The Yerra Solutions Annnual Conference (connecting the dots between strategy, operations and technology) will take place Oct. 29, 2015, at Wax Chandlers Hall, London. This is an exclusive event open to General Counsel, legal COOs and IP Heads to share best practices, network and discuss leading industry trends.

Professor Richard Susskind will present the opening address, title “The Future of the Legal Profession.”

The keynote speaker will be Markus Brinker of Johnson Controls, who will present “Connecting the Dots Between Strategy, Operations and Technology in a Legal Department.”

Register for the conference.

Opus 2 International, a provider of collaborative workspaces, will focus on the theme “21^st Century Transcript Management for the Modern Law Firm” at ILTACON 2015. The theme highlights dramatic changes in today’s legal marketplace as litigation becomes increasingly global and legal team members use mobile devices to collaborate across geographical and jurisdictional borders.

ILTACON will be held at Caesars Palace Las Vegas from August 30 to September 3.

At ILTACON, Opus 2 will showcase new software features and licensing options designed to meet the transcript and evidence management needs of litigation teams at modern law firms, and the company will offer demos of the latest version of its award-winning cloud collaboration platform, Magnum. Released last week, Opus 2 Magnum Version 5.0 includes significant enhancements to its document, exhibit and transcript functionality as well as a streamlined interface that incorporates color-coded way-finding features. In addition, Opus 2 will be releasing “Case Team Collaboration in the 21^st Century,” a report based on the results of the 2015 Litigation Practices Survey and which highlights collaborative work product, workflow and technology in litigation.

“The legal marketplace is undergoing a dramatic transformation,” said Graham Smith-Bernal, Opus 2’s founder and CEO. “Globalization and mobility are changing the way attorneys do their jobs, but in many cases legacy tools are holding them back. We created Magnum specifically to address these new realities. Dispersed legal team members need faster, more efficient ways to share and review transcripts and manage key documents online, and many of our latest enhancements to Magnum are focused on these specific functional areas.”

Opus 2’s thematic initiative is part of a series of activities planned by the company for ILTACON 2015. Clare Foley of Opus 2 will be participating in the technology session “Tools That Change the Speed of Legal Service Delivery,” on Sept. 1 at 8:30 a.m. The session will feature Opus 2 Magnum for mobile collaboration across case teams as well as a variety of third-party tools for the modern legal practice.

Opus 2 will be exhibiting at ILTACON 2015 at booth #311. To schedule a meeting at ILTA, contact info@opus2.com. For more information, go to: opus2.com

About Opus 2

Opus 2 is a worldwide legal services company that blends sophisticated cloud technology with court reporting excellence to modernize evidence management during high-stakes matters across the globe—including litigation, arbitration hearings, depositions (US) and government inquiries, the company says in a release. They are also the creators of Opus 2 Magnum a private, cloud-based workspace from which litigators, co-counsel and experts share transcripts, key documents, exhibits, video and research and collaborate on work product for deposition and trial preparation. As experts in capturing testimony and uniting it with key litigation content, their collective team of seasoned consultants, case managers, software developers, technicians and independent court reporters are uniquely positioned to protect the integrity of both the record and the evidence and to deliver intuitive tools for their careful analysis, the release says.

A generation ago, mediation of construction disputes was unusual, writes Bruce W. Ficken in Pepper Hamilton’s Constructlaw blog. Today, it is rare that a construction claim goes to trial without some effort at mediation first. Indeed, a substantial percentage of construction contracts require mediation as a precondition to filing suit or demanded arbitration.

“Still, as pervasive as mediation has become, misperceptions about mediation persist among the contractor population generally.

“What does a mediator decide? Who controls the proceedings? Is there such a thing as binding mediation? How confidential is confidential during and after a mediation?”

The author addresses those questions in the article.

Read the article.

A complimentary webinar presented by Exari will help participants learn how to sell a CEO on a contract initiative.

The event will be Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 11 a.m. EDT. The webinar will be recorded and made available later to participants who register.

