Peer to Peer Magazine

THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF LEGAL IT LEADERSHIP Magazine Article authored by Kim Brand of Computer Experts, Inc. Vendor-Contributed Outstanding OF LEGAL IT LEADERSHIP by Kim Brand, Senior Consultant at Computer Experts, Inc. L 48 www.iltanet.org ike the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, the PC we have come to know over the past two generations has nearly vanished. Subsequent generations will wonder why we had big black boxes filled with electronics and a rat's nest of cables under our desks. They'll wonder what we were thinking when they see old movies with fifty pound monitors dominating knowledge workers' desktops. 72 Peer to Peer Peer to Peer by Skip Lohmeyer of Hunter Maclean Memorialized in the movie "Apollo 13" and at the ILTA 2007 keynote address, Captain Jim Lovell, the Apollo 13 mission leader, said "Failure is not an option." Survival possibilities were very low during the Apollo 13 mission. As the leader, Captain Lovell remained highly focused and diligent in navigating through problems, often rallying the team to think outside the box to solve unforeseen challenges. The Apollo 13 astronauts in space worked in conjunction with the ground crew as a "no failure" unit to make sure the astronauts made it home alive. While law firm IT leaders do not face the possibility of lives lost, they certainly have challenging jobs that require "no failure" attitudes. One challenge that makes the job especially difficult is that the role is ever-changing with remarkably different expectations handed down from law firm executive management and growing expectations from clients, making "no failure" a fast-moving target. The "Techie" Leader of the Past Ten to 15 years ago, law firm management's expectations for successful IT leadership encompassed more "techie-type" qualities, such as: Member-Contributed Magazine Article Outstanding • Protect the firm's computers (keep away those virus plagues and that Y2K phantom) • Tell us how technology can help (occasionally come out of the server room to show us a new gadget — like when you demonstrated a BlackBerry) This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it lets us reminisce about the old days when IT leadership requirements were a small fraction of what they have become today. authored by Skip Lohmeyer of Hunter Maclean Exley & Dunn, P.C. The Business Partner of the Present Successful law firm IT leaders anticipate, adapt and overcome requirement changes quickly and efficiently. It is the anticipation of those changing expectations that can be the make-or-break moments of an IT leader's career. Law firm management has grown to expect much more of IT leadership as they've recognized the importance of technology within the organization and to the firm's service delivery. IT leaders are expected to balance the requirements of the past and these new standards, which have been developing over the past decade: • Understand the law firm business, including the matter lifecycle of each practice group, accounting/finance and marketing • Ensure the IT department has talent and retains that talent • Demonstrate measurable contributions to the bottom line • Contribute to the bottom line with both cost-saving solutions and productivity gains • Measure and make continual improvements to computer performance and functionality • Know what is going on within the legal and technology industries • Come up with great ideas on how to add value to the legal services provided to clients • Provide comprehensive cost-benefit analyses; the cost of technology-related solutions is too high for the net benefits to be guessed or assumed • Maximize technology with available features or find a way to reduce costs by eliminating features that aren't needed or used; implementing solutions with more features than needed may become outdated (e.g., Do firms use 15 fields in the DMS profile? Are all the bells and whistles of a CRM really needed?) • Keep the computers running (more specifically, keep those Windows ME PCs from crashing so often) • Upgrade stuff, but not so much stuff that you upset everyone (like you did when moving to Word from WordPerfect) Again, this isn't an exhaustive list, but rather a high-level view of some of the expectations that have come about in the past decade. You can see the IT leadership role morphing into a business partner position — a big change from the "techie" job of a decade ago. The IT leader must still fully understand and work with technology, and must know about and work with the business as well. Demonstrate measurable contributions to the bottom line. The Adapt and Adopt Leaders of the Future Law firm executive management will continue to recognize the growing impact and importance of technology for the success of the law firm. In the near future, new generations of lawyers will become seated members on the firm's management committee/ board. This new generation will have never known a day in their lives