Sara Wilson is Foot Anstey’s Executive Director of IT, having joined the firm in April 2024. In this Q&A, she discusses how the skillset of a modern IT leader is changing, alongside future technology challenges and driving transformation at scale.
You have moved back into the legal sector after a number of years working in other areas. How useful is having experience outside of legal?
While law firms obviously have challenges that are specific to the legal sector or professional services, the technology challenge in legal is like any other regulated business. I came to this role from financial services where the regulatory landscape is evolving to deal with the complex needs and expectations of clients, and it’s no different in a law firm.
Clients everywhere expect a responsive, high-quality service at a competitive price, and – like any other business – we must respond to this by offering creative and new solutions. For me, the only way we can do that at scale is through a reliance on technology.
Just as importantly, it’s about understanding your people. And people challenges are the same wherever you go, whether its financial services, legal or a digital organisation.
What was your remit on taking on the role?
Foot Anstey has a very ambitious strategy led by our Managing Partner Martin Hirst, which will see the firm grow and develop on a greater scale than ever before. As a technology team, we need to make sure we are in the best place to support the firm in this strategy.
My remit covers the whole of our digital, data and technology team. That includes our Digital Adoption team, which is about ensuring our users are adopting and maximising the investment the firm has made in technology. Our Software and Data Engineering team, which we have built out substantially to deliver our client relationship and matter management system, built on the MS Dynamics 365 platform. Then, we have the Technology Services team which includes cyber security.
My focus has been on understanding how we position ourselves as a team to best support the business and to meet the expectations of our new strategy. As the firm grows, it expects a quality service that will scale.
To achieve this, I needed to look at how we’re structured, the existing skillsets in the team, the processes we have in place, and the suppliers and partnerships we use. There is a lot of change coming down the track, so I’m focused on getting the basics right to build a firm foundation for that change.
What attracted you to this role and Foot Anstey?
I worked in legal 12 years ago and was interested in coming back to the sector.
I got to know Foot Anstey as a firm and am really excited by the vision Martin has for us. It feels like we’re on a journey that I can be part of from early on to shape the team and make a real difference to how IT is delivered.
How do you take people with you on that transformation journey?
In this role, I’ve been very deliberate about how I’ve gone about it. I’ve identified the key stakeholders across the firm that I needed to speak to – fee earners, group leaders, partners, legal support assistants and more. Foot Anstey has a fantastic onboarding process, and everybody who joins has their first two weeks booked with meetings with key stakeholders depending on their role.
I also made sure I spent time on an individual basis with everybody in my team. I wanted to understand what the key issues were from their perspectives and where their priorities lay.
After looking at people, processes, technology, data and suppliers, I created a plan, so I knew where to prioritise my time. I’ve learned over my career that it’s important to use the first few weeks to do your factfinding and listening to people before your diary becomes slammed. When you listen and talk to a variety of people, you can identify common themes that need focus. That’s helped me form the basis of what I want to do over the next 12 months.
Has the skillset of a CTO changed?
Most importantly, I think it’s about delivering a service culture. The modern IT function needs to understand the business, understand what clients want and know that they are a key part of delivering that. There is a golden thread between what we do as a team, the actions we take and the end result for the client – it’s vital we see that thread going through everything we do.
Secondly, technology now covers a wide range of disciplines. It’s more complex than before and you can’t be an expert in everything. That means that technology leadership is more about building strong teams with the right technical skills, being able to create and execute strategy, and aligning service provision with the needs of the business. It’s a much wider skillset than before.
The need to deal with an ever-increasing pace of change has also become fundamental.
What are the main technology challenges your firm is facing?
Everyone is talking about AI. The challenge is understanding how and when to use it, and when not to. People feel like they need to use it without necessarily understanding what they are using it for. Clients are starting to ask more questions about it as well.
The issues keeping me up at night are cyber and information security. There are increasingly sophisticated means of attack, and the level of risk is growing. We need to understand this risk and have the tools in place to mitigate that.
What advice do you have for someone taking on a technology leadership role?
Use the time you have at the beginning to listen and understand the business – you won’t get that time again. Look for common themes when talking to stakeholders – there can be some quick wins in here that you can pick off. Build them into your plan.
Finally, don’t feel like you must have all the answers. There are people who are better placed to provide those answers than I am – but my job is to know who they are and to ask the right questions.