Blogs

Years ago, when I made a jump from legal secretary to law firm IT department personnel, I found a new world in ILTA and embraced the thrill of sharing technology ideas in a global community.  At first, I lurked behind the scenes quietly reading helpful nuggets, which I appl ied to my work as an applications analyst. As I learned , I gradually gained the confidence to post questions and respond to certain threads.  As a multi-career woman and having moved from the arts to corporate America, there was a certain degree of imposter syndrome to overcome. When I began attending local presentations in person and finally even hosting one, ...

As part of my job, I am working with teams who deliver new solutions and monetize them into products. Expanding the automation footprint with use of robotic process automation ("RPA") is one of those solutions. Having just over a year experience with RPA through learning, certification and building bots at work, I find RPA technology fascinating and applicable to global businesses including the one that is so close to our hearts - legal. But before we talk about the exciting world of legal, let's get the basic terms defined and out of the way. RPA or Robotic Process Automation is a computer software that can handle high-volume repetitive tasks that employees ...

Friday morning I had the great pleasure of joining Joy Heath Rush and Shy Alter to discuss how one could get the most out of Virtual Conferences . We had a lively discussion around the following questions: How can we make the most of a virtual experience? How is networking virtually different from networking in-person? What are some tips and tricks for networking virtually? Below recaps some of the notes from the chat and some thoughts I had shared with Joy when I volunteered to be a “non-expert” on the panel. If you have time, please check out the recording. You can find it here. You can control your Zoom Settings and these are a few that I have found ...

Covid restrictions have forced many firms to pivot from in person to remote work. In the first phase, many firms were focused on the technical tools of making the remote work transition a reality. But now, as most of the critical needs and IT infrastructure is in place, the next question is: How do we transition to managing remote teams? My name is Nitza Medina-Garcia, CRM and I have worked as a remote worker and have managed remote teams at my company InfoCompass for over 13 years. I would like to share some best practices for managing remote technical workers. Know who is on your team and what they should be doing Ok, this one ...

Life is full of ups and downs, especially now. As we continue returning to work, we are changing directions again – up for some, down for others. Numerous articles discuss what it may be like when we return. The communal coffee pot and water fountain will probably be closed along with communal gathering spaces. Hand sanitizer dispensers will dot the landscape. Proper hand-washing will continue while access to bathroom facilities will be limited with social distancing requirements. People will be wearing masks, keeping their social distance. New physical barriers may separate workspaces. Temperatures may be checked. Employees will be asked to self-assess ...

The lack of ability to engage socially with coworkers that you might not interact with face-to-face has not traditionally been seen as a problem to be solved for many law firms and law departments. While firms may have deployed applications like Yammer or Jabber, the purpose behind such tools isn’t primarily seen as facilitating social interaction between employees; rather, social interaction happens as a byproduct of using the tool for work. Think of distribution lists created for employees to share pictures of their cats, or Slack channels devoted to Crossfit. Such employee-created groups happen organically, with little or no organizational support. Such use ...

Until COVID-19, U.S. law firms and corporate legal departments rarely permitted associates and employees to work from home, even on an occasional basis. Almost overnight, many people found that they could communicate, collaborate and work productively and effectively from their homes. Some like it, some do not, but most manage to put in a solid day’s work, even if they have had to acquire new technology skills, juggle family obligations, and put up with makeshift workstations. As the nation starts to reopen, organizations and individuals are examining when people will return to offices, what that experience will look like, and indeed whether they should ...

Please enjoy this blog authored by Oscar Montezuma, Director at Niubox. According to Clio’s COVID-19 Impact Research 2020, new legal matters dropped by almost 40% upon the COVID-19 crisis. MyCase survey records that 48% of law offices in the US are operating remotely. These two reports provide us with powerful insights on the global impact this crisis is having in terms of revenue in the legal practice, technology adoption and flexible work policies. However the biggest challenge is how to change culture and introduce a purpose oriented and client-centric mindset in the legal industry in the rise of this extraordinary situation. In our case, our culture ...

Check out this introductory piece around #CreatingTheFutureTogether, brought to you by @Jackie Nagtegaal , one of ILTA's 2020 Influential Women in Legal Tech awardees, Futurist & Managing Director, Law for All . What immediately comes to mind when you read this? Share your thoughts in the comments here or within the blog post. COVID-19 is a seismic event, reshuffling our carefully planned strategies, rearranging our societies and changing human behaviour in powerful ways. It has thrown most of us off-kilter, challenging the confidence we started the new decade with. As we kicked off in January, we believed we had the luxury of time. ...

First in the Future-Proofing Series “[I]f your firm is rising to meet the new demands of a post-pandemic legal economy, and, in particular, if you expect to embrace the increased risk-shifting toward law firms that now seems inevitable, you will be best served by investing soon in document automation. Document assembly platforms and expert systems will become the foundation of the fixed price and alternative fee economy. They are essential tools in separating value from hours. And, as such, they are also indispensable for extracting profits from a legal economy with precipitously falling demand.” Future-Proofing. The future advances on us in fits ...