without the Internet, email, texting or having a choice in technologies that help them maximize their individual practice. This total reliance on technology, which integrates into daily life, will solidify the need for executive-level technology professionals to help the firm adapt and adopt as quickly as possible. So … what is on the radar for law firm IT leaders? By 2020, the successful law firm IT leaders may: • Hold a seat at management committee/board meetings (as an ex-officio member) RICK MCDANNEL THOMPSON COBURN LLP next five years, and took a leap into the high-end arena when it acquired FAST Search & Transfer, a company that owned the powerful FAST Enterprise Search Platform (ESP) search engine. It seems to have paid off. The 2008 Gartner Magic Quadrant report for information access, which included enterprise search capabilities, showed Microsoft at the top of the magic quadrant. The 2010 Gartner MarketScope Enterprise Search report rated Microsoft a "Strong Positive," which is the highest rating assigned. FAST ESP provided the foundation for the FAST Peer to Peer 73 I 50 PUBLICATION AWARDS WINNERS, RECOGNIZED FOR OUTSTANDING CONTENT PUBLISHED DURING THE PERIOD JULY 1, 2011 TO JUNE 30, 2012 CONGRATULATIONS TO ILTA'S 2012 ROBIN HARDY AUTONOMY, INC. LIZA MADDEN AUTONOMY IMANAGE UNDERSTANDING ALL CONTENT AND INTERACTIONS M 6 Risky Business Six Key Areas of Intelligent Legal Information Management eeting risk and regulatory demands, while properly managing the explosion of multichannel content such as rich media and social network interactions, has elevated information governance to a critical business function in corporate legal departments and law firms. The increase in global business transactions proves the ILTA White Paper need to empower a mobile workforce, yet this added agility must occur in a way that is compliant with laws, regulations and security guidelines. The pressure to compete, provide superior customer service and work in real time makes it critical that technology solutions provide not just more data, but more answers. As we've always known, technology should work for us, not the other way around. White Paper Article authored by Robin Hardy and Liza Madden of Vendor-Contributed Outstanding solutions offer intelligent indexing and analytic capabilities that provide the answers we need, perform intelligent legal information management and maximize the value and usability of the ever- expanding volume of information. There are six main areas of legal information governance that law firms and corporate legal departments should address: Autonomy, Inc. and Autonomy iManage • Cloud Computing: The shift from on-premise software to on-demand, cloud-based options can help businesses lower costs and mitigate risk, while defensibly enforcing comprehensive information governance across the enterprise. At the heart of the compliance challenges facing corporate counsel and law firms is the need to understand the meaning of all content and interactions generated in the course of doing business. Knowing what is contained within the data is vital to ensuring control, visibility and legal defensibility over the information. Although most organizations have defined policies regarding electronic information and communications, there are often gaps in firmwide, real-time policy management and monitoring. These gaps point to the need to choose compliance solutions that can prevent deletion of data relevant to litigation, loss, leakage of confidential information, regulatory violations, errant electronic actions and malicious employee behavior. By leveraging the latest technologies and best practices, counsel can proactively govern all information and interactions, whether they originate from inside or outside the organization. Addressing these needs, today's technology • Mobile Computing: Supporting the mobile workforce helps businesses keep pace with the increasingly portable nature of business, allowing workers to conduct business at any time and from any location. • New Business Intake and Conflicts Management: Automating the process of conflicts checking at new business intake can ensure the process occurs accurately and thoroughly, and is integrated firmwide, to avoid gaps that can occur when processes are not fully integrated across the organization. • Discovery and Legal Holds: The ability to apply legal holds with speed, efficiency and accuracy regardless of format, language or source is the only way to ensure complete legal defensibility when litigation arises. • Real-Time, Policy-Based Management: Applying and enforcing policies in real time ensures compliance across every area of the organization. • Social Media Governance: Extending information governance to include social media enables the organization to monitor and govern internal and external interactions, such as those occurring over social media networks. As your firm is reviewing the governance policies associated with each of these areas, there are best practices