InsideLegal

Gearing Up for LegalTech WestCoast 2008 (June 26-27)

Believe it or not, LegalTech West Coast is only two days away. In fact, Jobst and I are getting ready to head west for the show taking place at the LA Convention Center, June 26-27th. The educational program looks promising with a variety of tracks and sessions covering practice management, e-discovery (both for law firms and corporate), legal outsourcing, knowledge management and the annual vendor-focused emerging technology tracks. In addition to the ever popular "Advanced IT" track orchestrated by ILTA, a LegalTech first will include "FutureTech," a three part panel session program presented by Law Technology News on Friday, June 27.

Last year, ALM made the strategic decision to move the show from the Westin Bonaventure, where it had been for years, to the LA Convention Center to allow for future growth and to have space for additional exhibitors.  So far, that seems to have worked as there are 129+ exhibitors registered to demonstrate their wares this year.

If you are still looking to register, check out the different registration options available.

See you in LA!

InsideLegal 2008 Legal Technology Vendor Marketing Survey is LIVE

Last week we wrote: "InsideLegal is introducing its inaugural Technology Vendor Marketing Survey, open to all legal technology companies. The survey will help participating companies measure marketing spend, provide tactical benchmarks and deliver comparative metrics."

The survey is now LIVE and includes questions covering vendor marketing budgets, marketing planning, event strategy and selection, ad placements, and market research.  All responses are strictly confidential.

To receive the entire results, participation is required.  By completing the survey, participating vendors will be able to compare themselves to their peers in terms of where they are spending money, what events they are attending, where they are advertising, and how their marketing mix compares to others.

The power of this survey is in the numbers, so the more companies participating the better. There is no cost for acquiring this wealth of market intelligence except vendor participation. If you have any questions about participating, please contact JoAnna Forshee.

Complete the InsideLegal 2008 Legal Technology Marketing Survey

"Countdown to ILTA" Tip - Hotel Rooms

As you probably know, the demand for attendance at the ILTA conference also affects the demand on hotel rooms at the show.  In the coming years, ILTA will be at properties that can accommodate the whole group onsite, but until then we have some help.  The conference hotel (Gaylord Palms) as well as the two official overflow properties (Great Wolf Lodge and Hilton DFW Lakes) are sold out, but below is a list properties with availability (as of posting) approximately 1 mile away.  Note: Only the two official overflow properties listed above will have shuttle service so remember to prepare for transportation as well.

Embassy Suites Dallas - DFW Airport North Outdoor World

SpringHill Suites Dallas DFW Airport North/Grapevine

Hyatt Place Dallas/Grapevine

Homewood Suites by Hilton Dallas-Grapevine

Residence Inn DFW Airport North/Grapevine

Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport (about 4 mi away but a little more upscale)

Inaugural InsideLegal Technology Vendor Marketing Survey

Over the last decade, there has been a major shift in the marketing programs and tactics used by legal technology vendors to attract the community's attention.  One thing that has not changed much, however, is the difficulty in adequately measuring marketing spend and a lack of benchmarks and metrics.  These metrics are needed when it comes to better understanding what legal vendors should be spending on marketing, where they are spending money, what events they are attending, where they are advertising, and most importantly how their marketing mix compares to that of their peers and competitors within the legal space.

With that said, InsideLegal is introducing its inaugural Technology Vendor Marketing Survey (open to all legal technology companies) to cover those topics. We are now finalizing the survey instrument and have been working with the vendor and consultant community on fine-tuning the questions in order to maximize the usefulness of the results. The power of this survey is in the numbers so the more companies participate the better. There is no cost for acquiring this wealth of market intelligence except your participation.  The actual responses will be completely confidential to protect all companies.  We will post the survey link on InsideLegal within the next week. If you would like to participate in the survey and therefore receive the final report (we are focusing on marketing VPs, Directors and marketing department heads), please email JoAnna Forshee.

Legal Industry Veteran John Christiansen Signs on at JD Supra

According to the press release...

SAN FRANCISCO--JD Supra today announces the appointment of John Christiansen to VP of Business Development. A leading executive in the legal software industry, Mr. Christiansen will direct strategic partnerships and new product development at JD Supra. He will also direct the Internet firm’s sales programs, driving advertising and enhanced profile sales on JDSupra.com.

