Fringe Legal Presents Bots @ Work

On this episode of Fringe Legal Edge – host Abhijat Saraswat speaks with six outstanding women.

There are each uniquely impressive, but all have one thing in common. They met (as well as 14 others) through a Linkedin networking group at the beginning of the pandemic. This one act led to the writing of an anthology of their struggles, experiments, and triumphs.

Ab speaks with Winter Wheeler, Shari E. Belitz, Esq., Lisa Lang, Laura M. Gregory, Esq., Deb Feder, and Christon Halkiotis.

Their stories are endearing; they show authenticity, talk about insecurities, confidence, and about what can happen when you show up.

Here is a peek into their stories:

Takeaway 1: How Shari E. Belitz, Esq. shed the label of ‘side hustle’ and became “founder and CEO… No side. Lots of hustle.”

Takeaway 2: How Laura M. Gregory, Esq., CPCU made insurance coverage interesting to the masses and grew her following from 1k to 6k in just six months! LauraHasItCovered

Takeaway 3: How Christon Halkiotis lesson about riding a motorcycle through curves in a road (acceleration helps give you the traction necessary for a change) would apply equally to her move from a prosecutor to a private defense attorney.

Takeaway 4: How Winter Wheeler struggled with going for her passion career (“my goal was right on the horizon, I was crippled by the notion that because I had worked so hard for my litigation career”) until she had no choice. And, how she found success through a careful and planned approach (even when sometimes didn’t know how!)

Takeaway 5: How Deb Feder created the same kitchen table environment in a virtual world, the same kind of environment she had seen her parents create to bring communities together. Also, her recipe for corn dip sounds delicious!

Takeaway 6: How Lisa Lang overcame her fear of networking (“I remember my first post—not the content, but the feeling I had when I hit the “post” button. It was sheer panic. I immediately logged out of LinkedIn.”) in three months to go from lurker to contributor to creator.

You can find #Networked: How 20 Women Lawyers Overcame the Confines of COVID-19 Social Distancing to Create Connections, Cultivate Community, & Build Businesses in the Midst of a Global Pandemic on Amazon

Chatter is a special episode where Abhijat sits down with Vincent Michetti to discuss 3-5 varied topics. In this episode they discuss: 

• Deloitte buys Kemp Little: Deloitte UK has bought the law firm Kemp Litte, which adds 86 lawyers (inc. 29 partners) to the legal roster for the company. We've been through this before, throughout the 1990s the Big Five accounting firms (as they were at the time)—Arthur Andersen, KPMG, Ernst & Young (EY), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and Deloitte—made a concerted effort to enter the legal services market. It was relatively successful but was shut down following a wave of accounting scandals that saw the fall of Arthur Andersen, and new regulation introduced that restricted the ability of the Big 4 to offer non-auditing services to audit clients.
• ILTA Tech Survey: the annual ILTA tech survey was published recently, which collected responses from 470 firms, 103k+ lawyers, and 208k+ users. Overall, there was a much higher focus on the Cloud ( lots of o365, exchange online, cloud with next upgrade), distributed workplaces (how will firms' IT teams support home offices), and change management continues to be the top of mind issue. 
• How to Stop Phishing: we talked around this Reddit post which discussed a simple change that reduced a simple hack that reduced the number of people that fell for a phishing count to zero.

Ab: Hello everyone. And welcome to this experimental episode. And this episode will be using machine learning too. read out one of the articles I've written in the past. Probably will be getting a few of these in the coming months. So please do let me know what your thoughts are and excuse any mispronunciations from the ai you can find the full text of the article on fringe legal.com and as always love to hear your feedback. Enjoy.

AI narrator 1: This is the audio version of an article, read by your friendly neighborhood artificial intelligence.

AI narrator 2: Solving the Last Mile Problem for the Utilisation of Legal Technology

  The last mile is a concept that specifically focuses on the movement of goods or services from the distribution centre to the destination – this final aspect of the supply chain is often the most difficult and expensive than any other part of the supply chain.

This article considers the last mile problem framed as the utilisation of technology at law firms, and how solving it could provide significant business benefits.

The Multi-faceted Approach of Considering the Last Mile Problem

  The idea of the last mile was originally conceptualised around the delivery of telecommunications and electricity; since then it has been extended to many other verticals, and is commonly referenced with regards to logistics and transportation.

The question we consider here is what is the last mile affecting the legal profession, and how should we start to solve it?

The last mile is partly a matter of perspective – when considering the legal eco-system the problem to be solved depends on which part of the legal supply chain is considered – the delivery of legal service, the utilisation of technology, or one of the many other end points.

