Law2020 E-Group

In 2010, ILTA launched its multi-year, multi-platform initiative that explores the sea change taking place in law firms –– Law2020™. With current economic pressures, client demands and the ever-changing technology landscape, law firms face the prospect of the most dynamic and threatening decade of the last fifty years.

Some firms will emerge from this decade thriving. Some will treat the changing environment as a field of opportunities and from that field will harvest real growth. The question presented by Law2020™ is what factors will allow those leaders to triumph? What skills will be needed, and what kind of leadership? What technologies will be key for those firms that not only survive, but thrive over the coming decade? And what can you do to acquire the skills you need to be part of a thriving firm?

This e-group was created to facilitate dialog about the challenges and the “solutions” that arise as firms, law departments and the vendors/consultants who support them address the pressures of this decade. If you are new to ILTA’s e-groups, please read our “Code of Conduct” and observe our rules of engagement as you contribute here. We’re hopeful to share ideas among members, vendors, consultants, non-members –– everyone who is faced with the challenges the Law2020 examines.

To subscribe to the Law2020 E-Group or others, visit the new ILTA Connected Community Site and login with the same credentials you use at the main ILTA website . If you’ve forgotten your login credentials, you will see a link on the login screen to retrieve them.

Then under Discussions –– click on My Subscriptions and set up your e-mail preference for the Law2020 E-Group and press [save].

Take a moment and click on My Profile to upload a photo and update some of your information so community members can get to know you better –– after all this is a social networking site!

9th Annual CIO Forum Announced

The Hildebrandt Institute and West LegalEdcenter announce a strategic technology conference for CIOs. We invite you to join us for a day of new ideas, best practices and networking.

April 28th, 2011
Sentry Centers – Midtown East
730 3rd Ave
New York, NY

Cost:  $895

Special Offer for ILTA Members –– 20% off your registration!

To register, call 1-800-308-1700 or online here.
Use Promo Code CIO201

The CIO is the lifeblood of the information-powered business, where clients and lawyers expect predictability and innovation. Today’s law firm CIOs balance consideration of new business and service delivery models with regulatory mandates and constantly evolving technology. With the legal IT landscape changing at a heart-pounding pace, law firms depend on their CIOs to manage opportunities with resource constraints.

This forum provides opportunities to:

• Review legal market revenue, productivity and technology spending and staffing trends
• Optimize the productivity of lawyers in your firm through technology
• Steer a course through emerging cloud computing and business process outsourcing options
• Manage data privacy risk effectively
• Navigate through the next generation of document and e-mail management solutions

Video Roundtable on Mobile Devices Ready for Viewing

ILTA has teamed up with ii3 to create video roundtables on topical issues. These roundtables are moderated by Shy Alter, CEO of ii3, and they include ILTA member experts responding to interview questions around each topic. The latest is on Mobile Devices and features Jim McKenna of Morrison and Foerster LLP, Sean Brady of Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P. and Scott Preston of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.

http://www.iltanet.org/MainMenuCategory/Recordings/ILTA-TV-Roundtable-Interviews.aspx

ILTA’s KM Peer Group Launches a Blog!

Yep, we’re blogging about blogging! ILTA’s Knowledge Management Peer Group Steering Committee folks are talking about all things KM on their blog. Check it out here.

Upcoming posts include:

• A Legal KM Competency Model
• Introduction to KM Challenges
• The Future of Professional Technology Is Personal Technology
• KM in Law School
• Starting a KM Program

Come join the conversation!

Explore the ILTA Time Machine!

Have you ever wished you could . . .

• revisit that amazing ILTA Conference you attended a few years back?
• see what ILTA was like in the early days (before it was called ILTA)?
• share your ILTA photos, stories, and memories and connect socially with other members, alumni and friends of ILTA?

Now you can with “The ILTA Time Machine” page on Facebook! This new page was created to put the “social” into social networking for the ILTA community –– a place to share your photos and videos and memories from past ILTA events and see what others have contributed. We’ve seeded the page with over 300 photos and 15 videos, so you’ll have something to read and comment on while you dig up your own ILTA photos to upload. This new Facebook page does not replace the existing “International Legal Technology Association” Facebook page, which –– along with ILTA’s website –– are the go-to places for current news and events in the ILTA community. This page is for fun in a way that is professional and, of course, respectful of others (we’ve turned off photo “tagging” on the page to do our part for privacy.)