In a release, Exari said many good contract management initiatives never get off the ground because of a failure of communication – after all, contract professionals and lawyers may speak a different language than the CEO.

“Your evaluation team may compile a long list of impressive-sounding benefits, but when presented to an impartial executive team with no intuitive connection to the project, those benefits may be discounted as too soft or too hard to measure,” the release said. “To convince them, you need to pitch your business case in terms of solving an urgent problem and delivering measurable results. You need to convert your CEO.”

This webinar will walk through a three-pronged framework to bring the CEO on board:

• Focus on the “Burning Platform” – A contract-related problem that must be solved
• Tell the Story in Hard Numbers – How will your contracts solution improve the balance sheet and P&L?
• Remember to Account for Execution Risk – Is the plan supporting these numbers realistic?

“You need to know how to explain to the CEO why “fixing our contract problems” deserves attention and money; what it will deliver in terms of top line, bottom line and balance sheet impact; and whether the scope and timetable of your project is grounded in reality,” the release said.

Join the discussion between Jamie Wodetzki of Exari and IACCM’s Tim Cummins on Sept. 9. There will be opportunities to ask questions of the speakers.

Register for the webinar.

Occupational Assessment Services will present a complimentary CLE dinner seminar titled “Documenting Long Term Medical Needs through a Life Care Plan and Establishing a Special Needs Trust.”

The event, which includes two hours of Texas CLE credit, will be in three Texas cities:

• Sept. 8, Tuesday | Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave., Dallas, TX | 6-9 p.m.
• Sept. 9, Wednesday | Tony’s Houston, 3755 Richmond Ave., Houston, TX | 6-9 p.m.
• Sept. 10, Thursday | InterContinental, 701 Congress Ave., Austin, TX | 6-9 p.m.

Presenters will be Edmond Provder, Vocational Expert and Life Care Planner and Suzanne R. Gaidoo, Esq.

They will cover such topics as:

• Determine the worth of a case
• Understand when a PI case warrants a Life Care Plan
• Understand how a Life Care Plan is used by the trustee of a Special Needs Trust
• Understand using information from a Life Care Plan to establish a special needs trust
• Move toward settlement — Prepare the case for trial

Register for the event.

General Counsel News and Quovant, in conjunction with Duff & Phelps, will present a complimentary CLE breakfast in San Mateo, CA, designed exclusively for in-house counsel and corporate executives. The event will be Nov. 3, 9-11 a.m. at the San Mateo Marriott.

Participants and industry experts will discuss how changes in legal spend and matter management techniques and technology are revolutionizing how corporate legal departments think about managing themselves, legal spend and outside counsel. The questions that the session will address include, “how much can machines do for us, and how much do we want them to do?”

The session format intentionally avoids “presentations.” Instead this will be a guided discussion around provocative and thought provoking questions posed by next generation technology and shifts in the corporate legal landscape.

Leaders of the discussion will include such experts as publisher of the Annual Law Department Operations Survey Brad Blickstein; David Cambria, Global Director of Operations – Law, Compliance and Government Relations at Archer Daniels Midland; and Jeff Hodge, who has more than 25 years of experience with corporate legal departments and corporate legal software providers, and has led standards initiatives involving LEDES and UTBMS. Special guests will join, based on their availability.

Register for the event.

DLA Piper announces that Henry duPont Ridgely, senior counsel in the firm’s Wilmington office and former Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, has been appointed an advisor to the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section.

Justice Ridgely will begin his two-year term in September at the end of the 2015 Business Law Section Annual Meeting in Chicago. The Business Law Advisors Committee works to enhance the section’s educational opportunities through shared wisdom and experience of prominent individuals with distinguished records as practitioners, teachers or government officials in areas in which the section’s Substantive Committees are active. Justice Ridgely will be appointed to two of those Substantive Committees.

Justice Ridgely joined DLA Piper in March 2015.

In a release, the firm said he has a distinguished record of more than 30 years as a jurist in Delaware and served on the state’s Supreme Court for more than a decade, where he participated in more than 700 published opinions. Earlier this year, Delaware Governor Jack Markell awarded Justice Ridgely the Order of the First State, the highest recognition the governor can give for outstanding efforts, knowledge, integrity, prudence and ability in serving the State of Delaware.

