Blogs

Blogs

Tip of the Week - En, Em Dashes??? And the Difference is?

By ILTA Tips
Em dash vs. En dash vs. Hyphens Em dash (—): Sets off words, phrases, clauses, or short sentences Functions as a substitute for a colon, a semicolon, or parentheses Mary's sister—her only sister—moved to Chicago last summer. En dash (–): Used for numeric ranges, including page ranges Compound modifiers comprising terms of equal weight Attorney—client privilege Hyphens (-): Used to join two or more words that are used as a single noun Fact-finding Compound modifiers: When two or more words are combined to modify a noun We entered a well-lit ro
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ILTA’s Leadership Book Club — Good to Great Discussion Takeaway

By Brian Donato
On Wednesday, February 12 th , nearly 90 people convened to discuss the classic book, Jim Collins’ Good to Great: why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't.  Talent Counsel members Angela Dowd and Brian Donato facilitated. For those who are not familiar with the book, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results (based on stock market returns) and sustained those results for at least fifteen years and identified 11 companies that met their rigorous criteria.  They compared each of those companies to a specific peer company who was very similar to their comparison twin, but failed to make the ...
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Cameras, Microphones and Data Ownership, Oh My! - Virtual Roundtable Takeaway

By Mark Combs
Alexa, Google, and Siri – the big three when it comes to virtual assistants. They are becoming pervasive in every facet of our lives. They are ever present through phones, watches, cars, microwaves, smart rings [1] , cameras, computers, speakers, doorbells, televisions, refrigerators, clocks, lights, outlets, toys, and probably coming to many other places we haven’t even yet imagined. As useful as they may be, is there a darker side of the technology we haven’t fully considered or recognized? A recent virtual round table brought together ILTA Members Jeff Brandt, Geoff Rhodes, Jonathan Burley, and David Nessen to discuss the potential risks law firms may ...
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You Haven’t Heard? Knowledge Sharing Among Multi-Offices

By Lisa Gianakos
Please enjoy this blog post written by Lisa Gianakos, Director of Practice Technology Solutions, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. It is an age-old problem, getting practices to share across offices. The reasons are many but commonly the result of a merger, where there is suddenly more than one group of attorneys specializing in the same area, but in different physical locations.  But when I was asked if I could write a short entry on ways to tackle this problem, I decided to focus on whether there really is a problem to be solved!  Ultimately if there IS, it is due to either people, process or technology.  And while it’s possible a firm   does ...
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Press Release |ILTA Announces Event Rebranding, International Events

By ILTA News
For Immediate Release:  (Chicago, IL): February 10, 2020: The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) is pleased to share, in honor of the upcoming 40 th ILTA anniversary, a new look and feel for the annual and international meetings . The ILTA flagship event, ILTACON , which will be held 23-27 August 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is the premier educational and networking event for the legal sector. All new for 2020, and debuting a new meeting experience look and feel, this four-day conference will bring together leaders, managers, and decision-making legal technologists from across the legal technology industry. Moving across the globe, ...
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Tip of the Week - Security in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

By ILTA Tips
Security – Adobe Acrobat Pro DC   To add password security to open a PDF document within Acrobat Open the PDF and click on  TOOLS   . Click on  Protect . The Protect toolbar displays. Click on the  Encrypt   drop-down. Choose  Encrypt   with   Password . Click  Yes   to change security if a prompt displays. Select the  Require   a   password   to open the document checkbox. Type a password in the  Document Open Password   field. Click on  OK .   To restrict editing or printing of a PDF document Open the PDF and click on  TOOLS   . Click on  Protect . The Protect toolbar displays. Click ...
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Collaborating with Clients: Why is it Increasingly Important and What are the Benefits

By Melanie Segraves
Please enjoy this blog written by Melanie Segraves, Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP . Chances are, this won’t be the first blog about collaborating with clients that you’ve read. The legal industry is known for its buzzwords (ahem, innovation) and right now collaboration is having a moment. How important is collaboration in a legal setting? When Law360 interviewed the leadership of several global law firms last year, leaders said that a “collaborative spirit” was one of the four most important traits they look for in a partner. You may agree that collaboration is important and still find it a challenge to pinpoint your role in encouraging attorneys and ...
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The New Germany Privacy Act: BDSG or Bundesdatenschutzgesetz

