Legal Commentary

Why We Changed Our Headline Style

Posted on September 10, 2010
OK, this qualifies as almost TMI, but just in case you noticed that we've changed our post headline styles from all caps to initial caps -- we'll tell you why: because we are now linking the Scold to Twitter (@commonscold) -- and the all caps on Twitter "shouts" and is impolite! I'm slowly updating the Scold to remove stale links, etc...

One Thing iPads Cannot Do

Posted on September 10, 2010
My colleague Anthony Paonita forwards this advice about how not to use new iPads. There are some functions that print newspapers simply do better than any other media, warns Newsday about its new iPad app.

BE PREPARED

Posted on September 09, 2010
One of the most terrifying and exhilarating days of my career was the first day I walked into the San Francisco federal courtroom of Judge Samuel Conti as the law clerk for Albert Abramson (left). Abramson was the lead attorney in a multi-plaintiff Alaska plane crash case...

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

Posted on September 08, 2010
New York-based Pro Bono Net has won the 2010 InnovAction Award from the College of Law Practice Management. The competition honors outstanding innovation in the delivery of legal services, "demonstrating to the legal community what can happen when passionate professionals, with big ideas and strong convictions, resolve to create effective change," says Jordan Furlong, a partner with Edge International, who was chair of this year's contest...

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ASSOCIATE TECH MALAISE

Posted on September 07, 2010
The American Lawyer's annual Associate Survey is hot off the press, and not surprisingly, it reports significant malaise about technology. Addressing the dilemma of whether it's best, during a recession, "to conserve cash or ramp up spending to win a competitive advantage when the economy turns around," reporter Charlie Mead found that firms tried both approaches, with mixed results...

ILTA TECH PURCHASING SURVEY

Posted on September 03, 2010
ILTA and InsideLegal have released the results of the 7th annual "ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey." The 43-question web-based survey yielded 109 firm responses, with 84% from the U.S. and 16% from Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil...

SOCIAL JUDGES

Posted on September 02, 2010
State judges -- on their own time -- are cautiously experimenting with social media (e.g., Facebook), reports Tony Mauro in The National Law Journal. But, he notes, "judges doubt they could use the new media tools in their professional lives without violating judicial ethics codes...

NY EDD UPDATES

Posted on September 01, 2010
New York has been a hotbed for e-discovery advances, what with Judge Shira Scheindlin's landmark cases (Zubulake, Montreal Pension, et al), and Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck's opinions on keywords. The state's judiciary recently finalized alterations to §202...

ILTA RECAP

Posted on August 31, 2010
Congrats to Randi Mayes, Peggy Wechsler, T.J. Johnson, and the rest of the ILTA execs and volunteers, for a tremendous 2010 convention. I was honored to participate in the Law2020 series, a "multi-year, multi-platform" series of educational programs on how our profession must adapt to thrive into the next decade...

ONE IDEA

Posted on August 25, 2010
One of the most challenging tasks of conference organizers is finding the right keynote speaker to spark plug an event. This choice is especially difficult for conventions such as ILTA or LegalTech New York, where the audience has a huge bandwidth of experience, from absolute novice to jaded veteran...

FIAT LUX

Posted on August 24, 2010
As the legal technology community gathers at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas for the opening day of the International Legal Technology Association's annual meeting, you might assume everyone would be absolutely abuzz about virtualization, e-discovery tools, and SharePoint...

VEGAS, BABY!

Posted on August 24, 2010
The troops are arriving in Las Vegas for the International Legal Technology Association annual meeting, and Sean Doherty and I are looking forward to a few days of face time with our wonderful community. Tuesday, I'll be speaking on an 11 a.m. panel organized by John Alber, a partner at Bryan Cave (and winner of the inaugural LTN Award for "IT Champion of the Year," in 2003)...

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Posted on August 23, 2010
Are you an associate, and an up-and-coming star in the e-discovery arena? An established partner whose war stories and wisdom would be appreciated by others? A litigation support leader immersed in the day-to-day realities of EDD challenges? On the GC team, and actively involved with managing your outside counsel's EDD work? A consultant helping organizations understand and cope with exploding volumes of electronically stored information? A forensics expert who spends many days inside courtrooms and deposition rooms? Share your experiences...

PRESIDENT'S CORNER: DAVID KALMICK

Posted on August 23, 2010
President's Corner: California's CompuLaw has updated its web-based calendar and docket matter management software. President and CEO David Kalmick says Vision Web Portal 4 adds tools to help legal professionals customize their calendars. The upgrade supports "ethical walls," to restrict data access by specific professionals to avoid conflicts...

HOT AUGUST NIGHTS

Posted on August 19, 2010
As we pack for the International Legal Technology Association convention in Vegas next week, as usual, many vendors are promising "revolutionary" launches at the show. As George Socha and Tom Gelbmann reported in "Climbing Back," it does seem that e-discovery purchasing has stabilized into slow but steady growth...

EXPANDING TURF

Posted on August 18, 2010
I've been suggesting for a while now that compliance issues will overshadow electronic discovery, sooner rather than later. After all, both successful compliance and EDD management have at their core strong document management systems, including document retention policies...

