ILTA Voices
Episodes
Thursday Aug 17, 2023
Doing the Right IT Projects… Then Doing IT Projects Right
Thursday Aug 17, 2023
Thursday Aug 17, 2023
“Doing the Right IT Projects” sounds simple. It should be how you to start your project lifecycle and quality methodology: Setting criteria for how IT projects are selected, prioritized and planned, and how the appropriate level of project management, quality assurance and resources are assigned.
There are buckets/workstreams for large/complex IT projects and for simple projects that need only project and testing checklists. Once the right projects are in the queue, then you move on to “Doing IT Projects Right”, the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, transition to operate and maintain, and of course, adoption.
IT is then supporting business service demands and strategic goals across all IT projects in the organization. This podcast session provides a takeaway in the form of a framework for anyone who is responsible for how technologies are implemented or has to manage IT projects, or really manage any projects in a legal organization.
Moderator:@Mark Manoukian - IT Director, Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter
Speakers:@TJ Johnson - AVP, Legal Sector Strategist · Qualitest@Parita Kanevskiy - Leader of Project Management Office (PMO), Eversheds Sutherland
Recorded on 08-17-2023
Friday Oct 07, 2022
Friday Oct 07, 2022
This podcast consists of an interview with Melissa Prince on how Ballard created and implemented a staffing (“workforce allocation” or “availability projection”) tool. We also discussed the impetus for the creation of the platform, the obstacles Melissa faced, and how she has driven engagement with associates and partners.Questions Kristin asked Melissa:1. Can you provide a little background about your role at the firm and your practice management department? Who handles staffing?2. First, what did you identify as gaps in the staffing process that led to the development of your tool?3. At the outset, who were your champions and where were your obstacles?4. How did you decide to build something in-house as opposed to going to a third party vendor?5. What are the primary features of your tool and what aspects are you still looking to build out?6. Who references and utilizes the reports?7. How are you continuing to drive engagement with the tool? Any ongoing challenges?Moderator:@Kristin Rhodes - Senior Practice Manager, Paul Hastings LLP
Speaker:@Melissa Prince - Chief Client Value and Innovation Officer, Ballard SpahrRecorded on 10-07-2022
Monday Dec 20, 2021
The Art and Craft of Building an Effective Business Case - Getting Started
Monday Dec 20, 2021
Monday Dec 20, 2021
Extensive and unexpected technology expenditures in the past year have motivated C-Level and Director level executives to reexamine and refine justifications for new products and projects. This podcast session will highlight practical tips for the effective creation of a business case.
Questions Glenn will ask Kate:
· Kate, you were pretty excited when we first spoke about this potential topic. Tell us a bit about yourself and your experience and how it relates to the art and craft of building effective business cases.
· “Business Case” is a term of art that can mean different things to different people and in different contexts so let’s start there. What is a “business case”… or more specifically, what is “an effective business case?”
· Based on your experience, where do you recommend people start? What topic or element should they focus on first?
· Once the business goals and objectives are clearly defined, what comes next? What are the other elements that we should think about including?
· This seems like a LOT of information to wade through. How do you balance that against the probability that the C-Level or senior decision maker may not have the time and energy to comb through all these details?
· You described the business case as an “investment in the future success of the project”. What did you mean by that? How does the business case come into play after you get the green light to move the project/purchase forward?
Moderator:@Glenn Hoxie - Senior Project Manager, Practice Innovation and Legal Solutions, Paul Hastings LLP
Speaker:@Kate Cain - Senior Director of Knowledge & Innovation Delivery, Fenwick & West LLPRecorded on 12-20-2021
Friday Aug 06, 2021
Maximize Fixed-Free Arrangements with AI, Analytics and Automation
Friday Aug 06, 2021
Friday Aug 06, 2021
Many junior and mid-level associates are beginning to realize that the billable model is moving towards fixed-fee arrangements. This is becoming especially true during the pandemic, where everyone is looking to cut costs. In this podcast session, we will learn more about how to handle transactions using less lawyer time (through AI or other methods)Moderator:@Brian P. Morris - IT Business Relationship Manager, Holland & Knight LLP
Speaker:@Tobin Brown - Chief Practice Management Officer, Perkins Coie
Recorded on 08-06-2021
Friday Jul 23, 2021
Friday Jul 23, 2021
The continued growth of law firms, and the increasing transience of their attorneys, have created many new risks for firms to account for regarding conflicts of interest management. Increasingly, large international Firms have transitioned to a centralized approach for conflicts clearance, utilizing non fee-earning professionals for this function.
Despite this, challenges remain - particularly stemming from increasingly restrictive conflicts language within Outside Counsel Guidelines as well as recent US case law. In this podcast session, the speaker will focus on discussing the unique conflicts challenges faced by US firms with international presence and various approaches to these challenges; how technology and centralization are the key to meeting these challenges; and whether changes to the conflicts rules are needed in order to "modernize" and account for the breadth of today's international law firm and technological advances.Moderator:@Tracey Pardo - IS Process Improvement Analyst, Cooley LLP
Speaker:@Mark Agin - Senior Manager of Global New Business Intake and Information Management, Shearman & Sterling LLPRecorded on 07-23-2021
Friday May 14, 2021
You Are Already Using Workflows, You Just Don’t Know It Yet
Friday May 14, 2021
Friday May 14, 2021
The majority of decision and approval based work are manual workflows. In this brief yet definitive podcast, the speaker will give an in-depth review of identifying processes for workflows, gathering requirements and effectively increasing user adoption. Furthermore, we will touch on the importance of gathering data and organizing it to develop distinct Business Intelligence for productivity and data driven decisions.
Moderator:@Jack Recinto, Senior Applications Director, Vedder Price P.C.Speaker:@Harriet Joubert-Vaklyes, Innovation Project Manager, Greenberg TraurigRecorded on 5-14-2021
Monday Mar 20, 2017
A Discussion on Advancing Legal Project Management
Monday Mar 20, 2017
Monday Mar 20, 2017
Description: What is all the talk about legal project management? This discussion, Q&A style, dives in to the ins and outs of project management (PM) and legal project management(LPM) from the beginning phase of looking to implement it in your business or law firm. Why is legal project management important for every organization to take stock in and implement to increase productivity? How can LPM help you and your business become more efficient in your daily workflows and produce greater work product?
Speakers:Jinni Zieleniewski is a Litigation Support Specialist with the ediscovery andlitigation support group at KMK. Her responsibilities include managing discovery evidence throughout the litigation life cycle, providing electronic document review management and designing and generating electronic document production deliverables in a cost-effective and value-added manner. A member of the information technology group working exclusively in litigation and the ediscovery task force, Jinni bridges the gap between counsel and IT by helping litigation attorneys educate clients about proactive, compliant and cost-effective ediscovery.
Michael T. Clear is a Partner at Wiggin and Dana LLP, where his practice is focused on estate planning, estate and trust administration, probate litigation and business succession planning. Michael serves on the firm's client service delivery task force, which is leading the implementation of legal project management at the firm. He is a co-chair of the Probate and Estates Section of the Fairfield County Bar Association and is a member of the board of directors of the Connecticut Chapter of the Exit Planning Exchange (CT XPX).
Recorded on 1-10-17