Republicans, attorney general fight over gun sting
Eric Holder faced angry questions over “Fast and Furious”, an operation aimed at tracking smuggled weapons that backfired and led to the death of a Border Patrol officer in 2010.

Roommate site does not violate housing laws
An appeals court ruled that federal laws prohibiting discrimination were intended for landlords and do not apply to relationships inside the home.

2nd Circuit sanctions lawyers who claimed Bush officials caused 9/11
The court upheld an earlier ruling that called the lawsuit against Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld frivolous and a product of “cynical delusion.”

JPMorgan slashes $710 million Lehman bankruptcy claim
The deal frees up more money to be distributed to Lehman’s creditors once it emerges from Chapter 11.

Gay marriage trial videos should stay under wraps, says appeals court
The 9th Circuit ruled that the emotionally charged recordings should not be disclosed because the trial judge had said they would remain private.

N.Y. bar considers allowing non-lawyers to invest in law firms
The association’s president, Vincent Doyle, made the announcement at an ABA conference, which is itself weighing whether to support nonlawyer ownership under certain circumstances.

Schwab to reimburse clients arbitration fees
The move comes one day after FINRA accused the brokerage of requiring customers to waive their rights to pursue class actions cases, a violation of industry rules.

For more legal news, check out Thomson Reuters News & Insight.

On Day Three of LegalTech, I discussed the show’s themes with a long-standing client. She mentioned some of the latest tools, but came back to the basics of project management. I said, aha! The process side is winning out. Nope, the client said, that’s too easy. And she was right. The tools, even the latest triangle graphs, attempt to present themselves as a tool to facilitate process. I need to chew on this one a bit further, but here’s my initial take on this epiphany.
So what are the “right” types of tools that appeared to resonate this year? Maybe we’re talking about the ones that most efficiently bridge the data/process gap. A discovery platform that provides as much value with small data sets as large. Research tools that more accurately find the most relevant cases. Ecosystems of tools that individually solve specific problems and together track data/documents through a process. The ability to eliminate rummaging through piles of books, contracts and/or transcripts to insert the right quote with accurate citations. Each solves a practical process problem, but has better reach into the data.

It’s like the old adage: if your tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Don’t get me wrong. I still carry my bias, but maybe I’ll put down the hammer and pick up a wrench every now and again.

Legal Current caught up with Ari for a chat about his LegalTech NY panel discussion “Advice from Counsel: Top Legal Minds in the Country Share their eDiscovery Tips.”

by Nathan Bowie, Thomson Reuters Engage

I’ve just had the opportunity to moderate two panel discussions on Legal Project Management here at LegalTech. In both cases, I was very fortunate to have such personable and knowledgeable panelists, and I’d like to take a moment to thank them publicly.

On Monday, January 30, Colleen Nihill, Firm Wide Director of Project Management at Dechert, and Curt Selman, Director of Finance at Martin Clearwater & Bell joined me in the Leveraging Legal Technology track on the subject of Profitability through Legal Project Management.  The following day, Jay Nogle, Chief Information Officer of Greenberg Traurig and Thomas Wisinski, Chief Knowledge Officer of Haynes and Boone helped the attendees at the CIO / CTO Forum navigate the ins and outs of Legal Project Management.

Their perspectives and their firm’s varied approaches to LPM made for two lively and informative discussions that I hope were as valuable to the audiences as they were to me. Thank you all very, very much.

Although the subject of each session was different, there were some common themes. Two that resonated with me (and I hope with the attendees) were: 1) who within the law firm owns the LPM process, and 2) will attorneys become project managers?

To answer the first, we need look no further than the titles of the four panelists: Director of Project Management; Director of Finance; Chief Information Officer; and Chief Knowledge Officer. It is clear that each firm has to decide where LPM will live, and who will drive it. In some firms, entire departments are being created that focus entirely on managing legal matters to achieve project management and financial goals. In other firms, the Finance department takes the lead working with attorneys to bring in their matters on time and on budget. At still other firms, IT is seen as the natural repository for hosting the tools and processes that make up LPM. After all, IT has been using project management in one form or another for years for their own initiatives. Lastly, one of the key benefits of LPM is that it helps the firm develop skills to gather valuable data and improves processes over time. This can be seen as the natural province of the Knowledge Manager.

To add to the subject, some firms are hiring dedicated practice managers who are charged with assisting attorneys in setting matter budgets and managing their matters and resources to achieve success. Finally, there are many firms where individual attorneys and practice group leaders are driving the move to Legal Project Management. After all, they are the ones on the front lines dealing with clients, and most directly feel the pressure to accurately price matters and manage to a budget.

The lawyer then becomes the one constant regardless of whether they manage the matter themselves, or whether they are managed as part of a process. If the lawyers do not fully buy in, Legal Project Management cannot succeed.

Which leads us to the second question: will attorneys become project managers? More specifically, one audience member asked if attorneys will actually seek Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute.

As an acquaintance of mine was quick to point out, no self-respecting lawyer is going to put letters after his name that resemble the word pimp. John Q, Smith, Esq., PIMP just isn’t going to happen any time soon.

All levity aside, that may change, and it may change sooner than many of us are willing to believe. As Colleen Nihill pointed out, Dechert is already developing internal programs to train attorneys in the basics of project management. A small, but growing number of consultants such as the LawVision Group are providing boot camps and project management training for law firms and other professional service organizations. In fact the Project Management Institute itself has created a working group called the PMI Legal Project Management Community of Practice. Perhaps it won’t be long until the PMI offers a specialty certification in Legal Project Management for attorneys and other practitioners.

Ultimately, as Jay Nogle observed, the market will drive any move toward attorneys seeking formal certification in Legal Project Management. If clients see value, and more importantly, if RFPs begin to require that certain members of matter teams be LPM certified, you can bet that lawyers will line up in droves for the right to put the appropriate series of letters after their names.

Competition seems to be heating up, not only as firms fight for more business, but also as clients seek greater demonstrated value for work performed, increasingly pushback on rates, and use more competitive bidding and convergence.

All this makes it imperative that firms find ways to improve efficiency and productivity.  A recent Serengeti survey found that while the most cited reason that firms are not retained was (not surprisingly) fees, 51% of clients said that inefficiency was also a factor.

Friction points that lead to inefficiencies can pop up at multiple points in matter management, client management and firm management.  And technology can provide key solutions to ease some of those friction points.

Many of those solutions are being unveiled, demonstrated and discussed this week at LegalTech New York, including new mobile solutions such as the WestlawNext iPad app and ProView eReader app, MatterSphere for integrated matter management, and Westlaw Drafting Assistant – Transactional integrated drafting tools and content for transactional attorneys, to name just a few.

The new year always starts off with hope for a better year, and excitement around new technologies.  And we look forward to talking with you, not only at LegalTech, but throughout the year to find out more about how your needs are changing in a rapidly evolving marketplace, and how we can hopefully help meet those needs.

Allison Guidette is senior vice president, large law firms, Thomson Reuters