Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with Or Bar and Matan Yah Ben Zion, the CEO and CTO, respectively, of apprentAI, an e-discovery software platform for analyzing documents and generating actionable legal insights from them. We discussed the difference between AI and what legal teams refer to as AI, the balance between human talent and technological efficiency in e-discovery, and how the use of AI in e-discovery is evolving.

I spoke with Jerry Levine, the Chief Evangelist and General Counsel at ContractPodAi, a legal technology company focused on contract lifecycle management. We discussed how the use of technology, including AI, among legal professionals has impacted their work-life balance, why law schools should adapt their curricula to this shift in technology usage, and how legal departments are transforming their use of legal technology.

I spoke with Haydn Jones, the Director of Business Development at Benchly, a Texas-based software company specializing in litigation document automation. We discussed how document automation is being used beyond litigation, AI-driven changes to legal education and training, and ways that document drafting and review are evolving.

I spoke with Aaron Pierce, the Vice President of Product Management at CounselLink, an enterprise legal management solution for corporate legal departments. We discussed the most significant changes and challenges that general counsel and chief legal officers are facing, how the integration of ELM and CLM addresses those challenges, and where this sector is headed.

I spoke with Chris Stock, the Founder and CEO of ShiftSixOS, a business process outsourcing company focused on supporting small law firms and small software companies. We discussed the distinctions between ShiftSixOS and other outsourcing services, the legal markets on which ShiftSixOS is focusing, and how business process outsourcing is evolving.

I spoke with Neil Cameron, the lead analyst at Legal IT Insider, a leading legal technology website and the publisher of the Orange Rag newsletter, which has just released a new report focused on law firm CRM systems (download available here). We discussed the benefits that law firms are seeing in their deployment of CRM, the importance of measuring the ROI of a firm's business development initiatives, and how the use of CRM in law firms is evolving.

I spoke with Sebastian Westerby, the CEO of Tort Experts, a vertically integrated legal case acquisition marketing company. We discussed how the traditional methods of business development for lawyers have changed, how lawyers should calculate the true cost of a case, and best practices for utilizing different technology platforms to promote a law firm.

I spoke with Derek Schutz, the Director of Product Management at Aderant, a global business management software provider for law firms, which recently launched Handshake ConnectX, an intranet portal for law firms that Aderant developed in partnership with Fireman & Company. We discussed the process of collaborating to jointly build new technology and how the approach to efficiency and productivity in law firms is evolving in an uncertain economy.

I spoke with Early Stephens, the CEO of Actionstep, a practice management software developer that serves law firms worldwide. The company just released a new survey of midsized law firms called The Midsize Law Firm Priorities Report, which is focused on the most prominent priorities and trends impacting legal teams today. We discussed why legal practice management software has become so important to running a modern law firm, the most significant trends highlighted in Actionstep's Midsize Law Firm Priorities Report, and how legal practice management is evolving.

I spoke with Daniel Steinberg, the Founder and CEO of lawbrokr, a pre-qualification platform that helps lawyers humanize the way clients interact with their law firm. We discussed the importance of workflows and templates in an efficiency-centric law firm, how to overcome resistance to applying technology to different areas of the business of law, and where legal professionals are focusing on technology in 2023.