At DLA Piper, Justice Ridgely focuses his practice on advising corporations, boards, special committees and individual directors and officers on transaction structure, fiduciary duties and managing and defending litigation at the trial and appellate level. He also can act as a mediator, arbitrator or independent monitor. 

About DLA Piper (www.dlapiper.com)
DLA Piper is a global law firm located in more than 30 countries throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, positioning it to help companies with their legal needs around the world. In certain jurisdictions, this information may be considered attorney advertising.

eTERA Consulting, an internationally recognized and award-winning leader in data and technology management, has announced that Eric Laurent-Ricard has joined the company’s highly successful All1ance One Partner Program.

In a release, eTERA said the All1ance One Partner Program provides many ways for business partners to expand their business, win more clients and increase revenue by offering their clients a full range of eDiscovery services throughout the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM).

“I have spent my career working with European law enforcement agencies on computer forensics and security,” said Eric Laurent-Ricard. “My vast experience on these fronts has allowed me to build strong relationships across Europe, and I look forward to the opportunity to assist eTERA in expanding their operations in Europe. Having worked closely with eTERA’s Managing Director of Europe, Greg Bufithis, I am confident in the company’s ability to solve the challenges faced by corporations related to information governance, government investigations and multinational litigation, and am excited to connect them with my network.”

“We are very excited to have Eric and his team as part of the All1ance One Partner Program,” said Mary McGinness, eTERA’s All1ance One Manager. “We are sure that Eric’s unique background, along with his European network, will be very beneficial to eTERA’s strategic growth in the European market.”

“Since launching our European operations in 2014, we have gained significant insight into the critical need for data and technology management services in Europe,” said Greg Bufithis, eTERA’s Managing Director of Europe. “We are fortunate to add an additional trusted partner, which will allow us to grow our already broad understanding of European legal regulations, business processes and cultural constructs.”

The release continues:

eTERA Consulting’s All1ance One Partner Program offers two partnership categories including Connectors and Associates. The All1ance One Partner Program helps eTERA’s partners maximize their revenue potential across the EDRM. For more information about becoming an eTERA Consulting All1ance One Partner, please contact Mary McGinness at all1anceone@eteraconsulting.com.

About eTERA Consulting 

Founded in 2004, eTERA Consulting is an international, award winning organization selected by clients to help solve the challenges of complex, big data projects in the areas of information governance, investigations, litigation, regulatory compliance, and security breach response. “Built by the clients, for the clients™,” eTERA has a successful track record providing customized data management solutions and services to Fortune 500 companies and the Am Law 100 at the intersection where legal, data analytics, security, and information technology meet.  eTERA’s experienced subject matter experts ensure client engagement success through application of best practices, leading technologies, and proven project management methodologies combined with exceptional customer service. Having passed the most stringent security audits, eTERA is trusted by the world’s largest insurance, financial services, pharmaceutical, and energy companies. eTERA was selected by the Legal Times in 2014 as Best End-to-End Litigation Consulting Firm and as the nation’s top End-to-End eDiscovery Company by the National Law Journal for four consecutive years. Headquartered in Washington DC, eTERA maintains offices in Chicago, Brussels, London, and Paris. For more information about eTERA, please visit www.eteraconsulting.com. 

About Eric Laurent-Ricard 

Eric Laurent-Ricard is a member of various expert witness companies and has a Ph.D. in computer science. Eric created the first French commercial Internet service provider in 1993, which he then sold to Qwest in 1997. Along with his business expertise of helping new startups, he has been working closely with nonprofit professional organizations, mainly in the fields of security, electronic signature, Trusted Third parties and standardization. He is a lecturer in Paris II University on internet protocols, ID and security, forensics, and cryptographic technologies. His LinkedIn page is https://www.linkedin.com/pub/eric-laurent-ricard/0/30/b31.

