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I should be taking a victory lap. Instead, I am on an apology tour urging in-house departments not to listen to me—i.e., ignore my long-standing advice re asking law firms about their use of technology. I’ve concluded that the common application of my advice only adds unnecessary friction to an already friction-laden system—similar to the value-subtractive frictions introduced by ubiquitous, well-intentioned, and misguided approaches to discounts, panels, outside counsel guidelines, AFAs, etc.

I understand the motivations. I also understand the constraints. Everyone operating in our space should be able to connect the dots on these four statistics:

  • 75% of GCs recognize workloads will outpace budgets (problem)
  • 80% of in-house lawyers are burned out (consequence)
  • 70% of law departments are not investing in digital transformation (unavailable solution due to resource constraints)
  • 70% of law departments are asking law firms about technology usage (attempt to cope within resource constraints)

Continue Reading Legal Buy: We’re Asking the Wrong Questions (and it is my fault, kind of)

A great Lawyer Wellness Program is something that Jennifer Walters could really benefit from with her stressful life of being the face of the GLK/H law firm’s SuperHuman Law Division. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that is offered by the firm, so she accidentally ends up in a group wellness session at Emil Blonksy’s ranch retreat. 
We discuss the various legal and personal issues raised in Episode 7: The Retreat of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. After being ghosted by “Too Good to Be True” Josh, Jen finds that Emil Blonsky (AKA The Abomination) may have violated his parole requirements after his inhibitor bracelet malfunctions. The Retreat may be just what Jen needs to find a balance between working at a BigLaw firm, dating life, and the fact that someone seems to be out for blood… gamma-radiated blood, specifically.
While we do not appear in court this week, there are still many legal issues ranging from simple assault, to property damages, insurance claims, and possible fraud and sexual assault. Just for fun, we also talk about how Disney is bringing in more and more Mutant (X-Men franchise) characters into the MCU fold.
Joshua Lenon joins in from the airport as he winds his way across the US this week before landing in Nashville for the Clio Cloud Conference, October 10 – 11, 2022 in Nashville, TN. He is looking forward to everyone asking him more legal questions about She-Hulk, so make sure to find him if you are in attendance. We are also hoping that he’ll have some SHLD Podcast Stickers to hand out!
We are making our way to the end of Season One of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Reach out to us on Twitter to make suggestions of what we should cover next on the podcast. Maybe Batman’s Trial on the animated series? More She-Hulk comic book storylines? The legal standing of The Boys? A look back at Netflix’s Daredevil series? Let us know!!

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Contact us at @glambert, @JoshuaLenon, or @SuperHumanPod and let us know what you think!
We have a website: SuperHuman Law Division 
Artwork by @ChangoATX
Share this with friends, and don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
Stay Super Everybody!!
Transcript

Continue Reading ABOMASTE: The Work/Life Balance of a SuperHuman Attorney (SHLD Ep. 7)

Adam Curphey’s new book, The Legal Team of the Future: Law+ Skills guides the reader through the need for less silos in legal practice and much more reliance upon teams and collaborative efforts. The idea of a “Law+” model for the profession brings in the essential processes of adding people, business, change, and technology to the law and creating legal teams to solve legal problems.
Curphey’s experiences at law firms like White & Case LLP, Reed Smith LLP, and Mayer Brown LLP helped provide insights into what worked and didn’t work in legal innovation. His membership on the O-Shaped Lawyer Steering Board also provided the human-centric skills needed for the integration of teams into an industry filled with accomplished individuals used to going it alone. This expansion of the T-Shaped and the Delta Model Lawyers brings in more of that human interaction that is needed in today’s complex legal environment.
The Legal Team of the Future: Law+ Skills also lays out multiple case studies and examples of collaboration, teamwork, and professional progression. We talk about some of the case studies along with Adam Curphey’s view into his crystal ball on what is on the horizon for the legal industry in terms of legal innovation.

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Links to Order The Legal Team of the Future: Law+ Skills
LVNx Crystal Ball Answer
This week, Purvi Sanghvi  from Paul Hastings, and a current Legal Value Network Executive Board Member, explains how the legal industry may approach a potential economic downturn in 2023, and how that must be different from the 2008 or the 2020 approaches on previous challenges to the profession.
Contact Us:
Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert
Voicemail: 713-487-7821 (note the NEW NUMBER!)
Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Transcript

Continue Reading Preparing for the Legal Team of the Future – Adam Curphey (TGIR Ep. 176)

Clients will do a lot of things to get out of legal predicaments, but Mr. Immortal would literally prefer to die than listen to attorneys and paralegals arguing.

