Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with Graham Smith-Bernal, the founder and CEO of Opus 2 International, a case management software platform. We discussed how Opus 2 integrates with the array of software tools that a typical law firm leverages, global litigation, arbitration, and mediation trends, how virtual hearings and court proceedings will evolve.

I spoke with Mike Hewitt, the CEO of vTestify, which provides virtual deposition software and services. We discussed how vTestify differs from Zoom, the role of remote hearings and depositions as social distancing restrictions are eased, and how litigation is evolving.

I spoke with Joy Murao, the founder and CEO of Practice Aligned Resources, a legal technology consulting and education company. She is also a member of the advisory board for the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists. We discussed how legal technology training has evolved since she started Practice Aligned Resources in 2015, how the emergence of legal operations in both law firms and corporate law departments has impacted expectations of how skilled legal professionals need to be, the impact of advanced training on one’s career, and where legal technology training is headed.

I spoke with Mike Whelan, Jr., a lawyer and communications strategist, who is the author of Lawyer Forward: Finding Your Place in the Future of Law. We discussed his inspiration for Lawyer Forward, how the law firm business model is changing, his vision for a modern law practice, ways that legal education needs to adapt, techniques law firms can employ to train and support their professionals, and how law students and newer lawyers can reimagine their futures in the profession.

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.