Law Technology News - Practice Management News

Stanford Looks to FutureLaw

Tue, 07 May 2013 18:29:12 EDT

The agenda of the first FutureLaw conference at the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics wasn't your typical continuing legal education fare.

LegalView Data: Litigation Up, Legal Spending Down

sreisinger@alm.com (Sue Reisinger) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:12:48 EDT

A new database from TyMetrix Inc. shows that while total litigation numbers from 2010 to 2012 are up, total legal spend actually dipped in 2012.

Amicus Cloud Upgrade Adds Calendar Feature

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:54:47 EDT

Gavel & Gown Software Inc. has released several updates to Amicus Cloud, part of its Amicus Attorney practice management system. Amicus Cloud gives clients mobile access to their practice management tools.

LexisNexis Adds Customization Tools to CounselLink

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:48:19 EDT

LexisNexis Legal & Professional, a provider of legal content and technology to lawyers and law firms, added customization tools to CounselLink, a matter management and e-billing software package for corporate legal departments.

IntApp Launches Law Firm Business Intake Software

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:22:01 EDT

IntApp announced Monday the release of IntApp Open, a business intake application to help law firms evaluate new clients and create new matters.

Orion Add-On Manages Expense Reimbursement

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:55:41 EDT

Orion Law Management Systems announced Friday the availability of its Expense Reimbursement Manager as an add-on to its Orion financial management software.

Rocket Matter Launches Lawyer Advertising and Marketing Service

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:01:18 EDT

Rocket Matter, the practice management software-as-a-service provider, introduced today Rocket X1, a new internet marketing service for lawyers, which aims to bring together several "agency" services under one umbrella, or into one rocket.

HoudiniEsq Adds Tools for Civil Rights Agencies

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:23:39 EDT

LogicBit Software Corp.'s web-based practice management suite HoudiniEsq has added tools to expedite tasks at civil rights organizations, the Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based company announced.

Thomson Reuters Improves Interface on 3E Practice Management

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:07:16 EDT

Thomson Reuters Elite has upgraded its web-based 3E practice management platform to include a personalized dashboard and enhanced financial management tools.

Social Network Optimizer Gets Funding to Focus on Law Firms, Enterprises

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:12:53 EDT

PeopleLinx, which offers social business optimization software and consulting services, announced on Tuesday a $3.2 million injection of Series A funding to grow the company and provide features to support the "social business" of law firms and enterprises.

Trust but Verify: Court Filings

CFlaherty@kiausa.com (D. Casey Flaherty) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:22:17 EDT

Last month, in "Trust but Verify," D. Casey Flaherty, corporate counsel at Kia Motors America, identified a mini audit that in-house counsel can administer remotely to assess a firm's attitude about predicting budgets for a project. In this article, he offers a second mini audit, to determine if firms can capitalize on economies of scale.

Top New York-Based Firms See Mostly Modest Growth

jtriedman@alm.com (Julie Triedman) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:29:05 EDT

With demand for corporate work slack through most of the year and clients continuing to apply rate pressure, 12 elite Am Law 100 firms — with a handful of exceptions — made only slight gains in both gross revenues and profits in 2012, according to The American Lawyer's reporting.

The Future of Law as Seen From Silicon Valley

apress@alm.com (Aric Press) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:06:31 EDT

A kind of TED conference for lawyers explores the digital, regulatory, and engineering changes redefining the practice of law as attorneys and their clients now know it.

Gavel & Gown Upgrades Amicus Cloud

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:12:50 EST

Gavel & Gown Software has added new features to its Amicus Cloud Software, part of the Amicus Attorney practice management software line.

For Debevoise, the World Was Flat in 2012

akolz@alm.com (Amy Kolz) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:15:48 EST

For Debevoise & Plimpton, last year was one of flat financial metrics compared to 2011, as the New York-based firm posted gross revenues of $675.5 million and profits per partner of $2.075 million, according to The American Lawyer.

A 'Smarter Business Development Model' for Law

apress@alm.com (Aric Press) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:00:00 EST

Aric Press describes how Trevor Faure, global leader for legal services at Ernst & Young, came to develop his "Smarter Business Development Model" for law firms, which identifies six traits firms need to embrace to attract more business.

