WillSuite's Head of Growth - Tom Stansfield recently gave a presentation to some second year Law Students at the University of Lincoln, where he himself studied Law and Business. Following the presentation, Tom set out to see how we might be able to support more of the students (the lawyers of tomorrow) with insight on the estate planning profession. As part of this initiative Tom has been in communication with a number of students to discuss their studies, their future plans and has provided work experience placements in conjunction with the lecturers and course leaders for the benefit of the students. Yesterday, WillSuite was joined by Kevone Morris (a first year law student) who, after achieving the highest grade in a Law of Business assignment, earned a placement with the team here in Nottingham. Whilst succession law is not a first year subject, Kevone spent the day with our team understanding more about the profession, the landscape and about our role as a software provider. As part of the introduction, we asked Kevone to make a Will on our software to assess how easy he found it and he's shared his thoughts in this article:

Prior to your placement, how would you describe your estate planning and succession law knowledge?

Before joining the WillSuite on this placement my knowledge of the Estate Planning sector was extremely limited. Most, if not all, of my knowledge derived from media or the news. I'd not given estate planning too much thought but had seen the topic on soaps such as EastEnders, and it is therefore fair to say that I lacked any knowledge before commencing the placement.

How did you find using the software as a novice?

It was interesting to understand what the process of drafting a Will looked like. Seeing how the system worked, I can see why lots of firms are moving from traditional drafting techniques from templates to use software like WillSuite. I was purposely not given an intro to the system to see where I became unstuck. I quickly found the 'help videos' and was quickly drafting a Will. One of the things that stood out to me was the use of plain English and it struck me that the client would have very little problem understanding the documents created. I liked that documents were being produced as I answered questions in the questionnaire (real-time) and that I could see the progress being made. In truth, because I don't yet have an in-depth knowledge of succession law, I only made a relatively simple Will with both monetary gifts and specific gifts but could the capability to do trust planning. I will certainly be looking into this prior to my second placement with the team to further expand on this.

What did you think of the software as a whole?

During my research on the software I could see that the system was capable of more than just writing Wills and during the course of the day I sat with Tom on a support call where he helped a client with setting up and automating client communication. I found this incredibly interesting to see what the client's journey would look like with the firm. Overall I was very impressed and enjoyed my experience with the team.

Was there anything you felt we could do better?

I genuinely don't think so. I can see that your business is a software business and it looks like you provide a full package. I really like the look of the Love Legal client facing software and would like to see the process you take to create these tailored and branded systems for firms when I come back.

Anything else you wanted to add?

Just to say thanks for the warm welcome, for taking the time to explain what you do and to give me insight which will help me on my legal journey. Your team were really friendly and I could see real passion and enthusiasm for what you do. I would also add that I really enjoyed being present on the marketing call and to hear how the support you provide extends beyond software to help these legal firms grow. Thank you.