InsideLegal

Launching a Legal Technology Product? Tips on When, Where & How

Have you ever been to a brand new restaurant (maybe even on opening night) and wondered why the place wasn't packed with patrons. Was it the food? The concept? Bad marketing? Or maybe, just maybe, it was supposed to be that way; a gutsy move by the owner to limit his restaurant's exposure early on in case something goes wrong - we tend to call this a 'soft launch'.

We have been following legal technology developments for 13 years and have seen our fair share of failed product launches, ridiculously over-hyped software introductions and way too many empty 'coming soon' promises. Is there a 'magic bullet' formula for a new product launch? Not really, but here are some pointers to keep in mind when preparing your next launch. 

Call a spade a spade: Don't deceive your prospects with false promises of your new launch, what your software can do, and what feature/functions are available now - not just as a part of a sales demo. Honesty and candor in communicating your 'next gen' solution (not the last gen with a new name) goes a long way in earning trust and respect with your targets. If your technology is still in beta but the features you do have already solve various prospect problems make sure this is understood. If you don't know exact timing of general availability don't make it up or guess. It's tempting since this sadly reflects the status quo of modern software launches but this is your chance to buck that trend and actually proactively involve the people you are doing this for, sooner rather than 3 software updates later.

'Come hell or high water' is not a launch strategy: Why is it that there are more new product announcements at ILTA and LegalTech New York than at any other time during the year? Surely, all vendor R&D teams are not on the same development schedule and just happen to launch new wares in late January or late August. Of course, the reason is based on maximizing exposure at the biggest tech events in our industry, but at what cost? It seems that too many vendors get caught up in the trade show launch 'arms race' and routinely forget that having one chance to make a first impression is not just an antiquated cliche.

Shooting off fireworks AFTER New Year's will get people's attention: What do you remember about this year's New Year's firework displays? Probably not much except maybe the duds or displays that were really cheap or short. What about an impressive display in February? This would surely get noticed and receive a lot more individual exposure than the mass blasts on the 31st. Cut through the clutter and step outside the noise.

Is the tail wagging the dog? Who is driving your product innovations? Are sales & marketing dictating product features and launch dates? Is development calling the shots? Or, are your vocal clients not only providing new feature feedback, but essentially turning you into their internal R&D department? While these are all extreme scenarios and the reality lies somewhere in the middle, there's no denying that special interests and agendas often drive the bus. Be cognisant of this and develop a new product launch plan that balances your objectives and desired results versus internal and external special interests.

Has 'how' taken a back seat to 'what'? Give a sales rep 10 minutes and they will give you more product factoids and solution superlatives than you can bare, but rarely do you leave this encounter (be it at the trade show booth or separate meeting) with a keen understanding on how this bleeding edge, industry's 'only' product will help you solve the business problems which compelled you to seek out the vendor in the first place. While the popular answer to this is the product demo, the reality is that most of them fall short, way short, when it comes to demonstrating how 'our product can help you' versus this is what it could generically and theoretically accomplish.

We don't want to end this post on a cynical note so here are some take-aways to ponder before your next product launch:

WHEN: Crazy idea...Launch products when they are truly ready to release to the market. Instead of letting trade show schedules dictate your launch date find out when your apps will make the most difference for your clients, i.e, a law firm budgeting software will not be a vital tech tool after March.

WHERE: The days of having to wait on a physical event to unveil a new product are gone. Whether it's an online virtual trade show or the many readily available social media outlets, there is no need to wait on the big tech show to make a splash. 

HOW: Be honest, cut the rhetoric and focus on solving real business issues and leverage the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube to engage your prospects and solicit real-time feedback and critique.

With these tips in hand, a new legal technology or service launch will hopefully once again be something to remember and get excited about.

Making the Case for Social Media ... MyLegal Social Media Conference Revisited

[CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT]

Last week, we had the opportunity to participate in MyLegal's inaugural social media conference "The Case for Social Media" that focused on helping attorneys establish and manage their online presence and social media profile. The well crafted agenda included a mix of social media 101 and practical how-tos and showcased several well established speakers spanning social media, eDiscovery compliance and solo lawyering. Lisa DiMonte, the event's brainchild and 32 year court reporting/litigation support industry veteran, pulled off a great 'first time' event by putting her own social media prowess to work - it turns out many of the session speakers first linked up with Lisa online and via various social media avenues. 

