Green Legal Matters Conference Announced

Posted on March 3, 2010 by InsideLegal

GreenLegalMatters Monty Lunn of The Alchemy Group has announced the Green Legal Matters Conference, the first ever Green Legal symposium, to be held in New Orleans on April 26-28th, 2010.  This conference will be the first of its kind, offering professionals from both the legal and green industries the opportunity to participate in an environment where critical concepts of the intersections of green and legal will be addressed. 

“There is no other conference like this today, where professionals from many disciplines can gather and discuss the timely issues that the ‘Greening of America’ creates, and the opportunities and pitfalls that accompany it,” says Monty Lunn, entrepreneur and brains behind the conference.  The primary purpose of the conference is to bring together the best and brightest legal minds who are interested in being involved with the opportunities presented by the green movement.

Green Legal Matters will include keynote speakers and panelists who are thought leaders in green, legal and industry, including Susan Dorn, General Counsel of the  U.S. Green Building Council; Paul Lippe, CEO, Legal Onramp and Roberta Lang, General Counsel and Global Vice President of Legal Affairs, of Whole Foods. Other notables include former Secretary of the Louisiana Mineral Board Marjorie A. McKeithen, former Kraft Foods Chief Counsel Theodore L. Banks and Kurt Stepaniak, Senior Vice President, Law & Acquisitions, of Kone Inc. Cisco, Method Products and DuPont will also be represented.

Attendees will learn about mitigating environmental risk, compliance with EPA, DOJ, OSHA and regulatory bodies, green building architecture, and how to build a green legal practice.  Conference topics will range from LEEDigation, to GreenWashing and Green Remediation, to Green Product labeling and Working Smarter with Green. The conference will also include CLE credits, an opportunity to donate time via the Make It Right Foundation, and LEED® pre-certification courses.

To Register

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“In Their Own Words” Legal Thought Leaders Spotlight: Jim Calloway

Posted on February 22, 2010 by InsideLegal

JimCallowayWho are you?  Who are you with?  What is your role?

Jim Calloway. I’m the director of the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program. I am a practice management advisor, which is a label used by those who provide management and technology advice to lawyers who are members of our organizations. Most PMA’s work for bar associations as full-time employees.

What is your firms’ specialty/niche?  

Some of your readers may not be aware that there are two types of state bar associations: the unified and the voluntary. Unified means the bar is both the lead organization of lawyers in the state and the discipline and regulatory body for lawyers, which is the type of state bar Oklahoma is. A voluntary bar means there is a separate licensing and regulatory body.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the legal technology industry now and in the upcoming year?

It is hard to pick the biggest challenge as there are so many. Courts and counsel still have to figure out how to accomplish electronic discovery in a fair and-cost effective manner. Cloud computing holds a lot of promise for the future, particularly for small firm lawyers, but the technology has to be virtually perfect to be accepted. Also we need a better framework of substantive law and legal ethics opinions to allow for wide-spread adoption of cloud computing. What happens if a cloud vendor goes bankrupt and the trustee wants to sell the data as an asset, to cite just one example. 

How can the legal vendor community work with you best?

Legal vendors have traditionally worked with bar associations in many ways. Practice management advisors appreciate review copies of software so we can be familiar with many products so we can better serve our members. We also like to have a vendor contact who knows us. Sometimes I have found myself mediating problems between a vendor and a lawyer. This can be good for both parties.

What advice would you have for legal vendors trying to compete in this crowded marketplace? 

First, I’d suggest they take a lesson from YouTube and other video-sharing sites. A complete, free package of short training videos should be available online. It is hard to get lawyers to sit for hours or days of software training. If they could easily find a five minute video to demonstrate how to do one task whenever they want to learn that function, it could give your product a huge edge in the marketplace. Secondly, we hear a lot about the need for transparency in government and vendors need more transparency as well. Playing “hide the price” on your website so potential customers have to talk to a salesperson to get information is an antiquated practice. If your pricing model is so complex that it cannot be explained in a few words, then you need a Twenty-First Century model. Vendors already know the other challenges. Time-challenged lawyers want on-demand 7-24 service. Mobile apps are revolutionizing the way people use the Internet. Upgrades that are either too frequent or not frequent enough can cause end user frustration. Security concerns are paramount. If a law firm’s client data is compromised via your product, you could be out of business next year.

