Today, technology has become more and more synonymous with productivity. Lawyers are turning to technology to not only get things done quicker, but also make their professional lives easier.
An article (registration is required) written by Lee Ann Enquist, vice president of Professional Development at West LegalEdcenter, addresses the emerging relationship between lawyers and the iPhone.
In Lawyers Enjoy New Level of Productivity with iPhone Technology, several attorneys shared their views on how the iPhone impact their professional lives. All believed that the iPhone allowed them to keep up-to-date with important information when they were on the go, but they also felt the CLE Mobile app was one of the most valuable assets of having their phones. (more…)
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A post on the Hildebrandt Baker Robbins LawVision blog explores the trepid relationship between law firm leaders and innovation.
In “The Innovation Paradox,” Lisa Rohrer explains that law firm leaders are apprehensive about innovation because of potential risks, despite their belief that innovation is extremely important to a firm’s strategic goals.
Rohrer asserts that this caution is quite common in law firms, due to the fundamental nature of the profession:
“I hear all the time from our law firm clients: ‘We do not tolerate mistakes.’ And that’s probably the right attitude when it comes to client work. Add to this that lawyers are trained to minimize legal risks and it’s understandable that law firms are more risk averse.”
She also considers whether the solution to apprehension is embracing mistakes:
“People trying new approaches to solving difficult problems are going to make mistakes. If they’re not making some mistakes, they’re probably either not being honest with themselves or they’re not trying hard enough. The prevailing view there is that you learn a lot more from failure than you do from success.”
Lisa Rohrer leads research on the changing management models and structures in law firms as Hildebrandt Baker Robbins’ director of research and is based in Washington, D.C.
You can read her full post on the LawVision blog.
Posted by Anne Lawver in:
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Are you an attorney, looking for a job?
Consider an alternative legal career in state or local government.
An article on AttorneyJobs.com titled “State and Local Government Careers for Attorneys,” written by Nancy Carver, discusses the many options of working as an attorney in state or local government, a career path that perhaps many have not thought of before. (more…)
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Do you think before you tweet or blog, or post those party photos to Facebook?
I mean, really think about it? As in, the implications of who will read your words or see you in potentially awkward situations?
The Web’s role in our personal and professional lives is a hot topic. One that we thought was worth exploring a bit in our latest interview edition of the Legal Current podcast.
We talked about the issues of online privacy with Jeffrey Rosen, law professor at George Washington University. Rosen also wrote an interesting article on the topic, “The End of Forgetting,” for The New York Times Magazine in July.
“There are just so many examples of the inability to escape our past, people being held accountable for stuff that they posted online to one audience and are being discomfited or embarrassed when it’s exposed to a very different audience,” said Rosen. “The right to privacy tends to cover only the outrageous or the untrue postings, things that are highly offensive to a reasonable person. But when you’re talking about embarrassing or truthful information, there’s not a clear legal right to escape it or to have people take it down.”
Please take a moment to listen to our podcast with Rosen in the player below, and offer your comments to this post:
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You also can access the Legal Current podcast on iTunes or grab the RSS feed.
If you have suggestions for podcast topics for us to focus on, or people to interview within the practice and business of law, send us an email to contact@legalcurrent.com.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
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We wanted to highlight the latest Lawyer2Lawyer podcast, hosted by Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams on the Legal Talk Network, as it marks its 5th year, making it the longest continually running legal podcast.
Congratulations on the milestone, Bob and Craig.
They’ve got a good discussion in their latest episode, where they interviewed renowned criminal defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey – known for his defense in cases such as O.J. Simpson, Patti Hearst and the Boston Strangler.
Bailey, along with New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt, gave some perspective on the case of former major league baseball pitcher Roger Clemens, who was recently indicted on charges for allegedly lying to Congress in 2008 when he testified he never used steroids. (more…)
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The virtual practice of the law certainly got a lot of attention this week at the 2010 ILTA Conference. Technology is obviously at the heart of the matter.
A session at the conference yesterday titled “Technologies to Support the Virtual Practice” was led by Sally Gonzalez, a senior director at Hildebrandt Baker Robbins.
It set out to define the parameters of virtual practice and examine what technologies and management strategies best support the virtual practice and whether different collaboration and security strategies in such a setting are necessary.
“You’re now going to have project teams consisting of internal and external resources that are highly dynamic that need to exchange and work on information collaboratively across those boundaries and its going to require a completely different technology infrastructure in order to support that,” said Gonzalez.
Legal Current did a video interview with Gonzalez before her session, in which she explains what she wanted to get across to the attendees:
You can get the slides from the presentation here.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
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Editor’s note: Guest blogger Joe Raczynski, an applications integrator for Thomson Reuters, Legal, also is a technology evangelist who specializes in social media and portal technology. In addition, he has been a consultant in Web and wireless development.
Enterprise 2.0, collaborative-based applications, solve inefficiencies caused by the inability to locate accurate information. This session at ILTA discussed why intranets do not suffice, single silo search is dying, and what is necessary to advance the firm’s productivity.
Across the board, law firms are realizing that an increase in transparency nets far greater productivity, and in-turn, profit. This knowledge sharing facilitates collaboration and reduces the time that attorneys spend searching for content. Enterprise 2.0 is at the very center of this movement.
Enterprise 2.0 tools: (more…)
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It’s clear that law firm clients are exercising more control in their demands for types of legal technology that offer better ways to interact with the firm they choose to do business with.
It’s about communication and taking action on types of technologies that address the varied needs of clients.
Tim Corcoran, vice president of Global Sales for Hubbard One, talks about that trend in this video interview that we did with him at the 2010 ILTA Conference:
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
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Editor’s note: Guest blogger Joe Raczynski, an applications integrator for Thomson Reuters, Legal, also is a technology evangelist who specializes in social media and portal technology. In addition, he has been a consultant in Web and wireless development.
Recently some select firms have forgone the necessity to prove return on investment (ROI), for KM, portal and Enterprise 2.0. However for the vast majority, ROI justification remains a constant. In this session at the 2010 ILTA Conference, the panel examined the basics of metrics, how to measure productivity rather than busyness, how to measure engagement and concrete ways to measure portal and Enterprise 2.0 applications.
As a baseline understanding for this discussion, metrics are numbers to gauge progress, i.e. a quantifiable means to measure if there is a move from one point to another. Firms engage in this activity to evaluate success and decide what to fund.
Simply stated they create these objectives to see if they are materially advancing the goals of the organization. (more…)
Posted by Joe Raczynski in:
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We met up with Mark Schiff, named the president of Hubbard One in June, at the 2010 ILTA Conference.
He told us why the conference is important to him, and to Hubbard One.
“This is a phenomenal opportunity for me to attend one of the premier legal technology events,” said Schiff. “It’s a great opportunity for the team here at Hubbard One to meet with our clients.”
In this video clip, Schiff talks about what he is hearing from customers at the show:
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
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Thomson Reuters, Legal, President & CEO Peter Warwick offered his perspective on the company’s approach to the current economic reality in a panel discussion, “Adapting and Thriving in a Challenging Economy”, at the Minnesota Venture & Finance Conference.
The launch of WestlawNext brings a significant advancement in the way professional legal research is done.
A discussion about online privacy and “The End of Forgetting,” with law professor Jeffrey Rosen.
