This blog may seem somewhat eclectic, but if you step back you can see that we focus on the administrative side of today’s large law firm environment, plus Toby and Casey write regularly about in-house and the corporate sector. Whether it is how we market, set pricing, gather and disperse information, or simply the subtle changes in how you manage the complex administrative functions of a law firm, we try to cover it. We have one simple rule among the three of us, and the many regular guest bloggers that contribute to 3 Geeks: Write about what interests you… if the topic is of interest to you, then it is probably interesting to others.
Speaking of guest bloggers. We get A LOT of requests from vendors (and what we would consider SPAMMERS) offering to write guest blogs on some topic that essentially attempts to sell their products, or on topics unrelated to the topics we cover on this blog. We are also asked about “sponsored” blog posts, which we do not do. Needless to say, we do not respond to those requests. If, on the other hand, you work in the large law firm industry, and you have something drafted that you think is interesting and fits the “feel” of 3 Geeks, by all means, contact me and we can talk. If it fits the feel of the blog, then we’d love to have you guest blog.
Who are the 3 Geeks?
Toby Brown
Toby has a great combination of executive level skills in the areas of technology, law, economics and non-profit organizations. The former director of the Utah State Bar and now knowledge management/biz dev/alternative fees guy at a top 50 AmLaw law firm, he is taking no prisoners. Toby loves to lead us to the edge and dare us to jump. With strong marketing and technical knowledge and management experience, he is at the forefront of developing legal alternative fees. An accomplished speaker, Toby is renowned in the areas of legal management, marketing and technology topics.
Greg Lambert
Librarian-Lawyer-Knowledge Management-Competitive Analysis-Computer Programmer…. Greg’s taken the Renaissance Man approach to working in the legal industry. His Modus Operandi is to look at unrelated items and create a process that can tie those items together. The overall goal is to make the resulting information better than the individual parts that make it up. Right now, he’s a librarian at an AmLaw 50 library and records department, but has expanded his capabilities across several departments to create fantastic new products that help coordinate information between the library, records, KM, marketing, client growth and the rest of the partnership. He’s even gotten an award along the way from AALL and Thomson Reuters for best use of technology. A frequent speaker at library conferences around the country, companies are now calling on him to review their products before they hit the legal marketplace. Greg also co-hosts The Geek In Review Podcast portion of 3 Geeks. Along with co-host Marlene Gebauer, they dive into the issues of legal information professionals, with a slant toward the technologies and leadership skills needed in today’s legal industry.
Marlene Gebauer
Marlene is Assistant Director of Innovation (Americas) at Mayer Brown — and the co-host of The Geek in Review Podcast. Marlene is always on the bleeding edge of technology advancements within legal information, KM, and overall process improvement issues in the legal field. She is the 2019 Private Law Librarians and Information Professionals winner of blogger of the year for her work on The Geek in Review.
Sophia Lisa Salazar, Esq. (original Geek)
Internet Marketing Manager for one of the top AmLaw firms in the country, Lisa founded and built the 3 Geeks and A Law Blog after having lunch with Greg and Toby and kvetching over the state of the legal technology industry. She said to them, “guys, we should start a blog! I can get it set up in 15 minutes.” And she did just that. And their lives have never been the same since then … A practicing lawyer with a talent for graphics, wordsmithing, marketing and coding, there isn’t much she doesn’t like to do on the web. She can’t help it … she’s a Geek!
But wait… there’s more. Over the years, we’ve added Casey Flahrety and Ryan McClead as regular contributors to 3 Geeks.
Casey Flahrety
Casey Flaherty is the Director of Legal Project Management at Baker McKenzie. He is a former Biglaw associate and corporate counsel who moved into legal operations consulting for law departments and law firms before taking on his current challenge. Casey has an affinity for systems thinking, strategic sourcing, process re-engineering, KPIs, and the practical application of technology to the legal dimensions of business problems. His long-term focus is the mesh point between law departments and law firms where he promotes structured dialogue to foster deep supplier relationships (read about that here and here).
Ryan McClead
Ryan is an executive at a small, but well-known legal technology company. Prior to his jump to the vendor side, he served for 3 years as Legal Technology Innovation Architect at Norton Rose Fulbright, running Technology Innovation projects around the world. His sense of humor and remarkable tolerance for verbal and psychological abuse has gotten him through more than 15 years in Legal Technology. In 2015, McClead was named a FastCase 50 recipient, and in 2018, he was elected a Fellow in the College of Law Practice Management. In past lives, he was a Knowledge Manager, a Systems Analyst, an “IT Guy”, a Fashion Merchandiser and Theater Composer.
We’d also like to thank “The Bradys” for all their help in guest blogging, and being there for all of us to use as sounding boards. Without them, this blog wouldn’t be nearly as fun to write as it is. So thanks to:
- Vishal Agnihotri
- Zena Applebaum
- April Brousseau
- Marlene Gebauer
- Mark Gediman
- Ryan McClead
- Scott Preston
- Denise Rabogliatti
- Jan Rivers
- Ayelette Robinson
- Emily Cunningham Rushing