On Thursday, September 14, 2023, Harbor is hosting the third annual Legal Information + Knowledge Services Conference (LINKS)— a full day of virtual thought leadership content especially curated for law firm information professionals.  Register and see full agenda HERE.

The conference is dedicated to exploring emerging issues, trends, and best practices to advance

This survey is intended to  gather feedback on both products and projects which you started or stopped during the past year. I had added additional questions related to the emergence of generative AI.

Please take a few minutes to respond to the survey at this link. The results will be summarized and posted here in

HBR Consulting (HBR),  a  leading legal industry  strategy, operations and technology consulting firm, has been acquired by private equity firm Renovus Capital (Renovus). The press release describes Renvous as a strategic capital partner. The agreement was effective November 10, 2022.

Renovus specializes in the knowledge and talent industries, with recent  investments in the legal services space. They previously invested in LAC Group which like HBR offered consulting and management of library/information services.  “The legal industry remains in the early stages of digital and operational transformation,” said Renovus founding partner Jesse Serventi. “As we scanned the legal marketplace as part of our investments in LAC Group and Wilson Allen, HBR routinely came up as a firm at the cutting-edge of this movement.”

Here is an excerpt from a message they are sending to customers:

The agreement will separate HBR’s traditional advisory and IT managed services businesses into two separate entities.

Matt Sunderman will assume the role of CEO of HBR Consulting. HBR Consulting co-founders Christopher Petrini-Poli and Nicholas
Continue Reading HBR Acquired by PE Firm – To Join LAC in Renovus Professional Services Portfolio

HBR Consulting  just released the 2020 Benchmarking + Legal Information Services Survey (BLISS). The innovative and interactive delivery format is at least as interesting as the content. The survey focused on the core metrics such as staffing, budgets, and resources but also covered hot topics such as innovation and COVID-19 impact. The survey was undertaken during June and July 2020, three months after most law firms were two months into mandatory work from home. That enabled the  survey designers to capture some insights into how law firms were adapting legal research and knowledge services in response to the pandemic.

I asked Colleen Cable, director at HBR Consulting, to provide some insight into HBR’s goal in creating the survey. According to Cable “HBR recognized that there was a need for law firm library benchmarking data that could be utilized to support decision-making within the firm. This type of benchmarking, available by Am Law segment, is not offered anywhere else in the market, so HBR stepped in and BLISS was born.” One of the things I noticed immediately is that this report captured attorney staff ratios. This has been an elusive “holy grail” of library benchmarks that I have been begging for over the many years I have
Continue Reading HBR Releases Interactive Library Benchmarking Survey with COVID Insights