Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with Brian McManus, the CEO of Lighthouse eDiscovery, a provider of technology-enabled ediscovery and consulting services, which recently merged with Discovia, a company that provides complementary technology and services. We discussed the merger of Lighthouse eDiscovery with Discovia, the advantages of that combination to clients of the unified entity, ways that changes in the legal industry have increased the demand for dynamic consulting, how the association of the two companies reflects the changing nature of consolidation, and techniques for ensuring seamless cultural alignment.

I spoke with Keri Norris, the senior vice president for regulatory affairs and chief legal officer at LegalShield, a provider of pre-paid legal services. We discussed the chief legal officer’s role at LegalShield, the benefits of pre-paid legal services, the organization’s Elevate by LegalShield conference (July 6-8, 2017), and how the company is adapting to the changing legal market.

I spoke with Zach Abramowitz, the founder of ReplyAll, which he describes as a new way to create conversations online. Zach is also a speaker and writer on innovation, as well as a former stand-up comedian, producer at ESPN radio, and corporate lawyer. His columns and conversations on legal disruption appear in Above the Law, Bloomberg, and TechCrunch. We discussed the genesis of ReplyAll, how it works, the challenges associated with creating a technology start-up, how stand-up comedy fueled his work, the connection between ReplyAll and legal tech, and available opportunities for disruption in the legal field.

I spoke with Steven Sinofsky, a board partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, where he serves as an advisor to various companies, including as a board member of the e-discovery software provider, Everlaw. We discussed why law-related software is so attractive right now, whether a VC firm calculates the valuation of an e-discovery company differently from a prospect in any other industry, how long it takes to evaluate a company for an investment, ways that a board member supports the strategy of a portfolio company, and what the appeal of legal technology says about where the market is headed.