Litigation Support Leaders Converge
The stewards of many of the leading law firms’ litigation support practices converged on Washington, D.C. for two days of no-holds-barred conversations, conviviality and convocation at the International Litigation Support Leaders Conference.
George Socha, e-discovery pioneer and initiator of analysis and standards, received a resounding standing ovation from the leaders gathered at the 2nd Annual Betsy Ann Reynolds Awards for Excellence in Litigation Support. In his acceptance of the “Industry wide” award for helping the litigation support community explain to attorneys just how e-discovery works, George gave a moving speech about his purpose and intent in the work he does. A former lead paint litigator, George views his mission as reducing costs in litigation, so the “line painter might go home 15 minutes early.”
Mary Pat Poteet, of DLA Piper, gave an equally moving speech, recounting the impact of Betsy and how she lived her job and her life. DLA’s Browning Marean, as he honored Mary Pat, gave a reverberating call for more attorney/litigation support partnerships. He also shed some light on who wears the pants in their partnership, calling Mary Pat “she who must be obeyed.” Joanne Lane from MetLife received the in-house award. Surprised and delighted, she thanked the enthusiastic crowd.
Tammany and Albert, and the entire Buckwalter family, welcomed us as friends. Albert spoke of his mission to raise the profile of litigation support professionals as he moves into print magazines and conferences.
The conference attracted wonderful speakers. I got to meet Rebecca Prince from McDermott, Will and Emery, and Margaret Morton from Morrison & Foerster. David Cowen led an interactive discussion on interviewing prospective applicants for jobs. David engaged the audience, giving both general and specific advice for those seeking candidates and for the candidates themselves. The surprise from David – it is actually harder to recruit in a down economy.
After all these years, Mary Pat and I shared a panel with Julie Brown from Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP and Alison Silverstein of UHY Advisors. Mary Pat moderated as the panel and audience shared project management techniques. Margaret Morton, and Alice Burns, of Baker Robbins & Company, each also gave well received sessions on the intersection of project management and electronic discovery.
Craig Ball, delivering his first keynote, spoke to a breakfast crowd that was standing room only and spilling over into the hallway (I know, I was in the hallway).Craig spoke directly to his audience using PowerPoint to illustrate, not obfuscate. Ari Kaplan, the Tony Robbins of legal conferences, gave the lunch audience wonderful tips on standing out in this difficult economy – like offering to guest blog if you do not have time to blog regularly on your own and going to helpareporter.com (not for yourself) to make someone else look good. Ralph Losey spoke about not being able to afford the truth, and started picking on Craig instead of me. The irrepressible Brett Burney reviewed SaaS offerings, generously mentioning Fios On Request™, Fios’ new SaaS offering for managing e-discovery in small matters and early evidence assessment. The mysterious publisher of the Posse List, with 15,000 subscribing contract attorneys, unveiled a new initiative I promised to support and keep secret—for now.
Attendees and speakers, like Laura Kibbe (now at Epiq), Gabe Acevedo, starting a media empire in his own right (newest: tweetdiscovery.com) and Dean Gonsowski (now with Clearwell) clearly enjoyed the conference. As did I. My biggest takeaway – litigation support professionals, always knowledgeable and networked stewards of the e-discovery process, are creating demonstrable value for their organizations. Litigation support leaders embody “servant leadership” during these turbulent times.
Filed under Sound Evidence.