I spoke with Ignat Postny, the Executive Director at TAG Consulting, a boutique consulting firm specializing in corporate governance, asset protection, and M&A projects for high-net-worth individuals and business owners. We discussed the challenges that legal professionals face in deploying new technology, the impact of legal process automation, the process of developing software for the legal profession, and the risks of using AI in legal.
I spoke with Maya Markovich, the justice tech executive in residence at Village Capital, and the executive director of the Justice Technology Association. We discussed the mission of the Justice Technology Association, the problems that justice tech aims to address, how her experience with NextLaw Labs has helped to shape her approach, and where justice tech is headed.
I spoke with Catie Butt, an Executive Director with A&O Consulting, which is a division within Allen & Overy that advises corporate legal teams in a number of areas including business and legal function transformation. We discussed the genesis of the firm’s Advanced Delivery & Solutions team, how it collaborates with the firm’s practicing lawyers, and the challenges that the legal industry is likely to face in 2021 and beyond.
I spoke with Jim Leipold, the executive director of NALP, the National Association for Law Placement, which is an organization focused on career counseling and planning, recruitment and retention, and the professional development of law students, lawyers, and its members. We discussed how the organization’s mission has changed over the past half-century as it celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2021, ways that law firms have adapted their approach to recruiting and training during the pandemic, and how the next generation of lawyers can thrive.
I spoke with Michele DeStefano, a professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law and the founder & executive director of LawWithoutWalls, a think tank designed to create innovations at the intersection of law, business, and technology. She is also a guest faculty member at Harvard Law School’s Executive Education program and the author of the newly released book, Legal Upheaval: A Guide to Creativity, Collaboration, and Innovation (American Bar Association, 2018).
We discussed her background and work at the University of Miami School of Law, her motivation for writing Legal Upheaval: A Guide to Creativity, Collaboration, and Innovation, why she founded LawWithoutWalls, how the profession has changed in the years since she created that organization, whether innovation can be measured, and where the legal industry is headed, among other topics.
I spoke with Bill Hamilton, a legal skills professor at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law and the executive director of the UF Law E-Discovery Project, which is hosting the UF Law E-Discovery Conference on Thursday, March 29th. Bill practiced with Holland & Knight in Miami and Tampa for 27 years and at Quarles & Brady in Tampa for six, where he served as the firm’s national e-discovery partner.
We discussed the UF Law E-Discovery Conference on Thursday, March 29th, the Careerfest component of the event, the consortium of professors meeting after the conference to discuss e-discovery education in law schools, and how individuals can remotely take advantage of the content (as the law school will be live streaming and recording the sessions).
I spoke with Silvia Hodges Silverstein, the executive director of the Buying Legal Council, the international trade organization for legal procurement, and John de Forte, a London-based consultant to law and other professional services firms, who is the author of Winning Proposals – The Essential Guide for Law Firms and Legal Services Providers, which the Buying Legal Council published in July.
We discussed the genesis of the Buying Legal Council, de Forte’s new book, Winning Proposals – The Essential Guide for Law Firms and Legal Services Providers, how law firms should measure the ROI of proposal activities, what winning proposals have in common, and the North American Legal Procurement Conference on September 6th in New York.
I spoke with Mary Mack, the new executive director for the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists. With more than a decade in the e-discovery field, Mack is a frequent commentator on industry issues as well as the author of A Process of Illumination: The Practical Guide to Electronic Discovery and the co-editor of the Thomson Reuters treatise, eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel.
We discussed her new role at ACEDS, the importance of certification for e-discovery professionals, key trends in training, and the organization’s 6th Annual E-Discovery Conference.
Listen to our interview below: