Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with David Freeman, the CEO of the David Freeman Consulting Group and founder of the Law Firm CultureShift® process. He is a best-selling author who has written four books on law firm leadership and business development, including his upcoming book - Creating a Cross-Serving Culture Shift: Mastering Cross-Selling for Lawyers and Leaders. We discussed how the economic realities of running a law firm are fueling interest in cross-selling, ways to shift your culture to support cross-selling opportunities, how to overcome key challenges, and how to get started. He shares a few of the 13 accelerators that can help firms thrive in the current market, including getting and acting on client feedback, as well as creating trusted relationships within the firm.

I spoke with Ian Campbell and Iram Arras, the founder and CEO, and Vice President of Product Strategy, respectively, for iCONECT, a multi-party document review platform. Legaltech News recently named iCONECT-XERA a finalist for Best E-Discovery Review Platform.

I spoke with Tim Cheadle, the founder and CEO of MatterMojo, a cloud-based client and matter management system for small and mid-sized law firms. Prior to founding the company, he was the General Manager of the LexisNexis UK & International Enterprise Solutions business. We discussed his background and the genesis of MatterMojo, the significance of the name, the company's extensive partnership with Microsoft, and the future of cloud-based client and matter management.

I spoke with Dr. Gavin Manes, the founder and CEO of Avansic, a firm that provides the legal, business, and government sectors with e-discovery, digital forensics, data preservation, and online review services.

I spoke with Eric Hunter, the Director of Knowledge, Innovation & Technology Strategies at Bradford & Barthel, a California law firm. He is also the Executive Director of Spherical Models, a consultancy that focuses on spherical business models through innovations in big data, strategic pricing, predictive analytics, and social media. The Ark Group recently released his new book: “The Sherlock Syndrome, Strategic Success through Big Data and the Darwinian Disruption.”

I spoke with Stacey Coote, the CEO of Yerra Solutions, Ltd., the U.K. subsidiary of Yerra Solutions, AG, a Swiss consulting, managed services, and products company, which helps legal and IP departments with strategy, operations, and technology.

I spoke with Michael Tal, an attorney, who served for several years in the corporate and M&A departments of both Skadden, Arps and White & Case LLP, and the co-founder and co-CEO of BusyLamp, a provider of enterprise legal management solutions with offices in Frankfurt, Germany and New York City.

I spoke with AJ Shankar, the founder and CEO of Everlaw, a cloud-based review platform for e-discovery. We discussed the genesis of Everlaw, which he describes as "as fast as Google and as easy to use as an Apple product," its popularity among law firms handling complex litigation and class actions, and the impact of design and usability on e-discovery software, among other topics.

I spoke with Craig Carpenter, the president and chief operating officer at Resolution1 Security, a software provider that enables continuous automated incident resolution for data breaches through real-time insight and analysis, as well as threat intelligence integration. He joined AccessData as Chief Marketing Officer in 2013 and assumed his current role in November of 2014 when the company divided its businesses.

When I was in London last October to moderate the Yerra Solutions Conference, I met with George Burgess, the founder and CEO of education app developer, Gojimo. He started the company when he was 17 and I plan to feature his inspiring perspective in the 2nd Edition of The Opportunity Maker, which will be out later this year. In the video below, he shares some networking tips and advice for those interested in creating something new in 2015. “Get out there and do it…there is nothing holding you back,” he says. “You’ll learn more from actually trying it than waiting and suggesting to yourself that you will do it later on in life, which never really happens.”