By David Tremont
As we all know and unless you were hiding in a cave you no doubt have heard about the enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in May of 2018.  What you may not have known is the EU left 70 opening clauses which allow the EU-Member States to enact national privacy rules to supplement and modify the GDPR.  The extensive use of opening clauses by the EU-Member States may result in a variety of national privacy laws that require a higher privacy implementation and compliance effort for international private companies. Well, the German legislators made use of the opening clauses to create a new Germany Privacy Act known as BDSG-new.  This ...
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AI and Legal Services in 2020

By Alex Crowley
By Alex Crowley [i] With the start of the new year, some in the legal industry predict that artificial intelligence (“AI”) will play an increasingly influential role in the delivery of legal services. [ii] Predictions like “2020 is the year we move from AI hype to AI in practice” and “2020 [will] bring a greater understanding of how [data analytics and AI] enhance, rather than overtake, the work of lawyers” are notable because they hint at how the discussion around AI’s role in legal-services delivery is maturing. [iii] This article explores how AI is currently used in the legal marketplace, AI’s limitations, and critical questions that lawyers should ...
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Press Release |ILTA and SALI Alliance announce LMSS 1.0 of Legal Matter Standard

By ILTA News
For Immediate Release:  (Chicago, IL): February 4, 2020: The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) and SALI Alliance announce LMSS 1.0 of Legal Matter Standard. Matter standard version 1 release provides a foundation for driving efficiency and enabling change for the legal industry The Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry Alliance (SALI) announced today at the LegalTech Conference that it has completed the final revision of the Legal Matter Specification Standard (LMSS) , designated as LMSS 1.0. This version represents a development milestone in providing legal matter data interoperability that can aid in the buying and selling ...
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Press Release |ILTA at New York LegalWeek 2020

By ILTA News
For Immediate Release:  (Chicago, IL): February 3, 2020: The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) will exhibit and host educational session tracks at New York LegalWeek. Held in midtown Manhattan, LegalWeek runs from February 4-6, with preconference workshops held on February 3. ILTA will be exhibiting at booth 3307. All listed times are in Eastern time (ET). On Tuesday, February 4, ILTA hosts three education tracks :  -11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Women Who Lead in Technology: Balancing "Always On" and How to Turn It Off  This panel of successful women will share their thoughts, experiences, and approaches to addressing “Work Life Boundaries” ...
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Trainers Talk - January 28th 2020 - New Year, New Topics

By ILTA Tips
Trainers Talk: January 28, 2020 New Year, New Topics Moderators: Asima Macci Missy McDonough Greg Tomlinson    Topics of Discussion:   How to put some fun into a technology upgrade that will help entice users learn the new features? Breakfast with Asima Like Asima, but just monthly "IT Q & A" with Einstein bagels - ANY computer question! and people come to just hear the other questions and answers :+ Gamification: Themes: Make an upgrade fun by figuring a theme for that particular upgrade, and follow that theme through with the promotion of the new product, training, hand-outs, prizes etc. for example - when we ...
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Cómo mejorar las operaciones legales comparando el estado de madurez de la organización con una línea base para luego crear un plan que aborde las oportunidades de mejoras.

By Andrés Jara Baader
En nuestra experiencia como consultores para departamentos legales internos de empresas, hemos identificado que uno de los grandes problemas a los que se enfrentan se relaciona a la pregunta “¿Cómo ser más eficientes y medir tales resultados?”. Esto último resulta ser clave cuando entendemos que los equipos legales internos deben convertirse en socios estratégicos dentro del negocio. Mucho se ha escrito sobre las condiciones del entorno a los que los departamentos legales deben enfrentarse hoy.  Incremento del trabajo que tradicionalmente era llevado a cabo por firmas legales externas, recursos y presupuestos limitados, presión por reducción en gastos ...
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KM for Newbies

