The 2007 recession was sort of a “cattle prod” which shocked law firms into acknowledging that  clients won’t pay for inefficiency. Legal publishers responded with a variety of “know how” or KM tools  which have created  a highly competitive niche in legal publishing. Every major legal publisher LexisNexis ,Thompson Reuters, Bloomberg Law, and Wolters Kluwer have been focused on gaining market share by growing their practice guidance and drafting tools.
This week FEIT Consulting is releasing a study :”Findings from the LexisNexis Practical Guidance/Thomson Reuters Practical Law Focus Group Inquiry” which summarizes the results of four focus groups which pitted Thompson Reuters Practical Law against Lexis Practical Guidance (previously branded as Practice Advisor.)
The basic question : “Is Lexis practice guidance ready for prime time?”  appears to have been answered in the affirmative.
Well the librarians are a hardened and skeptical lot and will want to test, poke, probe and conduct their own internal focus groups before

Continue Reading Feit Consulting: Is Lexis Practical Guidance Ready for Prime Time?

Creating LINKS: Bringing Together Legal Information and Knowledge Professionals

Colleen Cable | September 14, 2021

As we near the end of 2021, legal information and knowledge professionals have continued to work primarily in a remote environment. This has not only impacted how we work, but also how we network, how we learn, and how we grow as professionals.

In this environment, there are many reasons to gather as a group of likeminded professionals. They include not only expanding our network, but also the ability to share ideas and work with others or to find solutions to common problems; this is what we miss when we are unable to gather in a structured and, almost more importantly, an unstructured way.

To help provide these opportunities, HBR is proud to introduce the Legal Information + Knowledge Services (LINKS) Conference, a half-day conference designed to connect legal information and knowledge professionals for mutual learning and networking.

To be held on Thursday, October 14, from 1:00 p.m. ET to 6:00 p.m. ET, this conference is open to law firm leaders, managers, and other professionals engaged in the information and knowledge field. Proceeds will benefit the AALL George A. Strait Minority Scholarship & Fellowship fund.

The agenda offers opportunities to learn, exchange ideas, and network:

Leadership View into 2022
1:00 – 1:50 p.m. ET

Do you ever wonder what your firm leaders consider as they plan for the future? Now LINKS “invites you to the table.” HBR experts will share their insights on the legal market outlook for 2022 and beyond – the same perspectives they offer when advising firm leadership.

Featuring:

  • Nick Quil, CEO, HBR Consulting
  • Bobbi Basile, Managing Director, Legal Transformation + Innovation, HBR Consulting

BLISS 2021 – Key Highlights from the Survey
2:00 – 2:50 p.m. ET

Join us for a session highlighting the results from HBR’s 2021 Benchmarking in Law Library and Information Services Survey (BLISS). Learn about key findings from the survey and how you can strategically apply benchmarking data in your firm. Hear a deeper dive into the findings of this year’s BLISS hot topic – succession planning and best practices to position your library for the future.

Featuring:

  • Anna Forsher, Senior Consultant, HBR Consulting
  • Cynthia Brown, Sr. Director, Research Services, Littler
  • Jessica King, Director of Library Services, Perkins Coie
  • Jennifer Bluestein, Chief Talent & HR Officer, Perkins Coie

The 3 Geeks Break it Down
3:00 – 3:50 p.m. ET

The masterminds behind the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog and the Geek in Review podcast will host a rich discussion on the future of library and knowledge departments, breaking down and expanding on key insights from prior presentations during this interactive session.

Featuring:

  • Marlene Gebauer, Director of Knowledge Management, Locke Lord
  • Greg Lambert, Chief Knowledge Services Officer, Jackson Walker

Networking
4:00 – 6:00 p.m. ET
Mix and mingle with attendees, friends, colleagues, speakers, and HBR on our new networking platform, Airmeet.

