the best efforts of suppliers. Combined with motivating suppliers to provide accurate information quickly and then getting them to wait for partnership approval.
Has your work impacted on your practice overall
In the last 14 months we have revolutionised the IT, introducing new technology that has enabled the firm to be more flexible and grow with ease. As a result we can work more efficiently, introduce new applications easily and target resource effectively.
The hardest thing you’ve ever had to do at work
Not at work, but at university in a pass/fail exam that would determine if I got to follow my chosen career, explain to an eminent professor that effectively I knew nothing about his subject (pathology) or jam making (no, I never understood that one either!). Needless to say I failed!
One thing you’d most like to change about the legal profession
The lawyers!
Anything you’d like to change about the IT profession
Getting users to understand that Microsoft write code that is bug ridden and we can’t fix it. Understand that not all technology is of benefit to the firm. The best in IT understand their employers’ business, empathise and try to work within its constraints and expectations. You don’t need to keep every old computer that has ever been, just in case!
Best piece of advice you’d offer someone entering the legal IT field
Understand that at the end of the day, it’s the Partners’ money you’re spending.
Most painful lesson learnt in business
Always smell interview candidates before offering them the job!
The next big thing to hit the legal IT sector
Document storage and archiving. As we move increasingly towards electronic files, more use of case management, scanning of incoming post, and disk storage prices continue to fall, the challenge will be to manage all of this, so that it’s accessible, manageable, can be backed up and restored within a sensible time frame.
Your favourite gadget
The Kenwood Chef in my kitchen.
Your favourite website
Google
What would you have been if you hadn’t gone into the law
An obstetrician or gynaecologist – honest – I spent 2 years training to be a doctor.
Favourite place to be when not at work
In a bar at the top of a snow capped mountain trying to work out if I’ve drunk enough Gluwein to brave the red run back down, but not too much that I won’t make it.
Three things you’d take to a desert island
The biggest Swiss army knife that has the thing to clean out horses hooves and a corkscrew; my husband; and a laptop with a GSM card and solar power.
Three words you’d use to describe yourself
According to others: short, loud & bossy.
According to me: optimistic, passionate, happy.
What you hope people will say about you when you log off at work for the last time
I dread to think. I just hope it’s polite!

Published on: 25-09-2006