Law Technology Now

On Monday, January 29, 2018, legal professionals will flood New York for Legalweek 2018, a conference featuring workshops, networking opportunities, and hundreds of exhibitors all designed to address key issues in the legal industry. In this Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to Zach Warren about the details of the conference and how newbies can attend without getting overwhelmed. Their discussion includes hot topics that will be covered at the event, like blockchain and cybersecurity, and speakers they’re excited to hear from. Zach Warren is the editor-in-chief of Legaltech News, a publication that features law technology updates, articles, and technology company press releases for the legal profession. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the second year in a row, Thomson Reuters released the 2017 State of U.S. Small Law Firms, a survey with input from over 300 small and solo law firms. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi talks to Bill Josten about the results of this survey including the common challenges facing small and solo firms, their biggest sources of competition, and how they are investing in technology to improve efficiency. They also discuss how these firms measure success and tips for improving client intake. Bill Josten is the senior legal industry analyst for the Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute and consults with law firms nationally on issues related to law firm profitability, pricing and cost recovery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Intellectual property plays a big role in your law firm even if you’re not an intellectual property lawyer. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to Nicole Shanahan, CEO of ClearAccessIP, about why intellectual property is important to a law firm and how her company is working to reduce the cost of producing assets like patents. They also discuss some of Nicole’s recent projects, like the Stanford OpenData Initiative, and her trip to the White House. Nicole Shanahan is the founder and CEO of ClearAccessIP and a 2014-2016 Residential CodeX Fellow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The access to justice gap is huge -- something like 80% of low-income people who seek legal help do not get that help. We see this as a technology infrastructure challenge.” - Tony Lai As the legal industry continues to strive towards providing access to justice for all, companies are emerging that aim to solve this specific problem. One of these companies is Legal.io, a legal technology company that provides referral management and legal empowerment systems to legal organizations. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to Tony Lai, CEO of Legal.io, about the company and how it’s working to close the access to justice gap including its partnership with large firms, legal aid networks, and bar associations. Tony also shares his predictions for which technologies will most impact the future of the legal profession. Tony Lai is a lawyer, entrepreneur and evangelist for processes and systems that support openness and innovation, engagement, and sharing. Learn more about your ad choices. V

Blockchain has recently emerged as one of the technologies that will most change the way lawyers practice law and yet a lot of people still don’t fully understand what blockchain is. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogitalks to David Fisher, CEO of Integra Ledger, about what blockchain is and its application in the legal industry. They discuss the benefits to using blockchain including having data security, your own digital identity, and maintaining integrity in documents like contracts, signatures, and more. David Fisher is the founder and CEO of Integra Ledger, a permissioned blockchain for the global legal industry that facilitates secure and efficient interoperability among law firms and their clients. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Legal procurement is the entire process of buying legal services including the decision to purchase, the selection of which services, and paying the supplier. Working as a legal procurement professional is a relatively new concept, but when properly utilized, procurement professionals can contribute to decreased spending and well-managed relationships with legal services providers. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to Silvia Hodges Silverstein about legal services procurement, including what it is and how it changes the way legal services are bought and sold. They discuss managing the relationships between legal services suppliers and clients, as well as why companies invest in legal procurement professionals. Dr. Silvia Hodges Silverstein is the executive director of the Buying Legal Council, the international trade organization for legal procurement, and adjunct professor at Columbia Law School and Fordham Law School. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We keep hearing "artificial intelligence (AI) won't take the jobs of lawyers." But the growing field of AI is bound to affect the legal industry in other ways. The tech-enabled legal service company Axiom recently announced their own AI and, according to Paul Carr, president of global strategic projects, this technology and AI in general could be transformative for the legal industry. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi talks to Paul Carr about how Axiom uses technology, including AI, to modernize legal services and streamline processes which enables them to better serve their clients. They also discusses how to broach the topic of using AI and other newer technology with their corporate clients. Paul Carr is the president of global strategic projects at Axiom. Axiom is the leading alternative legal services provider. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2017 Clio Cloud Conference is fast approaching, taking place September 25 and 26 in New Orleans. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to Joshua Lenon, lawyer-in-residence for Clio, about the conference including who will be speaking and special announcements like the Legal Trends Report. He also shares what makes his position at Clio unique and what makes Clio stand out as a law practice management software company. Joshua Lenon is an attorney who currently serves as lawyer-in-residence for Clio, providing legal scholarship and research skills to the cloud-based practice management platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The responsibility and pressure of the legal profession can often leave lawyers feeling overwhelmed and hopeless, but there are healthy ways to face this stress. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to Brian Cuban about his own experience as an addict and how he now works to help those with similar struggles. Whether it’s through speaking or writing, Brian aims to share healthy alternatives to drug and alcohol use. Brian Cuban is an attorney, author, activist, and brother of Mark Cuban. His most recent book, “The Addicted Lawyer,” is about his struggles as a law student and attorney with depression, alcohol and drug addiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi talks to Tracy Stevens, VP of Product and Design at MyCase, about cloud based practice management software, product design, and what sets MyCase apart from the competition. They also discuss MyCase’s client portal and why this technology is valuable to lawyers. Tracy Stevens is the vice president of Product and Design at MyCase, where she works directly with the development teams to ensure that they’re building software that will delight customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawyers don’t have to be tech geniuses to understand that technology is changing the practice. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks with Chris Bentley about the legal innovation program at Ryerson University and the importance of weaving technology courses into legal education. They also discuss how even lawyers who don’t consider themselves tech savvy can still embrace the benefits of innovation in law. Chris Bentley is the executive director of the Law Practice Program (LPP) at Ryerson University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jay Mandal saw a problem with access to legal information so he sat in a Starbucks for hours until he figured it out. This was how his startup was born. He now helps law firms solve their own problems (minus spending hours in Starbucks). In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to Jay Mandal about his own startup experience and how his startup bootcamp for lawyers helps students learn cross-disciplinary skills that can make their legal businesses thrive. Jay Mandal is an entrepreneur, executive, and lawyer. He was co-founder and CEO of LawPivot, an online legal Q&A solution, which the team sold to Rocket Lawyer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are a surprising number of nonlawyers who want to know more about the law. While Google may have made access to legal information easier, it hasn’t completely solved legal information availability. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi talks to Tom Bruce, co-founder of the Legal Information Institute (LII), about what the LII is and how it has adapted to changing technology, including using natural language processing techniques to identifying defining terms in regulations and statutes and linking together related subjects. They also discuss who the LII serves today and what resources the group offers, including a complete archive of the Supreme Court’s oral argument audio. Thomas Bruce is the co-founder and director of the Legal Information Institute. An internet and web pioneer, he developed the first web browser for Microsoft Windows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this rebroadcast episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi talks with Opus 2 International, Inc. CEO Graham Smith-Bernal about his career and the evolution of the electronic courtroom. Graham recalls his early interest in becoming a court stenographer and how at the age of 23 he had the opportunity to establish his company Smith Bernal International. At that time he noticed that the legal industry was driven heavily by precedent and tradition and that he could use technology to establish his company as a service differentiator. Graham was also aware that a lot of lawyers are technophobic, so any software he developed had to be easy to use and with the advent of real time transcription he came up with the idea for LiveNote. He shares that there was a lot of pushback and reticence in the early days, but by exercising the ease of use, increase in efficiency, and leveraging end user feature requests the product became mature as a piece of tech. Graham states that success in any business is about timing a

