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5 février, 2008 19:37

By Claire Duffett

Law Technology News

February 5, 2008

Like accountants before April 15, legal professionals are scrambling to prepare for the biggest industry event of the year: LegalTech New York 2008.

The 27th annual conference will be held Feb. 5-7 at The Hilton New York Hotel, and will feature hundreds of speakers, exhibitors, and quite a few parties. Attendees can take a break from touring the three floors of exhibits by enjoying keynote speeches, seminars and -- of course -- unwinding from it all with a cocktail at the evening receptions.

Thomas Allman launches LTNY with the first keynote address this morning. Allman, former senior vice president and general counsel at BancFirst Corp., will discuss "E-Discovery Today: Federal and State Rulemaking in Light of Emerging Issues and Best Practices."

Allman, a frequent contributor to Law Technology News, also is one of the authors of ALM's new EDD Update blog, a joint effort of LTN and Law.com's Legal Technology section.

George Rudoy, Shearman & Sterling's director of global practice technology and information services (and another EDD Update author), moderates "Practice Technology -- Leveraging Legal Technology" at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Observes Rudoy: "I'm very hopeful that people who are currently involved in litigation support or practice support become trusted advisors for law firms in general.

"Practice management is really becoming a driving force within law firms. The career opportunities are endless."

Rudoy will be joined on the panel by Michelle Mahoney, of Mallesons Stephen Jacques; Jonathan Maas, of DLA Piper U.K.; and Kelly Inglese, of McCarthy Tétrault.

Both Rudoy and Mahoney are members of LTN's editorial advisory board.

Day two's keynote address, on Wednesday, will be delivered by Robert Bjornsti, vice president of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. The title of his presentation is "Paradigm Shift -- Corporate Use of Legal Support Services," and he will explore the changing relationship between lawyers and their corporate clients. There are tensions, he observes, when companies bring e-discovery and other support services in-house. Be warned; Bjornsti predicts law firms may -- at least temporarily -- lose money while the roles are redefined.

Among the many panels on Wednesday is "E-Discovery Litigation Readiness: Do You Know Where Your Data Is?" from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Moderated by Paul Tombleson, of KPMG U.K., the panel includes Moze Cowper of Amgen Inc., Mark Smith of Winston & Strawn, and Ken Rashbaum of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold.

In LTN's meetings with vendors this past year, we discovered that companies are switching from a reactive posture to an always-ready-for-battle mode -- by instituting repeatable protocols and retention policies that work with any request for production. Topics addressed in the session include: options for achieving systematic, defensible EDD; tips for inventorying data; and how to best preserve electronically stored information.

Day three, Thursday, brings more seminars, including "How To Grow Fruitful And Lasting Relationships. ('Why Can't We Be Friends?')" from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

Designed as a question-and-answer session, it will be moderated by Michael Worth of Kraft & Kennedy Inc. and will feature speakers Adam Gilbert of Nixon Peabody; Christopher King of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal; Deborah Ratterman of Sears Holdings Corp.; and Sean Sullivan of Altria Corporate Services.

The focus is expected to veer from technology-specific to simple business politics -- how to overcome egos to get the job done.

Panelists will address how firms can ensure they retain long-term clients.

Earlier Thursday, four industry leaders will share the podium for the final keynote presentation: Victor Limongelli, president of Guidance Software Inc.; Pallab Chakraborty, litigation technology director of Cisco Systems; Andrew Drake, senior counsel for discovery management in the office of the chief legal officer at Nationwide; and Thomas Lidbury, partner at Mayer Brown.

Starting at 9 a.m., they will address "Overcoming the Human Factor: Technology Solutions for the Records Management and E-Discovery Dilemma."

Counsel has never faced more compliance challenges than it does today, they say. Between changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and a renewed emphasis on records management, companies need protocols in place to ensure their employees are acting appropriately and performing the right tasks.

After the keynote, if you aren't completely exhausted by all the EDD discussions, you can head to another program starting at 10:30 a.m. "Enterprise Case Study: Choosing And Deploying An eDiscovery Platform" will be a step-by-step how-to guide for CIOs on weeding through the hundreds of EDD products out there and selecting one that fits.

Panelists have not yet been announced as we go to press, but the seminar promises to address how firms can stop routine outsourcing of discovery due to a lack of internal tools, despite recurrent needs.

LegalTech is a forum for both the novice and veteran legal professional, and an opportunity for everything from hands-on demonstrations to networking. Speaking of which, nothing beats the annual LTN Awards Dinner, where editor Monica Bay and publisher Stephen Lincoln will be handing out the lucite to the 2007 leaders of our legal technology community!