Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with David Cunningham, the chief information officer at Winston & Strawn in Houston. He is leading the Legal Metrics initiative, which is an industry-wide group designing a solution to understand and visualize legal operations metrics. We discussed the genesis of the initiative, how metrics can change behavior, and ways that Legal Metrics will help law firms, law departments, other legal organizations.

I spoke with Lutz-Christian Wolff, Steven Gallagher, and Joyce Wong, the dean, associate dean for teaching and learning, and faculty secretary, respectively, at the Faculty of Law at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. We discussed the university’s approach to legal education, how its professors have altered their teaching styles and methods to adapt to distance learning, evaluating student performance remotely, and which elements of the new model of education will become permanent.

I spoke with Bob Rowe and Jamie Berry, the CEO and litigation business unit leader, respectively, at Integreon, a provider of alternative legal services. We discussed the technology and workflow strategies necessary to rapidly transform a global company into a completely remote workforce, how to effectively protect client-sensitive documents and communications in that environment, and where the legal industry is headed in light of the current crisis.

I spoke with Tom O’Connor, a nationally-recognized consultant, speaker, and writer in the field of computerized litigation support systems, who is also a member of the global advisory board for the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists. We discussed why professionals seek certifications, the challenges associated with obtaining one, their impact on one’s career, and how they are evolving.

I spoke with Tom Dreyfus, the CEO and co-founder of Josef, an Australian legal automation platform. Prior to founding Josef, Tom worked as a litigator in Melbourne, Australia and clerked at the High Court of Australia. We discussed the genesis of Josef, why legal professionals should leverage automation, the benefits and risks of a distributed or ground-up approach to legal automation, and the future of legal work.

I spoke with Steve Tover, the founder of Anylaw, a free legal research platform. We discussed the genesis of Anylaw, how it differs from other legal research solutions, the company’s business model, and where the legal research sector is headed.

I spoke with Alex Babin, the CEO of ZERØ, an AI-powered email platform. We discussed the genesis of Zero, how it leverages artificial intelligence to help users manage their email, the value of ZERØ Lite, how law firms can reinvent themselves in a remote-first working environment, and the advantages of applying automation to law firm operations.

I spoke with Patrick DiDomenico, the chief innovation officer for Jackson Lewis, a large national labor and employment-focused law firm with more than 60 offices throughout the United States, and the author of Knowledge Management for Lawyers (American Bar Association, 2016). We discussed his mission at the firm, key challenges in the current crisis, best practices for law firms adapting to a completely remote working environment, and the role of legal technology in this transformation.

I spoke with Tom Jones, the founder and CEO, and Jeff Suhr, the senior vice president for Intellistat and Steere, respectively, for Iridium Technology, a business intelligence and financial analytics company. We discussed the genesis of Iridium Technology, the drivers of analytics in the legal field, and how the availability of robust and actionable data is driving change in the legal industry.

I spoke with Josh Maley, the founder of Theorem, a platform designed to aggregate legal technology applications for law firms and corporate legal departments. We discussed the genesis of Theorem, how using it impacts how organizations manage their application suite, and advice for law firm and legal department leaders who are driving innovation.