Make More Rain : blog, legaltech 2008

LegalTech 2008 Wrap Up

Admin — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:11:54 GMT

Wrapping up the first major law-related technology show of the year (and my first live blogging event), I have taken some good and bad things with me.

The good:

It's always good to stay in touch with the trends each vendor is promoting. Based on the sessions, I think vendors may have been more reactive than trailblazing - or it could have been that the vendors that were more relevant to the topics in the sessions were prominent. Either way, I think the tone is set for a year of vendors promoting themselves as having the best E-Discovery solution.
If you are an attorney who wants to knock out CLE credits as well as get your head spinning around the hundreds of technology solutions available to meet nearly any need your firm could require, this ain't a bad place to be.
Live blogging is possible in a large tech show with the right amount of focus and determination and hopefully gives readers some value for the toil.
This show is a great place to network if you are any way affiliated with the legal profession.

The bad:

Live blogging without consistent internet connectivity is difficult. I spent my time in sessions sitting with my laptop writing the blog entries in Windows Live Writer (my current experimental desktop blogging tool), then doing a mass post when I got back to the suite where I had reliable wireless access. This is a challenge I can't believe will be remedied without more demand for live blogging and will be dictated by the luck of whether there is good wireless access at the location of the show.
There was precious little focus on financial management in the show (qualification - I am biased). One session on firm profitability (hosted by Thomson West) but that was it. On the other hand, there were 6 sessions with the word E-Discovery in the title alone! I think some wanted to make sure we understood the theme of the show - the beast in the jungle was no ordinary gorilla - it was the many faces of e-discovery.

I hope my fractured writing wasn't too much of an irritant. Please feel free to give me feedback on what you liked, disliked, or would like to see me focus more on in the future.

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LegalTech 2008 Day Three - Traffic Eases

Admin — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:56:10 GMT

Traffic is much lower this morning. Mostly consultants and other vendors running around the exhibit hall.

I asked some of those walking through about the e-discovery choices they are seeing - it seems that different vendors tackle different things under the banner of "E-Discovery". For some it is as limited as getting headers from a Lotus Notes email so you can track the origination of the email thread.

It is apparent that vendors are trying to find the right formula for selling e-discovery tools to lawyers. And at LegalTech, you will have lots from which to choose.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®. For information about Juris products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.

Rick Borstein (Adobe Systems) Podcast

Admin — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:48:39 GMT

Rick Borstein is a Business Development Manager specializing in the Legal Market for Adobe Systems Incorporated. Rick is a veteran of 20 years in the software business, the last fourteen with Adobe. During his tenure at Adobe, Rick has had broad exposure to all of Adobe's products including intelligent documents, digital imaging, publishing and digital video.

Rick is an Adobe Certified Expert in Acrobat and a member of the American Bar Association and International Legal Technology Association. Over the years, Rick has presented hundreds of talks targeted to the legal industry.

He has been a featured speaker at the American Bar Association’s annual Techshow, LegalTech East, LegalTech West, the National Solo and Small Firm Conference, International Legal Technology Association Conference and a variety of state and local bar conferences including the California Bar Association Conference, Missouri State Bar Solo and Small Firm Conference and many others.

Rick’s AcroLaw Blog is a popular destination for those interested in the legal application of Adobe Acrobat. The blog may be found at http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw and contains more than sixty illustrated how-to articles. Rick has contributed articles to Legal Technology News and various legal-focused websites.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, Adobe Systems Incorporated is a $3B, Fortune 500 company with over 6000 employees. The company's popular Adobe Reader software is installed on over half a billion PCs around the world.

To listen to the podcast, click on the player or download link below.

Firm Profitability - Best Industry Practices

Admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:33:43 GMT

Sat in on Thomson West's presentation on Firm Profitability. The attendance was relatively light, which from the perspective of someone who writes a blog on financial management was disappointing. It was later in the day so it may have been a bad time to talk money.

The panelists discussed the importance of leverage to profitability, except one noted that clients demand the most skilled to run the trials which typically fall to the equity shareholders.

They talked about the use of client satisfaction surveys as a way to ensure clients were happy with their work.

When it came to how they determined profitability, the discussion immediately went to cost allocation. There were some interesting ways the panelists allocated costs to timekeepers in their firms, but it came down to allocating the direct and indirect costs and determining a cost per hour from which to compare to the timekeeper rate. One panelist went into detail, explaining the 150 line items tracked per timekeeper to determine costs. Another panelist didn't track timekeeper cost at all (part of a smaller firm) but rather determined profitability on a matter-by-matter basis.

The panelists also talked about FTE analysis - (full time equivalency) - One uses historical average to project into future, another tracked in two ways: if the timekeeper was only there for part of the year, they credited for length of service. For part timers, they allocated for the entire year since the office, secretary and liability insurance among other costs remain throughout the year even though when the part timer isn't there.

I sat in for about 30 minutes, which was longer than the other ones today, but I couldn't sit any longer. I am not a big fan of the panel discussion for a CLE track. It isn't focused enough and goes in many directions, sometimes leaving the audience confused (could have just been me - it is hard for me to sit still too long).

No surprises in this discussion - except I would have focused more on the metrics to increase profitability - which they might have done in another format.

Relationship building between inside and outside counsel

Admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:17:38 GMT

Came in during panel discussion. Sparsely attended (at least at this point).

Talked about selection, expectations, financial considerations, technology, enterprise content management and metrics.

Regarding metrics, in-house corporate counsel are looking at many factors when choosing and retaining outside counsel. Price is obviously a large concern, but it isn't primary. Track record, efficiency and personality are other factors that are considered and, in the panel's opinion, should be tracked.

