Blogs

Blogs

Press Release |ILTA Announces Industry Participant Program

By ILTA News
For Immediate Release: (Chicago, IL):  July 1, 2020: The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) announces its Industry Participant program. Effective July 1, 2020, ILTA is pleased   to offer legal technologists a new way to interact with ILTA: Industry Participant Status. Industry Participants will have access to ILTA webinar and podcast recordings, live virtual events, Peer to Peer quarterly magazine, newsletters, White Papers, ILTA Surveys, member discounts, career center resources, and select online communities. “ We are delighted to be implementing the Industry Participant role provided for in ILTA’s Bylaws! The ILTA universe includes ...
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How Firms are Tracking Client Requirements and Managing Changes Over Time

By Daniel Wood
“The bane of our existence.” That is how one law firm general counsel described outside counsel guidelines (OCGs) at last year’s Law Firm General Counsel Forum at the Aon Law Firm Symposium. Bane or boon, if you work in a law firm environment, OCGs are a daily fact of life. Clients use OCGs to communicate expectations regarding the handling of their matters. Ensuring that OCGs make it to the right people is critical. Accuracy in timekeeping along with a proper understanding of correct phase/task/activity codes, narrative requirements, and timing restrictions cannot be overstated. Knowing and doing are two different things, however, which points to an even larger ...
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A Helpful Guide to Finding Mindfulness

By Martha Breil
There is no shortage of information on mindfulness available today. A simple Google search on mindfulness renders "About 206,000,000" results. The sheer magnitude of resources can be overwhelming. Where do I start? I already feel overwhelmed! This blog post attempts to solve the challenge of getting started with a mindfulness practice by providing a much shorter list of resources than our friend Google supplies. Its goal is to help you get started and/or advance your mindfulness practice. The resources included here have been provided by people and/or institutions who have developed expertise in mindfulness practices. They have been vetted by experienced ...
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Operations 101

By Andrés Jara Baader
Please enjoy this co-authored blog written by Jake Hills, Vice President, Legal Operations, Elevate Services and Andrés Jara Baader, CEO, Alster. 1. What is Legal Operations all about?  As the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium defines it, legal operations is a fast-moving, evolving, and varied discipline "Legal Operations" describes a set of business processes, activities, and the professionals that enable legal departments to serve their clients more effectively by applying business and technical practices to the delivery of legal services. Legal Operations provides strategic planning, financial management, project management, and technology ...
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Citrix, Mimecast & Cookies

By Michael Tkach
Hi, Wondering if anyone has figured out a way to redirect cookies in Citrix for Mimecast. Currently, we are not redirecting cookies because of profile bloat, and users need to register their device every single time. Thank you, Mike
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Different sides of the same coin? How IT and Innovation departments can work together

By Alisher Yuldashev
Lately, I found myself working at the busy intersection of established legal IT department and recently created KM Innovation group in the law firm I am in. Both departments have their similarities and differences: IT is the powerhouse of technical expertise while Innovation looks better positioned to be closer to business for their legal acumen. At the same time, I witnessed both groups worked “Together, As One” on a number of technology initiatives while sharing scarce project resources and budgets.  It got me thinking whether these departments were different sides of the same coin and how IT and Innovation departments could work together as one. With ...
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Matter Naming Standards

By Sara Cutcher
​We are curious to know how you handle the dilemma of conforming to internal compliance relating to matter name standards yet meeting clients’ needs and wants? We find at times that we have a hard time reconciling the two and find ourselves having to make exceptions to our policies, which is not advisable. For example, a client insists (according to the submitting attorney) that their new matter must be named “Contract Review.” This goes against our no-general-matter policy and we would request that separate matters be opened for each contract. We are trying to use the system to create a workaround and are wondering if any of you have solved this predicament. ...
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How Do You Safely Phase People Back to the Office?

By Patrice Fatig
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 ...
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The Future Ready Lawyer: Legal Innovation in the Age of COVID-19

By Dean Sonderegger
Please enjoy this blog post by Dean Sonderegger, SVP & General Manager of Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.  In looking at the impact of the pandemic on each of our lives, the general sense that I get is that we are seeing an acceleration of trends that have already been in place. A quick look at the packages waiting on doorsteps in any neighborhood illustrates this point: there was already a trend towards online ordering and delivery – COVID-19 has just accelerated that trend. When looking at the legal industry, most would say that the industry was already experiencing disruption due to technology, and the question was how and to what extent ...
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The Rise of Enterprise Social: Talking with Your Colleagues When They’re Across Town, Not Across the Hall

By Holly Hanna
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 ...
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It Takes a Village: An all-new Security blog series

By ILTA Publication
ILTA is pleased to announce the creation of an all-new security series:  It takes a Village . Please find below five individual posts aimed at improving security for the entire industry. Thanks to the LegalSEC Steering Committee for your efforts in this series, and a special call out to Jeff Franchetti for driving the series:  It takes a Villa ge. With the ever increasing interoperability of today’s technology, it is more important than ever to standardize architecture designs on protocols that are proven to support best practices for security. In this series, we have identified five legacy protocols or technologies that represent security ...
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Work From Home Policies & Considerations After COVID-19

By Deborah Panella
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 ...
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What Were My Struggles During COVID-19 and What Are My Solutions to Implement Moving Forward

By Oscar Montezuma
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 ...
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Virtual Discussion Summary: Creating Exceptional Learning Experiences: Onboarding Remote Employees in a Virtual World!

