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But Wait... There's More - INSIGHT Highlights 2

By Joanne Kiley posted 11-30-2015 10:20

  

INSIGHT Highlights 2 

Co-Chair, Gareth Ash

Following INSIGHT I spoke with Gareth Ash, Chief Information Officer of Gadfa Management Ltd. He iterated what Janet Day shared about the success of this year’s INSIGHT. With a 15 percent increase in attendance and delegates hailing from 11 countries, a palpable energy buzzed throughout the venue as the day began with the keynote by Peter Hiscocks, Senior Faculty in Management Practices at Cambridge University. Gareth Ash spent his day presenting and attending sessions in Track 3 – AI/Innovation/Litigation Support/KM and said the whole day sparked his interests because this year INSIGHT offered sessions about truly “living in the future.” First Ash attended the “Artificial Intelligence – Real Business Applications in Legal” session. He supported Peter Busby’s comments in the first INSIGHT Highlights installment; Ben Gardner of Linklaters presented a rich explanation of the complex concepts in AI. Gardner provided examples of applying AI to the business of law in the future and how some law firms use AI now. Besides co-chairing INSIGHT, Ash sat on the panel, “Innovation and the New Generation of Legal Services” with ILTA’s President Meredith Williams of Baker Donelson, and Bruce Braude and Bob Charlton, both of Berwin Leighton Paisner. Gareth Ash appreciated the perhaps unintentional perfect segue made by Ben Gardner leading into the “Innovation and the New Generation of Legal Services” presentation. Gardner provided technology applications and the “Innovation and the New Generation of Legal Services” provided the examples on best practices for utilising technology for better business. Ash then attended the “Schrems Decision: The Impact on the Legal Profession” session where he became “enthralled” by the details on Safe Harbour and its implications. For more on this, see the video interview of Chris Dale of the eDisclosure Information Project. Gareth Ash felt the programme emphasis on the business of law, sharing future technologies and the legislative and regulatory impacts on technology and security led to the success of INSIGHT.

Interview with Peter Hiscocks, Keynote Speaker at ILTA’s INSIGHT

ILTA interviewed Peter Hiscocks, Senior Faculty in Management Practices at Cambridge University and asked him what he has learned about developing and implementing innovative ideas. He explained that one must first fully understand the problem one hopes to solve through innovation. Second, innovators must accept that no one gets it right the first time. To improve or perfect a product or solution, it must go through many tests and adjustments with people from a variety of expertise areas. Hiscocks said, “Real ideas… really great ideas, come from teams.” In the keynote, Hiscocks warned against working on too many ideas or projects. This, he said, is the biggest problem for innovation teams. He raised eyebrows with his analogy to “killing the puppies” or pet projects. Peter Hiscocks urged innovators to use a meaningful selection process to narrow the innovation projects to a manageable number.  To learn more about Peter Hiscocks’ ideas for innovation, watch the video of the interview with Peter Hiscocks and read the article from ManagingPartner.com, “Law firms Are Wasting Resources on Dead-End Innovation.”     

Session Overview: “People: The Weakest Link in Your Security Scheme.”

Gina Buser, co-founder and CEO of Traveling Coaches, sat on the panel, “People: The Weakest Link in Your Security Scheme” at INSIGHT. This panel discussed firms spending much of their resources (money and time) on the back-end systems for security. Buser stated this investment “can all be for naught if they (firms) are not educating all their employees” about the part employees play in the security world. Buser spoke of a “myth perception” that the IT departments have security under control and it belongs only in their purview. Though IT departments have security tools in place, they do not have the authority to mandate smart secure behaviour firm wide. Buser shared some recommended tips from the panel for addressing the weakest link in a security scheme, people.

Tip 1: Understand how people work and the demands on the fee earners and staff from clients. IT departments can "come alongside them… instead of always saying no." The panel reminded delegates to recognise that the challenges of security differ from region to region and from client to client.

Tip 2: Empower fee earners and staff by educating them with the security requirements of each client. Gina Buser explained that fee earners and paralegals working on a matter may not know the security requirements of the client and a corporate law department lawyer may not know the specifics of his/her own organisation’s security requirements. By equipping lawyers with the knowledge and the language, they can more comfortably discuss the security concerns and requirements with clients.

Tip 3: Communicate security best practices frequently and through many communication formats. Also engage and empower mid-level management to help communicate and enforce security policies. These managers are also well equipped to quickly identify security gaps.

Tip 4: Make security lessons personal. Buser urges IT departments to tell compelling stories but to tell the right story for the audience. A compelling story for a litigator may not catch the attention of a corporate lawyer or a secretary. IT departments should also teach best practices for personal security issues. Staff and fee earners will more likely apply this learned behaviour at work.

Tip 5: Effective security education requires sponsorship from the top levels of an organisation.

 

Security technology alone cannot protect an organisation from an attack. Security technology paired with educating all people of the best practices in secure behaviour can create a secure environment for a firm and its clients’ information.

 

Session Overview: “Introducing Workshare 9: The Number One Way to Improve Lawyer Productivity.”

INSIGHT offered a Supplier Technology Showcase track this year.  Nick Thomson, Chief Revenue Officer of Workshare, spoke with me about some highlights from his presentation, “Introducing Workshare 9: The Number One Way to Improve Lawyer Productivity.” He recognises that today’s IT department must continually work to modernise platforms in their organisations’ systems while also maintaining the basics and managing many niche tools. The significant changes in technology and the speed at which these changes occur presents constant challenges. Thomson believes suppliers must help law firms and law departments manage the constant changes in technology by simplifying the implementation and upgrade processes. Andrea Bowyer of Ward Hadaway joined his panel to share how Ward Hadaway has implemented Workshare for file sharing and document comparison and collaboration. She and Nick Thomson shared Workshare’s ability to streamline the upgrade process for the IT department and increase productivity for fee earners with a simpler desktop environment.

Find materials from the INSIGHT sessions on the Downloads page of the INSIGHT website. If you attended INSIGHT and want to share what you learned, please use the comments section below or contact me at joanne@iltanet.org and I will include your input in the next post. 



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