By Donald R. Barthel, Esq., Founding Partner, Bradford & Barthel, LLP

[InsideLegal Editors Note: Getting IT and Legal to not only 'play nice' but, god forbid, collaborate to meet collective goals and needs is the topic du jour at many of the legal technology confereces we attend. Getting 'buy-in' from someone like our guest-blogger (who is a Founding Partner of a 200+ person firm with 12 offices) is a major mission of legal IT & KM leadership. Understanding the partner perspective and, in this case, desire for straighttalk provide a solid start.]

As a co-founder of a fast-growing law firm, I’m comfortable with the “learn by doing” approach to life. Nevertheless, with nothing other than degrees in psych and poli sci, a JD and no (nada, zilch, zip, less-than-zero) formal training in computer science, technology and other “geeky” stuff, it was with more than a little trepidation that I flew from California to Manhattan to attend LEGALTECH’s “Most Important Legal Technology Event of the Year”.

Do I really know the difference between my SaaS and hole in the ground? Heck no! I’m potentially a fish out of water…but with a twist. From the presentations (and small talk) I’ve heard (and overheard), I’m reminded by some of the best presenters I’ve seen here that it is Baby Boomer Equity Partners who are exactly the “fish” (“prospects”, “internal customers”) that IT/KM must convert to ensure continued funding!

This was brought into focus particularly well at the “Leveraging Technology for Better Firm Efficiencies” session on day one of the show. Panelists Tom Baldwin (CKO, Reed Smith), Rachelle Rennagel (CKO, Sheppard Mullin), Meredith Williams (Director of KM, Baker Donelson) and George Rudoy (former Director of Global Practice Technology & IS, Shearman & Sterling ) all contribute to an essential take-away:

                      Equities need IT/KM’s help …

                      … a great deal of help…

                      … a great deal of choreographed help!

Yes, consider role-playing before presenting to us. Yes, keep it short (we probably need to be “somewhere else in 15 minutes” and, if we don’t, we’d better make sure everyone thinks we do!). Yes, throw-out the PowerPoint, probably the most overused and poorly used “speech aid”/crutch in the last hundred years…Disagree? I’ll bet you a buck King George VI would have been more comfortable speaking with a PowerPoint too, but I’ll bet you $10 that his audiences would still be assaulted by his stammerings.

Want to get your Equities on board? Don’t riddle us with jargon and do not (GASP!) ask us what we want (REALLY!). Why not? We don’t know and that ain’t our style. We’re lawyers. (How comfortable would you be with your attorney if he/she asked you how you wanted to proceed without outlining your options and the relative pros and cons? More to the point, most of us have no idea of the current tech options, let alone the predictions for 1, 5 and 10 years down the road. Please do the same for us (excepting the case law…case studies will do!). Tell us what your proposals can do and underscore the (a) efficiencies, (b) bottom line savings, (c) security issues, etc. Use small words (really!), don’t use acronyms (really, really)…and you will win us over…even if we don’t know our SaaS from a Saab from a …