Legal Commentary

ACCESSDATA & CT SUMMATION

Posted on June 10, 2010
Darwin Watch: Wolters Kluwer's CT Summation and AccessData have just announced that they have signed the paperwork to merge into a single company: AccessData Group. The new company will offer a cradle-to-grave electronic data discovery offering, they report...

WESTLAWNEXT MOBILE

Posted on June 09, 2010
Thomson Reuters has been busy fine-tuning and tweaking WestlawNext -- the latest upgrade to its flagship research network that was introduced at LegalTech New York. A few weeks ago, at the company's Eagan, Minn., campus, I was briefed on the latest developments from Brian Quinn, senior director of new products, and Gretchen DeSutter of TR's communications team...

KROLL ACQUIRED

Posted on June 07, 2010
Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., and Altegrity Inc. have announced a definitive agreement under which Altegrity will acquire Kroll Inc. from MMC in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.13 billion, Details here

HONOR PERFECTION - AN OPEN LETTER TO SELIG

Posted on June 03, 2010
Dear Bud Selig: As New York Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay always says, "It's important to get the call right." The Detroit Tiger's Armando Galarraga pitched the 21st perfect game in MLB history last night. There is no ambiguity. The video unequivocally shows that the runner was out...

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BREATHING EASIER

Posted on May 31, 2010
All lawyers must be able to fashion a successful legal hold, argues Craig Ball in his May "Ball in Your Court" column in Law Technology News. U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin's recent "terrifying 88-page opinion" in Pension Committee gives no quarter, he says...

MAY DAZE

Posted on May 31, 2010
If there's a rhythm to life, it seems that May is a time of change. I've always thought that January, in the choke hold of winter, was an odd time to start a new year. May seems more appropriate, with its often perfect, humidity-free weather, sparkling skies, and the sweet smells of emerging fruit on trees...

SECURITY SCARE

Posted on May 27, 2010
Deborah McReynolds, senior paralegal at St. Louis' Husch Blackwell Sanders, forwards a very unnerving CBS report about how copiers are being resold -- without wiping (aka "scrubbing") the hard drive. CBS bought (for about $300 each) four machines from a warehouse and found hard drives that contained -- to put it mildly -- highly sensitive data...

HERE COMES TROUBLE

Posted on May 27, 2010
Three days of briefings with Twin Cities legal technology teams have increased my perception that compliance is looming large over our industry. Once all of the related issues become clear, I suspect that compliance will make e-discovery look simple. Tuesday's lead story on the Star Tribune's business page was how Piper Jaffray & Co...

CUE THE REVOLUTION

Posted on May 27, 2010
A few years back, "solution" was the most annoying buzzword in legal technology. For the last year, it's "revolutionary." I would say, conservatively, that 90% of all the vendor press releases we receive at Law Technology News use "revolutionary" in their lead sentences as they describe their new product or service...

THE CAREERIST: IS IMAGE EVERYTHING?

Posted on May 27, 2010
Our colleagues at The American Lawyer have debuted a new blog: The Careerist. Senior reporter Vivia Chen is the lead writer, with posting assistance from Law.com's Audree Wong. TAL editor Aric Press describes the new blog as "an adroit, focused, useful, and amusing look at lawyers and their careers...

MINNESOTA MARVELOUS

Posted on May 27, 2010
On May 26th, the Minnesota legal technology community gathered for our eighth annual Twins/Yankees group game, but this time in a new venue: the fantastic new (but roof-less) Target Field. It's a wonderful venue, but of course, all the out-of-state visitors are still pondering just what the Twins will do in April and October...

HERE COME THE LAWYERS

Posted on May 25, 2010
Interesting post by Anna Maria Virzi on ClickZ, "BP Oil Spill Fuels Legal Marketing Machines," about how enterprising lawyers are using web tools to market their services to businesses and individuals affected by the Gulf Coast mess. And how BP itself is using the same tactics to try to salvage its image...

VEGAS, BABY

Posted on May 24, 2010
With the recent Nashville floods requiring a relocation of the August meeting of the International Legal Technology Association, we regular denizens were keeping our fingers crossed that maybe, just once, we might end up in Alaska, or the North Pole, or San Francisco, or anywhere coooooooool...

DOWSING FOR GOLD

Posted on May 17, 2010
David Whelan, a longtime member of the Law Technology News Editorial Advisory Board, is manager of legal information at the Law Society of Upper Canada's Great Library. In our May issue, Whelan was guest author of our Web Watch column, as Bob Ambrogi took the month off...

OFFICE, SHAREPOINT 2010

Posted on May 12, 2010
I turn the mic over to my colleague Sean Doherty, technology editor of Law.com: Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 was released to business customers today. The two products aim to "redefine" productivity, according to Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft Business Division...

NOT ALL BAD NEWS

Posted on May 11, 2010
Lately, there's been a lot of buzz and angst about the departures of senior folks in important firms and organizations, particularly among IT and e-discovery. But industry analysts suggest that the future may actually be bright for our legal technology community...