“John’s arrival is an important next step in the growth of the company,” says JD Supra founder Aviva Cuyler. “He comes to us with a rich and successful background in technology, the legal industry, product development, and sales.”

Prior to joining JD Supra, Mr. Christiansen was Director of Key Accounts for CT Summation, a top provider of litigation support software. Mr. Christiansen joined CT Summation when the company was a startup with no more than a dozen employees. During his twelve-year tenure, he helped grow the organization into a thriving, multi-million dollar business.

FTI Consulting to Acquire Attenex

According to FTI Consulting's Website...

FTI has signed a merger agreement to acquire Attenex Corporation, a leading electronic discovery software provider based in Seattle. Built on a successful four-year partnership between the two firms, the acquisition will add critical intellectual property and software development, support, sales and marketing capabilities to FTI.

• Read the press release: “FTI Consulting, Inc. to Acquire Attenex Corporation"

• Read the Overview and FAQs for Clients
• Read the Overview and FAQs for Partners

Large Firm Publication "Legal Technology Insider" Coming to America!

Anyone doing business in the UK legal market (and most of us involved in stateside legal) are familiar with Legal Technology Insider (LTi) , The Orange Rag breaking news blog and their founder Charles Christian. Described by The Times of London as "the definitive online resource for the latest news about legal technology", LTi is in its 11th year of supplying readers with legal technology vendor product, partner, corporate and M&A news as it pertains to the UK.

Commencing in August, Charles Christian will introduce American Legal Technology Insider (ALTi) to the North American large firm legal market. ALTi will follow the UK newsletter’s formula of treating vendor and industry news as real news (see sample issue of LTi below).  Charles will preside as Publisher and Editor-in-Chief and InsideLegal, the legal vendor community launched by Envision Agency founder JoAnna Forshee, will help facilitate the launch for ALTI’s distribution here and work with the vendor, law firm and consultant community to promote the new online news resource. While Charles puts the finishing touches on the inaugural issue, we’ll take this opportunity to provide some more details about ALTi and how it will benefit you:

What it is: Monthly, online PDF newsletter with an ongoing website presence, free of charge to all subscribers.  Beginning in August, ALTi will be available for free download at AmericanLegalTechnologyInsider.com and InsideLegal, or you can subscribe to receive the issues by email.

What it will cover: ALTi will emulate LTi’s mission and deliver current news and views as they pertain to the large firm North American legal technology market. Along with news stories on who is buying what, the latest trends and developments in legal technology, staff appointments and moves, and vendor corporate news, regular features of ALTi will include: a guest thought leader/opinion piece by a vendor, consultant or law firm IT director; a round-up of the biggest deals of the month; a front page slot covering the product launch of the month; plus ‘up and running’ – an implementation or upgrade case study; and previews and reviews of all the major US legal IT events.  There will be online advertising opportunities available beginning with the first issue.

What it is not: ALTi is not a “me too” legal technology publication aimed at duplicating editorial efforts of existing US legal technology publications.  ALTi will not include lengthy feature articles or exposes or advertorial-style content and will not operate with a standard "August special focus on time and billing systems" editorial calendar.  ALTi is designed to effectively communicate legal technology news and information across a broader base of legal community targets, not act as a divisive gossip source for vendor foul-ups and failed law firm IT projects.

What’s next?: The first edition of ALTi will be issued August 7th.  Charles Christian will be attending ILTA in August so make sure to meet him at the ILTA/InsideLegal Vendor Program on Monday (more details to come!).  Please review the introduction flyer and stay tuned to InsideLegal for more information...       Download ALTi_Intro_Flyer.pdf

Contact Details for ALTi
Editor-in-Chief & Publisher: Charles Christian
Phone: +44 1986 788666 (Office hours 6:00am to 3:00pm EST)
US phone number to follow
Email: altinews@legaltechnology.com

[Download sample_issue_of_lti.pdf]    (The subscription rates for UK LTi are £140 per year (digital) and £160 per year (print), however it only covers UK, European & Australia/Pacific Rim news.)

Also, feel free to contact me with questions.