The Promise of Significant Business Gains

  Regardless of which part of the value chain is considered from the perspective of a legal technology leader, the mandate should be to help the lawyer (the end user) finish their work quickly and with a high degree of competency.

In this article we will demonstrate the value of solving the challenge of the last mile problem by focusing primarily on the utilisation of technology at law firms. My hope is that in working through this a mental framework can be constructed which can also be applied to other forums.

Below we will define the problem, consider the benefits, and review some considerations for IT leaders and knowledge professionals.

  Delivery and Utilisation of Legal Technology

  There has been a boom in the number of technologies being offered to and implemented within law firms. This is particularly the case in large legal markets such as the USA and the UK. The same observation can be made of emerging legal tech markets such as Singapore, where initiatives promoted by the government and other agencies are ensuring a healthy appetite for law firms to obtain legal technology.

Law firms are complex businesses with many moving parts, but they all want the same thing: to realise the full potential of their investment. For this to be accomplished there must be a smooth delivery from end-to-end. This is done by maximising the bandwidth so that workflows can be created that put the right tools in the user’s hands at the right time, and in the right way.

Often the last mile is the least efficient part of the delivery process. When implementing technology this is often translated as complexities with implementation itself, troubleshooting and training to maximise adoption.

Most firms have a fragmented eco-system of legal technology. The annual publication by Litera Microsystems – The Changing Lawyer – reported that almost half of firms are working with over 10 legal technology suppliers, and 68 per cent of firms say that their tech tools overlap in functionality.

The problem with this approach is that the users are perpetually confused by which technology to use, and there is a dizzying array of training that must be attended and remembered each time a simple task needs to be accomplished. In solving these issues, we must work towards a simplified system which encompasses a large workflow that is frequently followed by lawyers.

  Benefits

  Before considering how to solve the problem, let’s consider the benefits of doing so.

If we return to our earlier example of transportation, it is easy to see the business paybacks to be gained by solving the problem.

In the last five years, within the transportation vertical, companies such as Bird, and Lime have become some of the fastest growing – Bird became the fastest Unicorn in the US (company valued at over one billion USD) – by focusing on solving the last mile problem through the use of scooters. In doing so, the company considers what is the easiest and the most cost effective way of getting an individual across that last mile: from the hub (eg a train station) to their home.

Solving for the last mile with regards to delivery of technology means saving time and effort. For lawyers the result is to have more time available to think and, to provide greater value to their clients. This has the secondary benefit of minimising the mundane, inevitably increasing morale and job satisfaction.

For a business, the benefits include reducing errors in delivery of the work product, having the ability to service more clients, and generally increasing revenue.

What must be considered is that most customers expect quick delivery but are not willing to pay the high premiums. Therefore, to accomplish the task productivity tools for a lawyer that improve workflow, efficiency is needed.

  Better Technology and More Integration

  When thinking about how to achieve said benefits, it may be tempting to opt for even more technology. However, I would argue that this is not the right approach – as it further fragments an already fragmented eco-system. Instead firms should aim for better technology, more conversations, elegant delivery mechanisms, and more integration.

Systems that are put in place should provide an integrated approach to the workflow – this means integrating with relevant systems (for example, a Document Management System (DMS)) so that as many of the necessary actions can be accomplished from within the application where the lawyer spends most of their time (such as Microsoft Word).

  Is Your System Being Used as Intended?

  If we consider this from the perspective of an IT leader or the business unit, it is important to pay attention during the implementation stage to ensure that the delivery being received is as intended.

Are your users able to go through workflows (eg creating, checking, and collaborating on a document) in a cohesive manner without significant cognitive burden?

Companies like Litera Microsystems have formed around this specific narrative and as a result their suite – the Litera Desktop – can be delivered as a single, lawyer focused ribbon. The advantage of this is that it provides all the necessary tools for the entire workflow which all look and feel the same, allowing the lawyer to focus on the task at hand instead of jumping from tab-to-tab and ribbon-to-ribbon.

  Integrating – In and Out...

Eric Laughlin is the CEO of Agiloft - the no-code contract and commerce lifecycle management software company. 

In this episode you'll learn about:

• What is contract lifecycle management?
• The benefits of no-code technology - from an implementation, design, and adoption perspective
• From the legal ops perspective why you should consider all software instead of just legal tech solutions
• What Agiloft plans to do with their $45M investment 
• Eric’s experience as a new CEO - his onboarding experience and his leadership focus for the next few months

SUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW:  iTunes // Spotify // Pocket Casts // Stitcher 

You can find Eric on LinkedIn and find out more about Agiloft here. 

