LegalTech West Coast 2012

What a hectic 48 hours at LegalTech West Coast, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Tuesday and Wednesday, May 22 & 23.

Here's a quick recap -- (scroll down for the photo gallery)!

•  "Challenging Predictive Coding to Better Defend It," by Michael Roach: The speakers on LegalTech West Coast's predictive coding panel, "Under Fire: Defending and Challenging Technology-Assisted Review," often seemed more intent on challenging judicial and legal industry assumptions about the review technology than on defending it, says Roach. Read it here.

• "IPads & Lehman Brothers," Day 1 keynote speaker Kevin Genirs (left), global general counsel for investment banking at Barclays Capital, discusses lessons learned (with the help of the other Judge Peck — James) during the Lehman Brothers crash.

Then a fast-paced pragmatic panel of David Bustle (right), IT director at BuchalterNemer, and David Neesen (left), CIO, Greenberg Glusker, gave a road map of how to use iPads and other tablets in a legal practice. Read it here.

• The Day 2 Keynote was by Joel Brenner, of counsel at Cooley, who -- like many effective keynote speakers, played to everyone's paranoia discussing cyberspies preying on lawyers and their clients who do business in China and Russia. Read it here.

 • Wrapping up our coverage was my commentary, "Lessons Learned from LegalTech for Law Technology Vendors," where I mused about the dramatic changes in customer service at the Bonaventure, and how vendors might want to follow suit. Read it here.

Aderant's Jim Hammond offered his insights (and excellent advice) on the topic with a blog post, "How to be a Happy Customer," here. (Hat tip, Jeffrey Brandt.)

Check out Twitter posts from the show, from Rob Robinson, Recommind, Traveling Coaches, LexisNexis, LegalTechShow, Phillip Lemel, RenewData, Derick Roselli, Perry Segal - Charon, Monique Altheim, ABBYY USA Associated Blogs, Anatoly Soyfer, eDiscovery, lawtechnews (me), and others: #LTWC.

Photos: Monica Bay except Bonaventure (Florian)

Snap Shot: LegalTech West Coast (Take 2)

< eStet's Linda Adele (former LTN board member)

 

 

 

 

 

> Cooley's Joel Brenner (keynote speaker, Weds.)

 

 

 

 

< LegalTech veterans Bill Baker (left) & Dan Berlin (TABS 3)

 

 

 

> From left: ALM's Michelle Daniels, Amy Hanan & Jackie Amato

 

 

 

Snap Shot: LegalTech West Coast (Take 1)

 

> John Cleaves, Latham & Watkins, member of LTN's Editorial Advisory Board.

 

 

< Graham Smith, LTN's April issue
cover boy and CEO of Opus 2.

 

 

> Jack Halprin (Google) and Twilla Case (Catalyst)

 

< ALM's Henry Dicker

 

 

 

 

Photos: Monica Bay

The 24/7 Andrew Peck Show

Greetings from LegalTech West Coast in relatively-smog free and sunny Los Angeles. Day one was full of energy and standing-room only presentations with, as usual, tons of e-discovery in the seminar rooms (and on the busy exhibit hall floor). Day 2 is today (May 23), at the downtown Westin Bonaventure -- one day tickets are available if you want to head over and get some education, demos, and CLE credits.

Topic A among the L.A. EDD crowd, as expected, is the closely-watched Da Silva Moore case, where U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck has ordered the use of computer-assisted coding (aka predictive coding). Law Technology News is one of those closely-watching, our most recent story is here.

On the blawg-o-sphere, attorney Sharon Nelson, (left) president of Sensei Enterprises, has been monitoring the DSM sideshow in her ride the lightening blog. See her latest post, "Da Silva Moore: EDD's Version of Keeping Up with the Kardashians," is  here.

Peck and his Second District colleague Lisa Smith gave a terrific program Thursday evening at the New York City chapter of Women in Discovery -- demonstrating his trademark wit and substantive knowledge. See "Federal Judges Preside Over Women in E-Discovery Meeting."

But Tuesday's LTWC keynote address reminded us that Peck isn't a one-trick pony doin' nuttin' but e-discovery 24/7/365. (He did win LTN's 2011 Champion of Technology Award). Peck's turf also has included overseeing another matter that kept lawyers chewing their fingernails -- to say nothing of anybody with a dollar in a bank. Kevin Genirs (left). In his keynote address yesterday, "2008 v. 2012: Lessons from the Lehman Brothers," described how Peck oversaw the frantic, sleep-deprived mega-lawyered transactions under excruciating deadlines that ultimately resulted in the sale of Lehman Brothers ("for the price of our building") to Barclays, praising Peck for recognizing the global impact of the sale on the stability of financial markets, and Peck's nonstop efforts to get the deal consumated. Genirs, who had been general counsel, investment banking, at Lehman's, was one of the 10,000 Lehman workers who had new jobs with Barclays when the sun rose the next day.

Later this morning, check out www.lawtechnologynews.com for my colleague Michael Roach's  report on "Under Fire: Defending and Challenging Technology-Assisted Review," which featured Irell's Tom Werner, O'Melveny's Jeffrey Flower, Oracle's Pallab Chakraborty, and moderator Andrea Gibson, from Kroll Ontrack (the sponsor of the Litigation Technology Track." Yes, DSM and Peck were front-and-center in the discussion!

Meanwhile, you can keep up with all the substance and occasional drama about Peck on our website's home page www.lawtechnologynews.com, and its E-Discovery/Compliance "channel" -- and right here at EDD Update. Onward to Day 2! 

