Bloomberg Law has posted a short but fascinating documentary Steven Davis and Rise and Fall of Dewey LeBoeuf. Ten years after the spectacular collapse of the ALM 100 law firm, former Chairman Steve Davis  broke his silence. No other former partners agreed to be interviewed for the documentary. Commentary by David Lat, Founder of Above the Law; Vivien Chen, legal analyst at Bloomberg Law and   Prof. David Wilkens, Director of the Center for the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School is woven into the Davis narrative.

Dewey LeBoeuf was not the first ALM 100 firm to collapse.  Heller, Brobeck, Howrey,  Coudert Brothers all succumbed to the mysterious alchemy of missteps, hubris and  changed law firm economics. Dewey LeBoeuf has the distinction of being the first truly “white shoe” law firm to join this solemn procession. They were also the first collapse to result in the indictment of law firm leaders. Lat refers to  Dewey LeBoeuf as “The Lehman collapse of the legal world.”

According to Davis market forces as well as  prestigious consultants suggested in 2005  that LeBoeuf  either needed to shrink into a boutique or find a merger partner  and transform itself into a  “super firm.” The firm opted to grow and began a spectacularly aggressive recruiting spree which included enticing Ralph Ferrara  to leave Debevoise  with a $16 million sign on bonus. For the first time law firm partners were being recruited and paid like athletes. The high risk strategy worked … until it didn’t.  The American Lawyer  described LeBoeuf as a “rainmaker magnet.” But a revolving door spins partners  “in” as well as “out”. And when a group of  rainmakers threatened to leave, Davis  found a merger partner in Dewey Ballantine one of the whitest of white shoe firms where profits per partner had been in decline. The merger took place on October 1, 2007.

Continue Reading Ten Years On – Bloomberg Law Releases Documentary on the Collapse of Dewey LeBoeuf

After a short break, the Start/Stop survey is back! This survey is intended to  gather feedback on both products and projectswhich you started or stopped since the  start of the pandemic,(March 2020) through the present. 

Please take a few minutes to respond to the survey at this link.

The Dewey B Strategic blog has partnered with HBR Consulting to bring you the latest Start/Stop survey.   I will be joining with an industry veteran from HBR to present and discuss the results of combined with insights from  the Start Stop Survey and HBR’s BLISS survey.

A presentation focused on the survey results will be featured at HBR’s second annual Legal Information + Knowledge Services Conference (LINKS) on Thursday, September 15, 2022. Proceeds from LINKS ticket sales will cover technology costs for the event and a donation to the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) George A. Strait Minority Scholarship & Fellowship fund.

Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. showcased a portfolio of new and recently enhanced solutions for legal professionals at the 2022 American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Annual Meeting and Conference, in Denver last week. New tools include a Dashboard for VitalLaw Law & Regs, Sharepoint integration, Securities Enforcement Analyzer and an Arbitrator and Awards Analyzer.

“The demand for legal technology is being driven by the information explosion and increased regulation, putting more pressure on legal professionals across the country,” said Ken Crutchfield, Vice President & General Manager of Legal Markets for Wolters Continue Reading Wolters Kluwer Releases Sharepoint Integration, New Dashboard and Previews Analyzers At AALL

Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company,  released  a new legal analytics tool “State Motion Metrics”. State Motion Metrics provides insights which can be used to develop a motion strategy or identify the best arguments in state motion practice. State Motion Metrics is available for four Delaware state courts, including the Delaware Court of Chancery. Motion metrics are also available for the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Lex Machina plans to roll out State Motion Metrics in more courts later this year.

“Our analytics allow users to understand motion strategy, including judges’ past behavior with dynamic grant/denial rates, as well as the cases and documents to back up that research,” said Karl Harris, CEO of Lex Machina. “Lex Machina is the best analytics tool to Continue Reading Lex Machina Launches State Motion Metrics -Webcast Demo on July 28th

Earlier  this week,  LexisNexis Legal & Professional     unveiled the upcoming availability of Lexis+ Fact & Issue Finder, at  the American Association of Law Libraries conference . This new feature enables litigators to identify caselaw relevant to the specific  facts and  issues of their client’s case. The new offering covers six litigation practice areas – Personal Injury, Labor & Employment, Insurance, Real Estate, Intellectual Property, and Business & Commercial – with additional practice areas planned.

I met with Jeff Pfeifer, LexisNexis Chief Product Officer during the Conference  to get an overview of the  Lexis+ Fact and Issue Finder.  Pfeifer  alluded to a “abyss of information” which practically paralyses an associate faced with so much precedent and so many research tools.  The Fact & Issue Finder is focused on helping lawyers locate the most factually relevant cases quickly.  According to Pfeifer the product grew out of an attempt to completely deconstruct the research process. The developers used feedback from more than 1,000 customer interactions in order to understand the research experience and address specific pain points. One important goal is to eliminate the “fractured” research process by delivering a set of unified results in a single dashboard.