IRVINE, CA & ALPHARETTA, GA – Neudesic and Handshake Software, provider of SharePoint-based products and services to the legal market, announces that The Firm Directory, a people-based expertise location system for law firms and legal departments built on the Pulse collaboration platform, will integrate with Handshake Software’s SharePoint-based Portals, Enterprise Search and data-driven Expertise Locator products.

“We work with both Handshake and Neudesic, and they deliver great results. So we’re excited that they’re teaming up, and we look forward to what comes out of their collaboration,” said Patrick DiDomenico, director of knowledge management at Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.

In a release, the companies said “the partnership combines the best in class Neudesic Firm Directory, featuring people-centric profiles that enable the capture and discovery of experience, with Handshake Software’s leading portal solutions for the legal industry. Clients can now utilize The Firm Directory’s skills taxonomy to surface attorney experience, which is now integrated with Handshake Software’s data-driven attorney expertise from financial and other line-of-business systems, time entries, documents and contacts.”

The Firm Directory’s secure social collaboration features from the Neudesic Pulse platform will also add new capabilities that will enable Handshake customers to decrease dependency on email with a knowledge management community within their portal.

Glenn LaForce, Handshake Software’s vice president of global sales & marketing, said, “The Neudesic Firm Directory partnership brings two key benefits the market has been asking for: social collaboration around clients, matters and practice areas; and a 360-degree view of firm expertise from firm data and people-derived information.”

“Our partnership with Handshake Software will deliver greater value for legal industry clients by helping firms accelerate the benefits of expertise discovery and social collaboration within their SharePoint intranets.” said Ramin Vosough, vice president of products at Neudesic.

The Firm Directory will be in Booth 529 and Handshake Software in Booth 407/409 at the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) Annual Conference in Las Vegas, August 31 – Sept. 3, 2015.

The national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP announces that Washington, D.C. partner Brenda Maloney Shafer has been appointed Vice Chair of the Military and Veterans Health Law Task Force for the American Bar Association (ABA) Health Law Section.

Shafer will serve a one-year term, beginning on Sept. 1, 2015. She has past military experience, serving as a United States Army nurse corps officer.

Shafer is a member of the firm’s Health Law Practice Group. She focuses her practice primarily in health law, and in particular, health care regulatory and transactional work. She received her law degree, cum laude, from the University of New Mexico, her master of laws in health law from Saint Louis University, and her bachelor of science in nursing degree from Creighton University.

D4 LLC, a managed data and discovery services provider, will present a complimentary webinar Wednesday, August 26, featuring  an informative panel discussion on how to successfully navigate the cloud and defensibly identify, preserve and collect ESI. The event will begin at 2 p.m. EDT.

Anyone who misses the live presentation may register at the link below and receive a recording of the event.

The Cloud has been hovering over the legal industry for years, increasing in menace with every spoliation sanction imposed by the Court. The surge of cloud-based ESI has obsolesced many traditional information technology platforms as well as conventional workflows employed to identify, preserve and collect ESI, and in its wake has left overwhelmed IT staff and frustrated counsel.

While some companies have implemented an information governance policy, and performed thorough data mapping exercises, many have not yet tackled this step. When a legal hold is issued, regardless of whether a policy exists, the duty to preserve both on premise and cloud-based ESI persists, and the act of self-collection remains an ill-advised practice.

Attendees will learn how to accomplish the following:

-Perform custodian interviews that effectively identify where data resides
-Enable a legal hold that covers cloud-based and on premise sources to fulfill the duty to preserve
-Conduct a forensically sound and defensible collection of cloud-based ESI

Meet the Panelists:
-Aaron Crews-Sr. Associate General Counsel and Global Head of eDiscovery
Walmart
-Geoffrey Vance-Partner; Firmwide Chair, eDiscovery Services & Strategy Practice Perkins Coie
-John Evans Sr. Vice President of Forensic Services D4

Register for the webinar.

Thompson Coburn announced that 125 of the firm’s attorneys were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in the 2016 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®.

