TechnoLawyer

Originally published on May 17, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

While Exterro's April Fool's spoof on robots replacing lawyers by "eliminating up to 99.9 percent of all inefficient cerebral functions currently performed by highly paid attorneys, paralegals and technologists" proved humorous, those of you who work in litigation may have found it hit too close to home.

The buzz surrounding Predictive Coding has steadily increased. This eDiscovery technology, which essentially uses machine learning to automate part of the review process, is causing a lot of head-scratching in large law firms. I remember pitching an article to a legal technology editor ten years ago themed "auto-coding is here." The first question that came back to me was, "Is it really here?" I feel like many of you are about to ask same question about predictive coding.

My former colleague John Corey who is now Regional Manager at Recommind told me about how large law firms are responding to their predictive coding product.

"We are seeing the early law firm adopters put predictive coding through its paces and validate the time and expense savings," said Corey. "They also found, sometimes to their surprise, more accurate results. Once litigation departments realize that predictive coding optimizes rather than completely replaces human review, any concerns about defensibility evaporate. We're now seeing a broader adoption as firms realize that they'd rather benefit from predictive coding than compete with it."

Corey also told me that after working directly with large firm lawyers for many years, he has a very strong hunch that the early adopters most likely ran data through the traditional review process as well as the predictive coding process. Once they realized that predictive coding could be trusted, they converted 100 percent.

If you missed the link last year in BlawgWorld, Monica Bay interviewed two eDiscovery experts about predictive coding on her October 2010 Law Technology Now podcast entitled Crash or Soar? Predictive Coding.

A Court Docketing David Challenges the Goliaths

While the "big boys" are battling it out in eDiscovery, let's not forget about the small and nimble players in the legal technology industry. I've noticed a recent trend in which the "little guys" are landing the big deals. Why? Are law firms finally realizing they can get a better product, better customer service, and a better price by going with a less known company? Maybe so.

It seems to be true for American LegalNet (disclosure — a client of Edge Legal Marketing). The company has landed some noticeably big deals for its eDockets rules-based docketing and calendar system from McKenna Long & Aldridge, Baker & Daniels, and Fenwick & West — and these are just the firms willing to talk. Why have firms such as these spurned giants such as CompuLaw and Elite Calendar Manager for American LegalNet?

I caught up with Connie Moser, senior marketing director of American LegalNet (she previously worked at Elite), to get her perspective. "Having a cost-effective product in place to help with critical date management is essential for law firms that want to enhance workflow and minimize malpractice risk," she told me.

ALM Media Switches Teams

ALM Media, the parent company of American Lawyer, National Law Journal, and many other legal publications, announced last month that it has "reunited" with LexisNexis. ALM Media will shift its exclusive legal news content licensing from Westlaw to rival Lexis.com. ALM Media CEO Bill Pollak has the best take on the deal — not surprising since he's the ultimate insider. "West has been a solid partner for the past five years and this decision was not one that was made lightly," writes Bill.

Where will Thomson Reuters' West obtain its legal news for Westlaw going forward? Publisher Neil Squillante got the scoop and reported that Reuters and West have teamed up to deliver their own legal news and analysis.

In the Meantime, Plug in Your BioPorts

With corporate clients pressuring law firms to cut costs, the only path for doing so increasingly lies in technology. Exterro's "easy-to-install and hard to remove BioPorts (certified to be 85 percent pain-free)" might sound silly, but don't laugh too hard. Yesterday's technology pipe dream sometimes becomes tomorrow's reality (smartphones anyone?). As Michael Lewis once wrote, the future just happened.

Written by Amy Juers of Edge Legal Marketing.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on February 8, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

LegalTech New York often serves as a gauge as to where the legal technology market is headed. Legal technology vendors bring on the buzz to entice lawyers and IT professionals with their latest app, gadget, or widget.

I have attended LegalTech New York since 1999. Its mantra, "The Most Important Legal Technology Event of the Year" seemed to finally ring true as the recession slowly sloughs off. Many attendees would admit that LegalTech served as more of a job-hunting tool during the recent recession. This year, thank goodness, it was back to its "old self." I sensed positive vibes.

Below you'll find my LegalTech New York report geared specifically for those of you in large law firms and corporate legal departments, the two core constituencies who subscribe to TechnoLawyer's BigLaw newsletter.