To learn more and register, click on this link

Gavelytics has announced a significant upgrade to their analytics platform including wide variety of enhancements and functionality analytics data categorization and perhaps most importantly an API so users can directly deliver data into their Organizations for business intelligence.
Gavelytics leverages proprietary AI and enabled machine learning technology to deliver analytics and insights for litigators, librarians and knowledge professional as well as  and law firm marketers. Since its launch Gavelytics has been  amassing a huge repository of litigation documents. A combination of attorney editors and software   extract and normalize data points which create and generate interactive charts.
New Features: include

    • An API providing direct access to Gavelytics’s litigation analytics and underlying data that can be seamlessly applied into workflows
    • A bold new user interface design offering deeper analytics and more customization
    • Additional proprietary judicial analytics to help better assess and understand the judge’s tendencies and fit
    • Expanded motion practice analytics covering the litigation histories of millions of litigants and hundreds of thousands of lawyers and law firms
    • Integration of new data sets, including industry categories, so users can track litigation behaviors of banking, automotive, insurance, retail and other industries
    • Updated user interface to support better data access, readability and clarity
    • The option to get custom dashboards keyed to specific law firms, litigants or jurisdictions, so the most relevant information will always be front and center
    • Major infrastructural enhancements providing faster updates and more accurate data than ever before
API’s for Business Intelligence Law librarians and knowledge managers have been clamoring for APIs which will allow firms to leverage Gavelytics data to be integrated with internal with internal firm data in order to generate custom internal intelligence.
 Rick Merrill, founder and CEO of Gavelytics. commented on the API’s in the press release. “We’ve included all new data categories, interactivity and data customization so users can get a better experience with better data usability. The new Gavelytics litigation analytics API empowers thousands of law firms, corporate legal departments and other legal technology businesses to easily integrate our industry-leading litigation analytics into their workflows, internal applications, and customer-facing platforms. With the most powerful and accurate litigation analytics available on the market supported by our all-new infrastructure, we’re very proud of the value Gavelytics delivers to subscribers.”

Congratulations to all of those named to the Fastcase 50 this year. I am always please to see long term knowledge and library colleagues including June Liebert, Holly Riccio, Katherine Lowery, James Duggan and Nikki Shaver included in the roster. It also has to be noted that Fastcase recognizes their competitors including Rick Merrill of  Gavelytics, Ryan Walker of Casetext and Patrick Fuller and Vanessa Blum from ALM.

While the list includes many established legal technology companies and law firm it is also giving important attention and exposure to small pro bono initiatives as well as innovators in courts and law schools.

If you are in a law firm – reading through the list is a competitive intelligence exercise. It is fascinating to see the explosion of new titles and responsibilities evolving in law firms. There is a Director of an Innovation Lab (Holland and Hart), Senior Innovation Lawyer (Norton Rose), Head of IncuBaker (BakerHostetler), Director of Orrick Analytics (Orrick, Herrington & Suttcliffe).

I am most fascinated by aptly named Art Lein, Courtroom Sketch Artist – possibly the first visual artist included in the Fastcase 50. Take a moment to look through his website  Courtartist.

 

Here is the press release:

Fastcase Announces 2021 Fastcase 50 Award Honorees

Recognizes 50 Innovators, Visionaries, and Leaders in Law

 

Washington, DC (July 12, 2021) – Legal intelligence company Fastcase today announced the honorees of the 2021 Fastcase 50. The award recognizes 50 of the smartest, most courageous, innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders in the law.

 View the 2021 winners at www.fastcase.com/fastcase50

Fastcase is delighted to introduce the Fastcase 50 Class of 2021. Each year since the inaugural awards in 2011, the Fastcase 50 award has spotlighted the often under-recognized efforts of pioneers and architects of the future of law and legal technology. The honorees for the Fastcase 50 Class of 2021 represent a diverse group of lawyers, legal technologists, law librarians, judges, legal researchers, innovators, and people who are passionate about reforming and automating the law.

“The past year has presented challenges that provided opportunities to advance the law, and even accelerated some innovations into the mainstream,” said Fastcase CEO Ed Walters. “We celebrate the diligence, discipline, passion, and creativity of these Fastcase 50 honorees. We are as proud as ever to spotlight the eleventh class of the Fastcase 50, highlighting now 550 people who have inspired our profession, since our first class in 2011.”

