Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with Manfred Gabriel, a managing director in FTI Technology’s New York office. An expert on e-discovery processes and tools, Gabriel helps lead FTI’s all-in-one legal document review service offering, Acuity. Prior to joining FTI, Gabriel practiced antitrust law at Latham & Watkins and handled many large-scale second request and e-discovery matters. We discussed Acuity, FTI's goal in developing the solution and the advantages of using a reference set of materials along with "suggested coding" tools.

I spoke with Paul Brabant, the senior vice president for eDiscovery at Epiq Systems, a provider of integrated technology services for the legal market. We discussed IQ Review, the reliance on machine-based processes to determine the relevance of documents, as well as the defensibility of such efforts.

I spoke with Dan Tacone, President of IntApp, a technology company that focuses on data governance within large global law firms. Tacone was recently featured in the prestigious President's Corner column in Law Technology News. Before joining IntApp, Tacone was the Senior Vice President of Global Customers at Thomson Reuters. We discussed the key considerations for law firm management addressing data governance issues, the evolution of data governance since intApp's founding a decade ago, and his predictions for data governance within the large law firm market.

I spoke with Jason Goitia, the founder of the Goitia Law Firm in Tampa, whose mission is to empower clients to use a Florida law firm online. His website, FloridaVirtualLawOffice.com, allows flat-fee online document assembly. We discussed the genesis of his firm, the advantages of operating a virtual office, the value of flat fee arrangements for his clients, and the similarities between the evolutionary trend in the law to those that have taken place in the retail banking industry.

I spoke with Steve Fletcher, the Chief Information Officer for Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, as well as the winner of LTN's "IT Director of the Year" award. We discussed the firm's collaborative approach to marketing, business development and technology, focusing on its creation of Parkway, an intranet platform that centralizes information and enables the firm's lawyers to showcase their capabilities to potential clients.

I spoke with Brian Wick, the Chief Marketing Officer for Hewlett Packard's Information Management division, which focuses on records management, archiving and data protection. We discussed the February release of TRIM 7, a records management solution focused on content created using Microsoft SharePoint, and how this new version impact data usage in the legal market, as well as records management and archiving trends affecting the legal community in 2010.

I spoke with Todd Brunia, the founder and CEO of Xilution, Inc., a software development company based in Urbandale, IA, which makes Time 2.0, an online time tracking and reporting application. In addition to a free version for the PC, Xilution offers mobile apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Droid. We discussed the company's history, the problem that Time 2.0 addresses, the advantages of the mobile component and the future of time capture.

I spoke with Dan Nye, the former CEO of LinkedIn and current Executive Director of RocketLawyer.com. We discussed how technology is transforming the legal industry, who benefits from that transformation and what will the delivery of legal services will look like in five years.

I spoke with Richard Jackson, the founding President and CEO of Speak Write, an off-site transcription service, which I have used for a few years in connection with enhancing my productivity.

I spoke with Rick Borstein, the Business Development Manager specializing in the Acrobat-Legal Market for Adobe Systems Inc. Rick also writes the popular Acrolaw blog. We discussed the evolution of PDF and the efficiencies it creates.