ILTA Voices

There has been a great deal written on change management in a corporate setting.  Law firm management structures (as opposed to traditional corporate pyramid structures) add additional challenges to implementing change.  How can change management strategies be adopted to suit the management structure of law firms? Moderator: @Sachin Gupta - Knowledge Management Attorney, Latham & Watkins LLP Speakers: @Erika Barber - Learning Strategist, Traveling Coaches @Kathleen Hogan - Senior Director, Knowledge and Data Insights, McCarthy Tétrault LLP  Questions the moderator will ask the speakers: -What are some common change management frameworks that apply to organizations in general? -What are some challenges unique to a law firm environment that can make those approaches more difficult to implement? -Among law firms themselves, what are some aspects of law firm culture that can impact the ability to implement change, either positively or negatively? -What role, if any, do clients play in impacting the drive for change within a law firm? -Are the certain periods that are more ripe for change to take place, such as when billables are lower or a time of technological advancement? -Can you each leave us with a micro strategy (that an individual can implement) and a macro strategy? Recorded on 11-01-2023.

In this podcast interview, the moderator talked with speakers who have both recently transitioned careers within the same firm. They will discuss how has their experience prepared them, why did they chose to stay within firm, what has been the overall key differences in the new role, challenges and successes experienced and more.  Questions the moderator asked the speakers: -Tell us a little about your previous role(s) and what you do now -What are some of the key differences between your previous role(s) and current role? -What have been some of the biggest challenges that you have faced in making the transition? -What are some of the biggest factors in your success? -Do you have any advice for others looking to pivot? Moderator:  @Harriet Joubert-Vaklyes - Senior Project Manager, Legal Operations, CBRE Speakers:   @Tanya Pereira - Business Transformation Specialist, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP          @Martina Udovicic - Account Manager, Legal Operations, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Recorded on 10-26-2023

In this podcast interview, the speakers had an important discussion about how to best successfully communicate a need for rest and recovery during burnout to leadership. Questions the moderator asked the speakers: -What are some best practices for legal professionals to recognize and identify burnout in themselves or their colleagues before it becomes a major issue? -Communication can be challenging when dealing with sensitive topics like burnout. Could you share some effective strategies for initiating a conversation about burnout with firm leadership? -Many legal professionals worry about the repercussions of discussing burnout.  How can they navigate their conversation without jeopardizing their professional growth? -Can you highlight some success stories or examples where effective communication about burnout led to a positive change within a law firm? -Are there any specific tools or resources that legal professionals can utilize when discussing burnout with leadership, such as data, surveys, or industry benchmarks? Moderator: @Tanya Pereira - Business Transformation Specialist, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP Speakers: @Adam Wehler - Director of Practice Support, Robinson Bradshaw @Julie Wilson - Legal Resources & Innovation Lawyer, Gowling WLG   Recorded on 10-25-2023

In this podcast panel session, the speakers will discuss the challenges of the continuous and increasingly more frequent update cycles of 3rd party software. How can IT keep up with all the changes across the environment and what strategies can be employed to better manage this crucial aspect of living in the cloud. Questions the moderator will ask the speakers: -How do you balance the need for security patches with the potential disruption that updates can cause to ongoing operations? -How do you ensure compliance with industry regulations when 3rd party software is continuously updating? -What role do DevOps and CI/CD pipelines play in managing the frequent update cycles of 3rd party software in a cloud environment? -How do you prioritize which 3rd party software updates to implement immediately versus those that can wait, especially when dealing with a large and complex IT environment? -Can you discuss any real-world cases where a failure to update 3rd party software led to significant issues, and how those could have been avoided? Moderator: @Christopher Hockey, IGP - Information Governance & Records Management Expert Speakers: @Kathy Elsbey - Applications Manager, Bond, Schoeneck and King @Ben Radcliff, Senior Director of Manager Services, Optiv Recorded on 10-25-2023.

