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And you still can hear me singing
To the people who don’t listen
To the things that I am saying
Praying someone’s gonna hear
And I guess I’ll die explaining how
The things that they complain about
Are things they could be changing
Hoping someone’s gonna care

Kris Kristofferson, To Beat the Devil

Is the legal world really changing, or are we all still just talking about change?

Last week, for the first time in a couple of years, I attended the ABA TechShow in Chicago. It’s one of my favorite legal tech shows. Since its geared more toward smaller firms and solo lawyers, there is less high-power selling like, say at LegalWeek. This creates space for more substantive discussions and learning from vendors. That was certainly the case this year. The show featured multiple substantive tracks, over 2000 attendees, countless exhibitors, a start-up competition, and even a silent disco.Continue Reading The Legal Innovation Glass: Half Empty Or Half Full?

Level 2 Legal Solutions, which calls itself a legal services company, today announced the formation of new Compliance and Privacy Practice Areas. These practice areas, according to Level 2 Legal, are specifically geared towards corporate counsel and law firm needs.

That in and of itself might not necesarily sound like big news, especially since Level 2 Legal has been in this space for a while. But what Level 2 Legal is doing is, in fact, a good lesson in disruption, innovation, and how to compete in today’s changing legal marketplace.Continue Reading Level 2 Legal: Defining The Business You’re In

Bob Ambrogi and I have a running dispute. He says I was the first one to ask whether it might be malpractice to not use legal data analytics in today’s litigation world. I say he was the first one to ask that very legitimate question.

But it really doesn’t matter who first coined the question. Recent results from the third annual Legal Analytics Survey by LexisNexis suggests if the answer is not already yes, it’s getting darn close to it.Continue Reading Is It Malpractice To Not Use Legal Analytics?

I just returned home after four days in New York City for LegalWeek2020. LegalWeek is one of the biggest and most well-known legal tech conferences more info. While there are other conferences, LegalWeek is more eDiscovery and vendor orientated. CLOC, for example, focuses more on substantive issues surrounding legal ops. ABA’s TechShow is designed to get basic information to a broad audience.

LegalWeek is geared more toward larger commercial law firms. It’s the tech show for the AmLaw 200. Yes, there is good substantive programming, but  it’s also the opportunity for tech vendors to sell their wares to big law. Plenty of sales meetings, plenty of parties, plenty of marketing speak. It’s appropriate that’s in held in New York where everything is big, expensive and the hustle is always on.

Continue Reading LegalWeek 2020: 5 Impressions of a Lawyer Turned Blogger

One hallmark of good technology is that it addresses a customers’ pain point and makes life easier. If that’s true, then LexisNexis® CounselLink® new FastTrack product hits the mark.

This is the time of year —right before and during LegalWeek, which deems itself with some justification as “the largest and most important legal technology event of the year”—for new legal tech product announcements. One of these that caught my attention was a new offering from LexisNexis® CounselLink® called CounselLink FastTrack. CounselLink FastTrack is an innovative approach to vendor and financial management. It helps law firms get paid sooner while providing extended payment terms and some cash back on invoices to firm clients.Continue Reading CounselLink FastTrack Reduces Payment Pain Point

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange

Changes David Bowie 1971

I went back to my old law firm for an open house this week. It was the first time I had been there since leaving the firm to blog, consult, and practice law on my own. My former partners were very welcoming but curious about how I was doing. If I liked what I was doing and happy with the change. In a word, my answer was absolutely. My only regret is that I didn’t make the change sooner.

Change is sometimes particular hard for lawyers. I can’t tell you how many unhappy lawyers I know who can’t just seem to make the decision to change. To do something different, to do something they really want to do. I know, I was one.Continue Reading Dithering About Career Change? Three Life Lessons That Will Help

You think it will never happen to you, that it cannot happen to you, that you are the only person in the world to whom none of these things will ever happen, and then, one by one, they all begin to happen to you, in the same way they happen to everyone else.

Paul Austerer, Winter Journal

As I do every year, I’m in Las Vegas this week for CES. (CES used to Stand for Consumer Electronics Show but now it want to just be called CES). CES calls itself the world’s largest and most important tech event, where the entire technology ecosystem gathers to conduct business, launch products, build brands, and network (aka party).Continue Reading A Lawyer At CES. The Top 10 Takeaways

The highest and best use of AI is where AI is combined with human intelligence to get the best of both worlds. This lets AI do what it does best: search through a large number of data points, find things like hidden patterns, and “learn” from previous applications. AI frees humans to do what they do best: use experience, knowledge, and insight to see nuanced connections, and use lateral and system thinking.
Continue Reading BlackBoiler Maximizes AI/Human Interaction For Contract Negotiations

Why does lawyer marketing suck? A new Survey by LexisNexis Interaction suggests its because most law firms don’t use data to make strategic marketing decisions.
Lexis Nexis Interaction today published its Law Firm Marketing & Business Development Survey. The Survey was conducted between August and October 2019. One hundred three legal marketing leaders across the U.S. and Europe participated, many from 40 Am Law 100 firms. Most were with established multi-office firms with over $500 million in annual revenue. In other words, biglaw.

Continue Reading Why Does Lawyer Marketing Suck?

As has been widely reported, it’s no secret that the number of actual jury trials have declined precipitously in recent years. Too much risk. Discovery costs–particularly those associated with electronic discovery–have made the pretrial process simply too expensive. And there is a reluctance by some to trust juries with what they believe are complicated issues. The result: more cases are settled, typically in mediation.
Continue Reading The Elon Musk Verdict: Some Cases Have to Be Tried