The 7 sessions were definitely assembled with much thought to how a lawyer looking for guidance and answers on social media could get the most out of the day. Many of the attendees we talked to made the trip to DC's Georgetown University Hotel & Conference Center specifically to gather tips and tools to execute their very own social media strategy. While we managed to catch snippets of the first few speakers (Avvo's Conrad Saam and Carolyn Elefant and Nicole Black) via the online remote stream, our first full onsite session was Sharon Nelson and John Simek's expert take on the ethical, compliance and eDiscovery implications of social media. This session was in our opinion the most dynamic, eye-opening and practical lecture of the day thanks to the many 'no way' examples of social media litigation pitfalls presented by the very charismatic and knowledgeable Sharon Nelson and John Simek of Sensei Enterprises, a Fairfax, VA-based computer forensics/IT/IS Security consulting firm. While many of the presented social media usage facts indicate that corporate America especially, can no longer ignore employees use (and abuse) of social networks, the biggest 'a-ha' moment for us was the discussion around social media data preservation and archiving. Per Nelson's insight, social media archiving - basically locking down all the historical data generated by Facebook, websites, Twitter, company blogs, etc.) is increasingly becoming a major corporate concern and action item warranting consideration for any social media compliance policy. Nelson and Simek recently discussed the topic on their popular Ride the Lightning electronic evidence blog and are hosting an invite-only, C-level-focused product demo and discussion seminar for UK web archiver Hanzo Archives early next month. After being scared (hopefully not scared off) with these social media compliance and regulatory realities, attendees settled into an afternoon focused on what many consider the sole purpose of effective social media ... business and client development.

While legal business development advisor Larry Bodine focused on LinkedIn and how the 1 million lawyers already using it can get more out of their profiles, connections and recommendations, Adrian Dayton, author of "Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition" and legal social media marketer, zeroed in on broader marketing and business strategies leveraging Twitter, blogs and content. Designed to appeal to social media newbies, Dayton's session covered Twitter basics but also made the connection of how stellar content (via blogs and websites) and strategic distribution (via Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks) can lead to direct sales leads and new business. Other sessions covered the use of trademarks in social media marketing (speaker-Matthew Asbell, Associate at Ladas & Parry LLP) and attorney Steve Crandall wrapped-up the busy day with his 'Social Media and the Law' session. Editors note: We spoke to Steve earlier in the day but we were unable to attend his session so we encourage readers to look for his streaming video on MyLegal.com.

All in all, Lisa DiMonte and her crew deserve a hand for giving attendees a taste of the ever expanding social media pie and staying true to the seminar title "Making the Case for Social Media". Mission accomplished!

Not your average ILTA session...ILTA Vendor Education Program Addresses Legal Technology Vendor/Consultant Needs

The dust has slowly settled on an ILTA educational conference that not only ended with a bang (a la the inaugural ILTA Distinguished Peer Awards), but overall proved that NOTHING compares to this 4 1/2 day extravaganza of legal technology education, demonstrations and networking. The vendor education program, which has kicked off ILTA day one (Monday) for the past 7 years, proved, more than ever, that 'if you build it, they shall come'. In our case, as perennial producers of this program, this translated to tailoring educational sessions based on exhibiting vendor feedback; assembling bright, reputable, and established legal technology panelists; and filling a room with 85+ legal technology vendor and consultancy decision makers including CEOs, GMs, marketing and sales excutives, and technology product managers.    

The three and a half hour vendor education program kicked-off, as in previous years, with ILTA's Vendor Business Meeting, followed by a Working with ILTA (beyond the annual conference) session led by ILTA's Program Director Peggy Wechsler and Executive Director Randi Mayes. Peggy began by thanking all the exhibitors and consultants for supporting ILTA throughout the years and particularly during the conference's move from Nashville to Las Vegas this year. The great news was then shared that member attendance for 2010 was approximately 1,130 - indicating a 30% increase from 2009! That definitely set the stage for a high energy week. Last but not least, Peggy introduced the ILTA Board Members, Conference Committee and staff that were able to be there. Angela Roarke, Advertising Sales Coordinator, was brought up to speak about getting the most out of the exhibitors sponsorships and new opportunities to get involved with ILTA's publications through advertising. [Editors Note: Randi Mayes spoke to Jobst and me about her initiative to incorporate more rich media into ILTA's publications. Randi is very excited about including more audio, video and social media within their publications' content and is looking to the vendor community for ideas to help push the envelope here. This is a great chance to get involved and stand out!] 

