Technology: ‘Tis
the Season
The
Legal Industry, Lawyers, and Technology
This is the season, post-holidays, when “New Year”
means New Technology. It is the season in which Detroit rolls
out its latest models and Steve Jobs reveals the latest micronizations
of tech tools and toys. It’s the season that the ALM
magazine Law
Technology News presents its annual LTN
Tech Awards for outstanding tech vendors and law firm/law
departments, presented at the 2007
Legal Tech New York show (January 29 – 31 at the
Hilton New York Hotel).
New
ALM Research Technology Survey Presented at Legal Tech
Concurrent with Legal Tech, at the CIO
& Technology Officers Forum, the initial results of
a new syndicated survey of attorney evaluations of legal technology
will be presented. ALM
Research sponsored the survey in conjunction with Cogent
Research, a strategic marketing research and consulting
firm located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cogent has already
completed over 160 research projects for the legal community.
1,400 attorneys responded to the new Legal Technology survey,
which evaluates technology product performance from the attorney’s
perspective. The lawyers’ quantitative assessments were
focused on major products and brands in the areas of case
management, online legal information, electronic discovery,
document management, and back office solutions. The full report
will be available this spring on ALM
Research Online.
In
this season of new technology I am reminded also, of the story
The American Lawyer did on the history of technology in the
legal industry. In their 25th Anniversary Issue, reporter
Amy Vincent summed it up in a piece called “Real Men
Don't Type: Tales from the great computer changeover.”
I supplied the quotes, after interviewing about a dozen people
who had been at their law firms for 25 years or more, and
had seen the change from using “White-Out” to
correct documents, to those who wished they didn’t have
to interrupt a shower because their Blackberries summoned.
ALM
Research Syndicated Surveys
We’ve received a lot of interest for a new survey conducted
and published this past year, the 2006
Global Knowledge Management Survey, also the first of
its kind. The survey was conducted by ALM
Research and Curve
Consulting. Respondents included 71 leading law firms
from seven countries around the globe. The survey report assesses
the state of knowledge management in major law firms worldwide,
and covers issues such as the scope of knowledge management
initiatives, KM strategy and budget, the relationship between
KM, client service delivery, and lawyer retention, cultural
issues relating to KM, and much, much more.
Searching
the database for information about technology and the legal
industry
Searches for information about technology—who’s
buying what, trends across time, associate technology rankings—can
be conducted several ways.
By-Firm
Searches: Use the topics tools (search tree), to
find information about a particular firm or topic, using the
menu found at the top of the home page of ALM
Research Online.
Choose
“Topics”, then “Technology” and then
a specific firm name. Technology topics covered in this type
of search include technology purchases (updated quarterly),
and technology rankings.
