Legal Tech: Establishing, Collecting, and Analyzing Metrics for Success
Liza Pestillos‑Ocat
As legal tech vendors, we’re often asked, “What’s the ROI on your software?” Our response is familia(...)
Generative AI in litigation: Turning talk into transformation
Opus 2
In recent years, generative AI (GenAI) has captured the legal industry's attention, moving from buzz(...)
The dictionary defines the term Achilles heel as “a seemingly small but actually crucial weakness,” and that seems to be an appropriate term to use when writing about indexing and searching in document and enterprise content management systems. This article looks at why it would be unwise to assume that all documents in a content repository are completely and fully searchable despite the OCR'ing hardware and software as well as the advanced search technology that many law firms have at their disposal.
Law is a knowledge business which, unlike most similar disciplines, has yet to fully embrace the opportunities offered by the Internet. But now that the appropriate technology is available, it is catching up fast. Barely a month passes without the announcement of another new 'virtual' law firm and the trend is only likely to accelerate as the costs of operating a bricks and mortar practice spiral while fee income falls. Even a number of barristers chambers - hitherto the last bastion of tradition - are joining in with the creation of Mansfield Chambers by leading QC Michael Mansfield following the dissolution of his conventional chambers Tooks Court this year.1
The days when attorneys kept dictation recorders and a microphone on their credenza are gone. Some attorneys have abandoned dictation completely, but others are taking an updated approach. While young lawyers tend to be much better at typing and managing documents than their contemporaries were just a generation ago, they are also using their mobile devices and their voices to be more productive. For many, fresh ways of giving dictation have become a key component of an active law practice.
Joanna Goodman reports from Apps World. Camera work and video editing by Sam Mardon
The future is mobile and it's all about apps! As proof of this, the keynote session on day two of Apps World at London's Earl's Court last week featured Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. The video attached to this report is longer than we would normally make, but there are some points about the way we develop, market and use hardware and apps that are relevant to every technology-related business, not least legal IT. And we heard quite a lot about the man himself.
Technology Assisted Review is a relatively new methodology for reviewing documents in the context of the eDiscovery workflow. It is touted to be faster, more accurate and less expensive than traditional review, which are difficult claims to ignore. With the promise of reduced data sets, increased accuracy and lower costs, TAR seems like a highly desirable way to manage the volume of data involved in discovery. How, though, does one know if a case is the right fit for this new technology? Let's explore a short checklist that can help you determine whether to use TAR in your next case.
Security is the perennial favorite as the number one challenge for legal IT administrators. Because of changing and tightening regulations and new policies regarding sharing certain types of personal or private information, every legal firm is looking for new strategies around delivering information and keeping it secure. At the same time we're seeing that technology must be accessible to anyone - from the pure novice to the power user - especially when files are shared with external users. Federal, state, and local regulations as well as compliance requirements are behind much of this movement. Legal firms are also recognizing that beefing up their security policies provide additional comfort for their clients, customers, and partners as the number of data breaches continues to increase.
It seems like everyone's talking about unstructured data lately - the cost, the risk, the massive growth - but little is being done to control it, especially from a legal or eDiscovery perspective.
Many organizations have been too busy playing catch up to get ahead on managing unstructured data. Legal IT specialists have been caught in a horrible cycle of unmanaged data growth and searching this larger data set for eDiscovery.
I was privileged to attend the Legal IT Forum at Hanbury Manor. The format of this two-day event was practical and interactive, which kept everyone engaged and quickly built a collaborative and collegiate atmosphere. There was just one formal keynote presentation. Otherwise the mornings were devoted to panel discussions and the afternoon to short breakout sessions - strategy labs focusing on three themes: transforming data into business information; integrating cloud and onsite systems and new ways of re-engineering service delivery.
Seismic activity in the training world
There has been seismic activity in the legal technology training world brought about by the Suffolk/Flaherty Audit (the “Tech Audit”) initiated by D. Casey Flaherty, Corporate Counsel for Kia Motors. Casey has been auditing the technology skills of his potential outside counsel's lawyers by evaluating what he considers the basic IT skills a lawyer should have for the practice of law. He reports that none of the firms he has audited has yet passed. While this is not the only criteria on which he hires a law firm, he has been able to require discounts in fees and in some cases, he has not hired the firms.
Legal IT Professionals and Legal IT Today attended Thomson Reuters Elite VANTAGE EMEA regional user conference at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel in London. Notwithstanding a busy week for legal IT events, it was well attended by representatives of law firms from across the UK, with standing room only in some sessions. The programme included keynotes from Thomson Reuters senior executives, discussion roundtables on trends, challenges and best practices, and user group meetings covering specific product lines as well as celebrating Thompson Reuters' 14-year partnership with the Williams F1® Team.
Our columnist Jeffrey Brandt got inspired and articulated the essence of legal IT training in a beautiful short poem.
For want of a trainer the skill was lost.
For want of a skill, the application was lost.
For want of an application the document was lost.
For want of document the matter was lost.
For want of a matter the client was lost.
For want of a client the law firm was lost.
And all for the want of a trainer.
Copyright © 2023 Legal IT Professionals. All Rights Reserved.
We offer organizers of legal IT seminars, events and conferences a unique marketing and promotion opportunity. Legal IT Professionals has been selected official media partner for many events.