The meat of our discussion started with the Advice for Selling to Law Firms session, which we first included last year based on vendor feedback. The panel was designed to give vendor executives and vendor sales folks an insider's view into what works and what doesn't work when selling to their law firm clients and prospects.

In order to make this a real worthwhile experience, we brought back Joy Heath-Rush, Enterprise Multimedia Services Manager at Sidley Austin and ILTA's past President, (who served on this inaugural panel last year) and added Scott Christensen, IT Director of Wildman Harrold, and current ILTA president. Joy and Scott are both technology decision makers for their law firms; in Joy's case a top 20 global law firm and in Scott's case a 200-attorney national firm. We asked a variety of questions related to the sales process and how vendors can most effectively work with them.

Both panelists continually stressed that building direct relationships with them directly is critical to any sort of success they might have selling (versus contacting their boss or others first). Contrary to popular belief, cold calling is an effective tool if utilized properly and respectfully. Joy made a point to say that if she does take a cold call, which she regularly does, she'll be more inclined to follow-up if she knows how long the introduction will be. For example, if she gets a cold call saying "I'd like to setup a 15 minute call to introduce you to our product", she is more likely to accept. She also urged vendors to be very clear about their intentions and not to over-promise or under-deliver, especially in the beginning of the sales process.

The session, which was very interactive with many questions coming from the audience, included other tips as well as "dos and don'ts", mostly focused on education and common sense business conduct:

• The panelists talked about the importance of being able to not only walk the walk in legal but also talk the talk. Specifically, they both said that it's very important to understand legal speak so if you're not a legal specific vendor, educate yourself on legal jargon, how law firms work and operate, their workflows, etc.  For example, the point was made, that anyone who refers to legal customers, as opposed to clients, evidently does not understand legal speak.
• Also, educate yourself on the legal technologies that a law firm relies on. Understand the technology infrastructure, how IT is structured, the importance of the IT department, and the overall selling process.
• Do your homework on the firm and the organizational structure within the firm. Treat the sales process like an interview; with all the online tools at your disposal and with the advent of social media, there's really no excuse to not be fully informed before making that first phone call.
• The legal community is very loyal so once vendors have established a solid reputation and earned respect from their law firm clients, future business opportunities are a natural progression of the relationship.
• Understand law firms' purchasing and procurement processes. Increasingly, larger, global law firms follow a formalized, centralized purchasing process for everything from tissue paper to servers and enterprise software solutions. So, while vendors may have relationships with one particular decision maker or influencer, there may be many more layers to uncover as it relates to firm-wide purchasing buy-in. On the other hand, smaller firms (i.e., Wildman Harrold) direct technology purchasing through the IT Group and give IT Directors (such as Scott Christensen) direct and final purchasing influence and decision making ability. The bottom-line: It's vital to identify and understand the legal target audience, from influencer to final decision-maker.
• Peer networking and peer recommendations are the key factors in law firm technology decision-making. As a legal technology peer networking organization, ILTA enables members to seek out each other's recommendations and experiences, critical aspects to comprehensively evaluating and purchasing technologies and related services. 