that you can apply to help reduce risk. www.iltanet.org Risky Business 7 and Sensitivity in Today's Global Environment Awareness Cultural by Charlotte L. Washington As law firms open international offices and merge with firms that have a global presence, interacting with multinational clients and managing multicultural legal workforces is more and more prevalent. To effectively lead a global workforce, it is increasingly important to not only become more culturally aware, but to also develop cultural sensitivity. Connecting Culture and Relationships Culture encompasses the attitudes, actions, traditions, language and behavior shared by members smart moves 30 Reinvent Yourself in Challenging Times The legal IT world is a challenging arena in which the best of contenders have been defeated. Recent economic challenges added an extra layer of complexity to the ability of legal IT professionals to keep their tenure clocks ticking. However, it is in the face of adversity that some of the best opportunities arise, usually with the right combination of skill, planning, ingenuity, experience and even a little luck. I recently reached out to six of our peers who have won various bouts by reinventing themselves, reaffirming that they have what it takes to continually go the distance. They shared their secrets to success, providing nuggets of wisdom that can come in handy for all of us. After reading their insights, we hope you'll use the take-away diagram at the end of this article as a handy reference for future inspiration and guidance. There's the bell ... let's go 10 rounds with our champs! —Michele Gossmeyer, President of ILTA's Board of Directors Make Your Own Good Luck Most Innovative Editorial Content TJ Johnson: I was a paralegal for 10 attorneys in a law department and developed the job into a law department manager role. This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't seen what was needed and took it upon myself to get things done. When I was the IT director for a law firm, I volunteered to be on the ILTA conference committee. Now I work for ILTA, planning the annual conference and managing other ILTA conferences as well. How much of that transition was a perfectly timed job opening, and how much was passionately attacking a volunteer role and looking for ways to add more value to it? No one will ever know for sure, but you can bet that it wouldn't have happened without perseverance, hard work and being completely open to the possibilities (as wild as they might have seemed at the time). 26 Peer to Peer a group effort conceived and led by Bill Mertes: One of the best things that worked for me while I was between jobs was keeping up the "work routine." I didn't lounge around the house; I did my regular morning routine, went downtown and did my work for the day, which was figuring out my next career move. I was fortunate that I had office space I could use, but a table at the library also would have worked well. This made me available for on-the-spot networking opportunities and interviews, and I stayed in the "work" mindset. Michele Gossmeyer Brand Yourself Without Bragging Tom Koulopoulos: Many years ago I had the incredible good fortune of being introduced to Peter Drucker, one of the 20th century's most influential and well-known management thinkers. Over the course of the following decade, until he passed away, Drucker graciously gave me his time and mentorship. The fact that a man with as great a personal brand as Drucker would give of himself so freely and generously was perhaps the greatest lesson I ever had on the importance of personal branding — namely that the value of the personal relationships we form will always be the greatest testimonial to our brand. While today's gurus may be extraordinary at self-promotion, Drucker was extraordinary at selfless promotion. His brand was built on focused, thoughtful content and a genuine interest in sharing it with others. He did not worry about "who" he was (Peter Drucker — the great guru) as much as "what" he was (a teacher with an eagerness to share his insights and experiences), and he always looked for ways others could find the same in themselves. Is this a model for an old-world view of personal brand? No. Our brand in the cloud is simply a magnification of "what" we are. The cloud is incredibly transparent and you won't fool anyone for long. To boil it down, focus on the value you have to offer; be sincere, humble and give freely of your knowledge to others, whatever the medium. Your brand will follow. Kate Cain: If you won't advocate on your own behalf, who will? That said, it can be tricky to navigate that narrow margin between marketing yourself and becoming "that guy" who loves the sound of his own voice. The key to telling your own story effectively is to remember two axioms you've known since childhood: • Actions speak louder than words, so let your actions speak for themselves. If you are interviewing for a new role, tell your story in a way that aligns