David Baker Retires

It was announced today that David Baker (of the Baker Robbins brand) is to retire after 30 years in the industry.

For those of you who did not have the privillege to work with David as a client, or for him as a member of the Baker Robbins team, you will still no doubt know that his thought leadership, vision, innovation, and his creation of the independent trusted advisor relationship has helped to shape the international law firm technology consulting landscape as we know it today.

We look back fondly on our time at Baker Robbins, thank David for his influence, mentoring and guidance over the years, and wish him and his family all the very best as he embarks on his latest adventure.

Will Google Soon Own Law?

Janders Dean quoted recently in Lawyers Weekly regarding our opinion on the emergence of Google as a potential player in the legal publishing space. Comments and debate to this vision always welcome. Full article here.

Interesting Electronic Discovery Session

Jim Vint (Managing Director at FTI), Nick Childs (also with FTI in London), and Vivian Tero (Program Manager of IDC's Compliance Infrastructure Service) will be speaking at an upcoming webinar on the 19th of November regarding the use of financial, transaction and operational databases in e-disclosure.

This is a relatively new topic and one that is rapidly gaining momentum in the UK and Europe - FTI share that "while email has grabbed most of the headlines, structured data comprises the majority of information required for e-disclosure in legal and regulatory matters".

Further details and registration can be completed here. From previous discussions and case studies, this may indeed be worth a listen.

ESI Trends Report

Kroll Ontrack Inc have released their 3rd Annual ESI Trends Report which makes for interesting reading.

Based on surveys undertaken across in-house counsel from both the US and UK, the major highlight of this year's report is the large chasm between the existence of corporate document retention and ESI discovery readiness policies.

Within the report, Kroll states that "While most organisations have a document retention policy, a much smaller number have an ESI discovery readiness strategy. This disparity suggests a failure to appreciate the difference between the two procedures as well as a false sense of security that the existence of a document
retention policy is comprehensive enough to protect an organization when litigation and/or regulation strikes."

The report has 15 high level findings (and yes, also contains some product and services sales talk from Kroll) which should cause alarm - even if the "fear, uncertainty and doubt" method of sales is stripped out of the equation.

In relation to document retention, the survey findings includes statistics such as 87% of US companies have a document retention policy, compared to 80% in the UK. In the US, IT professionals are most aware of their policy (88%); in the UK it is in-house legal advisers (83%).

Perhaps more frightening, when discussing ESI discovery approaches, the survey statistics are as follows. Only 46% of US and 41% of UK companies have a policy specific to ESI discovery readiness. A further 24% of companies in the US and 30% of companies in the UK do not know whether they have an ESI discovery readiness strategy or not.

Awareness of ESI discovery readiness policies is higher among IT professionals (51% in the US, 45% in the UK) than in-house legal advisers (39% in the US, 37% in the UK).

When it comes to Legal Hold, the statistics are even more alarming. Only 57% of US companies and 39% of UK companies report they have a mechanism in place to suspend their document retention policy. 21% of US companies and 24% of UK companies do not have a policy in place to suspend their document retention policy, and a further 22% of US companies and 37% of UK companies do not even know whether or not they have a policy in place! Ouch....

The full report can be accessed here.

Time Recording - "There's an app for that"

For those who are looking for basic web based time recording without the heavy lifting or advance features that come with purpose built practice or matter management applications, check out this tool from United Planet

Although not specifically designed with MS SharePoint in mind, it seems perfect for the small firm, the in-house counsel team, or those experimenting with MS SharePoint's future use.

Add this to what comes out of the box with MS SharePoint, the Colligo integration with MS Outlook, and other features in 2010 and you have an interesting little sandpit to play in...

Microsoft In Autonomy Takeover Rumour

This piece came out around four days ago here concerning rumours that Microsoft could be ready to make a bid for Autonomy at around 2,800p a share. This would value Autonomy at approximately £6.7 billion (75% above its current share price of 1,513p a share and with a market capitalisation of £3.9 billion). Autonomy's share price jumped between 3.5% and 5% in value on Friday morning trading after Reuters reported the news here.

Reuters also reported that both Microsoft and Autonomy were not immediately available for comment. Further analysis here from the Guardian.

The impact of such a move would be massive not just for Microsoft and Autonomy, but also obviously for the iManage product's future and the law firm Document Management space?

Stand by for more.

Friday Cocktail Leadership - Monkeys & Squirrels

Yep...it has been a long long time. Have you missed the Friday Cocktail Leadership postings from your dear old pals at JD? You have? You really have? Awww, that is swell....well we've missed posting them too!

With prompting from Simon and others, we're back to give you an escape from work on Friday with mindless drivel. Speaking of Simon, did you know that the flying monkey's name in the Wizard of Oz (Pricey's favourite film...) is Nikko?

Don't know how it happened, but this week's posting is all about monkeys and squirrels (not the secret kind though).

This week we say a Drunken Monkey hello to Barr, Jabba, Correll, Alpha Bob and Pricey for last week's catch up. We also say a great big Art Club hello to Daffyd, the Swede and Peggy, and "budem zdorovy" to the Russian Princess. Also thanks for breakfast to Jerome, Jim, Don and Rajitha - too much coffee for Janders for a Friday morning. Thanks to Mel for the G+T, and to CC for the hilarity of this week's ranting....and it is Bleasdale's birthday. Happy Birthday Champ.

The word for today is 'grangerize'....why not. Our book of the day is "Monkey Business", although we're not reading it, we're just watching "sparkles" read it.

That's it for today kids - nothing much else to leave you with except to say "riddle me ree" and what a cheeky squirrel this is!

Oh...by the way...we hope that you are aware that the Innocent Big Knit is back on for 2009.

We're getting our needles clicking - are you?