Update 5/24: Oooops. Who knew there were two Judge Pecks in the Southern District of New York! Actually, many -- and Silicon Valley consultant Mark Michels, a member of LTN's editorial advisory board, was the first to advise me that I goofed. It wasn't Andrew Peck, it was Judge James Peck, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. But you get my point.

P.S. Here's Michael's story 

Photos: Monica Bay, except for Sharon Nelson (courtesy of ride the lightening)

Second Act: Graham Smith & William Bice

In LTN's April cover story, we profile two entrepreneurs who accomplished the dream of 99% of legal technology vendors: to create a product and/or company that caught the eye of one of the industry giants, and to see it for a lot of money. In most cases, the principals cash the check and head for exotic locations.

But at LegalTech 2012, two men who hit the jackpot decided they weren't done with our community. William Bice, founder of ProLaw practices management software, and Graham Smith, founder of LiveNote litigation support software, came back for "act two" after selling to Thomson Reuters' [prior entities]. Both launched new web-based products that compete with their original offerings -- Bice's LiquidPractice (and a second product, Exemplify, that is a document creation and comparison tool for transaction lawyers), and Smith's Opus Magnum, with integrates with other EDD software and helps uses develop their cases after they have processed their data collections.

Will they triumph twice? Check it out here.

Editors' Breakfast @ LegalTech NY

A quick reminder that ALM will continue our tradition of our Editors’ Breakfast Tuesday, Jan. 31,  at 8 a.m., in the Petit Trianon room, at the Hilton — followed by our bloggers’ get together. 

David Snow, head of our ALM technology unit, will kick off the breakfast with a short report about ALM’s recent survey of vendors — we asked them how they see the current State of the [Legal Technology] Union. This is a great oppty for vendors and PR teams to meet “face-to-face” with editorial staff from our national publications and newsletters.  It’s free, no badges are required.

Finally, a reminder that Exhibit Hall/Keynote/Plenary session badges are free BEFORE the show, but cost $50 onsite. So if you have procrastinated, hit this website pronto.

I look forward to seeing you there!  If you have any questions, you can reach David at dsnow@alm.com.

 

LegalTech West Coast: Back to the Bonaventure!

There's an upbeat mood at LegalTech West Coast, both on the show floor and in the conference halls. The medium may be the message all right, but being in a comfortable venue seems to enhance our ability to receive and process all that information!

Everybody seems really happy to be back in the cozy confines of the Westin Bonaventure hotel, rather than the cavernous halls of the L.A .Convention Center — where we always seemed to share the building with the happy occasion of the swearing in of hundreds of ecstatic new citizens. LTWC 2011 changed its dates somewhat abruptly, so some of the usual EDD suspects had scheduling conflicts (most significantly with the Guidance Software über user group meetings in Orlando) but the exhibit hall was jumping and the keynotes and plenary sessions were crowded.

 
The kick off keynote address was presented by Meetup.com's top lawyer, David Pashman (left, with ALM's senior vice president Kevin Vermeulen who introduced him). See LTN's associate editor Michael Roach's report here. 

I was honored to moderate the plenary session, "The Corporate Perspective: Why the Legal Industry Needs to Embrace Technology," featuring Tim Hart (below left), of McKesson, and Brian Renken (below right) of Dell. Both offered  sage insight from Hart's large "enterprise" perspective to Renken's small-and-midsized business  services point-of-view. We focused primarily on how organizations struggle to provide users with the most beneficial technology, while keeping work environments secure to minimize risks and keep the organization agile enough to respond to e-discovery and compliance demands.

During the discussion I gave the audience a "sneak preview" of our upcoming June issue cover story, "Catch Me If You Can," about how CIOs and other law firm leaders are rethinking security protocols in the wake of the recent insider trading charges filed against attorney Matthew Kluger, who allegedly made $32 million in profits by trading on information he acquired while working at  Wilson Sonsini;  Skadden; and Cravath. Pashman, in attendance at the plenary panel, told the group he had been aboard Wilson Sonsini when Kluger was there, generating a gasp from the audience. Of course, he immediately assured everyone that he did not participate in any of the mischief. 

If you are in the Los Angeles area, it's not too late to head over the LTWC Day 2! This morning's 9 am keynote speaker is Manny Medrano, and you can get an hour's worth of CLE credit for his presentation," Trial by Sound Byte: Law in the New Millennium." And EDD Update regulars Joshua Engel, Tom O'Connor, John Jablonski, Bobby Malholtra, and George Rudoy will be presenting today. Get your complimentary pass to the show. We'd love to see you!

Photos: Monica Bay/LTN  Click images to enlarge

Meetup's Pashman to Keynote Legal Tech L.A.

There’s a new date and return venue for LegalTech West Coast 2011. We’re headed back to the recently-renovated Westin Bonaventure, but a month earlier than in the past: May 17-18 (rather than late June).

Details soon will be posted at www.legaltechshow.com, but we can tell you that David Pashman, who heads up the legal team at Meetup, a social media site, will be the May 17 keynote speaker, at 9 a.m. The website is designed to help individuals organize a local group or find an existing group to join. The website has 7.2 million members, with 79,000 local groups that hold 250,000 monthly "meetups" in 45,000 cities, says the company.

Pashman (left) will discuss the legal challenges Meetup faces as it operates in a rapidly evolving business and legal environment — including contract principals involved in terms of service, defamation, and other claims under the Communications Decency Act. He'll also discuss copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as well as trademark infringement, government subpoenas, and privacy matters in light of recent Federal Trade Commission (and other government) activity.

Pashman earned his J.D. at New York University, and joined Meetup after a stint at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati. In his spare time, he does low-keyed things wuch as trekking the Indian Himalayans, according to his meetup bio.

Photo: Meetup