Reinventing Professionals

At the 2022 International Legal Technology Association conference, I interviewed James Lasson of Casepoint, Bob Beach of Peppermint, Peter Zver of Bundledocs, Dan Hauck of NetDocuments, Jack Stanovsek of Neota Logic, and Nick Schils of TIQ about how interest in legal technology has changed over the past few years.

During the 2022 International Legal Technology Association conference, I spoke with Michael Grupp of BRYTER, Rick Weber of Arbor Ridge Partners, Ross Guberman of BriefCatch, and Julian Uebergang of Neota Logic about opportunities in the current market.

I spent two days at the 2022 International Legal Technology Association conference interviewing leaders about key trends and developments that are impacting the profession. Thanks to David Carns of Casepoint, Brian Kenneally of Bundledocs, Josh Baxter of NetDocuments, Kalina Leopold of Lupl, Olga Mack of Parley Pro, a LexisNexis company, Steve Irons of DocSolid, Tom Dreyfus of Josef, Tori Kim of eBrevia, and Zach Warren of Thomson Reuters Institute for sharing their perspectives on the road ahead for legal tech.

I spoke with Hasna Al Falali, the Cooking School Manager at La Maison Arabe Riad Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco, about traditional Moroccan cuisine, its distinctive flavors, and the art of preparing it.

I spoke with Yavor Gradinarov, the Sales Manager at the Hotel Sahrai in Fez, Morocco about the return of leisure travel, ideas for exploring the city of Fez, and the key elements of client service.

I spoke with Debbie Foster, the managing partner of Affinity Consulting, a company focused on optimizing law firm performance. We discussed why efficiency, productivity, and profitability have become a focal point for leaders in legal, the technology applications that have the greatest impact on a law firm’s success, and the Lemonade virtual conference.

I spoke with Vishal Sunak, the co-founder and CEO of LinkSquares, the developer of an AI-powered contracting platform for legal teams. We discussed how LinkSquares distinguishes its approach in the contract software market, how the company is deploying its $100M Series C round of funding, and the ways that it attracts and retains top talent in today’s climate.

I spoke with Todd Corham, the Chief Information Officer at Saul Ewing and a member of the International Legal Technology Association‘s survey committee. We discussed the results of ILTA’s 2022 Technology Survey, how law firm leaders can incorporate the findings to make improvements, and how law firm technology is evolving.

I spoke with Paul Giedraitis, a principal at Axiom Consulting Partners, and the founder and president of Orgaimi, a client intelligence platform for law and accounting firms. We discussed how law firms are leveraging client intelligence, the sources of data that are most valuable for law firms and legal professionals, how Orgaimi uses artificial intelligence and machine learning, and ways that law firms can begin to harness the power of their data.

I spoke with Tom Lambotte, the founder and CEO of two companies, GlobalMac IT, a managed services provider focused on supporting lawyers nationwide who use Apple products, and BobaGuard, a suite of turnkey cybersecurity solutions built for solo practitioners and small law firms. We discussed the most common IT challenges that solo and small law firms in the legal community face, best practices for safeguarding client data, and risks to which solo and small law firms are vulnerable.

I spoke with Peter Krakaur, the Global Law Innovation & Technology Leader for Ernst & Young. We discussed how corporate legal teams are moving beyond a focus on legal technology and more towards enterprise applications, the personnel and process changes impacted by enterprise technology, and the change management challenges, or opportunities, in evolving corporate legal departments.

I spoke with Jamie Wodetzki, the chief product officer at Catylex, a developer of contract AI applications. We discussed contract AI, the connection between contract AI and contract lifecycle management, the most common challenges legal teams face in organizing their data to optimize their use of CLM, the tipping point for true AI adoption in the legal profession, and the skills necessary for legal professionals to thrive in a more tech-enabled environment.

I spoke with Amy Sellars, Senior Legal Counsel for eDiscovery and Operations at CBRE, and one of the founders, along with Christine Payne, Stacy Sampeck, Kevin Brady, Logan Cornett, Chad Riley, and Mary Kostick, of the Mind-Budget Connection™ which is a new organization that is studying the mental health of e-discovery professionals. We discussed the mission of the organization, how the pandemic has impacted the work of those focused on e-discovery, best practices for managing a litigation support workload, and the importance of well-being in this sector.

I spoke with Dr. Gavin Manes, the founder and CEO of Avansic, a provider of e-discovery and digital forensics services, about the primary activities and technologies incorporated into e-discovery projects, where are litigants facing the most challenging e-discovery issues, how legal teams are approaching self-service e-discovery, and the role of forensics in modern discovery.

I spoke with Jake Stein, the co-founder and CEO of Common Paper. a structured contract platform. We discussed contract lifecycle management, the process of converting contracts into APIs, the benefits of using standard contracts, and emerging standard agreements, and the release of its data processing agreement and service level agreement.

I spoke with Peter Baumann, the founder and CEO of ActiveNav, a data privacy and governance software provider that serves various sectors, including legal. We discussed how unstructured data impacts legal organizations, the challenges of managing unstructured data, best practices for assessing the risks related to unstructured data, and how this issue is evolving.

I spoke with Jason Levin, an executive career, business development, and outplacement coach with Ready, Set, Launch, LLC, and the author of Relationships to Infinity: The Art and Science of Keeping in Touch. We discussed how legal professionals can improve their networking, the value of dormant ties, best practices for reconnecting with contacts, and how trust and friendship relate to connecting and reconnecting.

I spoke with Bill Bice, the CEO of nQ Zebraworks, the developer of the Queues workflow engine, which law firms around the world have deployed. We discussed how the pandemic impacted how law firms approach their workflows, the challenges and opportunities associated with hybrid operations, and what legal technology companies can do to facilitate the broader adoption of their products.

I am speaking today with Ari Treuhaft, the chief operating officer for Litify, a legal operating system for professionals in law firms and corporate legal departments. We discussed how law firms use and can use Salesforce, common hurdles to legal tech adoption, ways that Litify empowers collaboration between in-house legal teams and their outside counsel, and how technology companies in a competitive market can distinguish themselves.

I spoke with Jeroen Plink, the COO of the LegalTech Hub, and Jeroen Ketting, the founder and CEO of the Lighthouse Group, a provider of management and trade support to Western companies doing business in Russia and Ukraine. We discussed how a legal tech background can empower humanitarian work worldwide, best practices for adapting business knowledge and logistics expertise to support the community, and how the legal tech community can support the Lifeline Ukraine initiative.