The American Arbitration Association (AAA®), the global leader in arbitration and mediation services and data analytics, announced that Steve Errick will join their international division, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution® (ICDR®), as Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer.
Steve has been a highly visible presence at legal tech
Even lawyers who have been the most ardent print advocates have loosened their grip on their favorite treatises and deskbooks. The pandemic-enforced remote work environment drove most print holdouts to online resources. In 2023 many law firm libraries are completely digital while others have shifted significant amounts of their budgets from print to digital.
Although the large enterprise platforms such as Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg Law represent a significant portion of most budgets, library directors and knowledge managers also manage dozens and sometimes hundreds of other digital licenses. There has been a proliferation of specialty products targeting specific practice areas or workflows from topics as diverse as credit default swaps, social media monitoring, and predictive litigation analytics. The acquisition and management of these specialty products involves a different kind of licensing analysis, even though many issues may be similar to the large platform licensing issues.
If you are new to the world of digital resource licensing, this checklist will highlight some of the key issues to address when reviewing a license. The first thing you need to understand is that most license agreements are one-sided in favor of the vendor. All the liabilities and risks are on the purchaser. That is why it is so important for you to understand the risks and opportunities associated with digital licensing.
The ground rules. If you are new to your organization, there are several issues that should be addressed in advance. Identify the standard practices and procedures in your firm for procurement, contract review, and security review.
Work with your procurement team. If your firm has a procurement team, you should still be involved in the licensing process. The procurement team needs to understand how the product will be used and who will need to have access. If there is no procurement team, there may be a designated contract attorney who reviews the contracts for the law firm. Develop a collaborative relationship with those professionals. They can be important allies in the process.
Security. Determine if your firm has a specific security review process for vendors. Security compliance can be a complete deal killer. Many firms now require vendors to answer security compliance questionnaires and to disclose their security standards in advance of any trial or contract. Security issues should be addressed in advance of the licensing process. Confirm that the vendor is willing to provide security documentation.
Common Licensing Issues. Below are a sampling of licensing issues that should be considered for all types of digital licenses but are particularly important when assessing a niche product with a limited license. Read the full post at LegalTech HubContinue Reading Checklist for the Negotiation of Digital Subscriptions – Budget Control and Risk Management Strategies
Today Fastcase is announcing their intention to relaunch Law Street Media at the end of 2019. Toward that end they have announced the creation of an advisory board. (Disclosure: I will be a member of that board.) For more than a decade LexisNexis has dominated the legal news market. Nexis was always a strong news
A small patch of Silicon Valley thrives in downtown DC. I have the good fortune to work one block from the Fastcase headquarters — a modest brick building off a street book-ended by the National Archives and the Smiths
onian’s Portrait Gallery. I spent a recent afternoon surrounded by the hipster and need I say young Fastcase editorial team. Although Fastcase pioneered visualization tools for case law research; is currently promoting an AI sandbox and recently acquired analytics start-up Docket Alarm, I was in their office to discuss PRINT. Yes –Books and Journals made of paper.
Fastcase co-Founder and CEO Ed Walters, not only runs Fastcase, but he also teaches robotics at Georgetown Law and is a regular on the the Legal Tech innovator speakers circuit. He is also what I like to call a “font geek!” He can go into a swoon over a great type font. He found a sort of soulmate in Steve Errick, the new COO of Fastcase, who is the son of a typesetter, a former legal publishing exec (Thomson Reuters, Lexis, Wolters Kluwer), who owns both a private publishing company Twelve Tables Press and a country bookstore Book and Leaf in Brandon, Vermont.
Continue Reading Full Court Press and AI Sandbox: Fastcase and the Art of the Game Change – A New Era in Fair Pricing in Legal Publishing?
Late last year, Thomson Reuters re-branded themselves as “The Answer Company.” Well they better be ready with some really good answers because they are about face a barrage of incoming questions.
What Happened? After Thomson Reuters upgraded their PDF image conversion process in November 2014, a very small percentage (.05%) of the total cases loaded between November
On February 17, 2011 I launched Dewey B Strategic with a post entitled “Vendor Sourcing: Thinking the unthinkable as a strategic alternative to outsourcing.” It is hard for me to believe that 5 years have passed. I may not have had any readers that day, except for the generosity of Greg Lambert of Three Geeks and a
2015 was a year of innovation and acquisition in legal publishing. Watson continues to intrigue law firms and legal publishers. New platforms, new alignments, new identities, , new environments and new tools for powerful insights dominated the legal market.
Thanks to all my readers for your valuable insights and feedback.
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