By Nicola Shaver
We hope you enjoy this blog co-authored by Nikki Shaver, Global Director of Knowledge Management, Paul Hastings, LLP and Adam Dedynski, KM-Project Manager, Reed Smith, LLP. This post is the first in a series ILTA will run over the course of the year, entitled “Foundations of Knowledge Management”. Upcoming posts will discuss the pillars of KM, evolving roles in KM, and how to measure the value of KM. First, though, we start at the beginning, for those new to the field. What is Knowledge Management (“KM”)? Defining KM has always been challenging, and it’s only become more so as the legal industry has evolved. [1] Generally, however, most traditional ...
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Tip of the Week - PowerPoint Tips

By ILTA Tips
PowerPoint Tips (Merge multiple presentations into One; Keyboard shortcuts when Presenting)   Merge Multiple Presentations into One There are times when you might want to   combine multiple presentations   into a single   presentation, such as when you want to add slides from an existing presentation to a presentation that you are creating. The best way to copy slides from one presentation to another is to insert them using the Slide Finder dialog box (Insert menu, Slides from File command). In this dialog box, you can select the slides you want without having to open the presentation. In the   Slide Finder   dialog box, browse to ...
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Skills for Closing the Communication Gap Between IT and Attorneys

By Brian P. Morris
There is an old story about the origin of the unofficial nickname of the state of Missouri, “The Show Me State”, which you may have seen on a license plate a time or two. As it goes, a turn-of-the century Missouri congressman named Willard Vandiver once said, in part, “…frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I'm from Missouri, and you have got to show me." I don’t think it’s leap to say that politicians and attorneys share perhaps a skeptical nature, and certainly a pragmatic one. Therefore, this phrase comes to mind often when I am trying to get the attention of perpetually busy attorneys. Whether it is convincing an attorney to embrace existing ...
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Press Release |ILTA Joins the Global Legal Tech Report Initiative

By ILTA News
For Immediate Release:  (Chicago, IL): January 23, 2020: The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) has joined with the   Australian Legal Technology Association   (ALTA) and many more legal technology innovators to support a major research project called the Global Legal Tech Report (GLTR). Together with ALTA, ILTA joins with the European Legal Tech Association (ELTA), the UK Legal Tech Association (UKLTA), ASEAN Legal Tech (ALT), Legal Tech NZ (LTNZ), the Law Society of England and Wales, Alpha Creates, Macquarie, KPMG, and Toro Digital, to create the Global Legal Tech Report. It will be the first of its kind to survey legal technology from ...
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How to Best Improve Legal Operations by Comparing the Maturity of the Organization Against a Baseline and then Creating a Plan to Address Weaknesses

By Andrés Jara Baader
Please enjoy the blog written by Andrés Jara Baader, Founder and CEO, Alster Legal. As consultants for ​​internal legal departments, we have identified that one of the major problems these business units have is related to the question of “how can we be more efficient and measure such results”. The latter is a key factor when we understand that in house teams need to become strategic partners within the business. A lot has been written about the environment conditions legal departments face today.  The increase of internal work that was traditionally carried out by external legal resources; limited resources and budgets; pressure for reducing expenses ...
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Buy or Build? Evaluating Options for KM & Related Technologies

By Caitlin Peters
Please enjoy this blog co-authored by Caitlin Peters, Senior Manager of Business Operations, Ropes & Gray and Stephanie Godley, Sr. Manager of Knowledge Management & Library Services, Ropes & Gray. Once you have identified a pressing need for a technology solution to a knowledge management, marketing, or practice support issue, often the question arises – should we buy or should we build? The first step is to outline your core requirements. Once these are identified, take time to research third-party solutions. Then it is time to go through the exercise of considering whether to build your own custom solution. Even if there is a product out ...
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Tip of the Week - How to Improve Engagement on LinkedIn

By ILTA Tips
Here is a brief article on how to improve engagement on LinkedIn.   https://www.attorneyatwork. com/advanced-linkedin-tips- for-lawyers/  with links at the bottom to more great articles on LinkedIn for attorneys and others
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