What associations are you active in?

The American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section and GP/SOLO Division. The Association of Legal Administrators. The College of Law Practice Management. The National Association of Bar Executives. The Practice Management Advisors of North America.

What online resource (website, blog, etc.) is most useful to you (i.e., you use it everyday)? 

Google is still my daily “go to” site. If you can construct a strong query you can find most any kind of information. I get great tips and links via Twitter. I’m just starting to use Evernote, but is it clearly going to be an MVP for me.  And I must mention the PMA pipe, a compilation of the RSS feeds from many of the practice management advisors.  Many bar associations are incorporating the PMA Pipe into their websites to provide frequently updated practice management tips.

What are you speaking about at ABA TECHSHOW?

I’m very excited to be doing a presentation called “The Traveling Lawyer.” From mobile phones to remote access to security on the road, this is a topic of great interest to many lawyers. I’m also doing a program on Alternative Billing. I was a co-author of the book from ABA, Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour (3rd ed.). There is a renewed interest in this subject and Alternative Fees Arrangements, as they are now called, are becoming more common. Clients are greatly interested in improved predictability of fees for legal services. I’m also doing a panel with Ross Kodner and Sharon Nelson with highlights from some of the new practice management books they/we have co-authored: The 2010 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide and How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times.

Info5 Jim Calloway
Director, Management Assistance Program, Oklahoma Bar Association
jimc@okbar.org
Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog   |   Twitter: @jimcalloway


Techshow2010color  Speaker Series Spotlight

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Has anyone tweeted about your company lately?

Posted on February 18, 2010 by InsideLegal

By now, hopefully you all have setup Google Alerts to monitor any online mentions of your company, products or competition.  Whether or not you have become active in the legal technology Twitter community, there is no excuse not to have Twitter mentions monitored as well.

Getting started with twitter searches on your product or brand are easy ways to dive in. There are many Twitter tools and utilities and we will be covering more in InsideLegal's upcoming Twitter Starter Guide, but for now, here are 2 ways to keep track of your brand.  They are both free and easy to use so no excuses! 

  • TweetBeep - Operates like Google Alerts for Twitter. You can setup a free account to monitor Twitter for any mentions of your company/product – even if you don't have a Twitter account.
  • Twitter Search – Searches Twitter posts just like Google searches websites.
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Join InsideLegal

Posted on February 16, 2010 by InsideLegal

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Join to Get InsideLegal Updates

Posted on February 12, 2010 by InsideLegal

Join InsideLegal and receive our legal technology industry news and thought leader spotlights for free as soon as they’re published. We won’t share your email address with anyone.

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Case, Matter & Practice Management System Software Study Released

Posted on February 12, 2010 by InsideLegal

The University of Florida Law’s Legal Technology Institute recently published the Case, Matter and Practice Management Software Study. The "Perfect Practice® – Legal Technology Institute Case, Matter, and Practice Management System Software Study" (“The CMS Study”) was originally developed to establish how case, matter, and practice management system software can further enhance legal services and to better understand current use and future trends of such technologies. The CMS Study, conducted in the fall of 2009, received 341 completed and qualified surveys (75 questions). The 320 page final report achieves a vital study goal of providing information to assist law firms and corporate legal departments in making better management software decisions. In addition, the study clarifies the terminology used by the industry and provides software designers with insight on how to improve the usability and efficiency of their case and practice management products. The "for purchase" report includes an abundance of intelligence pertaining to current technology environments; core applications; software market leaders; security concerns; cost concerns; future technology plans; decision drivers, and total cost of ownership. 

"Although case and matter management systems have been available to the legal industry for 30 years, there is still confusion about the differences between case, matter and practice management," said Andrew Z. Adkins III, founder and director of UF's Levin College of Law Legal Technology Institute. "This survey now helps set the standard for terms used by the industry." In addition to developing an industry glossary, Adkins said the survey results will benefit the legal profession and software companies alike. The findings will enable law firms and legal departments to compare software capabilities and costs, and will give software companies valuable information on user trends.”