A CASE FOR BUSINESS

Posted on May 06, 2010
Are you ready to dive into business development technology? Well, chances are, you may not need to pull out the plastic -- your existing practice management software may already have the necessary bells and whistles that you need, says Ross Kodner, in the May issue of Law Technology News...

SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWCASE

Posted on May 01, 2010
We sneak-previewed Law Technology News' May cover story at the April 19 ALM conference in San Francisco, "Social Media: Risks & Rewards" -- but you can see the expanded version of the story on the LTN website. Our social media showcase starts with my article about how to construct an effective social media policy that both protects and promotes your organization's brand, intellectual property, employees, products and services, and customer relationships...

MERRY-GO-ROUND

Posted on April 29, 2010
Christopher Corey checks in from O'Melveny & Myers, letting us know today is his last day as the firm's director of practice support. "This certainly is a case of one door closing, and many others opening," he reports cheerfully, confirming that he got a pink slip...

TRIALDIRECTOR 6: RAVE REVIEW

Posted on April 28, 2010
Ted Brooks, a San Francisco-based trial technology consultant and frequent contributor to LTN, reviews TrialDirector 6, inData's upgrade to its litigation presentation software, on his Court and Trial Technology blog. "If you?ve never before used trial presentation software in your practice, now is the time to consider it...

MORE PINK SLIPS

Posted on April 27, 2010
A jam-packed trip to California last week. First, to the ALM conference in San Francisco, for "Social Media: Risks & Rewards," which was awesome and nuanced. As expected, American Express' Mark Bisard got a lot of buzz during his discussion of the @AskAmex Twitter team...

JUSTICE STEVENS DISCUSSION

Posted on April 10, 2010
I turn the mic over to my colleague Sean Doherty, technology editor of Law.com: Justice Stevens Announces Retirement: Normally, that's not a news topic that would make the Law Technology News Daily Alert. But in the spirit of Web 2.0 and internet journalism, The National Law Journal has mounted a blog on the topic, Speaking of Stevens: A Forum on the Justice, His Legacy, and the Future of the Court...

SOCIAL NETWORKING POLICIES

Posted on April 07, 2010
I am working on an article about social networking policies for organizations. Feel free to answers as few or as many of these questions as you like, and email your responses to me -- commonscold@alm.com Please be sure to provide your name, title, company/firm and city...

iJump 4 iPad

Posted on April 06, 2010
Not the least bit surprisingly, Saturday's release of the new Apple iPad is creating a buzz in the legal community. (Apple reports that it sold 300,000 units on day 1). ALM CEO Bill Pollak already has a 3G version on order (I'm going to wait until the prices go down a bit, besides, I never buy version 1...

THE REIGN OF SOX

Posted on April 06, 2010
A carefully crafted document management system can help your firm not only meet its business goals, but also comply with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In our April Law Technnology News cover story, Kenneth Jones, COO of Segwick's Xerdict Group, provides a basic framework to implement a system that will help your firm accurately track claims, assess associated risk factors, and project resolution costs...

SWEET SOLUTION

Posted on April 01, 2010
The Widget Co. has announced the debut of its revolutionary, robust, mission-critical, massively scalable, three-tiered intuitive solution, the Widget 542SX version 6.235. It is available in five form factors and six colors (Atlantic Ocean Foam, Beijing Smog, Day-Old-Bread, Cream Cheese Frosting, Hybrid Exhaust, and Florida Gator Orange)...

ALOHA DEBBIE CALDWELL

Posted on March 30, 2010
The indefatigable Debbie Caldwell is departing Fios, and also leaving the legal technology community. Caldwell, who served as senior manager of public, industry, and analyst relations, worked for Fios for seven years and was one of the best PR folks in the industry...

SOCIAL STUDIES

Posted on March 29, 2010
Confused by Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Martindale-Hubbell Connected, foursquare, and Flash Mobs? You aren't alone. Social Media is exploding, and its ramifications go far beyond planning lunches with friends. Consumers are using social networking tools to air grievances -- just ask United Airlines about how effective social media can be as a complaint vehicle...

MS WALK

Posted on March 24, 2010
I turn the microphone over to my colleague, LTN's editorial assistant Heather Schultz: After losing vision in one eye and experiencing a strange tingling in her arm, my mother, Julia Schultz, was officially diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1980. Because she couldn?t have children, in October, 1984, my parents adopted me from South Korea when I was four months old...

FACE TO FACE

Posted on March 23, 2010
Not all firms can afford the sizzling new life-size telepresence videoconferencing systems offered by Cisco, HP, and other vendors. And sometimes, even if firms can afford the new systems, they aren't the right match for their needs, says Steve Fletcher, CIO at Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein (and recipient of the 2009 LTN Award for IT Director of the Year)...

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