your accomplishments with the specific requirements of the role, highlighting what you learned along the way. That story should include examples that strike a balance between independence and team work and between smashing successes and good ol' fashioned lessons learned the hard way. • You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Focusing your story on the positive impact you had or could have will be more effective than criticizing the status quo. For example, a former colleague came up with an idea for a new approach to training and professional development. Her approach was novel and had a lot going for it. However, she framed her "pitch" by focusing on the gaps, inadequacies and dysfunction of the existing program. Although these criticisms were not necessarily unfounded, the audience was immediately turned off and tuned out before she could make her case. It is your story to tell and you're the best person to do it — just remember to stick to the relevant facts and keep it positive. Peer to Peer of various groups. While these groups might be delineated in a variety of ways, two of the most common are by organization or geographic locale. As firms move toward a more global presence, failure to be aware of and sensitive to such cultural differences will be a disaster in the making. Cultural awareness is not an innate trait, nor can it be guided by a random acceptance of perceived stereotypical behavior commonly used as a basis for communication or managerial methods. To begin to understand how culture shapes an organization, which will therefore impact not only management of law firms but also client relationships, we must understand that culture is multidimensional. Rising Star Charlotte Washington of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP Peer to Peer 31 FAST Search for SharePoint 2010: Is It Right for Your Firm? n law firms, content can be found in document management systems, email systems, records management systems, intranets, marketing applications and many other databases and applications. Having one portal through which users can search multiple repositories instead of opening several different applications has tremendous value both in time savings and user satisfaction. Over the past few years, SharePoint has frequently been used as a front end for enterprise search engines. Although there are many search Portal Platforms ILTA White Paper engines to choose from, some even specific to the legal market, implementing an enterprise search engine can be expensive, time consuming and complex. Even though several non-Microsoft search engines integrate with SharePoint, Microsoft's search products are worth consideration, especially when it comes to the cost of ownership. THE FAST BACKGROUND In 2008, Microsoft announced it would be spending Member-Contributed White Paper Article Outstanding up to 11 billion dollars in the area of search over the Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, commonly referred to as "FS4SP." It is used by many large e-commerce websites, with some installations reporting over a billion items in their search indexes. FAST ESP's roots go back to early Internet search engines such as "AlltheWeb" and "Lycos." Powerful and very flexible, FAST ESP has a fairly complex architecture (as an indication, the documentation for the product is over 2,000 pages). FAST ESP started out as a non-Microsoft product — the use of an Apache server, Python scripting, a JDBC connector for data, and open source components make this apparent. After purchasing FAST Search & Transfer, Microsoft's attractive pricing, combined with the extreme scalability and speed (sub-second queries against millions of documents), content extraction, connectors, and the ability to honor security set on crawled content, made FAST ESP a serious contender as an internal, SharePoint-hosted enterprise search engine. FAST DOCUMENT PROCESSING AND CONTENT EXTRACTION One of the appealing capabilities of the FAST ESP search engine is the ability to insert functionality into the document processing pipeline. The document pr of th ex bu do FA lo O ex us ex m to m le re fo re ra re da an fe do he do do be cr hi lin th fo authored by Rick McDannel of Thompson Coburn LLP Peer to Peer 27 MatterSphere NATURALLY CONNECTED Desktop Smart Mobile Visit mattersphere.com today. TO WHEREVER YOU WORK. The legal software that gives you mobile access to all your client and matter information. Now when you're on the go, your matter management goes with you. MatterSphere from Thomson Reuters brings everything related to a client or matter into view with one click. It's embedded within your Microsoft® Offi ce environment, so you never have to leave what you're doing in order to attend to something else. For lawyers, it's a very natural way to work, wherever you work. 126 Peer to Peer Ad Content the Thomson Reuters MatterSphere Campaign Most Innovative © 2012 Thomson Reuters L-374040/2-12

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