CMS Study highlights include:

  • One-third of the survey respondents indicated they use a case, matter, or practice management system. This is an increase from 25% reported in the 2000 ASP Study, also published by LTI.
  • Transactional firms (32%) are just as likely to use a CMS as litigation firms (36%).
  • The most common reason provided for purchasing a CMS (70%) is “to become more efficient”.
  • Only 12% of respondents indicated they were “not satisfied with their current CMS”.
  • Respondents indicated the biggest problem with CMS is “integration into the firm or law department” (36%) and “total cost of a CMS” (30%).
  • More than half (55%) of respondents indicated that having document management system (DMS) functionality in a CMS was important; less than half of the respondents indicated that having full front office/back office functionality in a single system was important.
  • Less than one-third (28%) of respondents indicated that staff using the technology had significant input into the decision-making process.
  • Less than 20% of respondents indicated that CMSs are “too complex”.
  • The use of software as a service (SaaS) platforms has increased slightly over 10 years from 9% (reported in LTI’s 2000 ASP Study) to 14%.
  • There is not a higher SaaS adoption rate for small law firms and legal departments. However, almost half (45%) of large firms or legal department respondents indicated they had used a hosted solution for document review.
  • Recommendations and referrals are still the main source of information and decision for selecting software, as reported by more than half of respondents.
  • Software trials and references are more important than case studies and white papers when researching software.
  • “Ease of use”, “cost of software and services”, and “integration into existing technology” were the most important decision drivers for selecting new technology. 

The comprehensive 2009 Perfect Practice Legal Technology Institute Case, Matter, and Practice Management System Study can be purchased for an introductory price of $395. The executive summary of the survey can be downloaded here.

The Legal Technology Institute would like to thank the study sponsors for participating in this groundbreaking research and for their support which enabled a much more comprehensive survey scope and resulting findings report. The CMS Study sponsors include: Perfect Practice, Platinum-level title sponsor; gold-level: Client Profiles, LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters; and silver-level: InsideLegal.com, Legal Files Software, Omega Legal Systems, PerfectLaw Software, and Synaptec Software. 

Posted in Legal Industry, Market Research, Surveys, Thought Leadership | Leave a comment

LegalTech New York 3.0 – Day 3 Recap

Posted on February 4, 2010 by InsideLegal

P1040019 P1040020 The third and final day of LegalTech started off with a bang and a truly impressive headliner in Malcolm Gladwell and his participation in Wednesday's keynote – "I3: The New Convergence of Intelligence, Intuition and Information". Gladwell, along with Dr. Lisa Sanders, medical columnist for the New York Times and technical consultant for the TV show House, and David Craig, Thomson Reuters Chief Strategy Officer (and the keynote session's sponsor), drew a mega-crowd of several hundred legal-ites to discuss how technology can be used to help supplement decision-making capabilities of subject matter experts. While the host shared that 2009 saw 2 billion searches performed on Westlaw, a near 50% increase from the previous year, and that Thomson financial and news systems now process more than a half-million updates per second, Gladwell and Dr. Sanders cited examples from their respective books and columns questioning to what extent more information leads to better decision making. Gladwell impressed with his short stories and witty examples reminding the audience that intuition is the key to better decision making, and that information overload is a big "distraction" in this regard – "intuition is fragile and easily upset", he stated. The panelists discussed a few questions and then followed up with a lively Q&A session, all the while we (along with many of our compatriots following on twitter) thought "shut up already and let Malcom tell more stories". Surely his book sales got a boost as well! In a nutshell, our keynote takeaway was "not more info, better info".

While topping this day 3 kick-off wasn't in the cards, we hoped to catch-up with more vendors and capture their show impressions and re-cap any major product announcements and legal technology news: Marc Adler of PerfectLaw feels 2010 is REALLY the year of the paperless office. "Firms no longer want to pay to store hard copies so PerfectLaw's document imaging is very popular this year." Adler also notes the importance of a reliable and secure back-up system when transitioning to paperless.

PensEra's President, Peter Zver lamented the fact that floor 3 had no vendors at all.  Zver stated that it was always a highlight of his to tour the 3rd floor and speak with new entrants in the industry who in years past have set up there.

Dean Evans & Associates, Inc., makers of the EMS line of facility scheduling, resource utilization and web calendar product EMS Software, have exhibited at LegalTech for past several years, but noted an estimated attendance downturn of 20-30%, and less booth traffic, despite a pre-show direct mail and email campaign.

