Good morning New York: work has now started on the September issue on the American Legal Technology Insider (ALTi) newsletter – we'll be publishing on Thursday 9th September.
At the risk of spoiling your Labor Day long weekend, the drop-dead deadline is close of business (PST) on next Tuesday 7 September.
Also, as part of a realignment of our news coverage, from the September issue ALTi will also be carrying global legal IT news from the rest of the world* including Australian & Asia-Pacific news.
* With the exception of UK & EMEA news which will continue to be the brief of the 'classic' Insider newsletter.
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Thursday, September 2
Public Service Announcement: work now started on September American Insider
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:00 BST
Tuesday, August 31
Webinar today on social media & ediscovey
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 31 Aug 2010 11:00 BST
Digital Reef is hosting a webinar later today exploring best practices for managing new social media information sources in preparation for mandated ediscovery requests. The webinar is the first installment of the company’s series of discussions on ediscovery preparation and compliance, and will focus on this issue from the perspective of general counsel.
Digital Reef Webinar: Tuesday, August 31, 1:00pm EDT/6:00pm UK time Social media within the corporate network: Discussion & best practices with legal counsel in the Fortune 500 Legal counsel from CISCO Systems, and Mayer Brown, will be joined by Landmark Ventures’ chief information security officer to have an interactive discussion on the growing risks enterprises face as they increasingly integrate social media into their communications pipeline. Panelists will share their insights on how organizations can best protect themselves within the unfamiliar area of new information streams infiltrating the corporate network, and how to navigate and manage these streams for purposes of ediscovery. The one hour webinar will provide participants with ways to better manage related content on Social Media and Social Networking sites, along with Personal Messaging Repositories, in anticipation of discovery requests. Panelists will offer their advice on preventative measures organizations can implement to avoid being liable for unapproved content existing in an information stream that may be undiscovered. Panelists include: · Michael Lackey (Partner, Mayer Brown) · Van Dang (Vice President, Law & Deputy General Counsel, CISCO Systems) · Robert Gallucci (CISO, Landmark Ventures) To register for the webinar go to www.digitalreefinc.com/resources/webinars/social-media/ Monday, August 30
Westlaw Next - now on the iPad
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 30 Aug 2010 10:51 BST
Thomson Reuters has optimized its new legal research system WestlawNext, specifically for iPad users. The new iPad app is available at the App Store free of charge to all current subscribers of WestlawNext. Westlaw say iPad users will experience all the power, performance and ease of use of WestlawNext, just as if they were at their desktops or laptops, and the app has been designed to take advantage of the iPad’s large display and Multi-Touch screen.
The Westlaw say the app transforms the iPad into a powerful tool for the legal profession. Offering comprehensive features and legal content, the WestlawNext iPad app always reflects the current status of the law and is the only app for legal research that synchronizes with a customer’s desktop and any smartphone. “With the WestlawNext iPad app, attorneys can tap into their research from anywhere and all of their research is synchronized across Web-enabled devices,” said James Jarvis, senior director of Westlaw Product Design. “Whether an attorney is now working on a BlackBerry, an iPhone, a laptop or an iPad, they can continue to build on the research they’ve already started.” The functionality and increased screen size of the iPad allows users to perform a range of easier tasks such as finding, viewing and sending documents, which many mobile users can perform with smartphones, as well as more complex tasks that have been built into WestlawNext, such as organizing research into folders and conducting advanced searches. Researchers also can use the touch screen to scroll through search results, reorganize their folders and highlight text in documents relevant to their research. “When we talk with lawyers, most say they wouldn’t do more than five minutes of research on their smartphone,” said Andy Martens, senior vice president of New Product Development for Thomson Reuters, Legal. “The iPad is a device where we can see attorneys comfortably doing an hour or more of comprehensive research.” The introduction of WestlawNext for iPad is another addition to an entire mobile ecosystem that Thomson Reuters Legal is creating for WestlawNext subscribers. “The WestlawNext iPad app is the latest example of an ongoing commitment to enhance the capabilities of WestlawNext and fundamentally improve the research experience for legal professionals,” Martens adds. “Today, we are providing our customers the research tools they need to create a more desirable research experience, increase their productivity and provide the confidence that their research is as complete and thorough as it can possibly be.” http://west.thomson.com/westlawnext/useit/mobile/ipad.aspx Wednesday, August 18
More new products from Aderant: Expert Matter Planning
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 18 Aug 2010 16:27 BST
Aderant today announced plans to release Expert Matter Planning, a comprehensive application that enables firms to manage the full life cycle of alternative fee arrangements. Matter Planning was developed to address the challenges firms are facing as clients increasingly request non-traditional fee arrangements. The product has been selected for demonstration in the State of the Art Technology Track at ILTA 2010 in Las Vegas on August 23.