HERDING CATS

Posted on August 17, 2010
Managing lawyers has often been compared to the challenge of "herding cats" (translation, nearly impossible). But attorney Peter Rabinov, who has spent time in the contract lawyering trenches, offers 10 tips to help firms manage contract lawyers who are reviewing EDD documents...

OUT OF THE GATE

Posted on August 16, 2010
It's almost just a formality, but LexisNexis has officially launched Lexis for Microsoft Office. The software, which has been in very active beta for most of 2010, integrates Lexis research tools directly into Office's applications, such as Word, Outlook, and SharePoint Server...

GREEN LAW

Posted on August 13, 2010
It's been five years since Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" brought the realities of global warming front-and-center, and our legal community began to escalate "green" protocols. Little did we realize that these efforts would not just help the environment, but would help us reduce our costs and increase profits as well, to the benefit of our clients and colleagues...

SOUND THE TRUMPETS

Posted on August 12, 2010
It's not too early to submit nominations for our eighth annual juried LTN Awards, to honor our most technology-savvy legal professionals and organizations. We have streamlined the competition and the process to make it easy to nominate. For starters, it's free -- there's absolutely no fee to enter...

GOOD WORKS

Posted on August 11, 2010
ZyLab reports that key modules of its e-discovery and production software were used in the recent Cambodia tribunals. Law Technology News covered the trials in Claire Duffett's poignant "Rain of Terror," which chronicled the efforts of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, with the assistance of the United Nations, to prosecute Khmer Rouge leaders who were connected to the deaths of 1...

MONITORING THE MONEY

Posted on August 10, 2010
Last year, Reed Smith was the first firm in the competition's history to receive two juried LTN Awards. Tom Baldwin, chief knowledge officer, was named IT Champion of the Year; the firm won for Most Innovative Use of Technology in a Law Firm for the creation of a Microsoft SharePoint project called ouRSpace, a portal that serves as a central communications hub and data center...

MAILBOX #20100808

Posted on August 08, 2010
* Jim Hammond, president of RainMaker Software, has launched his self-named blog, addressing "the intersection of law firm technology and the real world." His most recent post addresses specialty billing methods. * James Erik Abels, who worked with our team as a reporter on Law Firm Inc...

WOMEN CHEFS EVENT BENEFITS SHARE

Posted on August 08, 2010
I turn the microphone over to Roberta Gelb, longtime member of the Law Technology News Editorial Advisory Board, and the principal of Chelsea Office Systems in New York City: The breast cancer organization, SHARE, is having a major fund raiser, The Women Chefs Event and it is wonderful ? fabulous venue (Pier 60 ? great view of the Hudson) and delicious food...

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

Posted on August 06, 2010
Somehow, I was not the least bit surprised that Jo Haraf's retirement lasted about five minutes. She has way too much energy to be happy in a rocking chair. Formerly the CIO of Morrison & Foerster, she has launched Haraf Professional Services, where she helps professional services firms recognize immediate and long-term benefits from improved staff, project, and IT portfolio management...

UPHILL CLIMB

Posted on August 06, 2010
With an approximate revenue of $2.8 billion in 2009, e-discovery vendors are slowly but steadily moving uphill again, report Minnesota consultants George Socha and Thomas Gelbmann, in their 2010 survey of EDD trends and developments. Unlike the logrithmic rabbit leaps of the past, current growth is more tortoise-like, at the rate of 10% to 15% per year, they note in their August LTN cover story, "Climbing Back...

MONEY, HONEY!

Posted on August 05, 2010
While we don't generally cover individual vendor's revenue reports in Law Technology News' print edition, our EDD Update blog is a great place to discuss money! So feel free to send your revenue reports to eddupdate@alm.com. Here's our post about the latest metrics from Guidance Software, with, of course good news: ? Q2 2010 revenue increased 38% over Q2 2009 ? Q2 2010 product revenue increased 61% over Q2 2009 ? Q2 2010 non-GAAP earnings per share of $0...

SAD NEWS: EUGENE ANDERSON

Posted on August 03, 2010
Eugene Anderson, of New York-based Anderson Kill & Olick, passed away on July 30, after complications arising from pneumonia. He is being remembered this week by many in our legal community. Anderson founded the firm in 1969, and was dubbed by BusinessWeek as "the dean of policyholder's attorneys," because he pioneered influential approaches to insurance coverage litigation on behalf of policyholders, says the firm...

AWARDS! ACCOLADES!

Posted on August 02, 2010
We are absolutely thrilled and humbled to announce that Law Technology News has won nine awards for editorial excellence for our 2009 content. My thanks to our wonderful contributors, who provide such stellar content; and to our industrious and talented staff who bring their imagination and expertise to LTN every day...

REBOUND?

Posted on August 02, 2010
The Cowen Group has released its Q2 Critical Trends Survey, which polled 85 law firms and 33 corporations looking at workload and hiring plans. Among the highlights: 61% of firms reported a Q2 increase in the number of hours worked by their litigation support department, 36% of firms plan to add litigation support personnel between August and October, 27% of firms have increased training budgets, and 31% have increased budgets for technology purchases...

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