P1040039 According to Logan Sutterfield, Product Manager of Symantec, about 30% of the LegalTech NY crowd consisted of "trick or treaters" and another group of eDiscovery experts.  On a tech note, Symantec and CaseCentral arrived in New York with a new connector that integrates Symantec Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator with the cloud-based CaseCentral eDiscovery Platform. Apparently, the integration eliminates the need for IT and legal departments to upload and export data for legal review and processing therefore also eliminating processing fees. The "processing busters"-style buttons made the rounds at the Hilton and entered all button wearers in a $100 cash on the spot give-away, with one winner donating his $100 to the Haiti relief effort.

Chicago-based Microsystems recently announced its partnership with 3BView offering server-based metadata solutions. Per the partnership, Microsystems will sell 3BClean as a stand-alone product, and through resellers in North America and the UK. Also, new functionality is being added to extend the value of 3BClean and offer an integrated product through Microsystems' DocXtools software.

Advanced Productivity Software's CEO Jim Tharpe was encouraged by what he's heard at the show and shared that several firms he spoke with had "good Q4s" and looking to spend again. He also added that APS seems to have risen above the downturn with a healthy 25%+ growth in 2009. As reported in the 2009 InsideLegal/ILTA MemberTechnology Purchasing Survey, APS was one of the first vendors to proactively approach their law firm clients with a support service discount motivated by the economy. "Our clients truly appreciate the goodwill when times are tough and routinely let us know about it," added Tharpe.

Over lunch, we heard about Traveling Coaches' LegalTech recap (good traffic and encouraging signs for 2010) and their ongoing and increased efforts to work strategically with the legal community. CEO Gina Buser and her team are positioning themselves to partner with their clients on excelling not only in matters of legal technology, but also as it relates to the practice and business of law, and "law firm 2020" initiatives. Based on the recent hiring of Brie Stampe as Director of Market Strategies, the 'Coaches' seem set to execute in this regard. 

Dan Bressler, VP of Marketing for IntApp, Inc., recounted many conversations surrounding firms' need to integrate data and systems from hosts of vendor applications. Good for them, since IntApp provides integration software (along with risk management and time capture applications) to a majority of the Am Law 100. When asked about general LegalTech buzz, Bressler mentioned Autonomy's iManage ConflictsManager release as big show news. ConflictsManager, one of three show-specific Autonomy splashes, promises to automate the time-consuming steps in the conflict of interest process, thus minimizing the associated risk. As an additional aside, legal industry veteran Dan Tacone recently joined IntApp as President.

In other new product news, ADERANT rolled out its SaaS practice management application ADERANT Practice Manager developed specifically for small and mid-sized firms. It will be interesting to see how the predominately large firm-focused company fairs downstream versus SaaS rising stars such as Rocket Matter and Clio. Speaking of fairing downstream, we also caught-up with SAP and Susie Krupa, Industry Principal, Professional Services, and responsible for the German software giant's penetration within the Am Law 200 financial practice management market. Krupa told us recent SAP wins at Baker & McKenzie and Shoosmiths is the beginning of what they see as increasing firm demand for a true end-to-end solution spanning time & billing, financial management, HR, payroll, marketing, etc. Of course, there has been "SAP enters legal market" chatter for over a decade, but with a few big wins under their belt and Susie (and her many years of legal practice management and enterprise experience) driving the bus, it will surely be interesting to see what happens.

This concludes our recap of the third and final day of LegalTech NY.  Tomorrow, we will post the overall LegalTech 2010 in Review complete with event statistics, opinions, notables and key players.  If you haven't already, go to InsideLegal.com to sign up for our news via RSS or email.  'Til then… – JoAnna & Jobst

Posted in Events, Legalweek/Legaltech, Marketing, Vendors | Leave a comment

LegalTech New York 2.0

Posted on February 3, 2010 by InsideLegal

No rest for the weary on day 2 of LegalTech – which is more and more looking like a ray of economic sunshine for 2010 (see some vendor reactions below). Tuesday kicked-off with the annual ALM Editor's breakfast hosted by Bill Pollak, Monica Bay and the rest of the ALM editorial crew. Publications represented included the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, Law Technology News, and Law.com. The room was near capacity with many legal vendors pitching their products and mingling with editorial contributors including legal technologists and bloggers. While ALM's early morning program also included the annual blogger's get-together, we continued our "legal connections" theme and set off to reconnect with several of our media colleagues including Adam Schlagman of LJN’s Legal Technology newsletter and Sean Doherty, Legal Technology Editor of Law.com. Next we connected with Larry Smith, formerly ABA LPM Director, to learn about his new ALA Executive Director-ship and the ALA’s plans of overseas expansion, especially into China and other Asian markets. 