Agiloft Secures $45 Million Growth Equity Investment from FTV Capital  

Names Accomplished Legal Tech Executive Eric Laughlin as CEO to Accelerate Growth in No-Code Contract and Commerce Lifecycle Management Software Company

Redwood City, Calif., August 17, 2020 – Agiloft, the global standard in no-code contract and commerce lifecycle management, today announced a $45 million growth equity investment from FTV Capital, a sector-focused investor in innovative companies in enterprise technology and services, financial services, and payments and transaction processing. Bootstrapped since its inception and profitable, Agiloft’s investment from FTV is the company’s first round of external funding and will be used to build on its leadership position in the rapidly growing enterprise contract and commerce lifecycle management (CCLM) space as it accelerates its AI-based product development and expands its vertical and geographic market presence. Agiloft’s no-code platform drives industry-leading configurability and automates complex enterprise workflows through an iterative design process at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional software.

In conjunction with the transaction, Agiloft appointed Eric Laughlin to the role of CEO, effective immediately. Laughlin most recently served as global leader of legal managed services at Ernst & Young, LLP, where he managed the Pangea3 and Riverview Law teams and provided clients with technology and service solutions in the contracts, e-discovery, and compliance domains globally. Founder and former CEO of Agiloft, Colin Earl, will remain with the company as chief technology officer, overseeing product development, engineering, security and technology infrastructure and providing strategic guidance to the company.   

“Colin and his team at Agiloft have built a unique company, emphasizing customer-focused execution and a culture of trust and transparency — all built on a foundation of technical excellence,” said Laughlin. “The result has been steadily accelerating growth and consistent profitability. I’m honored to have been chosen to lead Agiloft in the next chapter of its development. A big part of my role will be to grow the company while maintaining the elements that have made it so successful.”  

"Eric not only has a track record of success, growing and leading large global organizations, he has the vision, domain expertise and integrity to lead Agiloft in its next phase of growth and product innovation. The search took over a year–and it was well worth it to find the right individual.” said Earl.

Named a leader by Gartner in its 2020 Magic Quadrant for Contract Lifecycle Management, Agiloft has reported 134% growth in new sales thus far this year, an implementation success rate of 99.6% and has a loyal customer base of more than 600 customers, including Honeywell, CDW and Roche. Its adaptable contracting software is built on a no-code platform, allowing organizations to customize complex contract and commerce workflows without writing a single line of code. A robust AI engine simplifies the intake and organization of existing contracts and also identifies the level of risk in documents and clauses. The result is cost discipline in procurement, quantifiable reductions in revenue leakage in sales, and visibility into contractual risk and regulatory compliance for legal departments. The platform is easily extensible to the commercial processes adjacent to contracts such as spend management and integrates with enterprise systems. 

“Agiloft has established itself as a trailblazer in the fast-growing market for contract and commerce lifecycle management software,” said Alex Mason, partner at FTV Capital. “To develop a no-code product that customers love, while prioritizing profitable growth without external investment, is a remarkable achievement. We are proud to be a collaborative partner to the Agiloft team and look forward the exciting journey ahead.”   

“With digital transformation moving at the speed it is today, contract management solutions that are well-scoped and executable are mission critical,” said Abhay Puskoor, principal at FTV Capital. “As businesses continue to find new efficiencies and ways to reduce costs, contract management will play a significant role in adoption of automation, and Agiloft’s highly configurable no-code platform will enable automation at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional software. We welcome the opportunity to connect Agiloft to the enterprises in our Global Partner Network who will value ...

Ray Biederman is an experienced litigator with nearly two decades of experience removing obscurity from the eDiscovery process for other attorneys and corporate resources. Ray is the President and co-founder of DiscoveryMaster.co, CEO of Proteus Discovery Group, and Partner at Mattingly Burke Cohen & Biederman LLP.

And that was part of the beauty of what we've done; people don't really have to change their practices all that much, it unifies everything into one place and they get the information they need, but they don't have to learn a new piece of software in order to do it.

In this episode we discuss:

• Technology adoption and innovation: the difference in enthusiasm & sophistication between in-house legal teams and AM Law 200 firms
• Cloud: the dichotomy between legal tech ecosystem moving to the cloud, and requirements by IT teams to keep things on-prem for security reasons
• In-house/outside counsel: the dynamics of this relationship and how the bleed from consumer tech into the professional world is affecting it. 

You can learn more about DiscoveryMaster here, and connect with Ray on LinkedIn. 

Adrian Camara is the CEO of Athennian. Athennian is a legal entity management software for in-house teams and law firms.