Up next was the session topic that received the most votes from the ILTA exhibitors - Vendor Thought Leadership, with a focus on how to establish it & maintain it. This particular topic has been near and dear to InsideLegal's heart for some time, and truly one of the core reasons we initiated the InsideLegal forum and blog as a means of promoting legal technologists regardless of their heritage (including vendors, consultants, law firm leaders, etc.). While we have long preached thought leadership (as opposed to blatant selling and promoting), the ILTA education session served as our kick-off to an ongoing initiative focused on not only educating vendors and others on the attributes and qualities of legal thought leaders, but also providing a forum for thought leader 'work product' if you will. While assembling the thought leader panel, we didn't waste time in reaching out to who we consider to be one of the poster children for legal vendor thought leadership ... Donna Payne. A well respected and experienced public speaker, author and legal technologist, Donna has managed the extremely difficult task of separating herself (and her expertise) from the successful vendor company (PayneGroup) she operates. During the discussion, JoAnna highlighted the importance of industry involvement, commitment to the industry and to organizations such as ILTA, and fine line between espousing subject matter expertise and shamelessly promoting vendor products and services. While Donna talked about the importance of integrity and honesty in paving the way for long term thought leadership, the group also came to the conclusion that there is still a stark bias and mis-conception when it comes to promoting vendors as thought leaders. Stay tuned for more content on this topic on InsideLegal (including exclusive legal thought leader video interviews filmed during the ILTA conference).

Continuing the theme of 'thoughtful' education, we next presented our public relations-themed session PR Doesn't Stand for Press Release focused on the components of a successful PR (read Public Relations) campaign (view presentation here). Again, this topic was voted on by the attendees pre-conference and was designed to help everyone from a vendor CEO to a marketing manager to a consultant understand what PR can and can't do for their company; what steps can be taken to engage clients in the proactive PR process; and how a focus on education and thought leadership can help establish meaningful relationships with the legal (traditional and social) media. The biggest take-away from the presentation was the continued relevance of developing client-focused content such as user case studies and client testimonials. As revealed earlier in the day during the Advice for Selling to Law Firms session (and mirrored in the 2010 ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey), peer recommendations and examples of other firms' technology best practices and implementations remain the top influences when it comes to legal technology purchases.

No modern legal conference would be complete without the almost obligatory social media/web 2.0 session so it was appropriate that the Leveraging Web 2.0/Social Media to Reach Your Prospects topic throughout the day, the primary goal was to make it relevant and valuable for legal technology vendors, in this instance ranging from those who have never tweeted to others who actively use a variety of social media tools to enhance their marketing communication efforts. The social media faculty included InsideLegal's JoAnna Forshee (Twitter @InsideLegal), a regular presenter and educator on the topic of social media, Donna Payne of PayneGroup (Twitter @donna_payne) and Rob Robinson, VP of Marketing for Orange Legal Technologies (Twitter @complexd). While many of the basics were covered in a similar session at last year's conference, attendee feedback indicated a desire to dive into the details of how various social media tools can be better leveraged. Rob for example shared his philosophy of using social media to provide value to his audiences including twitter followers, LinkedIn group subscribers or those that regularly read his blog posts. He talked about his controversial (but successful) strategy of including all industry news relevant to his readers - including that of his competitors. [Editors Note: Rob wrote an excellent social media strategy article for Peer to Peer. Check it out here.] In addition to providing and adding value, the panel emphasized the ability to use twitter and LinkedIn to engage in conversations, gain valuable client and industry feedback, but also leverage various tracking tools to monitor what others are saying about topics and themes of interest to vendors.

The vendor program concluded with the annual presentation by Jobst Elster of the annual InsideLegal/ILTA's Member Technology Purchasing Survey. The 2010 survey, which was administered by ILTA and analyzed and published by InsideLegal, focused on feedback from ILTA member law firms with 50 or more attorneys and covered IT budgeting; technology purchasing patterns; selection criteria and influencers; technology trends & IT challenges, and state-of-the-economy questions. The 7th annual survey yielded a new high 18% response rate - 109 unique firm responses ranging from 50 to over 3,000 attorneys. A complete survey summary and commentary can be found here.

In closing, InsideLegal truly appreciates the opportunity to continually collaborate with ILTA on producing the annual vendor education program and is always looking for feedback and suggestions to improve session content for future programs. Please send any ideas and comments to JoAnna Forshee. Remember, marketing to the ILTA membership is something you should be doing all year round, not just at the Annual Conference. Start now and you'll be ahead of the game by the 2011 ILTA Annual Conference, August 21-25 at the (newly renovated) Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

ILTA/InsideLegal Vendor Education Program - Faculty Announced!