Westbillboard With Monday's mega announcements "out of the way" we were focused on covering enough show floor ground to capture things new and novel at LegalTech. Another Thomson Reuters acquisition was announced on day 2, although it didn’t warrant a billboard in Times Square or an ice sculpture on the Eagan campus. The latest company to be purchased by Thomson Reuters is SuperLawyers, an attorney ratings system for consumers from Key Professional Media.  “Super Lawyers is an extraordinary complement to our business,” said Christopher Kibarian, president, Business of Law. “Attorneys rely on word-of-mouth and recommendations to build their client base. We’re pleased to be able to provide the attorneys selected to the Super Lawyers list with additional support and services to achieve greater visibility and recognition for their accomplishments.” Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Next up was PayneGroup and the new integration of its Forms Assistant product with SmartRules from RealPractice. According to John Sroka, CIO of Duane Morris and user of the integrated application “the integration will allow our staff quick access to up-to-date court rules and information with the single click of a button while working within a pleading. You cannot get more efficient than that.” Along with this announcement, PayneGroup and RealPractice are offering firms an exclusive FREE trial to try SmartRules for 30 days.

Phoenix-based Omega Legal recently launched eCop, which automates the billing review process to catch errors before they are billed. According to software specialist Steve Bentley, "This application is only available to Omega clients and is saving firms money by significantly reducing rejected, appealed, or written-off time entries."

CRM veteran Cole Valley were discussing their early adopter program for their new version (9.30) with sortable mass mailing capabilities.

Litéra, fresh off its acquisition of SoftWise and integration of Innova into the product mix, arrived in New York ready to take on Adobe with the introduction of LDF, a PDF management application at a fraction of the cost and complexity of other products. LDF gives users the ability to manage their PDF documents. William Robertson, EVP of Client Development, told us LDF plans to ship within the next 60 days after beta testing is complete.

Applied Discovery's big deal news according to a chat at their booth revolves around RPM (Review Performance Metrics), a new review management offering that allows litigation support professionals to see understand and maximize review performance by providing a dashboard with monitoring tools.

DocuLex announced customized workflow surrounding its flagship Archive Studio document management software and IBM Software are fairly new player (3 years and counting) in the eDiscovery scene touted early case assessment software.

One of today's most potentially profound news items centered around ILTA's Sharepoint for Legal Symposium taking place Wednesday at the Hilton, 9:30-4pm in Concourse A. ILTA's Microsoft Peer Group chaired by Kara Portwood invites everyone to the seminar focusing on SharePoint 2010 and the impact it will have on legal. In speaking with Kara, we learned that anticipated attendance has surpassed 175 (75 more than last year's SharePoint event), and that the program includes a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 product preview, presentations by XMLaw and Handshake Software, and finally actual user SharePoint case studies by ILTA member firms. The session will be of value to anyone looking to review new features inside SharePoint 2010 and looking to explore the topic of SharePoint 2010 as a viable document management system.

P1040002 As promised, here's a sampling of random soundbytes on the success of the show from the exhibit floor:

Shirley Gorman, Vice President of Client Relations for PayneGroup, said that the traffic was constant and much better than last year. 

P1040004 The famous Adriana Linares with LawTech Partners (helping out in the Adobe booth) said, “Show traffic has been great, great attendees, but where's the WiFi?  Isn’t this a technology conference?”  This was a sentiment shared by many – including InsideLegal!  It's very hard to cover a show without being able to connect to the internet – ah, the little things!

According to Dave Haucke, VP of Marketing for ISYS Search Software, this is their 16th LegalTech NY and traffic is as strong if not stronger than in the past.

Steve Bentley, software specialist for Omega Legal said that there were more qualified prospects than before – possibly due to the lack of a third floor which condenses the traffic across just 2 floors.

