“What we love about this year’s entries is the amount of collaboration between firms, their clients and other specialist law, professional service or technology organisations,” said Joanne Beckett (pictured), managing director of LexisNexis Australia.

“To see the industry set aside competition and work together for the benefit of the client is very innovative for this sector and a sign that the ‘age of the client’ has come to the fore in Australia.”

Janders Dean director Justin North added that innovation is spreading beyond just NewLaw firms.

“The Legal Innovation Index continues to blow us away each year with the wide range of creativity and design emanating from all areas,” he said.

“While we expect that from NewLaw firms, this year’s in-house counsel, the top end of town and academia have really stepped up to the plate and are delivering some fantastic thinking. Australia should be very proud of how it is not only handling change in legal practice but smashing it out of the ballpark.”

The winning organisations that received a place in the 2016 Legal Innovation Index are Allens for its Allens Arrow service, Corrs Chambers Westgarth for its Corrs Collaborate platform, Gilbert + Tobin for its coding efforts and partnership with LegalVision, Herbert Smith Freehills for its ‘Re-Imagine Legal’ approach, Pinsent Masons for its Cerico platform and the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) for its ServiceNow workflow system.

The 2016 winning individuals are QUT faculty of law Professor Des Butler, Divorce Right founder Anne-Marie Cade, Law institute of Victoria president Katie Miller, Clayton Utz partners Claire Smith and Shae McCartney, UNSW Law senior lecturer Amelia Thorpe, The Fold Legal managing director Claire Wivell Plater and Law Squared founder Demetrio Zema.