Here at Thomson Reuters, developing new ways to listen to customers has become an ongoing trend throughout the year. Recently, Hubbard One designed an impressive way to hear from customers through its new Insight video series. The videos connect Hubbard One’s clients to the most innovative ideas and trends in legal marketing, business development and practice management through interviews with thought leaders in the industry.
Each video highlights industry issues and market trends related to Hubbard One’s customers’ needs, including:
Today, they are releasing the 9th video in the series which features an interview with Jennifer Skiver, Client Relations Manager at Latham & Watkins. This episode looks at the changing client landscape and explores innovative ways firms can enhance the client experience.
You can watch all of the Insight videos on the Hubbard One website.
Posted by Kristin Mitchell in:
Audio / Video | In Business | Industry trends | Video |
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A new survey of major corporations found significant security gaps that leave sensitive board-level information open to information theft and hacking. Those are among the findings of a new survey of board members of UK and global corporations conducted by Thomson Reuters Governance, Risk & Compliance.
Most corporations surveyed have one or more of the following potential security issues involving information provided to board members, including:
- Unencrypted board communications (85%)
- Board documents stored on personal computers at home or work ( 79%)
- Board documents stored on personal mobile devices (75%)
(e.g., iPad, laptop, smartphone, etc.)
- Documents sent to board members via personal, non-commercial email addresses (73%)
- Board documents accessible via wi-fi or unsecured networks (71%)
- Have reported computer, mobile devices, or sensitive company documents (10%)
lost, stolen or left in public places
A detailed copy of the report can be downloaded here
Posted by Jeff McCoy in:
Industry trends |
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Consumerization of technology, change management, or globalization? What will dominate the legal technology landscape in the year 2020?
Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News, along with six industry leaders, including CIOs from prominent law firms, discussed this question and more in an energizing panel session on Wednesday morning: “[R]evolution: Industry Leaders Discuss Law2020 Hot Topics”.
The format was modeled after the popular TEDTalks seen on Ted.com and each of the panelists gave a short 9-minute presentation before opening up the floor for questions.
Highlights included a humorous presentation by George Rudoy, founder & CEO of Integrated Legal Technology, LLC on the numerous faux pas that one can inadvertently commit while conducting business in the new global environment.
Panelists also discussed the use of mobile technology, including iPads, and how firms are working to incorporate these technologies into their daily operations including providing technology support and allowances to purchase the equipment.
There was also a fair amount of discussion around the “new normal” legal market environment, and one panelist commented that 2008 is when lawyers stopped being a “protected species.” But instead of trying to do more with less, which is unsustainable, panelists encouraged law firms to look for ways to do things differently.
Overall, it was a very lively session with a lot of great discussion. Afterwards, we caught up with Monica Bay and Brian Zeve, consultant to the legal industry and former head of Microsoft’s legal and professional service industry initiative, to learn their takes on the discussion. Check out both videos below:
Posted by Jessica Leibrock in:
Audio / Video | Industry trends | Video |
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Chris Trimble, author, researcher and adjunct professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, kicked off the ILTA 2011 conference with a thought-provoking keynote session focused on innovation.
He started out by defining innovation as any project that is new to you and has an uncertain outcome. With this definition in mind, he talked about how innovation and ongoing operations are inevitably in conflict because one focuses on predictable, repeatable processes while the other is non-routine with unpredictable outcomes.
Chris states that the well-tried and repeatable processes of a company’s ongoing operations make up the performance engine of the organization. These processes allow companies to understand their customers and competition, operate efficiently, and consistently produce results that are on-time and on-budget. Chris acknowledges that all of these things are very good and lead to highly successful and profitable companies, however, this model is not the most conducive to innovation.
He offers three models for innovation:
Model 1: Innovation = ideas + motivation
This model encourages all employees to pursue innovation on their own initiative.
A limiting factor to this model is time – people have to squeeze innovation in, which works well for continuous improvement but not for creating completely new ideas or large-scale change.
Model 2: Innovation = ideas + process
This model treats innovation like any other business process: script it, make it efficient, make it routine.
The limitation to repeat innovation is that you get this year’s version of last year’s product instead of a something totally different.
The third model, which Chris advocates as the only real way to execute high-level innovation projects, is often met with a lot of anxiety and resistance. In order to move past some of this resistance, we must first destroy what he calls the “myth of the innovation man.” This myth involves looking inside an organization for individual heroes. He argues that one person fighting the system doesn’t work.
Model 3: Innovation = ideas + leaders + team + plan
This model is different because it calls for a special kind of team and a special kind of plan. Chris argues that the only way to successfully execute this model is to create a separate, dedicated team. He says that this team should be viewed as building a new company from scratch – new structure, new people, new titles. In order for this to work there needs to be a partnership between the performance engine (on-going operations) and the innovation team.
He states that innovation is an experiment but you need to learn quickly, make predictions, measure results, and make better predictions.
He also acknowledges that implementing the third model is difficult but that the companies who manage to do it successfully will be the ones who will continue to succeed in the future.
Overall, it was a fabulous start to the conference!
Posted by Jessica Leibrock in:
Industry trends |
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Taking center stage at the Thomson Reuters booth at AALL this year are ProView, the new eReader software application designed specifically to meet the needs of legal professionals, and WestlawNext Patron Access, a version of WestlawNext developed for the public-library setting.
