KEY TAKEAWAYS: Nimble Forum – Legal Innovation

On April 3, 2019, we held our first Nimble Forum on Legal Innovation. We brought in panelists from Denver, New York City, Washington, D.C, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Raleigh. and also showcased some of Cleveland’s finest legal industry experts.

Our agenda:

1. Approaches to Legal Innvoation

2. Keynote: Blockchain Briefing from the Global Legal Blockchain Consotrium

3. Blockchain Panel Discussion

4. Legal Technology Trends

5. Legal Technology Roundtable

Here are some of the Key Takeaways from our Panelists:

Approaches to Legal Innovation

• Dave Cupar, Partner at McDonald Hopkins

  • Innovation is not limited to technology

  • Innovation must be a collaborative effort within an organization

  • To be innovative, your organization has to have a process for receiving, evaluating and implementing ideas

• Jessica McKinney, Legal Operations, Eaton

  • Eaton legal is constantly evolving to position ourselves best in class in technology  

  • We work with our strategic outside counsel to identify impactful technologies that will improve the processes Jeff

  • We are empowered and challenged to find opportunities, technological and other, to improve efficiencies and deliver better results

• Jeff Miller, Partner at Brennan, Manna & Diamond

  • Ruthless focus on the priorities of the clients.  We all may think it’s the best idea in the world, but if clients don’t have an immediate and genuine need/pain, then it’s not an innovation initiative for the firm

  • Launch of www.BMDGateway.com version 2.0, our training, compliance, and document management system designed to protect companies and minimize exposure to litigation

  • Mining and using data to set budgets and predict pricing

  • Partnering with clients on their projects (i.e., developed tax hotline services for a client’s insurance product; developed network of service providers for micro hospitals and specialty surgery centers, etc.)

• Stacey Greenwell, Associate General Counsel at Davey Tree

  • One size does not fit all.  What works for one, may not work for others.  So it is important that our team is open to change and constantly evolving and that our outside vendors recognize the differences among the organizations they serve.

• Bill Garcia, Chief Practice Innovation Officer at Thompson Hine

  • It’s all about change management.  Without thoughtful change management, it doesn’t matter how good the innovation is, the initiative will flounder.

  • Describing Innovation at Thompson Hine

    • Data driven approach to service delivery

    • Business rules to drive adherence

    • Organizational commitment to innovation

Keynote: Blockchain Briefing

• David Fisher, CEO Integraledger, Founder of the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium

  • Blockchain is peer to peer trust via distributed ledgers

  • For the legal industry Blockchain can be used to maintain integrity of and trust of legal data

  • The Global Legal Blockchain Consortium is coordinating the development of a new, global, legal technology ecosystem for intrinsic data integrity, data reconciliation, data security, data privacy, interoperability, and productivity

  • Data identity which proves the existence of documents is a key use case for Blockchain – replacing the need for costly software integration – resulting in an automated, interoperable legal data ecosystem

Blockchain Panel

• Kirsten Albers-Fiedler. OpenLaw

  • Using smart contracts to self-execute contractual provisions can revolutionize how contracts are created and managed

  • OpenLaw is providing tools to automate natural language and create legally enforceable “smart” legal agreements

  • The protocol aims to reduce the cost of transactional work and increase access to legal services

• Micah Marcus, Partner at McDonald Hopkins

  • Blockchain law is still evolving – beware of so-called experts

  • If a TGE or ICO (Initial Coin Offering) walks, talks and sounds like a securities transaction, it is likely subject to securities law

• Jeffrey Stern

  • Recommends reading these resources to get a better understanding of Blockchain https://a16z.com/2018/02/10/crypto-readings-resources/

Legal Technology Trends

• Jeff Barlow, Co-Founder at Nimble

  • Legal Tech

    • Investment in Legal Tech hit $1 Billion in 2018

    • The Cloud isn’t so scary to lawyers anymore

    • Artificial Intelligence continues to grow

    • States are beginning to mandate that their lawyers get continuing education in technology

  • Legal Tech Selection Tips

    • Current State

      ◦How is the work done now?

      ◦What are the pain points?

    • Functionality

      ◦Must Haves

    • Integration

      ◦Other systems it must work with

    • Users & Security

    • Implementation

    • Support

Legal Technology Round Robin