Steve Casey
Title: Head of training and international
Department: Information systems
Location: London
Having worked for Allen and Overy as customer services manager for five years I joined Herbert smith in October 1998 to take up a role that would focus me on the challenges of working with offices and people outside of the UK, unbeknown to me at the time for the next 10 years...
When I joined, Herbert Smith had just four international offices. We now have 11, and I have been heavily involved in the set-up/relocation and ongoing support and training of each of them.
Working internationally is fundamental to my role. Having dedicated teams providing IS support in most offices, there is tremendous satisfaction from planting the seeds then watching IS teams working together across countries and time zones to achieve the same goals.
One of the most challenging aspects of my role so far was the set-up of the Dubai office in 2006, our first in the UAE. Working to extremely tight timescales, it stretched IS teams and resources both technically and culturally but was enormously rewarding to see legal staff working on IT systems we worked so hard to implement on time.
From my point of view Herbert Smith is widely respected within the industry for the legal services it provides worldwide. It is great to be in a situation where providing reliable IT systems can contribute in a big way to that perception. The "global" team atmosphere within ISD contributes in no small way to achieving this. Regular feedback from Partners and staff helps to boost morale within the department, so there is a real sense of pride in what we do .
Staff within ISD have a real determination to do a great job and there is a real "can do" attitude to find solutions to problems.
Spending the majority of my career in an IT environment, it has been amazing to learn about different cultures and how to manage and develop staff outside of London. It has given me a rich knowledge of how to deal with particular situations in a variety of locations. These are "life" skills that can be used both inside and outside the work environment.