This is a replay from the Fringe Legal Virtual Summit held earlier this year.

This panel brings together four leading knowledge managers and innovators to discuss some of the projects they have started or have seen sprouted in crisis situations.

The panel will bring together a world view as we'll be joined by Thao and Priti is the US (New York and Chicago respectively), Barbara in Brazil, and Terri in Australia.

On the panel were: Priti Saraswat, Bárbara Gondim da Rocha, Terri Mottershead, and Thao Tran

This was recorded as a video and you can watch the video version at https://summit.fringelegal.com/talks/km-viewpoint-from-practitioner-to-enabler/

Ab and Vincent sit down for the first of the monthly “chatter” segments on Fringe Legal during which they discuss the Epic vs. Apple/Google saga, California vs. Uber and Lyft, and the upcoming Microsoft Surface Duo device.

You can watch the video version of the recording here: https://www.fringelegal.com/august-chatter-with-vincent-michetti/

You can Vincent Michetti on LinkedIn. 

Mick Sheehy joined PwC as a partner in October 2018 to build and run PwC’s Australian NewLaw practice, focussed on providing strategic consulting, technology, and outsourcing solutions to legal departments. 

Mick is a recognized international leader in the field of legal innovation and transformation, having won numerous international legal innovation awards and with his work the subject of a case study for Harvard Law School.  

Mick founded and chaired the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium Australia, an industry body established to share best practice legal operations and innovation knowledge.  Mick is a director of Fitzroy Legal Service, a member of the advisory board to Swinburne University Law School, has an extensive commercial and M&A background, and before PwC spent 14 years at Telstra where he was General Counsel.

In the episode today we'll talk through:

• The research project completed by PwC NewLaw team to identify key decisions that legal departments make every day
• Three waves of legal operations
  1. Vendor management: manage panels and understand where the money is being spent
  2. Productivity: how we manage our workflows, and getting the high volume but simpler processes done better
  3. Insights: this is where we are moving to, and provides a way to get us to look at data and focus on measurement

• Deciding what to measure and then what data to capture
• Why often legal departments aren't even part of the conversation around spend and business measurements. How measurement drives internal funding and support, and how to set baselines (even if you're the first/only one doing something) 
•  A deep dive into three functional examples - what to measure, how and why:
  • Business strategy
  • Technology & innovation
  • Knowledge management
• The importance of data-driven decision making

You can find out more about the report and download the PDF here.

You can find Mick on PwC's website or on LinkedIn

Andrea is a visionary leader with a passion for combining digitalisation with human potential. She has 20+ years of experience in the legal business both as a transactional lawyer and as a leader for various business areas (marketing, business development, innovation, and legal tech).

If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Fringe Legal Newsletter to get 3-5 interesting ideas delivered every Sunday. Join 530+ people. It's free. Join at www.fringelegal.com/newsletter

• Summary
  • Why every legal professional needs to know about digital transformation
  • What does Innovation mean to Andrea
    • many people mix up innovation with the change, or they mix up innovation with creativity and creativity is certainly necessary for innovation, but it's not enough. It's not the same... Many innovation projects include changing behaviors, adopting new working methods, adopting technology, but change is not equal to innovation... innovation and entrepreneurship is a key success factor for every single company, every single business, also for the legal, it's important that it creates value. It has an economic, positive impact
    • In reality, innovation is hard work. It's a very structured and focused process. You know the words 'fail fast', so you monitor the process and stop it. You have to create value. You have to have an innovation strategy that is aligned with the overall business strategy. So it is a science and it is something which is a serious and very impactful part of business management.
  • How to create a culture supporting innovation and transformation
  • What's the impact of Covid-19 on innovation strategy, and how it will lead to the great unmasking of the "innovation theatre"
    • Some people say that in the next 10 years, the amount of change will be equal to the previous hundred years. And, that's why I say that in the short term, you might have to state safe as a business; in the midterm, you will have to stay hungry; and, in the long term, you have to stay foolish.
    • For those moonshots or long term ideas, you need an innovation strategy. Research shows that in corporate innovation if you have a reactive approach and you just wait for people, you encourage them and incentivize them, but you wait that they come up with ideas most of the ideas will be incremental changes, mostly process changes. I would say that's nice - valuable. But more importantly, these days especially is to have a strategic view and formulate to people the direction we would like to get new ideas on, or which are the problems that are a priority for our firm.
  • Using gamification to drive technology adoption, and how Andrea used this successfully at her previous firm
  • Connecting pieces of the legal supply chain - what is the connection between strategy, innovation, technology and business development.

Find Andrea on LinkedIn and Twitter.