The Geek In Review Greg Lambert & Marlene Gebauer

When three legal innovators gather together in their town of Houston, the topic drifts toward the interesting innovation and creativity hubs happening around the city. Both inside and outside of law firms. In a special "after-hours" episode of The Geek in Review, we talk with Norton Rose Fulbright US' Head of Innovation, Zack Barnes. The conversation is a diverse as the city. We talk about the The Ion innovation epicenter and Zack's interest in how these types of innovation hubs can use help from the law firms within the city to help guide entrepreneurs in the early stages. 

In addition to the conversation revolving around legal innovation and creativity, we also talk on Zack's experiences with creating and writing patents as a start-up entrepreneur himself, and finding other start-ups to invest in for companies like Halliburton. Zack also describes how he went to college to be a mountain bike racer and how that love of speed expanded to a faster, but less bone breaking hobby of racing Corvettes. To top things off, we lubricate the discussion with some wonderful local Houston beers. Buckle up and grab your own favorite beverage as we talk all things innovation and happenings here in our favorite city of Houston. Let us know if you are ever in town and we can take you to one or more of the great innovation and brewing spots around town.

Links mentioned:


@NRFUSZack (InnovLegal Zack)
The Ion
Rice University Data to Knowledge Lab
Cup of Joey
St. Arnold
Karbach 
Spindle Tap
11 Below
Eureka Heights
Texas Leaguer 
Brash Brewing
Southern Star

Contact Us

Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert
Voicemail: 713-487-7270
Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: Jerry David DeCicca

Transcript Available on 3 Geeks

We are all pretty familiar with the phrase "Legal Tech." Maya Markovich and Yousef Kassim would like you to also become more familiar with the phrase "Justice Tech" as well. In fact, they have a new trade association focused on this issue called the Justice Technology Association or JTA. Justice Tech is defined as those companies which build tech solutions which are designed to improve or open access to legal rights, improve outcomes, and increase equity within a system that is stacked against users who are often going it alone in the justice system. Yousef Kassim's product, EasyExpunctions.com is one example.

Maya Markovich is the Executive Director of JTA, and along with founders like Yousef Kassim and a diverse board of advisors, JTA is looking to leverage technology to help those seeking access to justice. This group of founders and advisors are not limited to lawyers, as access to justice is not a problem that can be solved by lawyers alone. JTA brought in engineers, policy advisors, academics, venture capitalists, and a wide range of other professionals to help guide the mission of the trade association. You can learn more at JusticeTechAssociation.org.

LegalWeek Crystal Ball Question:

We wind down our series of LegalWeek Crystal Ball responses with another former guest, Steve Embry. Steve recently wrote on his TechLaw Crossroads blog about the desire to be in the office less, and what that means for law firms when it comes to office space, training, and culture. Embry doesn't see it as all doom and gloom as some law firm leaders might.

Links:


Justice Technology Association
JTA Partnership and Collaboration
JTA Membership
To Support JTA
JTA Twitter
EasyExpunctions.com

Contact Us

Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert
Voicemail: 713-487-7270
Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: Jerry David DeCicca

Transcript Available on 3 Geeks

For many of us, what we think of when we hear "American Lawyer Media", we think of lots of print newspapers, magazines, The American Lawyer, and the AmLaw 100/200 lists. Bill Carter, CEO of the newly re-branded ALM, sees the tremendous value of the data that ALM collects much more than just the news articles it produces. When Carter took over the reins at ALM in 2012, he evaluated the company like a consultant, and determined that the best path forward was through consolidation of titles through the evolution of law.com; moving away from individual subscriptions to an enterprise model, and; focus on the wealth of data compiled by ALM and find ways to leverage that data as the path forward for the company. We have an amazing look into what ALM is doing these days and a peek at what Bill Carter would like to do in the near future.

Links to Items Discussed:

Law.com Radar
Legal Compass
Global Leaders in Law
Corporate Counsel Advance

LegalWeek Crystal Ball Answer
This week's Crystal Ball answer comes to us from Ken Crutchfield of Wolters Kluwer. Ken is monitoring all of the exciting legal technologies that are springing out of the AI explosion and who will be the winners, and who will be the losers as things shake out.

