Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with Kevin Chern, an attorney and the Managing Partner of UpRight Law, a national virtual consumer bankruptcy and consumer protection law firm. We discussed the genesis of UpRight Law, how technology has enabled its growth, what the rise of firms like UpRight Law signify about the traditional legal market, and how the regulatory environment impacts new law firm models, among other topics.

I spoke with Ian Zack, an attorney and the Director of Business Development at CaseRails, a software company that provides a web-based document automation platform for attorneys. We discussed the advantages of document automation for attorneys and law firms, the associated challenges, how variations in billing arrangements impact an attorney’s reliance on new technology, and best practices for incorporating document automation into your work.

I spoke with Deborah Baron, the chief strategy officer of Align Matters, a cloud-based software platform that helps in-house lawyers tie the management of their matters to client business objectives. She has also served as the CEO North America and CMO of Nuix, as well as the vice president for legal and compliance solutions at HP Autonomy. We discussed her role at Align Matters, the value of leveraging a proverbial GPS for legal management tool, how technology can help lawyers become better business leaders, how Align Matters helps law departments build efficiency with benchmarks and repeatable processes, and the future of holistic cloud-based matter management.

I spoke with Deborah Epstein Henry, an internationally recognized expert, consultant and public speaker on the future of the legal profession, new legal models, women in the law, and work/life balance. She is the author of LAW & REORDER: Legal Industry Solutions for Restructure, Retention, Promotion & Work/Life Balance (ABA, 2010) and co-author of FINDING BLISS: Innovative Legal Models for Happy Clients & Happy Lawyers (ABA, 2015). She is also the co-founder and managing director of Bliss Lawyers, a firm that employs high-caliber lawyers to work on engagements for in-house legal department and law firm clients. We discussed her new book, examples of innovation in both new and traditional legal models, and best practices for measuring value and harnessing talent, among other topics.

I spoke with Annie Webber, the co-founder and CEO of Legal Hero, a platform that delivers legal services to businesses on a fixed price basis. Prior to founding Legal Hero, she worked as an M&A attorney at Ropes & Gray in Boston. We discussed the genesis of Legal Hero and how it works. Webber highlighted that as individuals become more comfortable with distributed labor models like Uber and clients continue to demand fixed prices on limited budgets, there are opportunities for ventures like Legal Hero, which reinvents the traditional legal services model and automates invoicing or document creation to empower many businesses.

I spoke with Willy Leichter, the Global Director of Cloud Security at CipherCloud, a technology company that delivers cloud information protection and enables users to navigate risks to data privacy, residency, security, and regulatory compliance. We discussed the impact of cloud information protection on the legal industry, the problems it solves for legal professionals, the shadow IT trend, and the advantages of implementing proven encryption and data loss prevention techniques. Leichter also identified a few of the biggest threats facing law firms today and prospective changes to privacy laws over the next five years.

I spoke with Monica Zent, the Founder and CEO of Foxwordy, a private social network for lawyers, and the founder of ZentLaw, an alternative law firm. We discussed the genesis of Foxwordy, which she launched in the spring of 2015, how it differs from other social networks, the use case for a legal industry specific portal, and the future of law practice.

I spoke with Kris Canaday, the founder of Integrative Legal Support, a paralegal support company providing litigation, corporate, and intellectual property services to attorneys, law firms, and legal departments throughout the U.S. She is also the author of Paralegal Support 101, a knowledge base for attorneys on the paralegal profession. We discussed the genesis of Integrative Legal Support, why attorneys and firms need a paralegal support service, her advice to attorneys and firms looking for non-traditional support, and the future of this sector, among other topics.