Cole Valley’s President Jeff Reade said he feels like the industry is definitely on the upswing, firms are getting over their nervousness of the economy and midsize firms have money and are beginning to spend it. 

Well, wrapping up day two to get ready for the 3rd and final day.  The big buzz for tomorrow is definitely the keynote -"I3: The New Convergence of Intelligence, Intuition and Information" – featuring speakers: Malcolm Gladwell, Author of Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point; Dr. Lisa Sanders, Internist, New York Times Columnist, Author of Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis; and David Craig, Chief Strategy Officer, Thomson Reuters; and the ILTA SharePoint Symposium.  Tune into InsideLegal.com (and sign up to get our newsfeed automatically) tomorrow for more information and if you have an announcement you would like us to consider including, please email us.  'Til then…

Posted in Events, Legal Industry, Legalweek/Legaltech, Marketing, Media, People, Vendors | Leave a comment

LegalTech New York 2010: A positive sign of things to come?

Posted on February 2, 2010 by InsideLegal

LTNY2010west P1040015 P1030964Day 1 of LegalTech New York is a wrap and the dust is settling on what turned out to be a very eventful beginning for one of the biggest legal technology shows. While last year was indicative of the down economy with low attendance and lackluster enthusiasm both from vendors and attendees, LegalTech New York 2010 is hopefully a preview of what economic recovery in legal looks like. As to be expected, the "big boys" arrived with guns blazing, led by Thomson Reuters Legal's launch of WestlawNext, the self-proclaimed next generation in legal research. Everywhere you looked in New York, you found advertisements for WestlawNext – the baggage claim at LaGuardia; guys on the street in front of the hotel giving away coffee; and the gyro street vendor at the corner complete with Westlaw jackets and WestlawNext umbrellas on their carts.  An impressive press conference, complete with a mini-string section and a slick multimedia show, touted the most comprehensive and expensive R&D project in the company's legal history – to a VERY captive audience (there was over 50+ of us jammed into a room best suited for 20-30).  

LexisNexis, on the other hand, shot back with a more familiar tone – Microsoft. Their new offering, LexisNexis for Microsoft Office, aims to empower lawyers to search and find relevant research in the Office applications they already use. While these two easily made the biggest opening splash, we'll have to see what sort of wake they leave behind. Westlaw, which is already considered an expensive research solution, indicated WestlawNext will cost "a modest premium" according to company executives. A few industry consultants mentioned that compared to free/low-cost rising stars such as Google Scholar and Fastcase (which just launched its free iPhone app), the value proposition for solos and small firms becomes tougher.

While much of our time today was spent catching up with old friends such as Brett Burney of Burney Consultants; Neil Squillante, Publisher of Technolawyer; and Dan Safran of Project Leadership Associates; and meeting new legal movers such as Ari Kaplan (looking forward to that ABA TECHSHOW keynote!) and Curt Meltzer, the new editor of PinHawk's Law Technology NewzDigest, we did have a chance to roam the tradeshow floors. While attendance and enthusiasm were definitely up from 2009, we did notice the aftermath of a down year with a noticeably lower booth count, especially on the 3rd show floor which is completely void of exhibitors this year. Less vendors, but more attendees than last year could turn into a great thing for vendors – we'll report back post-show to see.

NextpointOther big news from the floor was somewhat predictable and focused on all things SaaS and "heavenly" – with cloud launches by Nextpoint and Exterro. FTI Consulting, which has really picked up steam on R&D, especially since its 2008 acquisition of Attenex, announced the general market availability of Acuity, the company’s new integrated eDiscovery and document review offering. Above all, the theme of predictable, up-front, and simple to understand pricing is popping up on more eDiscovery vendor ads, booth demos and in press materials.

While we counted 96 eDiscovery/litigation support vendors, others had big news to report. BigHand continues its steady march in the digital dictation (or what they coin as "voice productivity") market and looks to further its momentum with the launch of a new server-based Speech Recognition module, which utilizes the Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech server from Nuance Communications.  It includes both a “speech recognition only” option and an option for “speech recognition with proofing”. 