Contact Us
Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert

Voicemail: 713-487-7270

Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com

Music: Jerry David DeCicca


Transcript Available on 3 Geeks

When it comes to dockets, the holy grail for most of us has always been state trial court dockets. Nicole Clark, CEO and co-founder of Trellis also felt that way when she was practicing, and decided that she would find a way to access and obtain that treasure trove of data that was always just out of reach. Nicole sits down with us this week to tell us the story behind her mission to seek out local court information, clean up the data, and create a method of analyzing that data. As anyone who has ever worked with trial court dockets, you understand how difficult a task this really is.

Nicole says that Trellis is on a mission to add a county court a day and to find additional ways that the information can be sliced, diced, and analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) processes like natural language processing (NLP) and through upcoming API access. She also walks us through some of the unique ways her customers use the data, and that the value of trial court data isn't just limited to the legal field. The once elusive state court data is now becoming more and more available through platforms like Trellis, so the opportunities for legal researchers to take advantage of this wealth of information is expanding, literally by the day.

Listener Perk: Trellis is providing Geek In Review podcast listeners with complimentary 14-day access to its state trial court research & analytics platform!  Gain insights and intelligence on judges, verdicts, opposing counsel, motions, rulings, dockets and other legal issues.  Click here to try Trellis for free today.

LegalWeek Crystal Ball Question
This week we ask Casetext's Robert Armbruster to look into his crystal ball and tell us what he sees in the next few years when it comes to our expectations on how search tools like Casetext will evolve.

Contact Us

Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert

Voicemail: 713-487-7270

Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com

Music: Jerry David DeCicca

Transcript

We have a number of repeat guests on the show this week, but all with new stories to tell since their last appearance. 

Nikki Shaver and Jeroen Plink have joined forces to launch Legaltech Hub. Their mission is to provide a single place for those of us looking at legal technology so that we can have a clear picture of who are the players in legaltech solutions. We talk about how the two began their collaboration efforts to expand upon Nikki Shaver's original idea for Legaltech Hub and launch it as a startup business. 

For those of us in the legal industry, whether it is a practicing lawyer, knowledge management, IT, library professional or other allied professionals, we all understand that when it comes to evaluating technology in the legal industry, it can be overwhelming. Jeroen and Nikki discuss how they set up the structure of Legaltech Hub, and who are the intended, and even the aspirational users of this system. We also discuss the competitors in the industry and how they believe Legaltech Hub distinguishes itself from the pack.

A quick shoutout to our friend Chevazz Brown for the resent launch of his DiversePro mobile app. 

Crystal Ball Question

This week's LegalTech Crystal Ball question is answered by another TGIR Alumni, Sameena Kluck. Sameena sees an improvement in personal branding and authenticity in the legal profession.

Alumni Episodes:


Jeroen Plink
Nikki Shaver
Chevazz Brown
Sameena Kluck

Contact Us

Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert

Voicemail: 713-487-7270

Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com

Music: Jerry David DeCicca

Transcript available on 3Geeks Website

For those of us who went to law school, a large percentage probably assumed we'd graduate, take the bar, and practice law. But, sometimes life takes you in a different direction. Today's guest fits that mold, and also decided to talk with 15 other law school grads who also found careers outside the traditional legal practice. Adam Pascarella is the Founder of Second Order Capital Management, and the author of the new book, Reversed in Part: 15 Law School Grads on Pursuing Non-Traditional Careers. Within the book, you'll also find two former TGIR guests, Ayelette Robinson and Richard Hsu.

Reversed in Part is designed to give inspiration and some practical insights from professionals who followed their passions and how their legal career experiences helped them along the way. Adam tells us how he essentially used the interviews to help guide himself into a career outside of BigLaw and take the risk to start his own business.

LegalWeek Crystal Ball Question
This week we hear from Michael Burns, Chief Revenue Officer at Steno on what he sees for the legal industry when he peers into his crystal ball. For the industry to improve, it's going to take the help of allied professionals, automation, and even API integration to make it a reality.

Congrats to Marlene
For those who haven't seen yet, Marlene was included in the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center's Women of Legal Tech 2022. Such a great list of leaders, including five former guests. It was nice of the ABA's LTRC to give us an additional list of eleven more leaders who we need to get on the podcast!!



Contact Us
Twitter: @gebauerm or @glambert

Voicemail: 713-487-7270

Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com

Music: Jerry David DeCicca

Transcript available on 3Geeks Website