The legal industry has always been the last to catch up with innovation. Technology, however, may help with one of the industry’s biggest problems, access to justice. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to James Sandman about the ten barriers he sees that block the adoption of technology, five strategies to this issue, and how the adoption of technology will help get legal aid to those that need it. He also talks about the Trump Administration’s budget plan which aims to cut the Legal Services Corporation funding. James Sandman has been president of the Legal Services Corporation since 2011. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new Executive Orders on immigration introduced by the Trump Administration have pushed some lawyers to act on behalf of immigrants in need of legal help. But many lawyers who want to help don't know where to start. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to Chad Burton and Ed Walters about the creation of ImmigrationJustice.us, a website built to organize legal professionals who are seeking ways to volunteer their services. They discuss how the website was built in a single night for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the team involved in its creation, and the template that they hope can be used for similar issues in the future. They conclude the episode by saying how important groups of active trendsetters, like the ABA Center for Innovation, will drive change within law. Ed Walters is the CEO and co-founder of Fastcase, an online legal research software company based in Washington, D.C. Under Ed’s leadership, Fastcase has grown into one of the world’s largest legal publi

Excited for this year’s ABA TECHSHOW? In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi talks to Adriana Linares, the chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2017, about what legal professionals can expect at the conference this year. Adriana talks about the keynote address, legal hackathon, and Taste of Techshow dinners. They also discuss what’s new about this year, the academic track, and the effort to bring more diversity into the event. Adriana Linares serves as a technology consultant to the Florida Bar, is the chair of the ABA TECHSHOW 2017, and serves on the board of the Florida Justice Technology Center. She hosts both the New Solo podcast on Legal Talk Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While the Trump administration has brought about a significant number of changes, perhaps the most notable are the policies regarding immigration. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks to former United States District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin about the American Immigrant Representation Project (AIRP). This non-profit organization was created by a group, including Scheindlin, in order to allow those facing deportation access to counsel. In their discussion, they talk about the driving reasons that motivated this project and how listeners, especially young lawyers, can help. Former United States District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin is a member of the Litigation Practice Group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and serves as an arbitrator/mediator under the auspices of JAMS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2007 there was no web-based software for law firms. This drove Larry Port to create Rocket Matter, the first cloud-based legal practice management software company. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi interviews Larry about Rocket Matter, its competition, and its investors (or lack thereof). In their discussion, they cover Rocket Matter’s competition with Clio, third party integration, and having a market-driven approach to product development. Larry closes out the episode with advice for those starting their own legal technology company. Larry Port has worked with thousands of law firms worldwide since 2008 when he started Rocket Matter. Rocket Matter has since remained a leader in the industry, boosting law firms’ revenues by more than 20%. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every industry needs a week dedicated to them. Fashion has Fashion Week, technology is celebrated at Tech Week, and there’s even a Social Media Week. For legal professionals, Legalweek is an opportunity to learn new skills, stay updated on the latest trends, and meet other legal professionals. In this episode of Law Technology Now, hosts Bob Ambrogi and Monica Bay chat with John Stuttard, Senior VP of Global Events at ALM Media, and Nick Bruch, Senior Analyst at ALM Legal Intelligence, about about Legalweek 2017 and their roles in putting the conference together. Originally, Legalweek was focused on technology but has since broadened its scope to include the whole legal industry. Guests John and Nick discuss this transition as well as other changes taking place at the conference, including the introduction of a fee for the expo hall. They conclude with the sentiment that, while there is a lot to be said about legal technology on its own, the new mission of the conference is to bring together all aspects of la