Incisive Media has just posted video replays of some of the sessions at LegalTech New York 2009. It’s a great chance to catch up on some of the content presented there if you were not able to make it to the show.
The “LegalTech On Demand” clips are free following registration. Some are eligible for continuing legal education (CLE) credit.
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
While legal industry advisor David Baker thinks there are a lot of “heads down, get it done” efforts underway by law firms of all sizes, he sees some taking steps to take advantage of potential opportunities on the other side of the economic downturn.
We talked with Baker at LegalTech New York. He is the chairman and co-founder of Baker Robbins & Company, part of Thomson Reuters. Baker specializes in strategic technology planning for law firms and lawyers.
We interviewed him about the impact of the economy on technology spend, the fate of e-discovery vendors and also got his take on the attendance at LegalTech 2009:
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
Leo Lam, partner at Keker & Van Nest LLP in San Francisco, is a dedicated West Court Reporting Services user. “I’ve always relied on West Court Reporting Services for all deposition-related needs before, during and after every deposition – including sync’d video, remote access, realtime transcripts and customer service,” said Lam. “They’ve delivered flawlessly every time. West allows us to focus on our cases and our clients instead of logistics.”
West Court Reporting Services attributes its recent award to its consistent delivery of properly formatted output materials, the availability of professional project managers to handle all logistics for depositions taking place in multiple cities, and to a network of partners and Certified LiveNote Reporters who assist attorneys with LiveNote connections at depositions.
“We’re proud to receive this honor from our customers who consider the use of litigation technology and sophisticated court reporting services to be a key strategic advantage in a case,” said Clare Foley, senior director for West Court Reporting Services.
Posted by Angelique Schaffer, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
The host of LegalTech, Incisive Media, compiled video interviews from the show. They are interesting conversations with a variety of people about technology and the practice and business of law.
Two of the interviews feature connections to the legal businesses of Thomson Reuters:
Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News and the authority on all things LegalTech, spent some time with us catching up after her Tuesday panel, “What I Hate About Technology.”
Here are three things the panel hates (and loves) about technology:
Hates
Everyone thinks they’re an expert (which usually leads to someone who doesn’t want to listen)
It never works in the manner it’s supposed to work in order to get my stuff done
“I’ve never seen that problem before.”
Loves
Technology makes painful tasks painless
It saves time so I can focus my attention on things other than technology
I can connect from anywhere; it allows us to be better at our jobs and more efficient.
We’ve learned that technology is important, indeed. But in the context of the current economic state, Monica stresses the importance of a law firm’s adaptability. The latest issue of Law Technology News features several stories that offer advice to legal professionals on how to stay strong and adaptable in these tough times, including “Can Technology Thrive in a Bad Economy?”by Michelle Mahoney and George Rudoy; and “Five Tips for IT to Survive the Plunge” by Ross Kodner.
Monica outlines her compelling case for how law firms can and should ride out the storm in this video interview for WestBlog:
Posted by Angelique Schaffer, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
The people who come to LegalTech New York come for many reasons. For Matt DeVoll, vice president of ProLaw, part of Thomson Reuters, LegalTech is a place to connect with customers.
We talked with DeVoll about that, how he uses LegalTech and what he hears from customers, in this video interview:
DeVoll says LegalTech is a great conference for ProLaw because it tends to attract small and medium-sized law firms looking for what ProLaw offers for their practice.
ProLaw recently unveiled a new version, with a profiling feature which allows lawyers to establish a matter number to emails, attachments and documents in Word and Excel, among other things; it also offers outside counsel invoice tracking for corporate legal customers.
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
This is a guest post to WestBlog from Greg Bell, principal attorney editor at Thomson Reuters in Rochester, New York:
In the new era of e-discovery you need to think globally and act globally
The globalization of business, workplaces, finance and other areas of our lives has spread to all areas of legal practice. An emerging issue in discovery, and frankly in litigation itself, is the effect of this internationalization on litigation especially on the discovery process and discovery of electronically stored information (ESI) in litigation.
