Fixed-Fee Document Review and the Automation Revolution

January 26th, 2012 → 4:48 pm @ Ari Kaplan

In anticipation of the upcoming Legal Tech New York conference, I spoke yesterday with Steve Harber, the President and co-founder of DiscoverReady, a leading provider of e-discovery services.  Steve and I have been discussing fixed-fee document review services and innovations in automated review for a few years.  He shared his views on how the market has changed, as well as key trends for 2012 and beyond.  Listen to our discussion below:

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Applying the Alternative Fee Model to Law School Tuition

January 12th, 2012 → 8:50 am @ Ari Kaplan

In my column for the National Law Journal online today, I note that the time has come to talk more openly about the cost of a legal education and I don’t mean cheaper, I mean different.

I have been studying the industry for years.  I released my report: The Evolution of the Legal Profession: A Conversation with the Legal Community’s Thought Leaders on the Front Lines of an Industry in Transition (underwritten by DiscoverReady) in 2010 and have addressed law students at almost 50 law schools worldwide since the release of my first book, The Opportunity Maker in 2008.

My conclusion: 2012 can be the year to implement a positive shift in the logistics of legal education. The legal academic community has jump-started this discussion by beginning to implement changes to the curriculum, practical training initiatives, and greater transparency in reporting employment statistics.

Read the column here.

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Fixed Fees and Efficiency Trends in Document Creation for 2012

December 9th, 2011 → 7:15 am @ Ari Kaplan

Following my presentation over Thanksgiving at the 2011 BigHand User Conference, I spoke with Richard Newton of Business Integrity, makers of ContractExpress.com, about content creation and related document trends for 2012.  He noted that fixed fee arrangements have been prompting firms to streamline manual processes and focus on automation in document generation, particularly in the legal, banking, real estate, finance and employment fields.  Watch our interview below:

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