Alternative Billing Trends - Janders Dean & Phoenix Business Solutions Exclusive Event

"The best session I've ever been to on this topic. Well done to the team" (Chief Financial Officer, Top 10 Australian Law Firm)

We want to extend our sincere thanks to all who braved Tuesday’s rain in Sydney to attend our breakfast briefing on Alternative Billing Trends. We had a full house on the day, and the rain was soon forgotten as the excellent coffees and breakfast by Becasse started to warm the morning chill.

The event was a great success due to the combination of an excellent panel (Bill Leonida from Westpac, Tim Gole from Gilbert+Tobin and Telstra representatives), the open participation of all who attended, and the informal nature of the session which led to the valuable exchange of ideas and experiences on Alternative Billing in Australian law firms.

"Great event. We could have spent another hour covering this. This session was excellent which was to be expected." (Senior Operations Manager, Top 20 UK Law Firm)

Our attendees included partners, CFOs and CEOs from firms including Freehills, Blake Dawson, Minter Ellison, Clayton Utz, Corrs, DLA Phillips Fox, Sparke Helmore, Baker McKenzie, Allens Arthur Robinson, Gilbert+Tobin, Norton Rose, Allen & Overy, Hall & Wilcox, Maurice Blackburn, Moray Agnew, Maddocks and others. The feedback from attendees so far has been great, and we're glad that the session was so well received.

Thanks also to the Phoenix Business Solutions team for their involvement in the session and subsequent "off agenda" discussions that have followed in the past few days.

We will hopefully be sending a debrief note to the group covering off some of the topics and discussion points in the coming week or two to all attendees - the most common topic being "it is all about the relationship, with concerns over the six minute unit not actually necessarily being that high on our minds".

We will also let you know of any additional coverage from this event (keep your eyes on Lawyers Weekly and The Financial Review) or future events that are scheduled in Sydney if you would like to be involved in these.

Again, please accept our thanks for your participation and involvement. It was great to see so many old friends and to also meet some new ones. As always, please feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions or comments.

Legal Issues Around Twitter

Great thoughts and links from the gang at Recommind on the legal issues around Twitter.

Taken from their recent posting, "The Library of Congress recently announced they are archiving every single tweet ever posted on Twitter. Suddenly the post and comments we make have become set in stone, to be forever logged into the public record. It makes you wonder, if the information held in social networking sites is so important that it is being added into the history books of the United States, how long until it becomes important to the legal system? When does it become discoverable information in a case?"

As Neil says, "Companies are waking up to the reality of social media and the need to put a corporate policy in place."

For those who are interested in future thinking in this space, Denise Backhouse, Associate at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Craig Carpenter, General Counsel at Recommind will be presenting a webinar on this topic on Wednesday, May 5, 2010.

The webinar is titled “Tweet This: How Social Media Could Land Companies in Hot Water” and is being hosted by Inside Counsel Magazine. Full details on the session can be found here.

Big Firm - Big Announcement

Get ready for the wave of press and associated comments to come out relating to a major Australian firm signing up for a new Practice Management System. Great to see that the market is heating up again. No spoilers available, so you'll just have to wait until it is all official.

The Lawyer Awards - Shortlist Announced Today

The UK's Lawyer Magazine today announced the shortlisted firms and corporate in-house teams for the 2010 Lawyer Awards to be held on June 22nd 2010. The list can be found here. Congratulations to all those who have made the cut, including the team at BAE Systems. See you all in June dressed to the nines.

IntApp Snares Allen & Overy

Recent press release from IntApp which may interest some states today that "IntApp, Inc., the leading provider of risk management software for the legal industry, today announced that Allen & Overy, an international legal practice with approximately 2,700 lawyers and 5,000 total staff working in 34 major centres worldwide, has selected IntApp Wall Builder to enforce confidentiality policies and track compliance across the firm.

Wall Builder is a web-based confidentiality management application that enables organisations to centrally control, monitor and report on user access permissions across multiple applications including document management, accounting, portal, CRM, time entry and records management systems. It also automates notifications to individuals subject to specific policies and tracks acknowledgments for compliance purposes."

Full release here.

Legal IT Leaders Think Tank - London (18-19th May 2010)

The Legal IT Leaders Think-Tank is coming to London. This is an excellent opportunity for leading legal IT executives who share common goals to make a positive impact on their organisation through technology; to congregate in a congenial environment to learn, share and discuss current issues amongst peers.

The event will be an opportunity to hear from leading thinkers and innovators of technology and strategy who will discuss ways to manoeuvre beyond short–term tactical needs to long-term strategic goals. It will be a unique and rewarding way to learn valuable lessons, to share advice you can use, and foster peer relationships for the future.

Topics will include the following:

* Future Technologies And Future Risks Facing The Firm: What’s Over The Horizon?

* Electronic Discovery – Developments From The UK & USA

* CIO – Collaboration, Innovation, Opportunity- A Discussion

* 2010 And Beyond: Exploring Sharepoint 2010

* Why Law Firms Need An Information Systems Strategy

* Legal Technology & The New Normal

* Cloud Computing – What Does This Mean For Law Firms

* Legal Process Outsourcing –Models And Implications

* Knowledge Management In The 21st Century

* Mobile Computing –Security And Other Issues

* The Use Of Web 2.0 In Law Firms?

The full brochure for this event can be found here. LegalIT Professionals has five guest passes that you may wish to chase here. These guys know how to put a conference on, so we at Janders Dean strongly recommend getting along to this one if you can.