Legal profession braces for new era
The holder of the world record for the fastest sending of calendar invites at scale is set to become a lawyer in a move that experts believe could have a radical effect on the legal profession.
Jemina Gilbert once sent out over 6,000 calendar invites in under 1:30 hours, a move that put so much strain on Microsoft’s servers that lights flickered intensely for 15 minutes in over 5 million homes in Illinois, home to the tech giant’s main data centre.
Amazed colleagues at Legal Cheek, which runs the large virtual fairs that the calendar invites were for, say the task would have easily taken them “an entire afternoon”
Gilbert is now set for a change of direction. She will be shortly embarking on a training contract at the Leeds office of top national law firm Bevan Brittan, where, as is the norm in the legal profession, she will be required to charge by the hour.
While publicly the BB bigwigs have been welcoming of Gilbert, holding her up as a symbol of modernity and efficiency, privately there have been murmurings about what her recruitment could mean.
“We can’t have Jemina knocking out tasks that should take all afternoon in under two hours. It will cost us a fortune,” said a source that doesn’t wish to be named.
Help could be at hand, though. A petition signed by residents of Springfield, Illinois, the town worst hit by the light flickering, is calling for Microsoft and other big tech companies to place an activity limit on accounts associated with Gilbert.
“It’s disappointing it’s come to this,” said Gilbert, “but I obviously do understand the position of the people of Illinois.”