Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with Adam Licht, the Director of Business Development for the legal division at Intralinks, a secure collaboration technology platform supporting clients in various industries, including legal. We discussed how IntraLinks is solving key challenges that law firms and corporate law departments are facing, the company’s unique approach, the shifting emphasis on risk and compliance, and the future of secure collaboration, among other topics.

I spoke with Paige Hunt Wojcik, the vice president of business development and managed services for Discovia, a provider of e-discovery services for corporations and law firms. We discussed the evolution of managed services, its increasing popularity, essential criteria for selecting a managed services provider (e.g., technology, security, experience, etc), and the impact of the model on reducing overall legal spend, among other topics.

I spoke with AJ Shankar, the founder and CEO of Everlaw, a cloud-based review platform for e-discovery. We discussed the genesis of Everlaw, which he says is “as fast as Google and as easy to use as an Apple product,” its popularity with law firms handling complex litigation and class actions, and the impact of design and usability on e-discovery software, among other topics.

I spoke with Brian Powers, an attorney and the creator of PactSafe, a new cloud-based application launching today that allows companies and their lawyers to manage, track, deploy and enforce online legal agreements. We discussed the genesis of PactSafe, the benefits of managing online legal agreements in the cloud, including a reduction in legal spend, and the pitfalls of operating without such a tool.

I spoke with Jacob Morse, the vice president of marketing and product strategy at Brainspace, a machine learning platform focusing on e-discovery and knowledge management. We discussed the company’s approach to concept search, its philosophy on machine learning, the advantages of leveraging this technology, and the challenges associated with convincing lawyers to use it, among other topics.

I spoke with Craig Carpenter, the president and chief operating officer at Resolution1 Security, a software provider that enables continuous automated incident resolution for data breaches through real-time insight and analysis, as well as threat intelligence integration. He joined AccessData as Chief Marketing Officer in 2013 and assumed his current role in November of 2014 when the company divided its businesses. We discussed the genesis of Resolution1 Security, the industry challenges it is seeking to address, key mobility implications following high-profile data breaches, and technology trends for 2015, among other issues.

I spoke with Sarah Clark Kavanagh, the founder of Quatrove, a SaaS solution that helps manage team workflow and intelligence for a variety of organizations, including law firms worldwide. We discussed her interest in helping organizations make data-driven decisions, how the tool has been received in the marketplace, and how a product like Quatrove reflects the dynamic changes occurring in the legal community, among other topics.

I spoke with George Burgess, the founder and CEO of education app developer, Gojimo. He started the company when he was 17 and I plan to feature his inspiring perspective in the 2nd Edition of The Opportunity Maker, which will be out later this year. In the video below, he shares some networking tips and advice for those interested in creating something new in 2015. “Get out there and do it…there is nothing holding you back,” he says. “You’ll learn more from actually trying it than waiting and suggesting to yourself that you will do it later on in life, which never really happens.”

I spoke with Mark Noel the Managing Director of Professional Services for Catalyst, a provider of litigation support software and services. Before joining Catalyst, Mark co-founded an e-discovery software start-up and was an intellectual property litigator with Latham & Watkins in Washington, DC. We discussed the evolution of technology-assisted review, how to properly define it, why continuous active learning and contextual diversity sampling are critical, and uses of this application beyond document review.

I spoke with Joe Borstein, the global director of the law firm division at Pangea3, a legal process outsourcer. Borstein is also the co-author of the bimonthly alt.legal column for Above The Law. We discussed his role at Pangea3, a Thomson Reuters business, and the growing popularity of alternative managed legal solutions, which the company’s extensive network of full-time attorneys provides to a range of firms, from small offices to the AmLaw 100, and many of the Fortune 1000.

I spoke with Frederick Gyebi-Ababio, the founder and director of the LawTech Europe Congress, a conference and exhibition that has been hosted in Prague, Czech Republic for the past three years. We discussed the event and its genesis, the key trends in legal technology (including e-discovery, cyber forensics, big data, and privacy), and his vision for the event in 2015 (including a possible move from Prague to Dubai or Berlin), among others.

