InsideLegal

Who are you?  Who is your organization?  What is your role in the organization?
It is a challenge to be the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., located in Fairfax, Virginia. We have to remember which hat we have on – we support the legal technology of 250 law firms and businesses in the D.C. area, we always have upwards of 100 computer forensics cases open and we own the Virginia divorce software known as VADER.  The company motto is “Nothin’ but a good time” – and it’s true. We enjoy our work so much that we often chuckle that we get paid to play.

Where does your organization fit in the legal industry? 
We’re probably best known for our work in computer forensics and e-discovery, but legal technology is a close second. We’ve now written six books and countless articles as well as given hundreds of presentations.  Our blogs, Ride the Lightning (electronic evidence) and Digital Samurai (legal technology) seem to have many faithful followers, as does the podcast Sharon does with Jim Calloway, The Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the legal industry now and in the upcoming year?
Alternative billing really has arrived in spades. Firms that swore by the billable hour are finding that they can’t keep clients.  Adapting to the new economics is probably going to be tough for solos and mega-firms alike.

How can law firms work with you?
In terms of law office technology, we work primarily with firms in the D.C. area, although we’ve been known to drop in an entire network in a remote location and then turn the keys over to local IT support folks. Also, our backup and disaster recovery solution doesn’t require us to be onsite, so that can be deployed anywhere.

In terms of computer forensics, law firms ordinarily e-mail or call to get the ball rolling. They are generally appreciative of our reputation for integrity, our responsiveness and, being a boutique firm, our lower costs. When the economy really tanked, a lot of lawyers who formerly used the “big guys” in EDD came knocking at our door.

More and more, firms are coming to us for web design, search engine optimization and electronic marketing as well. We’ve seen lawyers really pull their print advertising in favor of marketing electronically, including a huge rise in lawyer videos which they place on their website as well as on a dedicated YouTube channel. 

And, unsurprisingly, law firms often pay us to come in and present CLEs to their attorneys and support staff. It’s very convenient for them and the smaller setting makes it easier for folks to ask questions that are specific to the firm.

How can the legal vendor community work with you?
We work with a lot of vendors on both sides of the house.  Each year, the ABA publishes a new edition of our Legal Technology Guide for Solos and Small Firms and we always reference our favorite choices in legal technology.

We’ve done some beta testing of software as well, and try to relate vendor news in our articles, blogs and presentations. There’s nothing a vendor likes better than an independent expert who swears by its products!

How can you help legal technology vendors be more successful?
If they prove to us that they have a good product, we’re an excellent way to get the word out to the legal community. I think we also help vendors recognize their flaws. As an example, we’ve spoken to some receptive people at a vendor company about their case management software.  We expressed our security concerns and the fact that the data wasn’t stored locally. The vendor has consistently been addressing these concerns and now offers local data storage and a higher level of security. That’s an excellent example of a company listening instead of getting defensive and striving to improve their product. And as a result, we’ve changed our advice regarding that vendor and have recommended its consideration for those seeking an online case management system.

What associations are you active in?
We get around! The American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section, the Virginia State Bar (Sharon is on the governing Council and its Executive Committee), the Virginia Bar Association, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the Fairfax Bar Association, the Fairfax Law Foundation, ARMA, Women in –E-Discovery, the Virginia Women’s Attorney Association, Women in Technology, the High Tech Crime Network and the International Information Systems Forensics Association.

What online resource (website, blog, etc.) is most useful to you (i.e., you use it every day)?
Google Alerts is our favorite online resource.  We track what others are saying about us, we track our friends in legal IT and EDD to keep abreast of what they’re up to, we track our competitors and we track keywords that are relevant to what we do. It’s a fabulous way to stay on top of a data juggernaut. John has a plethora of RSS feeds dealing with security and technology to keep abreast of zero-day attacks so we can proactively protect our clients.

What have been your top “moments” in legal technology?
Well, let’s see. There was the day we had to search a computer for aliens – that was one of our great comic highlights (if you search Ride the Lightning, you’ll find the whole story).  Our involvement as computer forensics experts for the Washington Sniper case and the Duke Lacrosse rape cases (both attorneys have released us to disclose our involvement) was fascinating.  It is always fun to read the headlines and know something more than the newspapers know.

In terms of speaking on legal technology, our annual highlight is speaking for the ABA TECHSHOW – a great conference which also reunites us with our friends on the speaking circuit. 

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