In Episode Six, “Just Jen,” it looks like Disney+ was trying to save on CGI costs. That issue to the side, we look at three parts of the show that looks at legal issues ranging from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to divorce laws and when is a dead spouse, not really dead. Sprinkle in a little assault with a deadly superpowered weapon, and you have a full rundown of this week’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

Can an Attorney Really Ever Take Time Off?

Jennifer Walters is asked to be a brides maid for an inconvenient Thursday wedding. (Really, aren’t all wedding inconvenient?) But, how does taking a couple day off for an attorney at a BigLaw firm affect those all important billable hours?

If You Cannot Die… Can You Fake It (and end a marriage)?

Mr. Immortal is a new client of GLK/H and is needing to negotiate a divorce settlement. With eight former spouses. Mallory Book and Nikki Ramos are there to represent him, but their hearts aren’t really in it. This quasi-arbitration/divorce settlement brings in some interesting concessions, and somehow they keep Mr. Immortal from jumping out another window.

Intelligencia – The Website for Man-Babies

Speech is protected, even in the MCU. But, there is some serious hate-speech directed at She-Hulk in this episode through the Intelligencia website. This mix between Reddit and 4Chan tests the limits of free speech in Earth 616 and in our own world. What’s protected, and what is outside the protections of the laws? It’s an issue that all universes apparently face.\

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Contact us at @glambert, @JoshuaLenon, or @SuperHumanPod and let us know what you think!
Artwork by @ChangoATX

Share this with friends, and don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.

Stay Super Everybody!!

Transcript

Continue Reading Talking to a Lawyer Shouldn’t Make You Want to Jump Out a Window (SHLD Ep. 6)

In both the real world, and on Marvel Comic’s Earth 616, Intellectual Property Law can be a super weapon to inflict serious pain upon your enemies. On the latest episode of The SuperHuman Law Division Podcast, we look at the legal issues raised when She-Hulk loses the rights to call herself She-Hulk after Titania stakes her claim to that trademarked term.
New Logo… and a Shoutout to our Friends at Law360’s Pro Say Podcast!
We are excited to roll out our new logo for the SuperHuman Law Division Podcast. Thanks to ChangoATX for the great artwork! We love it!!
Also, our friend Amber McKinney had her Law360 Podcast, Pro Say, mentioned in this episode. We’re hoping to get Amber on the show later to do a recap on what she thinks of the show. Congrats Amber!!
Is First to File Really a Thing in Trademark Law?
Jennifer receives a lot of mansplaining on trademark law and who gets to claim ownership of the name She-Hulk. But, is that really how it works?
Lawyers and Firms Should Not Represent Themselves!!
“A person who represents themselves has a fool for a client.” That rule applies in this episode not only to Jennifer, but to the law firm of GLK/H as well. There is a huge conflict of interest in what GLK/H wants with the She-Hulk name versus what Jennifer Walters wants with the name.
Can a Tailor of SuperHuman Clothes be Liable?
We meet Luke, the tailor for superpowered individuals. What are the legal implications of making designer clothes for superheroes, supervillains, and vigilantes?

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Share/Contact/Subscribe
Contact us at @glambert, @JoshuaLenon, or @SuperHumanPod and let us know what you think!
Share this with friends, and don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
Stay Super Everybody!!
Transcript

Continue Reading A True Supervillain Uses IP Law to Attack Their Enemies (SHLD Ep. 5)

Four speakers and a moderator were presenting at a conference. 
That sounds like the beginning of a joke, but according to the 2022 ILTACon Conference Co-Chair, Martha Breil, that type of conference presentation just won’t draw in the next generation of conference attendees. Workshops, hands-on experiences, and interactive presentations are needed for conferences to stay relevant as we emerge from the two and a half years of lost conferences due to COVID. 
While ILTACon made an appearance in 2021, it was this year’s conference which was extremely successful. With nearly 3,000 attendees, the conference held at the National Harbor, MD, was completely sold out (thanks to those pesky fire codes!) Breil was very happy with how she and the team of ILTA staffers and volunteers pulled together the 2022 ILTACon and shares with us some of the experiences and comments from the event. 
Legal Conferences are a collaboration of Association leaders, members, volunteers, as well as partnerships with vendors and sponsors. As more and more conferences take place over the next few years, there will be different expectations from all of those different groups on how to attract attendees, volunteers, and sponsors. Once the honeymoon of 2022 is over, those expectations will need to be met to continue making conferences, and the money they bring in to organizations like ILTA, a success.

