InsideLegal

LIT-Con and ARMA International Annual Conference Open Doors Tomorrow

The first annual Legal Information Technology Conference 2009 (LIT-Con) - "Managing Risk Through Information Management: Current Challenges in the Legal Environment", will take place October 15-16, 2009 at the Orlando World Center Marriott. LIT-Con is being held concurrently with ARMA International's 54th Annual Conference & Expo in Orlando. LIT-Con attendees will have access to an Expo floor packed with more than 150 exhibiting companies, education, activities, and unmatched networking opportunities. Also, all ARMA conference attendees will now have acces to the LIT-Con program.

For more details about both conferences, check out our previous post on the topic.

"In Their Own Words" Legal Innovators Spotlight: Dave Rigali (LIT-Con Speaker)

This is a special series of "In Their Own Words" Spotlights featuring speakers at the upcoming ARMA & ILTA LIT-Con conference.  InsideLegal.com is the premier media sponsor of LIT-Con.

Who are you?  What firm are you with?  What is your role?
Dave Rigali.  Thompson Coburn LLP.  I am in charge of our Client Technology Services group (primarily litigation support) and our Q/A group.
 
What is your firms’ specialty/niche? 
We are a general practice law firm.  We are a regional, midwestern law firm of about 370 attorneys with a significant presence in Washington D.C.
 
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the legal technology industry now and in the upcoming year?
Information management and governance, with issues ranging from storage, e-mail management and ECM to compliance, litigation preparedness and e-discovery.
 
How can the legal vendor community work with you best?
By partnering with us to deliver the most cost effective services we can to our clients.  Our clients are going to be pushing us to improve efficiencies and help them manage legal costs.  We need vendors to view us as their customers in the same light.
 
What advice would you have for legal vendors trying to compete in this crowded marketplace?
Follow the above advice.  Also, use your best people to educate and inform us up front on the business issues your technologies seek to address rather than leading with a sales force that is simply trying to sell products or services.  There are some amazing channels available for you to do this, including LIT-Con and ILTA.
 
What associations are you active in?
ILTA
 
What online resource (website, blog, etc.) is most useful to you (i.e., you use it everyday)?
news.yahoo.com;  abovethelaw.com;  K&L Gate’s ediscovery web site is also a pretty amazing resource
 
What are you speaking about at LIT-Con?
Managing the risks of unified communications

"In Their Own Words" Legal Innovators Spotlight: Mary Pat Poteet (LIT-Con Speaker)

This is a special series of "In Their Own Words" Spotlights featuring speakers at the upcoming ARMA & ILTA LIT-Con conference.  InsideLegal.com is the premier media sponsor of LIT-Con.

Who are you?  What firm are you with?  What is your role?
Mary Pat Poteet with DLA Piper US LLP.  I am the Director of Litigation Support.

What is your firms’ specialty/niche? 
DLA Piper became one of the largest legal service providers in the world in 2005 through a merger of unprecedented scope in the legal sector. While large in scale, the merger strategy was simple – to create an international legal practice capable of taking care of the most important legal needs of clients wherever they do business.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the legal technology industry now and in the upcoming year?
Biggest challenges right now is identifying the right technology for the dollars available.  Budget constraints have made technology acquisitions difficult.

How can the legal vendor community work with you best?
Email!  Phone calls are extremely disruptive where as email can be tagged and flagged for follow up!

What advice would you have for legal vendors trying to compete in this crowded marketplace?
Don’t tear down your competitors.  Tell me how you are different – what sets you above the others and makes you more valuable.

What associations are you active in?
ILTA, EDRM

What online resource (website, blog, etc.) is most useful to you (i.e., you use it everyday)?
EDRM.net, ILTANET.Org, Ediscoverylaw.com

What are you speaking about at LIT-Con?
Internal Ediscovery Policy and Procedure and Law Firm Attorney Departure Protocol