On Tuesday, the second day of LegalTech NewYork 2009, I checked out the panel, “Multilingual Madness: Globalization is Colliding with the Complexity of E-Discovery,” which explored this emerging issue in discovery and, especially, in the context of discovery of ESI.
The question is not whether you will have international issues in discovery during litigation in cases arising in your own jurisdiction – you will and it will happen more and more often – it has become more about how do you manage the complexity created by those differences? That’s evident, even when litigating a case that on its surface doesn’t involve another country. Continue reading ‘Electronically stored information in litigation’
From marketing to managing and more, CIOs in law firms need all the advice they can get right now. Though it was separate from the LegalTech curriculum, a CIO Forum also held at the New York Hilton drew key leaders from law firms anxious to learn practical information they could take back to their colleagues and firms.
Thomson Reuters sponsored a lunch session at the forum that provided useful information to the attendees regarding the current economic situation for law firms and advice for how to succeed.
Todd Hauschildt, vice president, Thomson Reuters, explained for us in this interview what he felt was accomplished in the luncheon:
As Todd said, Preston McKenzie, vice president, Client Development, Thomson Reuters, also participated in the CIO Forum. During his presentation, McKenzie told the session’s attendees that technology must remain a priority when business is challenging:
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
Every year when we come to LegalTech New York, we make it a point to meet up with Bob Ambrogi.
A blogger (LawSites, Legal Blog Watch, and Media Law) and award-winning podcaster (Lawyer2Lawyer) in the legal space, Ambrogi has a keen eye for the trends in legal technology. So, we talked with him about the increasing use of Twitter, blogs and podcasting which, Ambrogi says in this interview, could lead lawyers to get more involved in producing multimedia as an educational tool, especially video:
Attorney Nicole Black has a lot on her plate these days.
A lot. On the Web, and off.
For starters, she’s a practicing attorney for Fiandach & Fiandach in Rochester, New York. But, add to that her work on the book, Criminal Law in New York, published by West, a regular legal newspaper writing assignment called The Daily Record in Rochester and a side business that she’s just getting started to help teach lawyers about legal technology and how to use it in their practices.
Then, there’s her extremely active presence on Twitter (as @nikiblack).
So at LegalTech New York, we asked her about Twitter. Black admits it’s not for every law firm. But it can serve a purpose:
Black also told us her high-profile in legal circles on Twitter and the Web has led to people finding her when looking for legal help online.
As for blogging, Black says she initially started blogging to build up a body of writing work after taking a couple of years off from practicing law. That led to her involvement in the book she co-authors for West and her writing in The Daily Record.
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
Christian, who is based in the United Kingdom, also told us that LegalTech allows him to meet with dozens of vendors in a short amount of time and learn about their latest innovations. This year, given the effects of the economy, he says he’s also interested in what customers are telling vendors in terms of their buying patterns and how some customers may be focusing on getting more out of their existing systems rather than upgrading to new technolgies.
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
As past co-chair of LegalTech (2000-2007) and chair of the ABA Techshow (2000-2001) Andy Adkins of the Legal Technology Institute at the University of Florida has been at the forefront of innovations for how law firms use technology to practice law and manage their operations.
At LegalTech, we got a chance to talk with Adkins about the trends in legal technology that’s he’s been following and found out he’s about to publish a book on case management titled The Lawyer’s Guide to Computerized Practice Management Systems, due out in April.
Adkins says there’s confusion in law firms over the definition of case management versus matter, or practice management:
Adkins told us he spends most of his time at LegalTech in the exhibit areas, talking with vendors and developers that he knows from seeing them year after year. “Everything changes so fast,” Adkins says. “It’s not only the technologies but how people are using them.”
As a legal technology consultant, Adkins has worked with more than 350 law firms, law departments, law schools, courts and companies in the last 15 years. He’s also published two books, several newsletters, national studies, and more than 100 articles on legal technology, including his 2008 essay titled “Techno Retro: What I’ve Learned in the last 20 Years” (PDF).
Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters
This blog, discontinued and moved to LegalCurrent.com in May 2009, presented commentary and information about the practice and business of law, and the products and services of the legal businesses of Thomson Reuters.