Congratulations to this year’s class of Fastcase 50 recipients:

Jason Adaska, Chief Technology Officer, Juris Futura; Director of Innovation Lab, Holland & Hart

Haley Altman, Global Head of Corporate Development, Litera

Roy Austin, Vice President of Civil Rights and Deputy General Counsel, Facebook

Brad Blickstein, Principal, Blickstein Group; Co-Head of NewLaw Practice Group, Baretz+Brunelle

Joe Borstein, CEO and Co-Founder, LexFusion

Vanessa Blum, Newsroom Innovation Director, ALM Media; Executive Editor, Law.com Radar

Bryon Bratcher, Director of Practice Solutions, Reed Smith LLP; Managing Director, Gravity Stack

Miriam Childs, Director, Law Library of Louisiana, Louisiana Supreme Court

Ming W. Chin, Justice (ret.), California Supreme Court

Ben Crump, Founder and President, Ben Crump Law, PLLC

James Duggan, Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law, Tulane University Law School

Tonya Evans, Professor of Law, Penn State Dickinson Law

Lluis Faus, Co-Founder, CEO and Executive Chairman, vLex

Sam Fletcher, Research Scientist, Kira Systems

Ivan Fong, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal and Policy Officer and Secretary, 3M

Patrick Fuller, Vice President of Legal Intelligence, ALM Intelligence

Maria Hall, Director, Los Angeles Incubator Consortium

Danielle Holley-Walker, Dean and Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law

Al Hounsell, Senior Innovation Lawyer, Norton Rose Fulbright

Ben Jackson, Co-Founder and COO, Immigrants Like Us

Jay Kim, Managing Partner, Kim Vaughan Lerner

Hannah Konitshek, Business Operations & Strategy, Legal.io

Brian Lee, Serial Entrepreneur; Co-Founder, LegalZoom

Sang Lee, CEO; Co-Founder, Thine, LLC; Owner, Volta Talent Strategies;

Art Lien, Courtroom Sketch Artist, Courtartist

Dominique Shelton Leipzig, Partner, Privacy & Security and Co-Chair, Ad Tech Privacy & Data Management, Perkins Coie LLP

Mirra Levitt, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Priori

June Liebert, Director of Information Services, O’Melveny & Myers LLP

Katherine Lowry, Head of IncuBaker and Director of Practice Services, BakerHostetler

Jelena Madir, General Counsel, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Nicholas Magnanelli, Research & Instructional Services Librarian, Yale Law Library

Rick Merrill, Founder and CEO, Gavelytics

Laura O’Bryan, Co-Owner, MyVirtual.Lawyer; Co-Founder, MVL for Attorneys

Dyane O’Leary, Associate Professor of Legal Writing and Director of Suffolk University Law School Legal Innovation & Technology Concentration, Suffolk University Law School

Holly Riccio, Director, California Judicial Center Library

Nick Rishwain, Vice President of Business Development & Relations, Experts.com; Creator, LegalTechLive

Margo Schlanger, Wade H. and Dores M. McCree Collegiate Professor of Law, Michigan Law

Anita Carr Shapiro (In Memoriam), President Emerita, Practising Law Institute

Nikki Shaver, Managing Director of Innovation and Knowledge, Paul Hastings

Evan Shenkman, Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer, Fisher Phillips

Daryl Shetterly, Director of Orrick Analytics, Orrick, Herring & Sutcliffe LLP

Barry Simpson, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Bar Association

Alex Smith, Global Product Management Lead, iManage RAVN

Brad Stern, County Attorney, Washington County, Wisconsin

Devin Stone, Attorney, StoneLaw DC

Jessica Stuart, Senior Product Manager, Pro Bono Net

Marcos A. Tapia, Shareholder, Tiffany & Bosco, P.A.

Alvin Tedjamulia, CTO, NetDocuments

Ryan Walker, Chief Technology Officer, Casetext

Jennifer Wondracek, Director of the Law Library; Professor of Legal Research and Writing, Capital University Law School

 

To view profiles of each of the winners and to learn more about the Fastcase 50 award, visit

http://www.fastcase.com/fastcase50

 

About Fastcase

Fastcase is a comprehensive legal intelligence company, founded in 1999 and based in Washington, D.C. Partnering with the bar associations of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Fastcase serves more than 1.1 million lawyers from around the world. The company provides an innovative research suite of primary law, dockets, treatises, legal blogs, analytics, workflow tools, and legal news. For more information about Fastcase’s smarter legal tools, visit the company on Twitter at @Fastcase or visit www.fastcase.com.

LexisNexis has announced the launch of  Legal News Hub, the latest enhancement to the Lexis+ ecosystem.  Although Lexis has enjoyed a dominant position in the legal news market, they have faced increasing competition in the past year with the  launch of significant new legal news initiatives from Thomson Reuters. Fastcase and ALM.