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LVNx Crystal Ball Answer
Speaking of conferences, Greg just returned from the Legal Value Network eXperience in Chicago with a fresh batch of answers to our Crystal Ball Question. First up is Kate Boyd, COO at Sente Advisors on the new generation of professionals and the diversity of experiences and knowledge they are bringing to the legal industry.
Contact Us:
Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert (We have stickers… tweet Greg for more info!)
Voicemail: 713-487-7821 (note the NEW NUMBER!)
Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Transcript

Continue Reading What Does a Post-Pandemic Conference Look Like? Martha Breil on ILTACon (TGIR Ep.175)

This week we have Debbie Reynolds, “The Data Diva,” join us to discuss the current state of data regulations, privacy, access, and what’s on the horizon for data in the legal industry. Debbie is a 2022 ABA Women in Legal Tech Honoree and the host of The Data Diva Talks Privacy Podcast.
According to Debbie, there is exponential growth going on in technology and the types of data that is being captured. At the same time, governments across the globe are trying to find ways of regulating how businesses and organizations can capture and use data they gather from individuals. These two event are not coordinated so it has created a “Wild West” situation where the law is trying to catch up to the realities of data gathering in the business world.
Training on data security is also lagging behind what is really needed today. Most training on data security is framed around the idea that “data security is everyone’s responsibility.” Reynold’s response to that is unless you are more specific about what it is you need people to do in regards to data security, then it turns out that “everyone’s responsibility is actually no one’s responsibility.”
As technology advances beyond encryption, satellite integration, IoT devices, and morphs into the Metaverse, the types of data produced and gathered is going to completely overwhelm any government’s ability to regulate it. The Data Diva thinks that if we don’t start creating more transparency when it comes to individual’s data privacy, it’s just going to get more and more complicated than it is right now.

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AALL Crystal Ball Answer
Wolters Kluwer’s Anand Daga is our last AALL Crystal Ball response. His view of how the legal information industry will change in the next two to five years revolves around how the information is delivered to the end users. He sees things in much smaller chunks of information delivered to the researchers in shorter, practical methods in ways that value the practitioner’s time.
At Legal Value Network eXperience

Greg is going to LVNx this week and will have The Geek in Review stickers to hand out. So if you’re in Chicago at LVNx, be on the lookout and prepared to answer our Crystal Ball Question!

Contact Us:
Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert
Voicemail: 713-487-7821‬
Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Transcript

Continue Reading The Data Diva and Two Geeks Talk Data Privacy – Debbie Reynolds (TGIR Ep. 174)

There are lots of legal issues covered in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Ep. 4, but almost all of that coverage missed the mark this week. Still, we dive into the legal issues ranging from False Imprisonment and Theft, all the way to Tax and Insurance law. There’s a lot to unpack in “Is this not Magic.”
Can you get an injunction against magic?
Donny Blaze and his hype-man, Cornelius, are presenting magic shows using the mystic arts that Donny learned in his one week at Kamar Taj. Wong is not happy about it and hires She-Hulk to stop him using the courts. (Although, the shadow dimension was offered up by Wong as an extrajudicial alternative.)
Madisynn/Wongers/Titania
We were just as happy as the rest of the MCU watchers on the Madisynn/Wongers BFF coverage and we’re excited to see the potential for the “Big Bad” on the show, Titania, using Intellectual Property Law to strike at the heart (and name) of She-Hulk.

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Don’t threaten your opponents with demons
While Jennifer Walters seems to be coming into her own in her role as She-Hulk, Attorney at Law, we did notice that she may be too eager to use her SuperHuman status to threaten legal opponents. We hope that Jen will rely more on the legal system, and not hold demons over other legal parties to get them to sign settlement agreements.
GLK/H Technology – Heavy use of MS Office
At the encouragement of our friend Sarah Glassmeyer, we look into the type of technology at GLK/H. So far, it looks like they are a “Windows Shop” with Microsoft Windows and MS Office. We do get a look at Jennifer’s “To Do List.” How would you like to be a Summer Associate in the SuperHuman Law Division of GLK/H?? Apparently, Jen will be interviewing law students for those positions. Along with her other 91 tasks on that to do list.
Everyone would be disbarred in this show
All in all, this was a fun episode, but we go through a list of legal practice issues that just wouldn’t fly in the real world. But then, that’s why this is the MCU/Disney+, and not the real world.
Share/Contact/Subscribe
Contact us at @glambert, @JoshuaLenon, or @SuperHumanPod and let us know what you think!
Share this with friends, and don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
Stay Super Everybody!!
Transcript

