The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/67910
best practices GW COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES ONLINE WITH SHORT-TERM RESIDENCIES IN ALEXANDRIA Master's Degree and Graduate Certificate Law Firm Management Learn the business of managing a modern law firm. More Information 1.800.JOIN.GWU (564.6498) www.nearyou.gwu.edu/lawfirm Meet a growing need in this competitive, evolving field. Advance your career as you learn from a faculty consisting of former managing partners, professors from GW legal consultants and technical specialists. Develop Strategic Leadership and Management Skills. Learn best practices in profitability, marketing, merger analysis, and the role of Legal Lean Sigma for process improvement, as well as IT and Knowledge Management. Format designed for working professionals. Online with short-term residencies allows legal professionals to work full-time. Embrace Globalization: Globalization continues to affect law services. Electronic data readily and easily transcend borders. To keep pace with the expanding global market, litigation support will need to understand the country norms and practices where customers do business. This means understanding business etiquette in those cultures as well as the international laws regarding data privacy, acquisition and border transmission. Two ways litigation support may advance more quickly in this area are to build relationships with counterparts in other countries within and outside their firm, and begin to diversify and blend international talent within its organizational structure. Innovate Faster: As lawyers go mobile, consider the impact on the delivery of litigation support services, including evidence preservation, access and management. Growth of technology in an industry long synonymous with trained human judgment has taken some time to evolve. Software that can be trained to perform tasks like sorting through and coding ESI for responsive determination or relational terms will continue to gain adoption. Technology will continue to drastically alter roles and affect who performs work for the customer. Social media and mobile devices that offer "always- on" connectivity will continue to impact what information litigation support tangles with; and the unlimited bounds of electronic interactions yet to come will drastically alter how lawyers and those who support their practice work. Litigation support that boasts the most compelling, integrated device ecosystem and cloud-based services will best satisfy their customers. Embrace the New Vision As litigation support prepares for the future of law, expect it to work and act more as a business unit within the law firm, aligned more closely to the firm's practice groups, business goals and customer values. Future timely innovation will require continuous extrospection of customer needs and serious introspection on what services litigation support should deliver itself versus through vendor partners. The future is uncertain; this is clear. For now, the new vision is customer-focused and service-driven. Embrace that vision, and focus internal innovation efforts on defining customer needs and how to meet this new vision. THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/ AFFIRMATIVE ACTION INSTITUTION CERTIFIED TO OPERATE IN VA BY SCHEV. Alice E. Burns is the Managing Director and Legal Solutions Architect at Eleventh Hour (www. eleventhour.co). Alice was a manager with Baker Robbins & Company for five years. Prior to Baker Robbins, Alice founded and owned a litigation support services and consulting company. Alice also worked in paralegal, litigation support and legal technology positions for two Am Law firms (White & Case and Davis Wright Tremaine). She can be reached at aliceburns@eleventhhour.co. 37551 18 Peer to Peer