For the 7th year, InsideLegal will be producing the ILTA Vendor Education Program at the Annual ILTA Conference. This program was started by ILTA and InsideLegal years ago to provide added value to ILTA's sponsors. The program is open to executives and marketing contacts for all ILTA's exhibitors and consultant pass holders. 

This year, we shifted the focus from 'how-to' sessions to more strategic marketing and industry strategy sessions and we opened the topics up for vendors to vote on. Below is the final schedule for the program. We will be announcing all the speakers soon. If you are interested in attending any or all of the sessions, please RSVP to JoAnna Forshee with your name, title, company and email. We look forward to seeing you there!

ILTA/InsideLegal Vendor Education Program

Monday, August 23rd  |  2-5:30pm  |  Meeting Room - Pinyon 1

2-2:45p
ILTA Vendor Business Meeting/Working with ILTA (outside of the Annual Conference)
What you need to know about this year's conference and other ILTA programs & meet ILTA's staff and Board
Faculty - Peggy Wechsler & Randi Mayes (ILTA)

2:45-3:15p
Hot Topic - Advice for Selling to Law Firms   (#3 in poll)
ILTA law firms tell you from their point of view
Faculty – Joy Heath Rush (Sidley Austin) (Past President of ILTA) & Scott Christensen (Wildman Harrold) (ILTA President)

3:15-3:45p
Hot Topic – Vendor Thought Leadership  (#1 in poll)
How to establish it & maintain it
Faculty – JoAnna Forshee (InsideLegal), Donna Payne (Payne Group)

3:45-4:15p
Hot Topic – PR Doesn’t Stand for Press Release (#4 in poll)
What are the components of a successful public relations campaign
Faculty – Jobst Elster (InsideLegal)

4:15-4:45p
Hot Topic – How do you leverage Web 2.0/Social Media to reach your prospects?   (#2 in poll)
Faculty – JoAnna Forshee (InsideLegal), Donna Payne (Payne Group), Rob Robinson (Orange Legal Technologies)

4:45-5p
2010 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey Results
Hear the highlights and get your copy | Check out the 2009 survey here
Faculty – Jobst Elster (InsideLegal)

5-5:30p
Networking Reception

BtoB Magazine Shines Spotlight on Legal Market

Click on article to expand

Every July, BtoB Magazine, the leading magazine for all things marketing in the b2b world, spotlights the legal market as part of its comprehensive vertical insight guide. These insights cover 15 markets (from  agriculture to pharmaceuticals) and include case studies, expert advice and best practices on how to best reach the target verticals. 

The 2010 law market edition focused on how best to get the attention of law firms (with proven ROI) and their clients (via compelling rich media). Check out the lead story (or click on article to the right to expand) featuring Jobst Elster, InsideLegal's Head of Content (also doubles as Envision's VP), and his take on effectively reaching and connecting with lawyers in the post "funeral" (read bad economy) era.

On a separate note, it was equally great to see legal thought leaders represented in the publication's annual "Who's Who in B-to-B" 2010 with ALM's CEO Bill Pollak making the cut in the 'who's who' business media category.

InsideLegal Working on ILTA Vendor Program & ILTA's Member Technology Purchasing Survey

         

We at InsideLegal have been working with ILTA's Program Director, Peggy Wechsler to update the 2010 ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey that spotlights the technology purchasing history and future plans for law firms with 50 attorneys and up. This will be the 5th year we have administered and produced the survey for ILTA and the survey findings will be presented by Jobst Elster, InsideLegal's Head of Content at the ILTA Annual Conference in August. You can review last year's survey here.

Also in the works is the Vendor Education Program that we produce each year at the ILTA Annual Conference. We will be offering sessions on Selling to Law Firms, Working with the Legal Media, Social Media, Review of the Technology Purchasing Survey, Working with ILTA, etc. If you have any suggestions for a topic you would like covered, please email us and let us know. We will be announcing the program details soon, but you can plan on attending Monday afternoon, 8/23.

Also, as you've probably heard by now, the ILTA Conference will be moving from it's planned location in Nashville due to the recent flooding. If you had already booked rooms for your team at the Gaylord in Nashville, ILTA has asked that you to contact the hotel to cancel the reservations. ILTA has selected another facility and is in the process of finalizing and will be announcing the new location soon. The show will go on!

