I was recently a guest on a podcast called Discussions at the Round Table. The podcast is put on by the Round Table Group. The Group is a premier expert referral service. It locates, vetts, and engages expert witnesses in complex litigation matters. I was asked to talk about my work as a practicing lawyer with experts over the years.

For most of my career, I was a national mass tort defense lawyer. I had the chance to work with all sorts of experts in all types of cases and jurisdictions. Some of these experts were better, and some were worse. And the fact that the rules concerning what must be disclosed and how detailed expert reports must be sometimes made working with experts complicated.

Continue Reading Unlocking Success in Complex Litigation: 10 Essential Strategies for Lawyers and Experts

In the ever-evolving legal technology landscape, innovation has become synonymous with progress. Clio, a leading provider of cloud-based legal technology, has taken a significant step forward for one market segment by recognizing the specialized needs of personal injury law firms and lawyers. The product is called Case Management Software for Personal Injury Firms. The product is an add-on to Clio’s cloud-based legal practice management software, Clio Manage.

Clio is now offering plaintiffs’ lawyers features that it hopes will maximize settlements, streamline medical record management, and accelerate recovery proceeds and disbursements.

Continue Reading Clio’s Personal Injury Case Management Software: Tailoring Innovation to Meet Legal Needs

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With all the hype over GenAI, the metaverse, the digital world where people/avatars can mingle, has been largely forgotten. After all, the notion of working in teams of cartoonish avatars seemed unlikely at best. And silly at worst, particularly for any business purposes. No one seemed interested in dealing face to face with an avatar that looked like, say, Donald Duck. So, most of us dismissed the metaverse, putting it in the same class as blockchain. Much ado about nothing. Solutions in search of problems.

But then I happened to come across some groundbreaking work that Meta (formerly known as Facebook) is doing. The program is called Codec Avatars. It focuses on making the avatars closely resemble what we really look like and less abstract. They call these things Codec avatars. The goal is to make the avatars what they call “photo realistic” as opposed to expressive. Ok, you say, big deal, they are still unrealistic avatars with no arms and legs, etc. Why not just keep using Zoom?

Continue Reading The Metaverse and Blockchain for Legal: We’re Back

There’s little doubt that In today’s rapidly evolving legal landscape, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into legal is poised to change the way lawyers operate. Clio’s unveiling of Clio Duo, a multifaceted AI tool designed to assist legal professionals, raises some interesting questions about the future of the legal profession, what constitutes success and how being a good lawyer is defined.

Clio CEO Jack Newton introduced Clio Duo today at ClioCon. According to the press release, Clio Duo will serve as a coach, intuitive collaborator, and expert consultant to legal professionals. Clio claims that Duo will enable customers to unlock their own data, become more effective business owners, and get better outcomes for clients. The video of the tool unveiled at the keynote showed a person asking Duo about the status of bills and cases, to summarize documents and for help getting ready for client meetings. Like so many vendor introductions in this arena, the Clio GenAI tool is a promise, not a reality today. But that’s perhaps to be expected, given how quickly the area is being developed.

Continue Reading Clio’s New AI Tools: Transforming Legal Practice and Redefining Legal Success?

I recently attended RelativityFest put on by the ediscovery software provider, Relativity. Relativity is one of the largest discovery software providers. RelativityFest is its extravagant user conference. This year’s version was in Chicago. 

According to Relativity, there were some 1793 attendees at this year’s show, which was the 14th annual one. In the Keynote, Relativity’s new CEO, Phil Saunders talked a lot about the evolving data landscape. Short messaging, audio, and video have all combined to create a surge in new data. Saunders noted that there has been an over 305% year-over-year increase in the amount of data that could be subject to discovery.

Continue Reading RelativityFest 2023: The Evolution of Ediscovery Technology

They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Matthew 23:4

Like so many things, whether you love or hate remote work depends on how you look at it. Do you look at the remote work phenomenon and see multiple problems? Do you pine for the days when everyone had to come to the office? Or so you see opportunity?

One person and one law firm that looks for the opportunities remote work holds is J.Y. Miller and Husch Blackwell. Miller described the firm’s approach to remote work and laid out these advantages in a recent LegalSpeak podcast.

He also discussed what Husch is doing to take maximum advantage of the virtual office concept. Miller, the co-managing partner of Husch Blackwell’s virtual office, was interviewed by Alaina Lancaster.

Husch Blackwell is a national law firm with 21 brick and mortar offices. It also has a formalized virtual office, which actually has a name: The Link. Launched in 2020, The Link now includes more lawyers than those who work in the firm’s physical offices. The Link has 200 lawyers and 400 legal professionals working from homes in 28 states and Washington, D.C.

Continue Reading Remote Work and Law Firms: A Glass Half Full

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Want to be a successful lawyer? Think Jimmy Buffett. Wait…what???

Like many of you, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Jimmy Buffett last week. He was a phenomenal artist and a cultural icon. He was a singer, a writer, and an author, among other things. His music, in many ways, was the music of my life. He gave us more than 40 years of songs and stories of happiness, sadness, distant places, and, of course, adventure. Whenever I hear one of his songs, I am reminded of vacations, the beach, cruises, and good times.

Continue Reading Wasted Away In Margaritaville: A Lesson for Lawyer Marketing

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According to various reports, a recent survey from Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group revealed some surprises. It’s been reported for the first six months of 2023, the legal headcount is up 3.9%, but billable hours are down. Significantly down. Wells Fargo surveyed over 130 law firms, including 68 AmLaw 100 firms. The Specialty Group frequently tracks and analyses law firm data and trends.

Continue Reading The Decline of Billable Hours and the Unproductive Partner Dilemma
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Every time I turn around, there’s another astounding and confounding assault on our rights. This time, it was the Fifth Circuit stepping in to ensure that our right against unreasonable search and seizure stops cold at the border.

On August 15, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a remarkable and scary decision limiting the rights of US citizens coming back into the country. Malik v. DHS. The upshot of the holding: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has an unrestricted ability to seize your phone. The DHS can also wipe your phone of all the data, and then keep both the phone and data. 

Continue Reading Your Constitutional Protection Against Unreasonable Search and Seizure? It Ends at the Border

The effect will be to handicap DEI efforts, at the cost of business independence and even if sound business reasons exist for inclusion.

The American Alliance for Equal Rights last week sued two law firms, Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster. Edward Blum heads the Alliance. Blum also headed one of the groups that brought the case against Harvard. That case resulted in the landmark Supreme Court decision which dealt what could be a death blow to affirmative action. In the suits aginst the law firms, the Alliance alleges that the firms’ diversity fellowship programs discriminates against white people. The programs are only open to people of color, those with disabilities, or who are LGBTQ.

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The litigation comes shortly after letters from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and a Republican Equal Employment Opportunity Commission member threatening suits against numerous law firms with DEI programs. Apparently, Blum and the Republicans are not content to attack colleges and universities. They intend to stamp out any programs of businesses that do anything that smacks of favoring anybody but whites.

The ramifications of the onslaught are terrifying, frankly. The diversity numbers in law firms and the legal profession are already abysmal. Creating programs to alleviate that record is the right thing to do. Unless you want to perpetuate a system that systematically favors white men. 

Continue Reading The Next Salvo in the War Against DEI Has Just Been Fired. And It Focuses on Law Firms