AI in 2024: Should We Still Be “Moving Fast and Breaking Things”?
Editor
Where are things headed with AI in the coming year? What trends should legal IT professionals be awa(...)
Document and Email Technology Predictions for 2024
Dave Wilson
As trusted advisors to law firms around the globe, we're often asked about the latest trends in lega(...)
Knowledge Management or “KM” has always been a term that seemed hard to get a handle on, so I decided to talk to Mary Abraham, Counsel in Debevoise & Plimpton LLP’s corporate department, whose primary function is to provide KM support to the firm’s US-law corporate and tax practices. Mary describes her job as helping to bring the learning of the firm together so no one has to reinvent the wheel. If two practices within the firm are tackling similar issues, she can help synthesize and share the learning so both practices benefit from each other’s knowledge more efficiently.
Many professionals I have seen at a keyboard seem stuck at the Beginner level – even the “power users” among us. So rather than recommending specific tools or tips for legal technology beginners, I want to encourage an overall mindset of learning and improving. I will guess – and I suspect this is conservative – that most professionals spend at least 100 hours per month working at a computer. If you can save a few minutes here and there by working more efficiently, those savings add up. So why not take 30 minutes each month to improve your personal productivity – that’s one-half of a percent of your time.
To blog or not to blog – that is the question. We take some poetic license to apply Hamlet’s questioning here since it applies to many legal professionals who are deciding whether to start a blog. Wanting to get answers from a subject matter expert in the legal blogging arena, we interviewed Kevin O’Keefe, CEO and Publisher of LexBlog, Inc. to get the lowdown on what the business of blogging is all about.
A couple of months ago I wrote about the important things to know before you invest in a practice management package. Let’s assume you made the leap and purchased a system. Now what? Aside from the set-up and obvious learning curve I want to let you in on 10 post-purchase secrets to make that investment work for you. Here are the first 5 for you to digest.
Remember the “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” ad campaign? We all do, probably, but in addition to being memorable, its slogan brought up an interesting point about how the technology devices you use impact your personal identity. Legal professionals are no exception – but to what extent are today’s legal professionals saying “I’m a Mac” and what impact is that having on the IT personnel supporting them? I had the opportunity to talk with Brett Burney, author of the MacsinLaw blog, founder of Burney Consultants and expert on the use of Apple products in legal practices.
When you hear the term computer forensics – what comes to mind? Hackers typing out codes late into the night and CSI-like teams poring over computer files to foil their plots? I wanted to find out if computer forensics was really as dramatic as I imagined, I spoke with expert Craig Ball, a seasoned trial lawyer, certified computer forensic examiner and eDiscovery guru, who gave me some great insight into the field.
Featuring Josh Poje, Program Specialist at the ABA LTRC
Legal technology can seem obscure, confusing and remote for lawyers – and yet their lack of access to information means their practices unnecessarily suffer from inefficiency. Fortunately the ABA provides a Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC) for lawyers and other legal professionals to gather useful information. Since the mid-80s, the LTRC has helped lawyers learn about the benefits of technology and how they can better use it in their practices. LTO had the opportunity to have a Q & A with Josh Poje, Program Specialist at the Center. – Christy Burke
With technology changing so fast, it’s difficult for lawyers to maintain the level of competency required for their field especially on matters of Electronic Discovery (nicknamed “eDiscovery” by those who know it well). Even though people have been emailing and creating documents digitally for over 20 years now, there are still some lawyers that have not had to face eDiscovery – but they will eventually because it is starting to figure into all kinds of cases, large and small, corporate or personal, you name it.
Impressively, all but one of the respondents to our Social Media 101 Snap Poll currently use social media! We concede the point, though, that this number may be a bit skewed considering avid blog Legal Technology Observer readers are probably more social media conscious than the average bear. The one respondent that did not use social media yet replied “Don’t really understand it” when asked “what is the main reason you did not use social media?”
Featuring expert Kerry Scott Boll of JustEngage - please take our snap-poll on social media usage
Social media is not only shaping a new culture, it is also tremendously affecting business progress and influencing globalization. As a business tool, social media platforms create greater communication channels so people can make informed decisions about people, places, services, products, and businesses, and get quick access to information around the world. Kerry Scott Boll, founder of social media consulting firm JustEngage, says the best way to get more business is to offer great services and connect with the general public to show them you care – and to show it online.
Introduction by Christy Burke, Host of Legal Technology Observer
Predictive coding is one of those legal technology terms that seems to mean everything and nothing all at once - and it brings up the term “algorithm,” which is enough to send math phobics running for the proverbial hills. Here to make sense of predictive coding for LTO readers are eDiscovery experts Sharon Nelson and John Simek. In this guest post, Sharon and John explain the challenges of defining predictive coding and point to the recent incident with Judge Peck and the Da Silva Moore case which shows that today’s courts are grappling with this topic, too.
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