Has anyone tweeted about your company lately?

By now, hopefully you all have setup Google Alerts to monitor any online mentions of your company, products or competition.  Whether or not you have become active in the legal technology Twitter community, there is no excuse not to have Twitter mentions monitored as well.

Getting started with twitter searches on your product or brand are easy ways to dive in. There are many Twitter tools and utilities and we will be covering more in InsideLegal's upcoming Twitter Starter Guide, but for now, here are 2 ways to keep track of your brand.  They are both free and easy to use so no excuses! 

• TweetBeep - Operates like Google Alerts for Twitter. You can setup a free account to monitor Twitter for any mentions of your company/product -- even if you don't have a Twitter account.
• Twitter Search - Searches Twitter posts just like Google searches websites.

LegalTech New York 3.0 - Day 3 Recap

The third and final day of LegalTech started off with a bang and a truly impressive headliner in Malcolm Gladwell and his participation in Wednesday's keynote - "I3: The New Convergence of Intelligence, Intuition and Information". Gladwell, along with Dr. Lisa Sanders, medical columnist for the New York Times and technical consultant for the TV show House, and David Craig, Thomson Reuters Chief Strategy Officer (and the keynote session's sponsor), drew a mega-crowd of several hundred legal-ites to discuss how technology can be used to help supplement decision-making capabilities of subject matter experts. While the host shared that 2009 saw 2 billion searches performed on Westlaw, a near 50% increase from the previous year, and that Thomson financial and news systems now process more than a half-million updates per second, Gladwell and Dr. Sanders cited examples from their respective books and columns questioning to what extent more information leads to better decision making. Gladwell impressed with his short stories and witty examples reminding the audience that intuition is the key to better decision making, and that information overload is a big "distraction" in this regard - "intuition is fragile and easily upset", he stated. The panelists discussed a few questions and then followed up with a lively Q&A session, all the while we (along with many of our compatriots following on twitter) thought "shut up already and let Malcom tell more stories". Surely his book sales got a boost as well! In a nutshell, our keynote takeaway was "not more info, better info".

While topping this day 3 kick-off wasn't in the cards, we hoped to catch-up with more vendors and capture their show impressions and re-cap any major product announcements and legal technology news: Marc Adler of PerfectLaw feels 2010 is REALLY the year of the paperless office. "Firms no longer want to pay to store hard copies so PerfectLaw's document imaging is very popular this year." Adler also notes the importance of a reliable and secure back-up system when transitioning to paperless.

PensEra's President, Peter Zver lamented the fact that floor 3 had no vendors at all.  Zver stated that it was always a highlight of his to tour the 3rd floor and speak with new entrants in the industry who in years past have set up there.

Dean Evans & Associates, Inc., makers of the EMS line of facility scheduling, resource utilization and web calendar product EMS Software, have exhibited at LegalTech for past several years, but noted an estimated attendance downturn of 20-30%, and less booth traffic, despite a pre-show direct mail and email campaign.

According to Logan Sutterfield, Product Manager of Symantec, about 30% of the LegalTech NY crowd consisted of "trick or treaters" and another group of eDiscovery experts.  On a tech note, Symantec and CaseCentral arrived in New York with a new connector that integrates Symantec Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator with the cloud-based CaseCentral eDiscovery Platform. Apparently, the integration eliminates the need for IT and legal departments to upload and export data for legal review and processing therefore also eliminating processing fees. The "processing busters"-style buttons made the rounds at the Hilton and entered all button wearers in a $100 cash on the spot give-away, with one winner donating his $100 to the Haiti relief effort.

Chicago-based Microsystems recently announced its partnership with 3BView offering server-based metadata solutions. Per the partnership, Microsystems will sell 3BClean as a stand-alone product, and through resellers in North America and the UK. Also, new functionality is being added to extend the value of 3BClean and offer an integrated product through Microsystems' DocXtools software.

Advanced Productivity Software's CEO Jim Tharpe was encouraged by what he's heard at the show and shared that several firms he spoke with had "good Q4s" and looking to spend again. He also added that APS seems to have risen above the downturn with a healthy 25%+ growth in 2009. As reported in the 2009 InsideLegal/ILTA MemberTechnology Purchasing Survey, APS was one of the first vendors to proactively approach their law firm clients with a support service discount motivated by the economy. "Our clients truly appreciate the goodwill when times are tough and routinely let us know about it," added Tharpe.

