3 Geeks and a Law Blog

Sounds like a certain Mike Judge film to me. I won...

2010-09-02T15:42:00.859-05:00

Sounds like a certain Mike Judge film to me. I wonder if he (WL contractor) cleans and filets fish at his desk?

Those firms that haven't taken a serious look at k...

2010-09-02T10:19:03.455-05:00

Those firms that haven't taken a serious look at kiiacor similar products are going to find themselves at a serious disadvantage to those firms that do and use it for competitive advantage in getting work from clients that demand efficiency.

And that, of course, leads right into the question...

2010-09-02T09:48:27.649-05:00

And that, of course, leads right into the question of (a) how do you measure (b) the right things (c) accurately? The information that's trackable is rarely an exact match for the real indicia of success, but in a downturn there is pressure to show the numbers. So even if what you can track isn't the right measure, it's what's used to make decisions about what to keep and what to cut.

Document preparation is definitely an area ripe fo...

2010-09-02T09:36:53.202-05:00

Document preparation is definitely an area ripe for automation. What do you think is going to be the next legal work process to get 'efficiencied'?

To Anonymous: you'd think that, wouldn't you? But...

2010-09-02T09:15:40.562-05:00

To Anonymous: you'd think that, wouldn't you?

But sometimes there are other factors including 1)everyone else is doing it, 2) we want to have presence, 3) people may see us but choose not to visit.

In sum: brand awareness.

And it is very difficult to measure the impact of brand awareness. Look at Coca Cola or Lady Gaga, for example. You may be a Dr. Pepper fan that listens to acid rock but you sure are aware of both of these brands, right?

So sometimes there can be a real validity to executing in an online campaign that has immeasurable results.

But when tough times come along and cuts must be made, a higher scrutiny is demanded on these types of side benefits.

Bravo Michael White for telling it like it is. Th...

2010-09-02T08:49:42.593-05:00

Bravo Michael White for telling it like it is. That is the biggest elephant in the room.

In good times, we might buy in to the idea that th...

2010-09-02T08:40:39.027-05:00

In good times, we might buy in to the idea that there are 'intangible' benefits to these things. But, I agree with you that if it's not delivering, then get rid of it!

Lisa Salazar notes that "if a product is not driv...

2010-09-02T06:47:17.804-05:00

Lisa Salazar notes that "if a product is not driving traffic to the site I am going to want to cut it." But I have to wonder why anyone would continue to use something even in good times if it's not delivering. That's a no-brainer.

Don't forget that through the first 6 months of th...

2010-09-01T22:52:16.027-05:00

Don't forget that through the first 6 months of this year, Thomson Reuters let go of 140+ employees through voluntary separation packages, which was quickly followed by the eradication of 125 jobs from the Legal Editorial business area- that is 265+ from under one umbrella.

And mr. anonymous- downplaying the type of jobs lost is hardly where the real story is. You would do well to consider how media friendly (in terms of total number of jobs lost at one time) these job losses are. These are good people who were let go and I hope the execs at Thomson burn in hell.

I knew one once... But he doesn't blog any more......

2010-09-01T19:59:42.112-05:00

I knew one once... But he doesn't blog any more...

what blogger isn't looking for attention?

2010-09-01T18:51:19.040-05:00

what blogger isn't looking for attention?

Thanks Mr. Anonymous. If you read the links to th...

2010-09-01T17:22:27.938-05:00

Thanks Mr. Anonymous. If you read the links to the previous press releases to the Philippines move, you'll see what I'm talking about with the move of more high-level jobs to the Philippine office, and how comfortable the brass at TR talks about using overseas labor to do more of the high level work.

If you think that editor jobs are only going to be in the US, then I believe you're going to be sorely disappointed. They may say the final product isn't edited overseas, but most of the preliminary editing might be. Just my view of the crystal ball of legal publishing... I could be mistaken.

It's someone definitely looking for attention, so ...

2010-09-01T17:14:01.629-05:00

It's someone definitely looking for attention, so possibly a former contract employee. Or someone who knows one.

I think you either misread the article or overstat...

2010-09-01T17:06:59.489-05:00

I think you either misread the article or overstated the impact to spice up your post. The news article does not mention "skilled legal editor jobs." It says most of the jobs are "workers who key, merge, code and load data, and quality assurance testers." In other words, they're loading and testing the online data--clerical and technical types, not legal editors. You may still decry the move, but please be honest about it.

Having spent about a year as a WL contractor, that...

2010-09-01T12:26:54.171-05:00

Having spent about a year as a WL contractor, that can't be fake. WL treats contractors like crap and they pay even worse. And the way he/she describes the campus is too spot-on. I have a friend in Findlaw and she says the people he describes are actual people there.

I know what you mean... It does seem a little "too...

2010-09-01T11:26:05.114-05:00

I know what you mean... It does seem a little "too good to be true" (or actually whatever the opposite of that saying is!)

This is so bad I almost wonder if it's a fake. Sur...

2010-09-01T11:23:26.436-05:00

This is so bad I almost wonder if it's a fake. Surely someone wouldn't be so stupid as to put "WESTLAW" and "FINDLAW" in easily findable blog posts about their job and goofing off at said job, would they?

Thanks Greg, I hadn't seen this search mashup befo...

2010-09-01T09:35:51.691-05:00

Thanks Greg, I hadn't seen this search mashup before. I does return some interesting results. Searching for glambert returns a lot of hits for Adam Lambert. Not what I was looking for, but interesting.

Woot!

2010-08-31T22:00:16.500-05:00

Woot!

Thanks Ayelette! I'm so glad there was so much to ...

2010-08-31T14:03:55.549-05:00

Thanks Ayelette! I'm so glad there was so much to tweet about! It was great to see all of the collaborative efforts of everyone! Thanks for sharing my blog and all the tweets!

Natalie Huha aka @legalerswelcome

Thanks for sharing your 'to do' list with us, Ayel...

2010-08-31T08:34:08.835-05:00

Thanks for sharing your 'to do' list with us, Ayelette.

I've found that using social media to follow some of the speakers/peers (#9) at these conferences really helps maintain my energy levels throughout the year. When you meet people with great ideas, and then you continue to see them share their ideas via Twitter, LinkedIn or Blogging, I find it helps remind me of things I want to try, gives me the motivation to keep pushing toward implementing the project, and (most importantly) it gives me an easy communication tool to stay in touch with the folks I meet. Perhaps the greatest use is that I get to hit them up for some help when I run into problems!!
Thanks for the tips!

Try this search engine for webinar: http://peelon....

2010-08-30T11:23:17.925-05:00

Try this search engine for webinar: http://peelon.com/

First off, thanks for the Dollyrots link Greg. Pun...

2010-08-28T22:12:15.834-05:00

First off, thanks for the Dollyrots link Greg. Punk is not my favorite genre, but love female fronted bands.

As to the meat of the article this does give a lot of food for thought, and meshes well with what I have been hearing in recent discussions with people at the firm. I have been asked quite often recently how we can be more automated in delivering content to the attorneys, perhaps this is a good direction to work from.

This will be an interesting one to watch. Thank...

2010-08-27T00:16:55.402-05:00

This will be an interesting one to watch.

Thank Toby.

Would that really be a bad thing? This actually to...

2010-08-26T06:06:58.881-05:00

Would that really be a bad thing? This actually touches on next week's Elephant Post where we ask if the downturn in the economy finally gave firms the incentive (AKA kick in the pants) we needed to get rid of people and processes that were unnecessary.