One interesting thing that was discussed by the panel - they like to find out the method by which a law firm compensates people internally. How is your firm ensuring collaborative effort? Do you get the same level of service with those who are delegated work as the ones who you were sold on to do the work?

Across the board, "you get what you pay for" - if you have to re-do things over and over because of bad service, it isn't worth it. One of the panelists admitted that he would be willing to pay extra if he is confident that the work will be done right the first time. Apparently bitten many times by poor work product.

E-Discovery Litigation Readiness

Admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:02:32 GMT

I think I have found the predominant theme this year: E-Discovery. From what people tell me, this was a focus last year at LegalTech as well. I sat in on a E-discovery session hosted by Kroll. It was well attended.

I came in late - they were talking about IM programs. If you are looking at getting IM logs, don't just look at the server logs. Make sure to look at the local machine, which also logs instant messages.

Identifying and preserving voicemail: in the past you had to use stand alone recorder to record voice mails. Now with the unified messaging systems it is easy to have them made into wav files for preserving them. However, not easy to search these files. Tools exist to do it, but they didn't go into any of them.

Talked with one of the LexisNexis reps regarding LAW Prediscovery tools that can help search things like wav files, and he showed me how easy it can be to search for things either by extension, filter by selection, or just a regular search. So there are tools out there that can search for any electronic discovery, you just need to look at the ones that will work for your firm.

LegalTech Day 2: Interview with Adobe's Rick Borstein

Admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:04:05 GMT

Just finished interviewing Rick Borstein, Business Development Manager with Adobe. He specializes in legal markets and took some time to discuss ways to use Adobe Acrobat that attorneys may not currently utilize. I recorded it and hope to have it posted later this afternoon.

Yet Another Reason Attorneys Should Encrypt Email

Admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:00:20 GMT

Last Friday I wrote about the dangers of sending sensitive emails to clients unencrypted. Please read the comments Tom Mighell wrote - he made some very good points.

Today I read that sensitive settlement negotiations were discovered after a lawyer mistakenly emailed sensitive documents to a New York Times reporter rather than co-counsel.

What would have happened had the lawyer sent this email encrypted? It wouldn't have sent at all, since the encryption software wouldn't have recognized the recipient as having an encrypted key and would have thrown a warning to the sender. The sender would then know to place the correct recipient in the email.

Of course, there is a concern that you could send an encrypted email to the wrong party who is also set up to decrypt emails from you. This is a good reason to not set up encryption with everyone but rather just with those you expect to share privileged sensitive information.

The way around sending email to the wrong person, assuming you use Microsoft Outlook, is to turn off the feature "suggest names while completing to, cc, and bcc fields" in the advanced options of email options (under tools>>options).

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®. For information about Juris products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.

LegalTech Day 1 Wrap

Admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 03:00:10 GMT

Lots of vendors, lots of people. The show is targeted to litigation attorneys, and within that, mostly defense litigators. I did talk to a few who were corporate counsel and there may have been tracks that attracted those in transactional practice, but I didn't see it.

It won't be until tomorrow afternoon til we'll see the first session on financial management. You can bet I will be attending the session "Firm Profitability: Best Industry Practices".

I wish I had more insight on today's events, but there wasn't really much about which to write from my perspective. I think it may have to do with my placement (standing in a booth for most of the day didn't help) so tomorrow I will plan better to get around and see more sessions.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®. For information about Juris products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.

LegalTech not just for attorneys

Admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:30:58 GMT

I noticed while working the booth today that I was seeing as many paralegals, administrators and consultants as I saw attorneys. And, in comparison to the ABA Techshow where I see the staff leading the attorneys around, here I see lots of them going solo through the aisles.

I went to the ALM booth and talked to Jill Windwer and asked her about it. She advised that ALM allows firms to bring anyone from their office to LegalTech. This lets those who aren't attorneys enjoy the freebies in the exhibit hall while attorneys get CLE credit at the sessions.

Tomorrow I will learn from today's experience: I am going to more sessions and bringing my laptop.

Early Case Assessment Can Save Clients Money

Admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 22:06:12 GMT

Sat in on one of LexisNexis' sponsored presentations related to case assessment. Only there a few minutes but discussed tools that can help track costs of litigation so you can better assess the costs early and relate it to the client to help them know what it will take to litigate their matter. From an attorney's standpoint, giving accurate information regarding the potential costs to the client related to their litigation will help the client make an informed business decision whether and when to settle.

It was also noted how using pdfs to help organize scanned documents by attaching all documents into one large document that can be used to search certain words or documents. I may have to bring this up tomorrow when interviewing Adobe's Rick Borstein.

IT Session: PDA use in Disaster Recovery

Admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 22:00:08 GMT

Sat in a moment in the IT track. A presentation was in progress discussing the importance of utilizing existing tools when disaster strikes your business. Tools are available that can help track where staff are, where your files are, and where important client information is. All available via PDA.

As with most things I will write about this week, I'll have to expand on it more later.

New pics up

Admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:57:28 GMT

I've posted some pics from this morning - traffic is brisk, if not overwhelming.

See them by clicking here.

LegalTech 2008 - Day 1

Admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:53:45 GMT

Don't tell me that gorilla doesn't look ready to pounce -

Attendees leisurely going down the hall

What was boxes yesterday is now a mass of people -

LexisNexis booths

Don't gamble on your technology

Thomson West's safari getting attention

Not sure what the doctor theme was about -

An inquisitive look

15 Minutes

Admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:48:05 GMT

In 15 minutes, LegalTech officially starts. I have a sneaking suspicion I won't have time to do much until this afternoon. However, I have some things to write about already so expect the pace to quicken later.