Continue Reading Case Closed! #Madisynn #Wongers (SHLD Ep. 4)

This week’s guest, HBR Consulting‘s Axelle Flemming, stresses that “Intentional Leadership” creates leaders who “own their purpose.” And a purpose is separate from a business “goal.” Axelle’s experience showed her that when a leader truly knew what their purpose was, the purpose they were trying to achieve, they went to that level of execution. In addition to being an Intentional Leader, that must be balanced with the wellness of the organization and its people. In today’s work environment, we are in 24/7 fight or flight mode and intentional leaders understands that challenge. Leaders also see beyond their own goals and purpose and see other people’s goals and purpose as well.
On Thursday, September 15th, Axelle Flemming is presenting a Keynote presentation at HBR’s Legal Information + Knowledge Services (LINKS) Conference, on this very issue. She “sprinkles” in some of the spice of her talk her on the podcast, but will bring the “secret sauce” to the LINKS Conference.
Marlene Gebauer and Greg Lambert, along with John DiGilio will wrap up the conference through a discussion of Axelle Flemming’s and the other presentations of the day.
Registration for the LINKS event is open all the way through the day of the conference.

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AALL Crystal Ball Answer
Our good friend, Mark Gediman of Alston & Bird, answers our Crystal Ball question by predicting how Law Schools and Law Firms will collaborate on business and competitive intelligence processes to help law students better prepare for the practice of law once they enter the profession.
Links Discussed:
Contact Us:
Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert
Voicemail: 713-487-7821‬
Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Transcript:

Continue Reading Intentional Leadership is about Owning Your Purpose – HBR’s Axelle Flemming (TGIR Ep. 173)

When it comes to the future of legal innovation, Olga Mack of Parley Pro at LexisNexis says that as the legal industry becomes more focused on being a ‘service’, legal technology will just become part of the overall design of products and services. It will not stand alone as a separate process, but rather legal innovation will be built into products such as HR tools that build in compliance processes, or financial tools build in legal components by design. Legal tech simply integrates into all technology processes.

Olga Mack is the CEO of Parley Pro and recently led the company through an acquisition with LexisNexis. Olga points out that while she was not a founder of Parley Pro, she took her role at leading the company of contract management and collaboration tools very seriously on how it handled its success during the pandemic. She points out that all startups go through a process of looking at its future and deciding do we go public, do we get acquired, or do we die and file for bankruptcy. Her previous relationship with LexisNexis helped her understand the value that Lexis’ content would bring to Parley Pro and she says the relationship is exactly what Parley Pro, and their customers needed.

Olga has a strong reputation within the legal community and she actually insists that she wakes up each day and works to live up to that reputation. It’s not a ‘brand’ that she presents to the world, but rather her authentic self as she presents at webinars, conferences, or even in TEDx speeches.

In both an upcoming (early 2023) release of her ABA book, Visual IQ for Lawyers, and a soon to be released third TEDx talk on the same subject, Olga’s current inspiration is the adding of visual aspects within documents and contracts. Companies such as Google and others are already using these visual processes in their contracts and it is a skill and concept that Olga thinks many lawyer currently lack. “I think visual intelligence is not something you’re born with. It’s like reading, writing and arguing. It’s something you learn, intentionally.” Olga Mack continues, “And this book is an attempt to, one, show the importance of visual intelligence in communications, and to give frameworks and basic concepts to allow legal professionals, not just lawyers, to understand, relate, interpret, communicate in an increasingly visual world.”

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Links Discussed:
AALL Crystal Ball Answer:

We keep it within the LexisNexis family this week with Loyd Auerbach answering our Crystal Ball Question on how the industry, and law librarians specifically are changing the traditional work model as we make remote and hybrid work a part of our daily work process.

Check out Greg’s Newest Podcast, The SuperHuman Law Division.

Contact Us:
Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert
Voicemail: 713-487-7821‬
Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Transcript

Continue Reading The Future of Legal Innovation Will Be Built In By Design – Olga Mack (TGIR – Ep. 172)