 

 

Fact & Issue Finder is designed from the ground up to mimic the exact processes that legal professionals perform when researching Continue Reading Associates Flailing in the “Abyss of Information” – Lexis+ Fact and Issue Finder Promises Relief  

The American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting and Conference will be held July 16th -19th in Denver, Colorado. I will be speaking on two panels.

Key Law Library Trends 2022 and Beyond

I will be joining a panel moderated  by Ken Crutchfield VP and General Manager of Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory. The panel includes Cynthia Brown of Littler and Saskia Mehlhorn of Norton Rose Fulbright. We will discuss hot topics including the evolution of hybrid work. the “Great Resignation” and the impacts of inflation.

Shamelss Self-Promotion for Law Librarians: How to Get Visible, Benefit Your Career, and Impact You Profession ( While Having Fun)

Our profession has impactful ideas to share that benefit not only our library departments but also our broader organizations and the legal industry. We need more voices in our community to ensure that these ideas are heard and that the value of the law librarian is championed. Greg Lambert   (2 Geeks and the Law and Geek in Review Podcast)  and Jean O’Grady ( Dewey B Strategic and Legal Tech Hub)  will share  ideas, experience and impacts of their social media activities. They will discuss  their efforts to promote the value of information professionals and law librarians. Not everyone has to be a blogger or have a podcast but we all have an important role to play. Joanne Kiley of HRB will moderate a lively discussion.

Courtroom Insight  is announcing  today the launch of CI API Connectors which will enable subscribers to import complete complete Courtroom Insight directories and profile information, along with linked private/external content, and seamlessly integrate this data with existing case and contact information held within  the organizations systems. This is a big advance for KM and BI initiatives involving lawyers, arbitrators, experts and judge information.

“Courtroom Insight has long been an innovator in delivering the comprehensive and proven insights about litigation professionals that legal organizations need when preparing their cases,” shared Nikki Shaver, founder of Legaltech Hub. “With the announcement of CI API Continue Reading Courtroom Insight Announces Launch of CI API Connectors

Fastcase has been recognizing innovation and excellence in the legal profession with the Fastcase 50 award since 2011. This years recipients include librarians, knowledge managers, technologists, entrepreneurs, judges and lawyers across the spectrum of the legal and tech universe. Here is a list of this years recipients.

“When we look back at the pandemic era, we will see it as a great reset in our attitudes and assumptions about legal services,” said Fastcase CEO Ed Walters. “Even if they have had to spend more time on Zoom this year than they had planned, the 2022 class of honorees is making profound changes for the next generation of law. We celebrate Continue Reading Fastcase 50 Announced – Congratulations to Class of 2022

There is no question that the most exciting place at AALL is the Exhibit Hall. Connect with old friends, schmooze with vendors, learn about exciting new features and products. 2022 is the first live, post pandemic AALL conference. I am anticipating that a highly energized crowd will be streaming through the exhibit hall. I asked Pablo Arredondo the Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Casetext – a relatively new AALL exhibitor – to explain the value of being at AALL. “From our earliest product, CARA, to our most recent one, AllSearch, the exhibit hall at AALL is one of the best places for Casetext to evangelize new technology.  It has been critical to our success to date.”

Mark Torchiana, Co-Founder and CEO of Courtroom Insight planned to exhibit for the first time in 2020 but when the conference went virtual, he decided to wait for the first in-person conference.  “This year, we are very excited for the conference to be in person and look forward to showcasing our numerous new integrations at the event.  The timing is right for us because our customer base has grown (40 of the Amlaw 200 firms) along with the number of software integration partners. We continue to focus on KM and analytics about experts, arbitrators, judges and soon attorneys.  And we are perfectly positioned to help marry private, internal content to external data sources via our application and our soon to be announced APIs. “

It is hard to categorize the 14 new exhibitors. Many companies support some form of research, but there is no clear demarcation between research, KM, business intelligence and workflow solutions. Analytics, AI and API’s – once considered cutting edge – stream through most product offerings. Specialized resources for litigation, IP, securities, international and transactional practices are represented in the list.

To read full post at Legal Tech Hub and learn about the 14 new exhibitors  click here

 

 

One of the best things about writing  my blog is having the chance to interview and watch lawyers transform their ” there’s gotta be a better way” moment into a product. One of the worst thing about my blog is having  to report when a wonderful “start-up” has to shut down. In this case the lawyer was Rick Merrill who I interviewed for my first Gavelytics post  Gavelytics: California State Court Analytics Developed by Lawyers for Lawyers  in October 2017.  Over the past that  5 years, I wrote 9 additional posts as Gavelytics expanded to new states, launched Gavelytics 2.0, added a Business Development tool, KM features, partners, APIs and was granted a visualization tool patent.

Gavelytics launched with several unique California features: Continue Reading Breaking News : Gavelytics Groundbreaking State Analytics Platform to Shut Down Tomorrow June 30, 2022