By Sean McGinty
Creating Exceptional Learning Experiences: Onboarding Remote Employees in a Virtual World! Event Summary If there is a silver lining to the #COVID-19 pandemic, it is that the world now knows most people can be highly productive from any location. So, when it's time to roll out the red carpet, how do we create an exceptional experience to welcome our newest remote team members? It's all about creative operations! We've had to get creative and transform procedures for on-boarding new employees, given they are not physically coming into the office. Our panel of experienced L&D professionals talked about Pre-boarding, Onboarding, and how to transform employee ...
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Press Release |ILTA Announces Update to ILTACON Meeting

By ILTA News
For Immediate Release: (Chicago, IL):  June 8, 2020: The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) announces that the in-person ILTACON 2020 meeting will become a fully-virtual conference: ILTA>ON . Taking place from 24 to 28 August 2020,   ILTA>ON will offer a five-day, comprehensive program, teamed with industry-leading educational content, and face-to-face virtual networking. Industry experts and the legal community collaborate to discover and evolve successful legal operation strategies for today’s transforming legal industry. An ILTA>ON schedule overview can be found here . For additional information on this new event, please click ...
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Press Release |ILTA's Statement on Diversity and Inclusion

By ILTA News
For Immediate Release: (Chicago, IL):  June 3, 2020: The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) issues a statement on Diversity and Inclusion: "We are living in a world of fear and anger right now. ILTA intends to be part of the solution. ILTA fully supports our members, partners, and colleagues who unite firmly and non-violently against hatred and intolerance.  Our core values proudly affirm our commitment to mutual respect and diversity and inclusion ; our behavior demonstrates our dedication to mutual respect and diversity and inclusion. ILTA is and always has been a safe place for education and peer support, operating in an environment ...
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Virtual Discussion Recap - Let’s Not Do Lunch(es): How Some Firms Will Be Running Virtual Summer Associate Programs

By Martha Breil
Last week ILTA hosted a virtual roundtable discussion on Summer Associate Programs. Thank you to all who participated and contributed to the conversation and to our speakers @Chris Boyd and Jennifer Ross. Below you'll find a summary of the discussion, noting key takeaways and feedback from our ILTA peers. ********************* Commercially available technologies to help manage collaboration for summer associates: Bluejeans HighQ LawCruit MS Teams SharePoint WebEx GoToMeeting Zoom Jabber Skype   Other technologies to use in remote summer associate programs: InsideSherpa (for training and socializing) Citrix (for ...
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Press Release |ILTA 2020 Technology Survey is Open for Participation

By ILTA News
For Immediate Release: (Chicago, IL):  May 29, 2020: The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) is pleased to announce the opening of the ILTA 2020 Technology Survey. ILTA's most prestigious publication each year is our annual Technology Survey. It provides substantive data against which you can benchmark your organization's technology implementations and future plans. This year’s Survey has incorporated a new section related to COVID-19 and the Executive Summary’s narrative will address some of the lingering, and possibly enduring, effects that COVID-19 has on the legal technology landscape. A survey link with a passcode for each firm will be ...
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ILTA CEO guests on podcast "Legaltech Events in Times of Corona"

By ILTA Publication
Earlier this week, ILTA CEO Joy Heath Rush was a guest on Legal IT Professional's podcast, " Legaltech Events in Times of Corona". Additional guests on the episode were  George Katrivesis (Marketing Director, Chilli IQ), Steve Parrott (Co-Founder, Alternative Events), Sasha Urry (EMEA Director of Marketing, iManage) and Gareth Thomas (Practice Group Leader Marketing & BD, Intapp). The podcast  touched on the Corona pandemic affecting almost all sectors worlwide. The discussion covered social distancing measures and how the events industry is coping with the many events that been canceled or postponed.  Listen to the podcast here .  ​
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Press Release | ILTA Partners with Suffolk Law to Offer Critical Online Training

By ILTA News
For Immediate Release: (Chicago, IL) May 27, 2020: The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA ) has announced its endorsement of an educational opportunity for its members to enroll in Suffolk University Law School’s Legal Innovation and Technology Certificate . The Certificate is a first-of-its-kind online program consisting of six courses designed to prepare legal professionals to work more effectively and efficiently in a rapidly changing legal marketplace. The heralded program is ideal for attorneys and legal professionals (e.g., legal operations professionals, law librarians, paralegals, technology specialists, legal project managers, legal ...
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