Autonomy: Hear Me Roar

The fanfare was typical with Thomson Reuters/West and LexisNexis challenging each other to be the main event. But this year another giant — Autonomy — made a big splash on the first level of the exhibit hall affectionately referred to as "Wexis." Through aggressive advertising and expanding its booth space across a hall with an adjacent meeting room, Autonomy was hard to not notice.

Innovation a Buzz Wreck but Greenshoots Exist

Let's discuss the technical innovation at the show — or lack thereof — what I call the Buzz Wreck!

However, greenshoots exist. For example, midsize technology vendors as well as startups are tackling cloud computing and offering tighter technical integration. Many companies demonstrated how to leverage technology to gain better control of who is doing what, where, why, and when.

Another trend — consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. For example, DTI acquired Daticon EED late last year. It was hard to miss DTI's presence as just about every directional sign throughout the show bore its logo. While DTI is more aligned with service-bureau work for law firms, it uses many of the top rated discovery and litigation management products such as Clearwell, iCONECT, and Relativity. Once perceived as a small player in the eDiscovery market, DTI is now well positioned against Applied Discovery, Fios, and Kroll Ontrack.

Strategic partnerships are also flourishing. Vendors are teaming up when it enables them to deliver greater value to their clients. Post-recession, stability and reliability from a legal technology company has become so much more critical.

Finally, I noticed what I call "wrap-around" software. Take Wave Software for example. It has processed discovery data for years, but this year it acquired and integrated iFramework project management software to help legal teams get a better grasp on projects as they march through the litigation workflow process. The iFramework technology provides a "wrap" around other applications.

Executive Summaries of Key Conferences

Finally, I would like to recap three key conference sessions in case you missed them.

Round the Table With Women in eDiscovery: Myth Busters

Panelists explored three myths associated with bringing electronic discovery in-house. Babs Deacon, Cynthia Bateman, Joanne Lane, Ellen Kuplic, Emily Cobb, and Alison Grounds shared their insight and opinions about these three "myths":

Myth 1: The only way to conduct eDiscovery successfully is to let your outside counsel handle the entire process.

Myth 2: Always engage in full forensic collection of drives. Never permit self-collection by clients/custodians.

Myth 3: An organization without a high litigation profile doesn't need to implement a litigation readiness program or have preferred discovery support vendor relationships in place.

As expected, the conclusion is that black and white answers rarely exist. But the discussion and debate over each topic provided good arguments on both sides of the issues, at least helping to uncover factors that should be considered when making these decisions.

Leveraging Technology to Achieve Quality and Competitive Excellence

Weather was an issue for some as was the case for two panelists who couldn't make it in Tuesday morning. Moderator Brad Blickstein, of the Blickstein Group, and panelist Kim Townsan of United Technologies engaged in a good discussion centered on delivering value — whether in-house delivering to key stakeholders or outside counsel delivering value to their clients — by effectively using technology.

Highlights from this session included:

• A big piece of delivering value centers around alternative pricing models — pricing based on achieving results as opposed to billable hours. As Ms. Townsan pointed out, hours are not valuable to clients; results are.

• Leverage in-house IT resources to effectively use your data for process mapping, and identifying trends and actual cost drivers to determine where fixed costs might exist. Implement technology that will truly make work processes more efficient.

• Employ a good matter management system for all outside counsel to keep information consolidated.

Why the Legal Industry Needs to Change and Embrace Technology

This session offered an interesting perspective of technology in the legal industry by a panel of judges. The session was moderated by Joseph FitzGerald of Symantec and featured Hon. Dennis M. Sweeney, Hon. David J. Waxse, and Hon. Ron Hedges.

The judges discussed such issues as evolving industry standards and what one referred to as the "consumerization" of IT in which employees (and their employers) seek to consolidate personal- and work-related applications, devices, etc.

Judge Waxse discussed the need to use technology in the context of having "just, speedy, and inexpensive" trials, reminding the audience that case issues should drive the use of technology so counsel should agree at the outset as to what comprises these issues.

Judge Sweeney talked about the impact of social media on trials, sharing some interesting examples of jurors being disqualified mid-trial as a result of their activities on social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter. His Honor advised that lawyers need to catch up to modern day juries.

(Disclosure: DTI and Wave Software are clients of Edge Legal Marketing.)

Written by Amy Juers of Edge Legal Marketing.

Photo: Fulbright & Jaworski CIO Scott Preston (left) and Client Profiles CEO Whit McIsaac (right) at LegalTech New York. Photo provided by Client Profiles.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.