The number of Thompson Coburn attorneys on the list is up from 112 last year and includes attorneys from 62 practice areas, the firm said in a release. With 101 attorneys listed, Thompson Coburn was also the top-listed firm in St. Louis and in Missouri. The firm is also top-listed in Belleville, Illinois with three lawyers listed. The Best Lawyers selection process is a rigorous and comprehensive one, involving detailed evaluations of attorneys by their peers.

The release continues:

The firm offers special congratulations to the twelve attorneys appearing on the list for the first time:

• Douglas Baron – Real Estate Law
• Christopher “Kit” Bond – Government Relations Practice
• Cathryn Conrad – Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law
• John Farmer – Admiralty and Maritime Law
• Joyce Harris Hennessy – Health Care Law
• David Jinkins – Copyright Law
• Joan Lebow – Health Care Law
• Michael Parks – Litigation – Intellectual Property
• Teresa Polino – International Trade and Finance Law
• Steven Ritchey – Patent Law
• Todd Rowden – Commercial Litigation
• Gayle Smith – Real Estate Law

Also, congratulations to Fred Arnold and Stan Walch, who have been included on the Best Lawyers list for 30 years; and to Ed Buchholz, Tom Corbett, Steve Cupples, Pete Fanchi, Paul Griesemer, Larry Katzenstein, Mike Lause, Rick Lawton, Ray Massey, Michael O’Keefe, Mark Sableman, and David Warfield, who have made the list for 20 years or more.

Click here for the complete list of Thompson Coburn attorneys who are included in the 2016 Best Lawyers.

Defining and incentivizing high-quality performance is often key to the structure of complex service or technology-oriented agreements, writes Steve Gold, a McGuireWoods LLP partner in a legal alert from the firm.

“In this class of agreements, merely having a performance warranty that answers a yes or no question – in breach or not in breach − just doesn’t do the job. To augment those performance warranties, a common approach is to use a ‘service level agreement’ (SLA). The SLA is a familiar and essential feature in information technology-oriented agreements, such as outsourcing, cloud computing, software-as-a-service and the like,” the alert says.

Gold writes that SLAs, when properly structured and negotiated, can be an effective tool for more nuanced vendor management than a performance warranty alone could afford.

His article catalogs some of the best practices for structuring a service level agreement and discusses elements enterprise corporate counsel can put to use in the IT and service contracts that come across their desk.

Read the article.

The Eight U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has concluded that the Arkansas Supreme Court would likely adopt the majority rule that a covenant not to compete can be assigned to the purchaser of a business, reports Jackson Lewis in its Non-Compete and Trade Secrets Report.

The case is Stuart C. Irby Company, Inc. v. Tipton, No. 14-1970 and 14-2682 (8th Cir. Aug. 6, 2015).

The appellate court reversed an across-the board win for defendants in this Arkansas non-compete dispute, disagreeing with the district court on almost every point, writes V. John Ella and James R. Mulroy of Jackson Lewis. They report that one of the take-aways of the ruling is that assignability of restrictive covenants is often a source of confusion, and best addressed explicitly at the drafting stage, even if no merger or acquisition is on the horizon.

Read the article.

A new white paper from Mitratech titled “An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A 6-Step Health Check for your Organization’s Data Privacy Program,” is designed to help readers learn more about how to diagnose a company’s security measures.

As security regulations are forming, now is the time to proactively ensure that your company’s private data is safe, Mitratech says. Legal departments can partner with IT to enforce the inevitable guidelines that will be implemented in your organization.

The white paper guides readers through a check of their organization’s data privacy program:

Download the white paper.

The National Association of Corporate Directors has made available a complimentary article titled “In Practice: How to Think Like an Activist Investor,” a feature in the organization’s NACD Directorship magazine.

“Too often, boards realize too late that the battle for their company has already begun—and they are ill-prepared and outflanked,” NACD says.

This article in the latest issue of NACD Directorship magazine provides directors with recommendations that can help boards to enhance their readiness, protect their reputation, and better represent the interests of their shareholders.

NACD Directorship magazine is an exclusive benefit of NACD membership, but this article is being made available to the public to sample the valuable insights NACD provides to its members.