The Lexis Legal News Hub will now appear as a new module on the Lexis+ “experience dock. ” The Legal News Hub adds Law 360 current awareness functionality to Lexis+. This means that lawyers can get access to Law 360 content as part of an integrated research experience on Lexis+. Law 360 now covers Continue Reading Lexis+ Legal News Hub Integrates Law360 Content into Research Ecosystem

Thomson Reuters is releasing a powerful suite of new tools to enhance workflow within Practical Law.  .   The new features include Dynamic Search, Knowledge Maps, Quick Compare,  Interactive Matter Maps and What’s Market Analytics. Several of the features such as Dynamic Search and Quick Compare parallel developments and tools already available in Westlaw Edge. Erica Kitaev, senior director, Product Management, Thomson Reuters provided me with an overview of the product features.

Paul Fischer, president of the Legal Professionals segment of Thomson Reuters is quoted in the press release:  “By putting AI, analytical tools and proprietary visual navigation technologies in service to our attorney authored content, we’ve created entirely new capabilities to help our customers thrive during this time of rapid change.”

Dynamic Search offers a natural language search powered by machine learning and algorithms that were trained on Practical Law content. Users can be presented with three different kinds of answers. Machine learning answers provide a direct answer and links to the applicable passage of text. Keyword results also  appear under the answer card.  If a user encounters a typeahead question the result Continue Reading Thomson Reuters Launches Practical Law Dynamic Tool Set

Today the American Association of Law Libraries announced the release of it’s 2nd State of the Profession Survey. The Survey was created and administered by a State of the Profession Special Committee which created three different versions of the survey for academic, firm/corporate and government legal information professionals. The report was designed to gather insights on the opportunities and challenges facing legal information professionals across a wide variety of roles in academic, law firm and government organizations. The members of AALL include law school professors, CKOs, Law  Library /KM Directors, researchers, Continue Reading AALL Releases 2nd State of the Profession – Highlighting Tech Leadership and Resilience Through the Pandemic

Last week Wolters Kluwer released their 2021 Future Ready Lawyer: Moving Beyond the Pandemic. Download the report here.
When: June 24, 2021 at 11 am EST
Register: At this link
Here is information on the session and panelists:
Given the new financial pressures on businesses as a result of the pandemic, there will be a brighter spotlight on legal professionals and the performance of law firms moving ahead. Executives will need to navigate information globally while also ensuring they deliver the highest value and ROI.
Join our distinguished panel of thought leaders as they discuss global trends, progress, and challenges across the legal profession globally with a focus on the future.
Panelists:
  • Diederik Benschop, Leader of the Center for Tax and Legal Knowledge, EY
  • Sarah Fahy, Global Head of Research & Library, Allen & Overy
  • Saskia Mehlhorn, US Director, Knowledge Services, Norton Rose Fulbright
  • Jean O’Grady, Knowledge Strategy and Insight Leader, DeweyBStrategic Founder
Moderators:
  • Bas Kniphorst, Managing Director, Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory, Benelux
  • David Bartolone, VP & General Manager, Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory, U.S.

Today Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.   is announcing an expanded version of its COVID-19 State & Federal Compare Smart Chart™ which is   focused on “return to work” issues. New areas of coverage focus on a wide range of back to office content and caselaw related to the pandemic, accessible for all Cheetah™ and Cheetah™ for Corporate Counsel subscribers. The new back to office content compares corporate and local health policies on topics such  as vaccination requirements, face mask and shield requirements, social distancing and capacity limitations, specific restrictions by type of business.

“The latest updates to the Smart Chart come at a critical time as vaccination rates continue to climb, companies develop official back to office policies, and state and local jurisdictions set different mandates around COVID-19 precautions,” said Ken Crutchfield, Vice Continue Reading Wolters Kluwer Expands Post-COVID  “Back to Work” Smart Charts, Litigation Tracking and Alerts

 New feature identifies cases which are contrary to an opponent’s arguments

This week Thomson Reuters released another feature to Quick Check. How much easier can cite checking get? Quick Check Contrary Authority helps lawyers zero in on vulnerabilities of an opponents brief. Quick Check Contrary Authority identifies uncited cases that oppose the arguments in an opponent’s brief.

Quick Check Thomson Reuters brief checking tool was released as part of Westlaw Continue Reading In The Brief Checking Wars Thomson Reuters Ups the Ante with New “Contrary Authority” Feature