I spoke with Lawrence Cunningham, a leading authority on corporate governance and culture, professor of corporate law at GW Law School (my alma mater), and the author of many business books, including his newest: Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values. We discussed the genesis of the book, professor Cunningham’s research strategy, and the key elements of Berkshire Hathaway’s culture that stand out, including integrity, its commitment to entrepreneurship, and its long-term view of success, among many others. Professor Cunningham is in the middle of a national tour, where he is being joined by Berkshire Hathaway executives and investors from across the country.

I spoke with Phil Homburger, the president and CEO of Synaptec Software, the maker of LawBase, a leading case and matter management solution. We discussed the genesis of LawBase and the evolution of the legal profession since its founding 35 years ago. Homburger remarked on the shift from word processes and PCs to networks and the cloud. He also addressed how legal teams can navigate the divide between applications that focus on a single challenge and those that provide an all-in-one solution given the ‘consumerization’ of technology.

I spoke with Richard Spies, the president and CEO of Lucid IQ, the maker of CaseManagerPro, which is a case and matter management system used by law firms and corporate legal departments nationwide. We discussed the genesis of CaseManagerPro, how firms and corporate law departments are systematizing their approach to complex matters, and the need for readily available information to increase performance.

I spoke with Sandy Serkes, the co-founder, president, and CEO of Valora Technologies, a provider of document, data, and content analytics solutions for corporate, legal, and government clients worldwide. We discussed the genesis of Valora, why data mining has become such a hot topic, the art of “gene sequencing” a document to find key hidden details, and cost-efficient techniques for locating information. “Not knowing what data you are holding is a liability,” said Serkes.

I spoke with Rajitha Boer, the founder and director of Yerra Solutions, a professional services company supporting European and Asian corporate law departments. Boer is also the producer of the Yerra Conference, which is taking place in London on October 15th and 16th. We discussed the challenges that in-house counsel and administrative leaders are facing, key strategies for addressing them, and techniques for leveraging technology to enhance visibility and transparency within a global organization.

I spoke with Jerome Raguin, the founder & director of UK-based Lex Connect, a solutions directory for in-house law departments worldwide. We discussed the genesis of Lex Connect, how vendors and in-house counsel are using it, and the key European legal trends on which he will be focusing at the 2014 Yerra Conference in London on October 13, 2014.

I spoke with Jason Parkman, the CEO of Mitratech, an enterprise legal management software provider that helps corporate legal teams reduce their costs, collaborate, and increase their visibility. He noted that “We are in the middle of a shift in how legal departments see themselves,” and we discussed the top three best practices they should implement today to position themselves for success in the future. They include: Recognizing that technology is a force multiplier. Becoming a data-driven organization. Focusing on continuous improvement. “What worked in the past isn’t good enough going forward; new technology needs to be highly configurable and flexible, as well as easy to use,” he said.

I spoke with Dominick Esposito, a co-founder and the executive director of eLaw, a leading docketing and calendaring software tool. He is a frequent guest speaker on computers and the law for the New York and New Jersey Trial Lawyers Associations. We discussed the evolution of eLaw, the increasing usage of digital tools for case management, and the rise of electronic docketing, among other topics.

I spoke with Matthew Whalley, the head of legal risk consultancy at Berwin Leighton Paisner in London, who spent six years as part of the legal operations team at HSBC. We discussed the challenges in-house counsel face in identifying, quantifying, and reporting the business risks that arise from law and regulation, the potential consequences of failing to properly manage that legal risk, and the value of using a custom toolkit to help organizations calculate and mitigate the inherent uncertainty in their operations. Whalley will be presenting a case study – Lessons for In-house Counsel: How to Quantify and Report Legal Risk – at the 2014 Yerra Solutions Annual Conference: Connecting the Dots Between Strategy, Operations and Technology on October 15, 2014.