Remote working and supervision
Juno is a fully remote conveyancing firm.
Sometimes people ask how we combine remote work with effective supervision and career development, especially for people who are early in their legal careers, and how we keep people in touch with each other if they’re all working remotely.
First, every team has a daily check-in to discuss their live cases on a group video call, with a steady stream of contact throughout the day, so anyone can ask for help and get an answer right away.
Second, our in-house case management system ensures that each person’s day-to-day work allocation only includes things we’re confident they can do. There are built-in mechanisms to escalate work as needed, and request and receive feedback on work as it’s done.
Most importantly, everyone has regular 1-1s with their team lead, with qualitative and quantitative feedback on what’s going well and how they can improve over time, augmented with personalised training to help them expand their capabilities and progress internally.
Management requires specific leadership skills
Some people are amazing at managing teams, and some people are brilliant as individual contributors. But knowing more than other people about conveyancing law doesn’t automatically mean you’re the right person to lead a team.
In a traditional law firm, you’ll often find that managers are selected simply based on their qualifications and length of service. We think that’s unfair on everyone, from the people being asked to do something outside of their skillset, to the people whose managers are not up to the task.
That’s why we have a parallel process for management - we call it team leadership - and recognition of professional skills and qualifications. Some of our legal team leads are qualified lawyers, and others are experienced conveyancers.
All of them worked at Juno as individual contributors, then as deputy team leads, and then as team leads. And people move in and out of leadership roles too, depending on the needs of the firm and their own personal circumstances.
Team leads still do some “individual contributor” work each week, but their main role is to help each member of their team to do their best work, improve their knowledge and effectiveness, and provide support and accountability to everyone in the team.
