I’ve been re-reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. I know there are criticisms of the book, but Isaacson is a good writer/storyteller. I realized Jobs engineered a return of Apple to dominance by doing two things really well. He forced the organization to make decisions quickly without endless debate.Second, the organization was decentralized. There weren’t silos or profit centers. These attributes let Apple get ahead even though it made mistakes along the way.

 

Of course, Apple was able to do these things because Jobs forced the whole organization to work together for the good of the whole organization. He had a vision for the organization—to make high qualitative usable products—that he and Apple relentlessly adhered to.

Continue Reading Law Firm Leadership: How To Knock Down Silos

This is the season for legal
tech announcements, whether they be about new or improved products or significant mergers, acquisitions, and funding. One announcement recently caught my eye, though, not because the product was cool or the merger lucrative. It was because it involved a big legal tech company simply doing good. Doing the right thing.
 
On October 19, LexisNexis and the National Bar Association (NBA) announced a multi-year agreement to advance the rule of law. The goal is to create programs and initiatives to combat systemic racism and racial inequality. When I dug deeper, I discovered this agreement came about mainly due to the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation’s efforts. We all know about LexisNexis, the behemoth legal tech company with a myriad of products and legal customers. I didn’t realize that LexisNexis also created the Rule of Law Foundation. The Foundation is a not for profit entity whose mission is to advance the rule of law around the world.

Continue Reading The LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation: Doing Good for the Sake of Doing Good

BlackBoiler, an automated contract markup technology provider, today announced it has secured $3.2 million in funding from strategic investors, including agreement cloud company DocuSign. BlackBoiler plans to use the funds to further develop its patented software capabilities and accelerate team growth.   

 

Dan Broderick, BlackBoiler’s CEO and founder, and his team must be congratulated for this significant new funding. But after recently talking to Dan and Varun Mehta, CEO of Factor (see my recent post), I’m beginning to wonder whether this lasting legal disruption brought about by Covid that everyone keeps talking about is really happening.

 

Blackboiler is an innovative high volume contract review tool that uses artificial intelligence and human interfaces to create, edit, and negotiate similar contracts more efficiently and better. With offices in Washington D.C. and New York City, BlackBoiler is a National Science Foundation-backed software company focused on contract review automation. Continue Reading BlackBoiler Eyes Expansion

This morning, Factor, (formerly Axiom Managed Solutions) one of the most prominent alternative legal service providers, announced the appointment of Carol Lindstrom, former Vice-Chair of Deloitte, to its Board of Directors. Lindstrom’s appointment comes as Factor closed on a new investment from Carrick Capital Partners – one of the largest recent investments in the global legal solutions market – which will allow Factor to quickly capitalize on the opportunities and momentum it has built since the beginning of the year.

 

 

 

 

Continue Reading Factor Continues to Diversify Its Leadership

Are you still using a screen and projector in the courtroom and in your live presentations? If so, this is one you might want to change.

 

As lawyers and all in the legal business, we are constantly called on to persuade, teach and communicate with others. Like us, most of the people we interact with consume content in ways many lawyers have been slow to adopt. This can put us at a disadvantage.

Continue Reading Still Using a Screen and Projector: Think Again

 

“Some people see things as they are never and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not.”

 

 

For months, ILTA (the International Legal Technology Association) remained committed to its annual in-person conference in Nashville on August 23 through 27.  As most of you know, the ILTA Conference is on the largest in the legal tech space.

 

 

As 2020 drug on and the pandemic got worse, we all saw most events either canceling or going virtual. ILTA stubbornly and almost single-handedly hung on to the idea that we would be back to normal by August. As March turned into April and April turned into May and June, most of us thought ILTA would cancel the whole thing at the last minute. That it couldn’t shift fast enough to virtual to have a worthwhile conference.

Continue Reading ILTA>On Virtual Conference: Be Bold. Reimagine the Space

One of the more fascinating keynotes at this week’s ILTA virtual conference was a panel discussion among three representatives of the big four accounting firms: Peter Krakaur, Managing Director of EY Law, Mark Ross, Principal, Deloitte, and Juan Crosby, PWC NewLaw Services Leader. The title of the talk was Legal’s Next Disruptor? Demystifying the Big 4. Or as I put it before, is the Big 4 the proverbial big bad wolf?

If you may be wondering, the answer whether will the Big 4 be the next legal disruptor is not only yes. Its hell yes. (It’s no coincidence that the titles of two of the panelists feature the word law front and center).

Continue Reading Big 4 As The Next Legal Disruptor: Is It Game Over?

As most of you know, this year’s ILTA conference is totally virtual. I don’t know whether it’s the outstanding content, the innovative approaches ILTA has rolled out or whether I’m just used to living virtually, but I’ve been impressed (more on this later).
 
Yesterday’s keynote (there is a keynote every morning) was a nuts and bolts discussion about law firms’ future. The presenter was Richard Punt, former CEO of Peerpoint. He  has a long history in legal and is now the Chief Legal Strategist and Market Development for Thomson Reuters. He has a ringside seat to what is going on in the legal industry both for in house counsel and law firms. His predictions for the future due to the ongoing changes in the industry and COVID should cause many law firms to think long and hard about where they are and where they are going. (As I have discussed before, the leaders of many law firms don’t lower themselves to attend conferences like this, so how information like this filters up may in and of itself separate the sheep from the goats).

Continue Reading Punt’s Prediction: A Scary Future for Some Law Firms