Legal Tech: Recovery Models for e-Discovery and Litigation Support Services that Make an Impact
April 01, 2020
With big data and the resulting explosion of electronic documents, texts, images and voicemails that are subject to discovery, the cost burden was increasing at a pace that required firms to reconsider their recovery approach. This is why in 2019, Mattern conducted its first deep dive into e-discovery and litigation support cost recovery in the 2020 e-Discovery and Litigation Support Cost Recovery Survey. Some of the results were surprising.
Law Firm Mergers and Predictions for the Year 2020
April 01, 2020
2019 went down as another record year for law firm mergers. But what do the numbers teach us? Did the tendency to merge apply to law firms across the board? Is the merger mania likely to continue in 2020? What was the impetus for record number of mergers? This article breaks down the available data to answer these questions and attempts to give us a glimpse into the future.
Client Maximization: Doing Well by Doing the Right Things
April 01, 2020
Making the most of your firm's client base need not be a costly undertaking. There are several steps a firm of any size can undertake to improve client experiences, ultimately, while also increasing the firm's chances of thriving.
A New Regime in Preference Litigation
April 01, 2020
One of the provisions of the Small Business Reorganization Act amends the language of Bankruptcy Code Section 547 —
which gives trustees and debtors in possession the right to seek to recover a payment to a third party in the 90-day period prior to the commencement of a bankruptcy case as a "preference" — to add a due diligence requirement. Though the intent behind the added language seems clear, it may not have its intended effect.
Litigators and Privacy: The Last People You Want to See, or the First?
March 01, 2020
In their consideration of possible worst-case cyber attack scenarios, organizations often focus on the various types of attacks and their relative severity. But, the worst-case scenario is not the breach, it's the reputational damage, regulatory enforcement action, the business interruption, and the inevitable litigation that follows a poorly handled breach from an unprepared organization. Given this reality, it is important to adjust planning assumptions and response scenarios to focus on addressing these drivers of post-breach exposure.
Outsourcing: How to Do Better Than Flipping a Coin
March 01, 2020
The legal industry is on the cusp of transformational change making the "siren song" of a successful outsourcing engagement ever more alluring: increase expertise and flexibility while lowering costs, and significantly mitigating risk.
How Law Firms Are Overcoming New Business Development Challenges
March 01, 2020
With the intense competition for new legal work, demands on lawyers' available time and the increasing discounts clients demand, it's getting harder for law firms operating under a billable-hour business model to support the consistent development of new legal work by investing in and maintaining a marketing department alone.
Defining Reasonable Care for the Protection of Personal Data
March 01, 2020
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court enlivened the Thanksgiving holidays of privacy lawyers in 2018 with its decision in Dittman v. UPMC, which held that an employer has a legal duty to exercise reasonable care to safeguard employees' personal information. While the scope of the decision technically was confined to the employer-employee relationship, the court's reasoning implies that such a duty of reasonable care may arise in any scenario where one party engages in the collection of personal information.
Navigating APT Intrusions
March 01, 2020
Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) intrusions are sophisticated cyber-attacks carried out by well-funded and organized cyber-criminals. The attacks are designed to establish persistence using various tactics, techniques and procedures that are intended to avoid detection and mimic authorized activity in the environment, known as "living off the land."
Law Firms Adopt a Legal Operations Perspective
March 01, 2020
Law Firms Are Following the Lead of Their Corporate Clients In Implementing Legal Operations Methodologies
By understanding legal operations approach, law firms can gain a better appreciation of client needs, share the client's vision and contribute to client satisfaction, while creating a competitive advantage for the firm.