Expert Matter Planning enables firms to more easily respond to and manage requests for both standard and alternative fee arrangements. Users can search and collate prior or existing matters and design preconfigured templates to build matter profiles. Matter Planning gives firms the ability to review work performed on prior matters to ascertain the duration, effort, and expertise required for the new engagement. It also brings together hours and roles to produce a fee estimate and a projected P&L so firms can ensure each new matter meets their pre-determined profitability thresholds. The innovative, flexible design handles all types of alternative fee agreements and monitors the matter through the entire life cycle. “At Sheppard Mullin we understand that in today’s marketplace, a law firm must be flexible and value-driven when pricing client engagements,” says Kevin Combs, Chief Financial Officer for Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. “The ability to mine historical information to develop ‘win win’ arrangements is a wave of the future.” One key advantage of Expert Matter Planning is its full integration with Aderant Expert. Integration allows the use of Expert rates, ranks, timekeepers, phases, and tasks all to be shared, ensuring a seamless movement from the matter planning phase into file opening, time recording, and billing. The tight integration with Aderant Expert also provides streamlined matter inception through cutting edge workflow processes, as well as accurate monitoring of the estimates created in the planning phase against actual time entries and reports on any variances. Tuesday, August 17
Aderant announced Found Time
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 17 Aug 2010 12:14 BST
Aderant today announced the introduction of its newest Aderant Expert module: Found Time. Found Time assists timekeepers by automatically reconstructing their day, minimizing lost or unaccounted for time, increasing overall firm revenues. The system tracks the details of the timekeeper’s interaction with key business systems – BlackBerry, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office, phone systems, document management systems, and more – and lists these interactions, or activities, chronologically for easy review and conversion into time entries. Timekeepers are able to reconcile their daily activities against time already entered into the practice management system to verify that all billable activity has been accounted for, and to identify and process billable time that may otherwise have gone unrecorded, ultimately leading to improved profitability.
Timekeepers can view a single day or multiple days and sort entries by type of activity such as duration, date, client, matter, and more, to speed the review of potential time entries. Specific document names or IDs, phone numbers, and email addresses can be linked to clients or matters and then automatically associated in the future for maximum efficiency. Irrelevant items can be blocked to eliminate them from future tracking. Users can simply double-click an activity to bring up the time card for quick conversion to billable hours, or drag and drop the activity into the Time Entry list to automatically create the entry. The integration with Aderant Expert enables the immediate submission, review, and reconciliation of new time entries and gives timekeepers real-time access to key statistics such as daily billable and non-billable totals. “Lost or unbilled time is a significant issue, especially as many firms are under pressure to maximize billable hours to meet profit targets,” said Bruce Stirling, Chief Financial Officer at Maples & Calder. “Aderant’s Found Time application has the potential to quickly capture more time and immediately increase revenue and profits.” • The Found Time product will be demonstrated at ILTA 2010 in Las Vegas August 22-26 and will be generally available in September 2010 as an integrated component of Aderant Expert. Monday, August 16
DMS - US firm selects an alternative platform
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 16 Aug 2010 11:24 BST
Minneapolis-based law firm Bowman & Brooke has selected Aderant StarLaw and will implement the integrated suite of document, records, and email management applications in its offices nationwide. An Aderant site since 1997, Bowman & Brooke is integrating StarLaw into its technology portfolio to better streamline the creation and management of critical business documents and records.
StarLaw features integrated document, records, and email management functionality and intelligent categorization of information by clients, matters, practice groups, and attorneys. The product has integration with Microsoft Office 2010, enterprise-wide search, and a flexible, easy-to-use interface. In addition, the product also has robust security and auditing functions, universal retention management, and “Grab and Go” support for offline use. “StarLaw is the one tool I have found that meets the competing needs inside a law firm,” said the firm's CIO Michael Cammack. “It provides ready access to documents and ease of use for attorneys and legal staff. It also provides reliable document ownership to apply retention rules and storage tiers for IT and Record departments and the ability to quickly apply legal holds and collect appropriate materials when required by Risk Management.” Monday, August 9
Barker Gotelee moving on
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 09 Aug 2010 09:44 BST
SOS Connect from Solicitors Own Software has been selected by Barker Gotelee Solicitors (who are based at Martlesham Heath near Ipswich) to help the firm capitalise on business growth coming out of the recession and improve business processes throughout all areas of the firm with a complete revamp of IT.
The selection of a new IT system was prompted by the withdrawal of support for the incumbent AIM system. From a list of eight possible contenders at the outset, the final evaluation was between SOS and IRIS. Barker Gotelee established a user panel made up of a cross section of staff to gain their feedback on the systems before putting the final two options to a vote. According to Barker Gotelee a few things stood out in favour of SOS especially in terms of the user-facing side of the system which the firm found to be very approachable and intuitive to use. Excellent service was a very important issue too and it was significant that a senior manager had experienced high quality from SOS in the past. Glen Murray, practice manager said: “SOS was also very helpful during the sales negotiation and we felt we were getting straight answers and a fair price.” The system is planned for implementation at the start of the next financial year and will be rolled out to 48 users, including 6 partners and 13 fee earners. Thursday, August 5
August issue of American Legal Technology Insider out now
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 05 Aug 2010 18:32 BST
The August issue of the American Legal Technology Insider newsletter is out now. (And apologies to some of our email subscribers who also received a duplicate copy of the July issue - our email server reset halfway through transmission.)
Click on the link below to download your free copy as a PDF. To have a copy sent direct to you in-box just send your email address to altisubs@legaltechnology.com Alternatively, if you like Flash page-turning software, read it here...  1 AttachmentsFriday, July 23
Breaking rumour: Autonomy to buy Open Text ?
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 23 Jul 2010 15:30 BST
Hot off the rumour-mill: Autonomy may announce a large
acquisition very shortly. Open Text, the listed Canadian software
company, as a possible target.
www.glgroup.com/News/Autonomy-to-Announce-Large-Acquisition--Open-Text-Tipped-As-Possible-Target-49639.html Wednesday, July 14
Thomson Reuters buy CaseLogistix from Anacomp
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 14 Jul 2010 15:00 BST
Thomson Reuters today announced that it has acquired document review software CaseLogistix from Anacomp Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
CaseLogistix provides document review, data ingestion and production tools to help litigation teams manage the electronic discovery review process. The acquisition is described by Thomson Reuters as a critical next step in furthering its litigation strategy as CaseLogistix expands the Westlaw Litigator set of integrated tools, services and content. CaseLogistix and its employees will be aligned with the litigation business within Thomson Reuters Legal under the direction of Allison Guidette, VP & general manager of Litigation. |
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