Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/83718
www.iltanet.org involved in getting there, the return on investment is impressive. In any scenario, that is clearly a successful partnership that brings an incredible value to the firm. These are just two examples to show how a partnership between IT and finance can make an impact on the business of the law firm and improve the bottom line. An IT department that is in the mode of continuously improving law firm processes, technology and systems should not only be noticed by the partners but also by all staff, and particularly by finance. Enter the "new breed" of CIO and IT director who do so much more than just keep the wheels turning and clients happy. It is often said that the IT department of a law firm needs to make its customers happy. The customers are the attorneys, paralegals and other staff members of the firm. Don't stop at just making them happy. Strive to be the IT department that each customer looks to when it comes to helping them do their job the best The Re-Emergence of Cro by Jason Best and Sherwood Neiss of Crowdfund Capita 2013 will be the year of the entrepreneur. It will also be the year of the investor. The JOBS Acts signed into law by President Obama will allow "Main Street" entrepreneurs to go to their community and, using a regulatory framework, seek up to one-million dollars in funding. What will make it succeed or fail is social media, the tool that will both provide the mechanism for getting the funding request out there and expose any fraud. Crowdfunding Resurfaces Crowdfunding isn't really anything new — we've just forgotten about it due to regulations. Prior to the Great Depression, communities used to pool their money and use it to help people buy homes and start businesses. Unscrupulous "snake-oil salesmen" who sold stocks door-to-door took advantage of naive investors, dumping worthless stocks on them while they kept the proceeds. Eager to protect investors and prevent future market failures, Congress passed securities laws 34 ILTA White Paper and formed the SEC. Unfortunately, these 78-year-old securities laws did not take into account the additional costs and overall burden that they would add to the formation process for early-stage companies. The laws also did not account for changes in technology that changed the very nature of how we communicate. The Power of Crowdfunding "Crowd diligence" is a term that you will hear with increasing frequency both in relation to crowdfund investing and with social media. Web 2.0 creates a level of transparency that has never existed before. There is a great deal of power in a crowd. It turns one-on- one conversations into many-to-many conversations. Think about how fraud has been committed in the past: a phone call with a hot stock tip or the email message from some fake princess in a faraway country promising a fortune. These are examples of one-on-one communication. With many-to-many communication, it is much harder to hide dishonest intentions. If you've