Thomson Reuters ProView will allow users to access ProView digital eBooks anywhere, anytime with the advanced features that legal researchers need, including full-text Boolean search, standardized formatting and links to WestlawNext content.
Dan Bennett, senior director, Mobile Technology Strategy, demonstrated the new product at the Thomson Reuters booth Saturday night. View a recap of the demo here.
WestlawNext Patron Access is designed to meet the needs of public library patrons, allowing them to quickly get started and navigate their research with fewer questions.
Stay tuned to Legal Current for a guest post on WestlawNext Patron Access from marketing manager Nancy Wiens, as well as for further coverage of AALL 2011.
Posted by Megan Gustafson in:
Industry trends |
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On Saturday night, right after the exhibit hall ribbon cutting kicked off this year’s AALL conference, we had a kickoff of our own, as Dan Bennett, senior director, Mobile Technology Strategy, showed the new Thomson Reuters ProView eReader application. As attendees looked on, Bennett ran the new app through its paces, showing how it allows researchers to view, annotate and search texts anywhere, anytime.
Thomson Reuters ProView is the first professional-grade eReader software application, with advanced features such as Boolean full-text search based on the familiar Westlaw search, links to WestlawNext content and automatic content updating.
Thomson Reuters is showing ProView at AALL to get feedback and input from the librarian community. Thomson Reuters ProView will be a free downloadable software application for the iPad and web browsers. It will be available first through our Carswell business in Canada next month, and available to U.S. customers later this year.
Posted by Megan Gustafson in:
Industry trends | Products | Technology and innovation |
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In an era of Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes-Oxley and a seemingly endless list of other regulatory requirements, businesses have to sort through an almost equally long list of potential solutions.
Gartner’s new 2011 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Platforms report sorts through many of the available enterprise solutions, including Thomson Reuters Accelus, which was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant based on its ability to execute and its completeness of vision.
A full copy of the Gartner report can be downloaded here.
Posted by Jessica Leibrock in:
Industry trends |
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One of the most comprehensive anti-bribery and corruption laws in the world takes effect next month. A new survey by Thomson Reuters Governance, Risk & Compliance says that while most UK firms are on track to meet the implementation deadline for the Bribery Act, many have not adequately prepared their most senior executives and board members for the challenges they face from the new legislation.
The survey involved more than than 400 senior compliance officers, risk managers, internal auditors, lawyers and company secretaries.
The Bribery Act is considered to be tougher legislation than similar regulations in other countries, including the U.S. Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act, The Bribery Act affects not only UK-based companies, but any organization with a UK presence, regardless of where it was formed or incorporated.
A copy of the white paper discussing the survey results can be downloaded here.
Posted by John Shaughnessy in:
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Becoming more efficient in the law firm billing process is a trendy topic at the 2011 Elite User Conference – which is why many found the Alternative Fee Arrangements panel session so informative this morning.
Dan O’Day, senior director of Product Management for Elite, led the panel in a discussion about the many different alternative fee arrangements we see emerging in the legal billing industry. He talked about several different ways firms are billing their clients and their advantages and disadvantages and how each model can be used to maximize firm profits. Fixed or flat fees, capped fees, contingency fees, retainers, blended hourly rates, volume discounts and value based billing were highlighted as trends in legal billing.
Metrics, tracking and accountability steps were also suggested regarding alternative billing and how to “make it happen” in your firm. Dan closed with a last thought, “With money you can buy a clock, but not time. The legal profession becoming more efficient is in the best interest for everyone.”
What billing models are you seeing at your law firm – and which do you find most successful?
Posted by Kristin Mitchell in:
In Business | Industry trends |
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When a law firm asks, “How are we doing?”, it can be difficult to know which performance metrics really matter.
ProLaw has put together a free white paper that looks at different metrics for measuring law firm performance. It breaks out seven different management categories that are either in common use or have been proposed by various observers in the legal market.
The newly launched ProLaw XII, which is built on .NET technology with new SQL reporting tools, provides key financial and operational metrics for monitoring firm performance – many of which can be self‐defined by the firm.
John Hanson of Elite discussing these capabilities and other features found in the new ProLaw XII in a Legal Current podcast interview.
You can listen on the player below, or download the podcast here.
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Posted by Nicole Hansen in:
Audio | Industry trends | Law firm business |
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The U.S. Constitution is one of the most powerful and impactful documents in existence. It literally touches every American’s life, and has since its creation in 1787. Recently, I had the opportunity to view the document first-hand as part of a new exhibit, “We the People: The First Official Printing of the U.S. Constitution,” sponsored [...]
Earlier this week, we released our 2011 Annual Report in an interactive format available online at thomsonreuters.com. Along with information on the company’s financial performance as well as business unit overviews, this year’s annual report contains a variety of dynamic content including interviews with our new business leaders as well as stories of how we [...]
We’ve got a great episode for you this month, kicking off with our “Chaos in the Courts” segment that, believe it or not, is yet another story about the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas. Since our March podcast, another person has fallen victim to the establishment’s trademark bypass burger.
Then in our “On the Blawgs” [...]
