Coming Together: A Shared Interest for Legal and IT

Written by Steve Akers | 11 August 2010

This column is part 2 of "Bridging the Gap Between Legal and IT"

In the first part of this article, we talked about the obstacles organizations face for both IT and the associated processes around ediscovery governance. Now, we’ll discuss what requirements are bubbling to the surface and how the right IT platform can address these issues.

A common vision for control and governance of email and documents that will satisfy legal requirements and address cost and feasibility concerns from the IT department is slowly emerging. The publication of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) has helped a great deal by codifying the common components that the legal department needs and that IT must provide.

Bridging the Gap Between Legal and IT (Part 1)

28 July 2010

Legal discovery, or ediscovery, has become a normal business process in most organizations. Perhaps not as frequently used as a sales force automation tool, but at times perhaps more important. With increasingly demanding rules for legal discovery and production, there is a critical need for what is becoming a near constant proactive review of the information held within the enterprise. Given the exploding amount of information and the growing number of sources where business information can reside, the legal discovery business process is now much more than a “sideline” activity that can be run from some small scale appliance under the desk of a legal professional.

Marketing your law Firm using Social Networking Technology

Written by Peter Birley | 23 July 2010

Social Networking continues to grow and although there is a lot of trivia being discussed, there are also some serious business discussions and related business information being passed around. We should not ignore this information as it may be useful to our business and I don’t believe the phenomenon (if that is what it is) of Social Networking will go away. If anything, we will see more people joining in the discussions and more products and innovative ways of communicating coming out of it, so if you don’t engage early then you may be in danger of missing out on any opportunities that evolve.

Law Firm Help Desk: To Outsource or Not To Outsource?

21 June 2010

The rapid evolution of legal technology over the last 10 years has forced partners and executives at law firms of all sizes to address organizational efficiency challenges. Tough decisions to insure stability, reputation, and sustainability both internally and in the industry abroad need to be taken. The Help Desk within Legal IT departments has long been the target of scrutiny during difficult financial periods, and in a recent informal survey, 25% of the AmLaw 200 Firms stated they have outsourced Help Desk functions. Some firms have outsourced their overnight and weekend shifts, while others have outsourced their whole support group. Besides considering the present and future financial impact of utilizing external resources for these functions, law firms also have to weigh any potential long-term effects it may have on the IT department.

Successful eDiscovery Starts with a Strong Foundation

Written by Ursula Talley | 15 June 2010

In a typical matter, attorneys tend to focus on the analysis and review stage of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). But if much of the collected data in the review platform is unnecessary, insufficient, spoiled, or irrelevant then reviewers have just bought themselves a load of eDiscovery trouble. This is why attorneys need the earlier EDRM stages (information management, identification, collection and preservation) to work and to work well: so that only highly relevant and fully auditable data is sent to the formal review.

Trends in outhosted services for law firms

Written by Stephen Parry | 27 May 2010

It struck me today that with over three years of operations under our belts at Virtual Practices™ and as a pioneer in the market the time seems right to reflect on our experiences and the trends we are seeing in outsourced business processes and Software as a Service (SaaS) for law firms.

Things have moved on since 2007. We no longer need to explain the concept of the outhosted software model and our unique legal cashiering service, as we did when we started out. There is growing market understanding and acceptance that you don’t have to run IT in-house and that Internet accessed services offer a very secure, cost-efficient way of managing client matters, the practice, security and business continuity.

Best Practices to Retaining Top IT Talent in the Legal Industry

Written by Geoffrey Zodda | 11 May 2010

Of all the major professional industries, the legal industry has one of the highest turnover rates universally. This trend can especially be seen in the Information Technology Groups within many of the top 250, and even mid-sized, law firms around the world. Reasons for such a high incidence of personnel change in Legal IT departments include: aggressive recruitment from competition, the allure of vertical growth opportunities by joining another firm, the marketing of firms known for their organizational stability, the ability to join a consulting group or even open their own IT consulting firm, and the appeal of moving to firms who are forward-thinking with their technology. In the relentless pursuit of acquiring the best candidates in the market, new opportunities are dangled in front of top talent on a weekly basis, which begs the question: Why would an individual pass up on an exciting, new opportunity to stay in their current role?

2010 eDiscovery horizon

Written by Bob Tennant, CEO Recommind | 13 April 2010

With the explosion of electronically stored information (ESI) over the last year, there is no question that organisations will continue to grapple with the concept of information risk throughout 2010.  The UK’s increasingly stringent regulatory environment has already picked up steam during Q1 following the ongoing recall issues faced by Toyota, and with the FSA’s latest insider trading investigation gathering momentum it’s clear that the situation is only set to intensify.  Add to this concern the increased adoption of new technologies such as Web 2.0 tools, cloud computing, unified communications and virtualisation within the organisation and the eDiscovery landscape faces a unique set of challenges that will undoubtedly keep legal professionals working at full capacity for the foreseeable future.

Serving up Video for Law Firms

Written by Martin Langan | 23 February 2010

Cloud Computing, where you do not own the physical IT infrastructure and avoid capital expenditure by renting usage from a third-party provider, is a hot topic under consideration by many Managing Partners and IT Directors. Cloud services include such things as data storage, computer servers and software as a service (SaaS).

Software as a Service (SaaS) has been gaining a lot of ground in the last year or so and I am encountering many start up firms that have decided that this is by far the best source of applications for them.  Established firms are pencilling into their diaries a review of resources with a view to moving to SaaS as their existing provision and support contracts wind down.

Looking back on the "Alternative Legal IT Conference"

Written by Allan Carton | 24 September 2009

Setting an agenda for mid-market law firms

I attended the Alternative Legal IT Conference last week, which created a fairly unique forum for IT managers and other senior managers in mid-market law firms to share openly their experience, plans, concerns and solutions on IT.   It was good to see delegates from legal, management and IT backgrounds confirm that - in many firms - close collaboration between IT and the management of the practice is making a big difference in adding value on management of the firm and of relationships with clients to improve overall performance of the practice.  This was tangible in some of the real life case studies presented by managers viewing the business from different angles and from the facilitated discussions during the day.

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2009: The Year of the Wait

Written by Jenn Steele | 23 September 2009

I’m declaring 2009 to be “The Year of the Wait”.  Oh, sure, 2009 might not be over yet, but most of us are in the throes of 2010 budget season, so I’m willing to call it.  Although my firm has been able to do some major projects, almost every colleague I talk to says that they’re waiting for one thing or another (Office 2007 being the primary project that was planned for 2009 and has been pushed off).  Even vendors who cold-call me ask, “Are you going to be purchasing <insert product/service> or are you waiting?” 
Overall, 2009 has sounded like a Beckett play:

Effective Use of IT in law firms

Written by Bill Kirby - Inpractice UK Ltd | 21 August 2009

Bill Kirby: "Getting to grips with IT and its support in the business is one reason why I am supporting the Alternative Legal IT Conference" 

The recession continues and aided and abetted by the impact of the Legal Services Act is having a major impact on the performance and morale of many lawyers and managers within law firms. This dramatically affects the operation of the business in key areas and harnessing IT to support the business is probably even more critical at this time.

At last I think it is fair to say that the majority of lawyers are beginning to believe that IT is not an overhead for the business but it is an essential support tool for the successful running of the business. It is also a great facilitator of communication with and performance for clients.