Over lunch, we heard about Traveling Coaches' LegalTech recap (good traffic and encouraging signs for 2010) and their ongoing and increased efforts to work strategically with the legal community. CEO Gina Buser and her team are positioning themselves to partner with their clients on excelling not only in matters of legal technology, but also as it relates to the practice and business of law, and "law firm 2020" initiatives. Based on the recent hiring of Brie Stampe as Director of Market Strategies, the 'Coaches' seem set to execute in this regard. 

Dan Bressler, VP of Marketing for IntApp, Inc., recounted many conversations surrounding firms' need to integrate data and systems from hosts of vendor applications. Good for them, since IntApp provides integration software (along with risk management and time capture applications) to a majority of the Am Law 100. When asked about general LegalTech buzz, Bressler mentioned Autonomy's iManage ConflictsManager release as big show news. ConflictsManager, one of three show-specific Autonomy splashes, promises to automate the time-consuming steps in the conflict of interest process, thus minimizing the associated risk. As an additional aside, legal industry veteran Dan Tacone recently joined IntApp as President.

In other new product news, ADERANT rolled out its SaaS practice management application ADERANT Practice Manager developed specifically for small and mid-sized firms. It will be interesting to see how the predominately large firm-focused company fairs downstream versus SaaS rising stars such as Rocket Matter and Clio. Speaking of fairing downstream, we also caught-up with SAP and Susie Krupa, Industry Principal, Professional Services, and responsible for the German software giant's penetration within the Am Law 200 financial practice management market. Krupa told us recent SAP wins at Baker & McKenzie and Shoosmiths is the beginning of what they see as increasing firm demand for a true end-to-end solution spanning time & billing, financial management, HR, payroll, marketing, etc. Of course, there has been "SAP enters legal market" chatter for over a decade, but with a few big wins under their belt and Susie (and her many years of legal practice management and enterprise experience) driving the bus, it will surely be interesting to see what happens.

This concludes our recap of the third and final day of LegalTech NY.  Tomorrow, we will post the overall LegalTech 2010 in Review complete with event statistics, opinions, notables and key players.  If you haven't already, go to InsideLegal.com to sign up for our news via RSS or email.  'Til then... - JoAnna & Jobst

LegalTech New York 2.0

No rest for the weary on day 2 of LegalTech - which is more and more looking like a ray of economic sunshine for 2010 (see some vendor reactions below). Tuesday kicked-off with the annual ALM Editor's breakfast hosted by Bill Pollak, Monica Bay and the rest of the ALM editorial crew. Publications represented included the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, Law Technology News, and Law.com. The room was near capacity with many legal vendors pitching their products and mingling with editorial contributors including legal technologists and bloggers. While ALM's early morning program also included the annual blogger's get-together, we continued our "legal connections" theme and set off to reconnect with several of our media colleagues including Adam Schlagman of LJN’s Legal Technology newsletter and Sean Doherty, Legal Technology Editor of Law.com. Next we connected with Larry Smith, formerly ABA LPM Director, to learn about his new ALA Executive Director-ship and the ALA’s plans of overseas expansion, especially into China and other Asian markets. 

With Monday's mega announcements "out of the way" we were focused on covering enough show floor ground to capture things new and novel at LegalTech. Another Thomson Reuters acquisition was announced on day 2, although it didn’t warrant a billboard in Times Square or an ice sculpture on the Eagan campus. The latest company to be purchased by Thomson Reuters is SuperLawyers, an attorney ratings system for consumers from Key Professional Media.  “Super Lawyers is an extraordinary complement to our business,” said Christopher Kibarian, president, Business of Law. “Attorneys rely on word-of-mouth and recommendations to build their client base. We’re pleased to be able to provide the attorneys selected to the Super Lawyers list with additional support and services to achieve greater visibility and recognition for their accomplishments.” Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Next up was PayneGroup and the new integration of its Forms Assistant product with SmartRules from RealPractice. According to John Sroka, CIO of Duane Morris and user of the integrated application “the integration will allow our staff quick access to up-to-date court rules and information with the single click of a button while working within a pleading. You cannot get more efficient than that.” Along with this announcement, PayneGroup and RealPractice are offering firms an exclusive FREE trial to try SmartRules for 30 days.

