Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with Elisa Cooper, the vice president of marketing for Lecorpio, a provider of intellectual property management and analytics software solutions for corporate IP departments. We discussed the results of the Second Annual Lecorpio Trademark Management Study, highlights ranging from budgeting for trademark registrations to trademark policing strategies, the primary theme of the research, and what the results indicate about where the market is headed.

I spoke with Darrell Mervau, the president and co-founder of FileTrail, a records management and information governance system for law firms. We discussed the genesis of FileTrail, what law firms using legacy records systems can do to improve their processes, the different platforms with which FileTrail integrates, and the information governance challenges that law firms are facing and the solutions they are they applying.

I spoke with Ida Abbott, the president of Ida Abbott Consulting, which promotes and supports career development and advancement from the beginning of a lawyer’s career through retirement. Abbott is an elected fellow of both the American Bar Foundation and the College of Law Practice Management, as well as the author of Sponsoring Women, What Men Need to Know and The Lawyer’s Guide to Mentoring, the second edition of which was just released. We discussed her background, how mentoring has changed since the publication of the first edition of The Lawyer’s Guide to Mentoring, the challenges to providing high quality mentoring, the difference between sponsorship and mentorship, and how the profession can leverage mentoring in its continued evolution.

I spoke with Jim Beckett, the CEO of Qualmet, the developers of a cloud-based law firm performance management platform. We discussed the genesis of Qualmet, how it works, ways that law firms and corporate legal departments are using its technology, and where the sector is headed.

I spoke with Chris Kave, the founder of Aurora North Software, a software and services provider delivering IP solutions and Intapp products for law firms. We discussed the genesis of Aurora North Software, why patent and trademark prosecution has become so important in the current economic climate, how the company is building automation into its processes, useful analytics organizations can generate by tracking patent and trademark prosecution, and what law firms should evaluate to determine whether their current prosecution processes are sufficient.

I spoke with Christina Wojcik, the vice president of solution consulting for Seal Software, where she leads the company’s technical and legal solution consultancy, at the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium 2018 Institute. We discussed the impact of regulatory changes, including GDPR, on the corporate law department, the role of legal operations leaders in promoting innovation, and the rising importance of contract management.

I spoke with Lukas Bell and Chris Neville, who are implementation consultants for KIM Technologies, an artificial intelligence-driven automation software platform, at the 2018 Corporate Legal Operations Consortium Institute. We discussed CLOC's focus on innovation and their mission to empower legal professionals.

I spoke with Shmuli Goldberg, the vice president of marketing for LawGeex, an artificial intelligence tool for contract review automation. We discussed how LawGeex works, its recent research study – AI vs. Lawyers – comparing the performance of its technology with 20 human reviewers, how the perception and acceptance of automation has changed, whether an AI tool can mimic the talent, experience, and judgment of a practicing lawyer, and if lawyers are still relevant.

I spoke with Dan Carmel, the chief marketing officer at iManage, a leading provider of work product management solutions for law firms, corporate legal departments, and other professional services firms. We discussed the evolution of iManage, its acquisition of RAVN and how the company is incorporating artificial intelligence into its platform, why AI is so important for providers of legal and professional services, the key themes of its upcoming user conference – ConnectLive 2018 – on May 3rd and 4th, and where the sector is headed.

I spoke with Larry Bridgesmith, an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt Law School and the co-creator of the school’s Summit on Law & Innovation (SoLI), which will take place on April 30th in Nashville. We discussed the genesis of the Summit on Law & Innovation, how this differs from other law school-sponsored conferences, and the benefits of cognitive diversity and radical collaboration.