To find The ILTA Time Machine, log in to your Facebook account (or create one if you’re new to Facebook), and do a search for “The ILTA Time Machine.” Once you’re there, “Like” the page to get status updates, start sharing, and don’t forget to tell a friend about The ILTA Time Machine!

Interact 2011

Fairmont Turnberry Isle, Miami, FL | May 15-18, 2011
Interact 2011, the legal and compliance technology forum, is a peer-driven conference designed for corporate counsel, chief risk and compliance officers and legal IT from leading organizations. Supported by the Association of Corporate Counsel, Council on Litigation Management, ILTA, OCEG, The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, and Inside Counsel, Interact 2011 delivers expert speakers, case study sessions, panel discussions, and CLE accredited courses. The conference provides practical strategies to optimize business practices, implement and improve risk and cost management strategies, and boost performance for legal and compliance departments.
For more information, and to register today for this unique opportunity to interact with the industry’s thought leaders in a forum that is educational for all participants, please visit http://www.mitratech.com/interact2011

Volunteer Job Bank

It’s no accident that ILTA makes mention of the term “volunteer” in so many different places. The spirit of volunteerism runs deep and wide within the association; in fact, ILTA was created by a group of volunteers, is led by volunteers, and still holds as its singular mission addressing the specific educational needs of its members through the voices of volunteer leadership. Looking to our core values, ILTA fosters, relies on and celebrates volunteers for their real-world experience and their value as a resource for colleagues.

Volunteerism takes on many forms and ranges from something as simple as sharing an idea in one of the community forums (the e-groups) to officer-level commitment of running one of the organization’s core programming delivery teams. The opportunities ILTA provides can deliver great benefits to both the individual volunteers as well as to their firms/organizations.

We continually seek committed, energetic individuals who have a passion for learning and peer-networking. To support our desire to seek out and encourage new volunteers, we have created a Volunteer Job Bank where we will post any open volunteer roles. Read more about the positions we are currently seeking here.

ILTA’s Distinguished Peer Awards

We are excited to announce ILTA’s 2011 Distinguished Peer Awards. This program allows you to recognize your peers who have delivered great business value and transformational impact through their innovations and implementations or have been champions in specific areas of focus for their organizations. Through a simple nomination process we encourage you to nominate either yourself, your peers or your organization, where appropriate.

Within our member community, the awards will recognize outstanding achievements in organizational and individual excellence involving areas of focus covered by ILTA’s peer groups. We’re introducing three new awards celebrating leadership, community activism and young professionals. Additionally, a City Representative and Region of the Year will be honored; and vendors and consultants will be recognized for superior achievements in thought leadership and innovation.

In addition to the award itself, presented at the awards dinner at ILTA 2011, our annual educational conference in August, winners will be featured on the ILTA website and in various ILTA publications.

See the complete list of awards and read more about the program here.

Compensation Survey Ramping Up

It’s been more than a decade since ILTA has undertaken a compensation survey, and we’re excited to announce that we’re launching the project in February. A team of ILTAns have been working behind the scenes to craft a survey tool that will deliver the most value to our members.

Surveys are always difficult undertakings, and a compensation survey is fraught with peril. We’ve taken a look at various models for the surveys, and we have decided to move forward with a self-reported model. That means that every individual in our membership database who meets the broad parameters that we’re surveying (employed by a law firm in the U.S.) will receive the form.

Self-reported compensation data can be dismissed on the basis that individuals tend to “inflate” their reported salaries and benefits, ostensibly to skew the numbers in their favor. We believe that the large response rate that we anticipate, the integrity of our responding members and the elimination of the outlying data from the averages and means for each demographic sector will mitigate many of those concerns.

The survey will be administered by a third-party researcher, and the data will be held in confidence by them. We intend to report based on firm size, geographic location (by region and, where possible, by metro area), education and experience levels.

You’ll see more about the survey soon, but we hope your appetite is whetted and you’ll be willing to participate in our short, easy-to-answer survey in the near term.