Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with Yves Lefere, the commercial director at Knowliah, a Belgium-based provider of a new digital workplace platform for corporate legal departments in Europe. We discussed what Knowliah offers the legal market, how its technology has evolved since it was founded two decades ago, the overall appetite for legal technology in Belgium, the challenges European corporate legal departments are trying to overcome with legal technology, and where the European legal tech market is headed in the next year.

I spoke with Esther Dediashvili, the legal knowledge manager and head of legal technology implementation at Fischer Behar Chen Well Orion & Co, one of the largest law firms in Israel. We discussed the impact of knowledge management in Israeli law firms, its significance, how technology contributes to legal knowledge management, and the future of legal technology in Israel.

I spoke with Doug Geller, the founder and president of GDSI, a software company that specializes in solving challenges in the legal industry by developing custom tools and augmenting existing applications for law firms, legal departments, and legal software vendors focused on document and records management, case management, and practice management. We discussed the genesis of GDSI, the benefits of writing custom software, and where the market for custom software is headed.

I spoke with Emily Foges, the CEO of Luminance, an artificial intelligence platform for the legal profession. We discussed the genesis of Luminance, the challenges associated with the adoption of technology at law firms, characteristics of the law firm of 2030, and what the emergence of technology like Luminance means for the future of legal services.

I spoke with Andrew King, the founder & strategic advisor of E-Discovery Consulting, which provides litigation support guidance to law firms and corporate legal departments throughout New Zealand. He is also the creator of the LawFest New Zealand conference. We discussed the genesis of LawFest New Zealand, why legal tech conferences have become so popular, the challenges associated with developing a legal tech conference, the legal tech climate in New Zealand, and the value of a legal tech index.

I spoke with Soon Yi Loo, the co-founder and CEO of CanLaw Asia, a legal tech consultancy for law firms and corporate legal departments in Malaysia. He is also the creator of the LexTech conference, which is an event focused on educating legal professionals in Malaysia about how to enhance their practices through technology. We discussed the genesis of CanLaw Asia and the LexTech conference, how legal technology is perceived in Malaysia, the most popular type of legal technology in the country, whether lawyers in Malaysia are receptive to the application of technology to their practices, where the legal tech sector in Malaysia is headed.

I spoke with Dan Hauck and Bradlee Duncan, the vice president of Product & User Experience, and the senior product manager, respectively, for NetDocuments, a cloud-based content management platform for law firms and corporate legal departments. We discussed the company’s recent launch of ndMail, a predictive email tool, its implementation of ndThread, based on its acquisition of ThreadKM, how NetDocuments reconciles security with usability in its approach to developing technology, and the future of collaboration.

I spoke with Casey Flaherty, the founder of Procertas and the creator of the Legal Technology Assessment, a competency-based learning and benchmarking platform focused on the core technology associated with the delivery of legal services. We discussed the genesis of the Legal Technology Assessment, its advantages for employers and professionals, how law schools are leveraging it to transform legal education, and the misalignment between hiring expectations and technological proficiency.

I spoke with Robb Caruso, a vice president with Compliance Discovery Solutions, a service provider that offers defensible discovery support for law firms and corporate legal departments. We discussed the genesis of the company’s Discovery-as-a-Service offering, who benefits from that model, what is driving the interest in alternative efforts at managing discovery, and what the emergence of strategies like Discovery-as-a-Service indicate about the evolution of the legal market.

I spoke with Pratik Patel, the vice president of innovation and products at Elevate Services, a law company, where he leads the company’s product business and innovation initiatives across its range of solutions. Pratik joined Elevate in 2012 following the acquisition of RFx LEGAL Analytics, a company he co-founded. We discussed Elevate’s launch of ElevateNext in connection with Valorem Law Group and Univar, what combinations of this type signifies about the evolution of the legal profession, how lawyers can adapt to a rapidly changing legal marketplace, why alternative legal services providers are so attractive to buyers of legal services, and where this sector is headed.

I spoke with Arup Das, the co-founder and CEO of Alphaserve, a global provider of managed IT, cloud, and cybersecurity services. We discussed the genesis of Alphaserve, how the collaboration between legal and IT is evolving in corporate legal departments and law firms, whether law firms are ready for the emergence of artificial intelligence, applied data science, and blockchain, and the trajectory of innovation in the legal field.

I spoke with Darrell Mervau, the president and co-founder of FileTrail, a records management and information governance system for law firms. We discussed the genesis of FileTrail, what law firms using legacy records systems can do to improve their processes, the different platforms with which FileTrail integrates, and the information governance challenges that law firms are facing and the solutions they are they applying.

I spoke with Ida Abbott, the president of Ida Abbott Consulting, which promotes and supports career development and advancement from the beginning of a lawyer’s career through retirement. Abbott is an elected fellow of both the American Bar Foundation and the College of Law Practice Management, as well as the author of Sponsoring Women, What Men Need to Know and The Lawyer’s Guide to Mentoring, the second edition of which was just released. We discussed her background, how mentoring has changed since the publication of the first edition of The Lawyer’s Guide to Mentoring, the challenges to providing high quality mentoring, the difference between sponsorship and mentorship, and how the profession can leverage mentoring in its continued evolution.

I spoke with Jim Beckett, the CEO of Qualmet, the developers of a cloud-based law firm performance management platform. We discussed the genesis of Qualmet, how it works, ways that law firms and corporate legal departments are using its technology, and where the sector is headed.

I spoke with Chris Kave, the founder of Aurora North Software, a software and services provider delivering IP solutions and Intapp products for law firms. We discussed the genesis of Aurora North Software, why patent and trademark prosecution has become so important in the current economic climate, how the company is building automation into its processes, useful analytics organizations can generate by tracking patent and trademark prosecution, and what law firms should evaluate to determine whether their current prosecution processes are sufficient.

I spoke with Christina Wojcik, the vice president of solution consulting for Seal Software, where she leads the company’s technical and legal solution consultancy, at the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium 2018 Institute. We discussed the impact of regulatory changes, including GDPR, on the corporate law department, the role of legal operations leaders in promoting innovation, and the rising importance of contract management.

I spoke with Basha Frost Rubin, the co-founder and CEO of Priori, a legal talent platform for corporate counsel to find, hire, and manage top lawyers, at the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium 2018 Institute about the genesis of Priori and the trends that are driving change in the legal industry.

I spoke with Lukas Bell and Chris Neville, who are implementation consultants for KIM Technologies, an artificial intelligence-driven automation software platform, at the 2018 Corporate Legal Operations Consortium Institute. We discussed CLOC‘s focus on innovation and their mission to empower legal professionals.

I spoke with Jon Squire, the chief marketing officer at ContractPodAI, a provider of contract intelligence software, about the rise of AI-powered contract management, the company’s growth, and its mission at the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium 2018 Institute.

I spoke with Shmuli Goldberg, the vice president of marketing for LawGeex, an artificial intelligence tool for contract review automation. We discussed how LawGeex works, its recent research study – AI vs. Lawyers – comparing the performance of its technology with 20 human reviewers, how the perception and acceptance of automation has changed, whether an AI tool can mimic the talent, experience, and judgment of a practicing lawyer, and if lawyers are still relevant.