Sonja Swansborough
Director Know-HowAbout Sonja
Sonja has over 25 years' experience in KM and client service innovation—primarily in the legal industry. She specialises in KM frameworks and transformation programs, as well as the methodologies for investigating solutions, running proofs of concept and the deployment of platforms, which create value for our clients and the firm.
What she does
Sonja is responsible for ensuring that KM is embedded into the firm's processes and activities. She oversees the management of solutions and services that enable effective harnessing, sharing and management of our knowledge.
Sonja has also facilitated multiple process improvement exercises across our legal teams and numerous workshops with clients, to pinpoint problems and opportunities to work smarter. She has extensive experience in designing and deploying automation tools (including advanced document automation, knowledge capture and extraction ML) and web-enabled platforms for the firm and our clients.
Sonja is also a founding member of our Transformation Working Group and led the firm's involvement in the Legal Design and Innovation Project, which is a research partnership with the University of Newcastle aiming to connect students, academics, and the legal industry with the needs of people who interface with the legal system, using human centred design practices. Sonja has presented at the Legal Design Course run by the university and judges the student pitches.
Who she works with
Sonja works with the firm's clients, management team, partners, lawyers and shared services teams. She is passionate about working with the internal network of embedded legal KM champions to deliver business value and the highest quality service for our clients.
Qualifications
Sonja has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Information & Computer Studies from the University of Technology, Sydney. She is also certified in Legal Project Management from the LPM Institute.
Life before Sparkes
Before joining Sparke Helmore, Sonja held knowledge and information management positions at a number of legal firms. Most recently, she worked as part of the Know-How Innovations team at Minter Ellison, tasked with delivering knowledge solutions and driving the adoption of techniques to achieve productivity gains, quality and risk mitigation and client intimacy.
Life outside of Sparkes
Sonja adores being outdoors and is happiest when she's spending time with family and friends, exploring the Southern Highlands.