Also noteworthy, on a non-software or product launch note, is the availability of the Perfect Practice® – Legal Technology Institute Case, Matter, and Practice Management System Software Study. Conducted by the University of Florida Levin College of Law's Legal Technology Institute (lead by its Director, Andy Adkins) in the fall of 2009, the 320 page final report provides information to assist law firms and corporate legal departments in making better management software decisions. In addition, the study clarifies the terminology used by the industry and provides software designers with insight on how to improve the usability and efficiency of their case and practice management products. The study findings, which can be purchased at the Legal Technology Institute's site, includes an abundance of intelligence pertaining to current technology environments; core applications; software market leaders; security concerns; cost concerns; future technology plans; decision drivers, and total cost of ownership. Case/document/practice management vendors at the show should make this mandatory reading for their sales, marketing and even R&D folks.

Join us for virtual coverage of Day 2 beginning with the ALM Editors Breakfast beginning at 8am.  Also follow our tweets at InsideLegal.

Posted in Consultants, Events, Legal Industry, Legalweek/Legaltech, Surveys, Thought Leadership, Vendors | Leave a comment

LegalTech New York Preview

Posted on January 28, 2010 by InsideLegal

LegalTech New York is just a few days away.  Jobst and I (this will be my 11th LegalTech!) will be there covering the show for InsideLegal.com and via twitter at twitter.com/InsideLegal.  You can also track the Twitter action here.  We've compiled some information that will help you plan your week at the show.  If you haven't registered to attend yet and would like to, you can still register on their site.

Keynotes

The keynotes are scheduled each morning from 9-10am in the main ballroom of the Hilton and are open to everyone.  This year, Judy Kelly, LegalTech's Senior Conference Producer, and the Educational Advisory Board have done an impressive job securing speakers. 

Monday Keynote Presentation
"Don't Build your E-Discovery Program on a Digital Landfill"
Speaker:  Russell Stalters, Information Technology & Services (IT&S) Head, Information and Records Architecture, BP America Inc.

Tuesday Keynote Presentation
"Facebook: Perspectives on Corporate eDiscovery and Social Media"
Speaker:  Mark Howitson, Deputy General Counsel, Facebook

Wednesday Keynote Presentation
"I3: The New Convergence of Intelligence, Intuition and Information"
Speakers:  Malcolm Gladwell, Author of Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point; Dr. Lisa Sanders, Internist, New York Times Columnist, Author of Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis; and David Craig, Chief Strategy Officer, Thomson Reuters

Partner Tracks

This year ILTA will again be producing 2 LegalTech tracks – Advanced IT and Corporate Legal IT.  New this year is a track is being co-sponsored by ARMA – Comprehensive Recordkeeping Track.

Exhibit Hall

According to the LegalTech website, there are 219 vendors and partners exhibiting this year.  The exhibit hall will be open 10-5 on Monday and Tuesday and 10-3 on Wednesday.

ALM Editors Breakfast

The ALM Editors Breakfast is an opportunity for the editors of the various ALM publications to pitch their publications and meet many of the vendors and PR folks in attendance.  The event is Tuesday, February 2nd at 8am in the Petit Trianon Ballroom in the Hilton.  All vendors are welcome and the event usually lasts an hour.  After an introduction, each editor will talk about their publication and then the room is open for mingling.  This usually is more like a free-for-all with everyone running for the top editors.  

Bloggers Breakfast

The Bloggers Breakfast follows the Editors Breakfast at 9am on Tuesday, February 2nd in the Petit Trianon Ballroom.  ALM offers full conference pass to legal bloggers (unfortunately non-vendor only!).  To register for a bloggers conference pass, send an email to Tom Kiley at tjkiley@alm.com. They need a link to your blog and full contact information including a physical mailing address. To facilitate effective blogging and tweeting during the conference, the front rows in all the meeting rooms will be reserved for bloggers and will have electricity available (but you will have to provide your own wi-fi connection!).

LTN Awards 

On Monday, February 1st, there will be a party to honor the winners of the 2009 LTN Awards.  The event will be held from 6-8pm in the Mercury Ballroom. Tickets are $250 and can be purchased in advance online here and a limited number of tickets will be available on Monday at LegalTech, on the 3rd floor in the sales room.

LegalTech 2010 is only days away so hopefully, for those of you attending, bags are packed and last minute to dos are completed. Safe travels and see you in New York.

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