HoudiniEsq Practice Management Gets an Upgrade

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:11:14 EST

LogicBit Software, a Research Triangle Park, N.C., practice management software provider, announced an updated version of HoudiniEsq software as a service.

5 Tips for a Cost-Effective Legal Department

cdunn@alm.com (Catherine Dunn) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:24:12 EST

According to a new analysis by the Corporate Executive Board, there are some simple ways for legal departments to cut costs and provide more efficient services.

Art of Collection: How-To Coaching Boosts Firm's Gross Revenue

bjeffreys@alm.com (Brenda Sapino Jeffreys) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:00:29 EST

As other Texas firms pay attention to collection rates, a concerted effort raised shareholder collection rate at Chamberlain Hrdlicka to 96.2 percent in 2012 from 92.5 percent in 2011, says Wayne Risoli, managing shareholder.

Georgetown Study Warns Law Firms That Major Change Is Afoot

srandazzo@alm.com (Sara Randazzo) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:31:36 EST

Law firms that hope to succeed in the future need to embrace the shifting realities of the marketplace now, says a new report that serves as the latest in a string of warnings that the legal sector will never return to its pre-recession heyday. The report draws on other studies conducted over the past year on such subjects as demand, partner compensation and law firm composition to paint a portrait of an industry in flux.

MitraTech Upgrades TeamConnect E-Billing and Matter Management

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:20:38 EST

Austin, Texas-based Mitratech Holdings Inc. has announced the release of version 3.4 of TeamConnect. The latest version integrates with Deadlines.com and upgrades the law department collaboration software's electronic billing and matter management modules.

3 Essential Non-Technical Skills to Advance Your IT Career

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:00:00 EST

There are three overlooked and underappreciated non-technical skills you must develop to advance from a pure technologist role to a senior IT member of your organization, says consultant David Otte.

LegalTech Sees New Practice Management Companies

ekoblentz@alm.com (Evan Koblentz) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:16:50 EST

Four practice management companies will be among the first-time exhibitors at LegalTech, starting today at the Hilton New York.

The Origin of the Outside Counsel Tech Audit

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:48:55 EST

D. Casey Flaherty, corporate counsel at Kia Motors America, began his career in Big Law and admits to having a profound and enduring respect for his former colleagues, but he was never able to reconcile himself to some of his former firm's standard operating procedures, which helped form the basis of Flaherty's tech audit for outside counsel.

Kia Motors Tests Outside Counsel Tech Skills, Part II

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:48:55 EST

The audit developed by D. Casey Flaherty, corporate counsel at Kia Motors America, to assess the technology skills of prospective outside counsel is "arbitrary," "unorthodox," and raises a number of questions and presumptions, admits Flaherty.

Kia Motors Tests Outside Counsel Tech Skills

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:48:55 EST

Kia Motors America corporate counsel, D. Casey Flaherty, tests a hypothesis that outside counsel are deficient in their use of technology, which results in unnecessary busywork and needless costs. Thus far, his audits have confirmed his thesis.

Report Finds Law Firm Culture Well-Suited for Failure

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:36:13 EST

Law firm management consultants have encouraged managing partners to focus myopically on metrics that maximize short-term profits, but the upshot of that focus brings out an unpleasant culture in most big firms.

Thomson Reuters to Debut Concourse at LegalTech New York

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:37:54 EST

Thomson Reuters jumped on the cloud-and-mobile bandwagon at a day-long session Wednesday at its Eagan, Minn., campus, announcing two web-based interactive practice management systems with the spotlight on Concourse, a central workspace hub for corporate counsel to officially debut at LegalTech New York 2013.

5 Document Essentials to Avoid Client Disconnects

sgreen@alm.com (Shannon Green) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:36:52 EST

An ALM Legal Intelligence survey shows that legal departments aren't always on the same page as their outside counsel when judging the quality of documents. The survey suggests five ways to avoid such document disconnects.

TyMetrix Data Shows What Big Law Clients Buy

apress@alm.com (Aric Press) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:00 EST

An analysis of a data run from TyMetrix, the Hartford-based electronic billing giant, gauges demand for legal services on the basis of what clients are actually buying rather than from reports of law firm billing activity or financial results.