Phoenix-based Omega Legal recently launched eCop, which automates the billing review process to catch errors before they are billed. According to software specialist Steve Bentley, "This application is only available to Omega clients and is saving firms money by significantly reducing rejected, appealed, or written-off time entries."

CRM veteran Cole Valley were discussing their early adopter program for their new version (9.30) with sortable mass mailing capabilities.

Litéra, fresh off its acquisition of SoftWise and integration of Innova into the product mix, arrived in New York ready to take on Adobe with the introduction of LDF, a PDF management application at a fraction of the cost and complexity of other products. LDF gives users the ability to manage their PDF documents. William Robertson, EVP of Client Development, told us LDF plans to ship within the next 60 days after beta testing is complete.

Applied Discovery's big deal news according to a chat at their booth revolves around RPM (Review Performance Metrics), a new review management offering that allows litigation support professionals to see understand and maximize review performance by providing a dashboard with monitoring tools.

DocuLex announced customized workflow surrounding its flagship Archive Studio document management software and IBM Software are fairly new player (3 years and counting) in the eDiscovery scene touted early case assessment software.

One of today's most potentially profound news items centered around ILTA's Sharepoint for Legal Symposium taking place Wednesday at the Hilton, 9:30-4pm in Concourse A. ILTA's Microsoft Peer Group chaired by Kara Portwood invites everyone to the seminar focusing on SharePoint 2010 and the impact it will have on legal. In speaking with Kara, we learned that anticipated attendance has surpassed 175 (75 more than last year's SharePoint event), and that the program includes a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 product preview, presentations by XMLaw and Handshake Software, and finally actual user SharePoint case studies by ILTA member firms. The session will be of value to anyone looking to review new features inside SharePoint 2010 and looking to explore the topic of SharePoint 2010 as a viable document management system.

As promised, here's a sampling of random soundbytes on the success of the show from the exhibit floor:

Shirley Gorman, Vice President of Client Relations for PayneGroup, said that the traffic was constant and much better than last year. 

The famous Adriana Linares with LawTech Partners (helping out in the Adobe booth) said, “Show traffic has been great, great attendees, but where's the WiFi?  Isn’t this a technology conference?”  This was a sentiment shared by many - including InsideLegal!  It's very hard to cover a show without being able to connect to the internet - ah, the little things!

According to Dave Haucke, VP of Marketing for ISYS Search Software, this is their 16th LegalTech NY and traffic is as strong if not stronger than in the past.

Steve Bentley, software specialist for Omega Legal said that there were more qualified prospects than before – possibly due to the lack of a third floor which condenses the traffic across just 2 floors.

Cole Valley’s President Jeff Reade said he feels like the industry is definitely on the upswing, firms are getting over their nervousness of the economy and midsize firms have money and are beginning to spend it. 

Well, wrapping up day two to get ready for the 3rd and final day.  The big buzz for tomorrow is definitely the keynote -"I3: The New Convergence of Intelligence, Intuition and Information" - featuring speakers: Malcolm Gladwell, Author of Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point; Dr. Lisa Sanders, Internist, New York Times Columnist, Author of Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis; and David Craig, Chief Strategy Officer, Thomson Reuters; and the ILTA SharePoint Symposium.  Tune into InsideLegal.com (and sign up to get our newsfeed automatically) tomorrow for more information and if you have an announcement you would like us to consider including, please email us.  'Til then...

Just in time for the New Year...2010 Master Legal Events Calendar Released by InsideLegal.com

115+ Legal Events at-a-Glance!  We have just published the InsideLegal Legal Technology/Law Firm Management Master Events Calendar for 2010 - the most comprehensive, one-stop, legal industry event resource available.

If you have an event you would like us to consider adding, please email us the event name, event owner, dates, location and event URL.  InsideLegal already works with publishers such as ALM and peer networking organizations such as ILTA on providing their legal event calendars, and we’d like to invite you to link to the calendar as well.