Charles Christian and JoAnna Forshee

Law Technology News presents FutureTech at LegalTech West Coast [by Monica Bay]

[Part of InsideLegal's guest blogger program - This article authored by Monica Bay, Editor-in-Chief of Law Technology News]

Law Technology News has always been a leader in adopting new technologies within our company, and this spring, we’re very excited about a new program we will launch at LegalTech West Coast in Los Angeles, on Friday, June 27.  Called “Law Technology News Presents FutureTech,” it combines a live seminar track, a “six-pack” of podcasts, and articles in the print and online editions of the magazine.

It’s the first-time that LTN has programmed content for a full LegalTech seminar track, and I will moderate the three sessions.  FutureTech is sponsored by BlueArc, a San Jose, Calif.-based company that provides high performance unified network storage systems to enterprise markets.

The panels are:

“Sell Your Tech,” 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.
It’s no longer enough for firms to win business based on legal skills alone. Today’s savvy firms realize that they must offer top-line technology to win and keep clients. Our panelists will share how their firms have integrated technology tools, such as extranets and wikis, to increase collaboration and better serve their clients’ expectations.  Panelists are: Doug Caddell (CIO, Foley & Lardner); Rob Kahn (Director, Business Development, Fenwick & West); and Robin Solomon (Firmwide Knowledge Manager, Heller Ehrman).

“Green Law,” 1:30-3 p.m.
It’s Not Easy Going Green.... Or is It? Using technology tools to create a “green” workplace will not only lower your energy consumption, it will increase productivity, morale, profits, improve lifestyles and health, cut costs, and help you get, and keep, new clients. How your organization can establish a program, from leadership needed to concrete programs that work. Panelists are: Alvidas Jasin (Director of Business Development, Thompson Hine); Bruce Lymburn (Partner, Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean); and Tony Hoke (Global Technology Purchasing/Asset Manager, Morrison & Foerster).

“TomorrowLand”  3:30-5 p.m.
Where is the legal community headed, and what challenges does it face, as technology becomes embedded in every facet of our lives? From delivering the best possible legal services to our clients; to providing opportunities to excel in the workplace and at home; to confronting the challenges of competing interests in a global economy; it’s a heady challenge to move forward. Named for the iconic futuristic venue at Disneyland, this panel will showcase six legal technology leaders who will forecast what lies ahead — and where opportunities may abound.  Panelists are:  J. Craig Williams  (Partner, The Williams Lindberg Law Firm (Tech & Law in Multi-jurisdictional Practices)); Craig Ball (Consultant/Attorney (Crystal Ball: Future of E-Discovery)); Douglas Caddell (CIO, Foley & Lardner (Next Generation – Systems & People)); Peter Hsiao (Head, Land Use & Environmental law Group, Morrison & Foerster (CleanTech)); Tom Baldwin (Chief Knowledge Officer, Reed Smith (Relationship Capital)); and Judith Flournoy (CIO, Loeb & Loeb (Leadership)).

I got the idea for the TomorrowLand session from TED (Technology Entertainment Design) -- the Silicon Valley think tank that produces amazing conferences where speakers are allowed exactly 18 minutes to talk. I loved the concept, so I'm trying this format (15 minutes) for the third session of the track – and we are going to tape them to create six standalone podcasts for our Law Technology Now series (a joint project between Law.com & Legal Talk Network). You can even subscribe on iTunes!

Finally, the LTN component: We'll report on FutureTech in our August issue, which will be available in print, digital and website versions.

We are tremendously excited about this first-ever Live/Podcast/Print/Digital/Website effort. About the only media we're NOT doing (yet) is TV -- but don't rule that out for the future. Let me know what you think!  LegalTech West Coast will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center June 26 & 27.

About Monica...Monica Bay, a California lawyer, is editor-in-chief of Law Technology News, published by Incisive Media.

John Delavan, ALA's Editor-in-Chief, Publications & Associate Publisher Moves On

John Delavan has moved on from his role as Editor-in-Chief, Publications & Associate Publisher of ALA to assume his new role of Editor-in-Chief of Marketing News, the flagship publication at the American Marketing Association.  We wish him luck on his new post and wanted to thank him for serving on our media panels many times!

From this point on, until his successor is on board, please send any and all correspondence related to ALA's publications (e-mails, faxes, phone messages, etc.) to Amy Dvorak as she will be serving as "Interim Editor-in-Chief."  Amy can be reached at 847-267-1393.