Allen is a sports fanatic, who has yet to come to terms with the fact that he is soon eligible for Masters football, despite Gene's constant reminders. He loves to travel and enjoys touring the country with his wife, Lucy, who is a professional photographer. He also can't stop laughing at the amount of hair his baby boy, Hugo, has.. Allen joined Gene at LawHawk in November 2016.. Prior to that, he worked at Barclays in London for 4 years, managing the team responsible for negotiating derivatives documentation with clients with hedging requirements. In addition to his “day job”, he consistently found ways to improve the bank’s processes. He was instrumental to various technology solutions relating to derivatives documents, including document automation initiatives.. Prior to Barclays, he worked with Gene at Buddle Findlay for 4 years in the banking and finance team, working on many of the same transactions as Gene. That’s where he first saw the real benefits that document automation brings, providing feedback on the automation that Gene was exploring there. He enjoyed working in both the Wellington and Auckland offices of Buddle Findlay, and got his taste for working in-house at leading banks from his secondments to BNZ and Kiwibank.. Here are a couple of pieces from Allen, that go into a little more detail about his story so far: (i) Allen wrote this blog when he first joined LawHawk, which explains his reasons for leaving a big bank in London to work for a little legal tech start-up in Wellington; and (ii) Allen wrote this article in June 2018, for Legalwise Seminars, where he discusses what lawyers should think about, before they switch away from the law.