We often think of Practice Management in the context of managing a large legal practice. But how does it actually apply to a startup? What principles apply to the first days and years of a firm with just a few partners? Where do they start? And/or what do they wish they would have paid attention to first if things didn't go smoothly? Questions the moderator will ask the speaker: -Tell us a little about you and your firm. -What made you decide to leave your prior job and when did you know it was time to break out on your own? -What resources did you take for granted at your prior firm?  -What has been the most eye-opening part of the transition from practicing attorney to manager of your own firm?   -What technology are you using for case management software?  -How are you structuring the firm to meet your management needs and how is that integrating? -What advice would you give someone contemplating making the same change? Moderator: @Kristin Rhodes - Senior Practice Manager, Paul Hastings LLP Speaker: @Philip Andonian - Member, CalebAndonian PLLC Recorded on 10-24-2023.

In this podcast session, the speaker will discuss practical guidelines for the retention of informal means of (evidence collection) communications sent via text (such as, Short Message Service (SMS)) and messaging apps (such as, WhatsApp iMessage, and GroupMe). Questions the moderator will ask the speaker: -What are some considerations that need to be made when setting a retention policy or responding to a litigation hold from the technology side? -What are some challenges that people might not expect from extracting text messages or messages from a source that isn’t their computer? -What are some applications or places in a network or computer that people might not think about but would likely have a lot of that data that would be asked for? -What’s a good way to handle privileged materials that may be in those formats or apps? -What are just some simple best practices in communication data retention? Moderator: @ Andrea Shirey - eDiscovery Expert, Bayer US LLC Speaker: @George Socha - Senior Vice President of Brand Awareness at Reveal Recorded on 10-19-2023.

In this session, the speaker discussed what are the differences between lit support and DSARs, the priorities for which DSAR work. In addition, they covered suggested processes, tips and tricks.   Questions the moderator asked the speaker:  •        What is it about DSARs that makes them so tricky to respond to? •        What sort of approaches to the DSAR problem approaches have you seen organizations try to take? Do these work? (For example, printing and redacting hard copy, hiring dedicated teams) •        Why is eDiscovery technology is good solution for DSAR responses? (for example, searching, redacting, auditing, collaboration across teams) •        Is there a difference between using this technology for discovery and for DSARs? (For example, the way the review is structured, how the vendor needs to be instructed, use of different types of tools in the platform) •        Can you share some case studies about using eDiscovery technology to complete a DSAR / specific tasks within a DSAR response which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise? Moderator: @Rachel McAdams - Senior Consultant, Sky Discovery Speaker: @Laura Herangi - Partner, Commercial Litigation, Mason Hayes & Curran LLP   Recorded on 10-19-2023

Speakers discuss the use of APIs to enhance litigation experience data, determining appropriate criteria and avoiding pitfalls, justifying investment in APIs and the importance of flexibility, and challenges in API implementation.

In this podcast interview, the speaker will discuss the differences between doing forensics in the cloud and doing forensics on on-premises servers and hosts. In addition, the speaker will provide a key introduction to the overall tools and techniques utilized and lessons learned.    Questions the moderator will ask the speaker: -What does it mean to perform computer forensics in the cloud?  How does this differ from performing computer forensics on computers and servers that are physically located within your environment? -What are the challenges of the data being volatile in a cloud environment?  How do you address these challenges? -How do you validate a Cloud based collection, to ensure it completed successfully and is forensically sound? -What are some commercially available tools that are useful when performing forensics in a cloud environment? -How do you perform cloud computer forensics so that the evidence has the best chance of overcoming challenges to it being admissible at trial? Moderator: @Corey Reitz - Distinguished Cyber Assurance Architect, Sandia National Laboratories  Speaker: @David Greetham - Principal, PC Forensics - Level Legal Recorded on 10-17-2023

In this podcast interview, the speaker will highlight in-depth what are the risks in the use of ChatGPT for corporations.   Questions the moderator will ask the speaker: -We are hearing a lot about Generative AI and AI assistants like ChatGPT. Is this another hype as Blockchain and Metaverse? -If it is something that will stay. What is the probable impact on the legal world? -A lot of people and companies are concerned about data privacy. What is true and what is false in this theme? -How do we use that? I see that some lawyers in the US had issues using that in the wrong way. -How do we get updated about this technology? Moderator: @Marcelo Cardoso - Legal Ops Supervisor, Mercado Livre Speaker: @Leonardo Toco - Founder and CEO at GPTLAW - a LegalTech focused on GenAI  Recorded on 10-12-2023