Download the article.

Institute of the Americans will present a complimentary webinar discussing both the historical context for the current oil price market as well as the outlook for oil prices. The event will be Wednesday, Sept. 9, beginning at 10 a.m. PDT.

“After a dramatic drop in oil price in 2014, the global oil market has settled into a period of volatility,” the Institute said in a release. “According to the Inter-American Development Bank, the fall was preceded by an unprecedented era of high prices and stability. The resiliency of crude oil prices between 2011 and 2014, they argue, was largely due to action by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council producers. In addition to stabilizing prices, the Gulf States’ actions kept Saudi production competitive and increased its market share, ensuring greater control. ”

Ramón Espinasa, Lead Oil and Gas Specialist at the Energy Division of the IDB, and Carlos Sucre, Energy Consultant at the IDB, will be presenters.

Register for the webinar.

Seven Farrell Fritz partners have been selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2016. Only 4 percent of attorneys in the United States are recognized with this honor, the firm said.

The partners and the fields in which they are being recognized are: John (Jack) Barnosky (Trusts & Estates and Litigation – Trusts & Estates); Ilene Sherwyn Cooper, John R. Morken and Eric W. Penzer (Litigation – Trusts & Estates); Domenique Camacho Moran (Employment Law – Management); Jeffrey P. Rust (Health Care Law) and Robert E. Sandler (Real Estate Law).

Barnosky, a Halesite, NY resident, earned his LL.M. degree from New York University School of Law, his J.D. degree from St. John’s University School of Law and his A.B. degree from Assumption College. Cooper, a Huntington, NY resident, earned her J.D. degree from Hofstra University School of Law and her B.A. degree from Cornell University. Morken, a Centerport, NY resident, earned his J.D. degree from New York University School of Law and his B.A. degree from Swarthmore College. Penzer, a Melville, NY resident, earned his J.D. degree from Fordham University School of Law and his B.A. degree from SUNY Stony Brook. Moran, a Rockville Centre, NY resident, earned her J.D. degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School and her B.A. degree from SUNY Stony Brook. Mr. Rust, a Garden City, NY resident, earned his J.D. degree from The University of Akron School of Law, his M.B.A. from The University of Akron College of Business and his B.S. degree from SUNY College at Geneseo. Sandler, a Dix Hills, NY resident, earned his J.D. degree from St. John’s University School of Law, his Master’s degree from Hunter College and his B.A. degree from American University.

Best Lawyers© is the oldest and most respected peer review publication in the legal profession, the firm said in a release. A listing in Best Lawyers© is widely regarded by legal professionals as a significant honor, conferred on a lawyer by his or her peers within the same geographical area and legal practice area.

A New York court earlier this year explored the issue of disclosure obligations in “as-is” commercial transactions and came to an unexpected answer, writes DLP Piper’s Michael Hamilton in Commercial Property Executive.

The state appellate court ruled “that the seller of an apartment building in New York City had a duty to disclose certain facts about the building’s physical defects where those facts were not known to and not easily discovered by the buyer,” he writes. “The court found that the seller was obliged to provide those facts not only under its contract but also under common-law fraud doctrines.”

The case was TIAA Global Investments L.L.C. v. One Astoria Square L.L.C.

Read the article.

Software publishers and entities like the BSA, The Software Alliance and the SIIA regularly audit companies to investigate copyright infringement claims. These entities seek monetary penalties if any infringement is discovered, and in the majority of cases, reach an out of court settlement for an agreed upon sum, writes Keli Johnson Swan, an associate at Scott & Scott, LLP.

Sometimes, settlement negotiations break down and one or both parties resort to pursuing claims in court. In many instances, the auditing entity will pursue litigation if it believes that the audit target is refusing to participate in the audit process or is unwilling to reach an amicable resolution. In other instances, a company may choose to fight any potential copyright infringement claims in court rather than participate in an arbitrary auditing process defined by the publisher or auditing entity. There are a few key costs to consider when determining how to defend against software infringement claims.

Read the article.