When David Lat, Managing Partner of Lateral Link, contracted COVID-19 back in March, he made the pandemic real and personal for many of us in the legal industry. Three months later, I have him as my last guest on In Seclusion and ask him what lessons we've learned through it all. He gave me three. We've learned to work successfully on a remote basi…

Victoria Hudgins, Reporter at LegalTechNews, reports on the legal tech sector and noticed that some of the first cuts that major law firms made during the pandemic were related to their technology innovation teams. Lawyers and tech staff were subjected to layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts almost immediately as firms feared a reduction in revenue and…

Jason Barnwell, Assistant General Counsel of Modern Legal at Microsoft, does not like it when his outside legal counsel comes to him with traditional offerings during a crisis. If there is ever a time to package legal services in a way that helps in-house attorneys manage their limited resources, that time is now. Don't ask the client to define wha…

Patrick DiDomenico, the Chief Innovation Officer at Jackson Lewis, says that while Necessity may be the Mother of Invention, Crisis may be the Father of Innovation. And this year is definitely filled with crisis events. While the remote nature of work is a challenge, it has also been a bit of a blessing in disguise. The need to be responsive also e…

Joshua Lenon, Lawyer in Residence at CLIO, works in a cloud-based environment where the idea is to operate consistently, regardless of physical location. And that’s exactly what they have done over the past three-plus months. For others in the legal field to follow this lead, he says that we need to invest more in technology for our staff, as well …

Colin Levy, Legal Technology, and Legal Innovation Thought Leader says that there are a lot of people in the legal industry who are truly trying to innovate, but that innovation does not equal technology, and technology does not equal innovation. There’s a holistic approach that needs to be taken, especially in the middle of a crisis like we have n…

Craig Levinson is President & Chief Client Developer at Levity Partners and the author of the recent articles “Top 20 Virtual Client Development Tactics Lawyers Can Begin Implementing Immediately,” and “What All Attorneys Can Learn From Female Rainmakers: Panel Recap.” The practice of establishing virtual tactics around client and business developm…

As many of us were rushing to work from home at the beginning of the pandemic, law firm security teams were scrambling to ensure that the networks and hardware were protected from possible attacks. Joel Lytle, Director of Information Security at Jackson Walker in Dallas, joins me to talk about the process he went through during the initial phase of…

David Kamien, CEO, and co-founder of Mind Alliance discusses how when COVID-19 began shutting down the economy, law firms opened up a firehose of thought leadership for their clients. While the clients’ inboxes were overflowing with information, and firms were establishing COVID-19 resource pages, the ability for the client to easily search and fil…

Danny Norris, Attorney at Law and Trustee at the Harris County Texas Department of Education, discusses his experiences over the past few months of changing jobs, being busy with a full-time Intellectual Property law practice, and elected official. While businesses in Texas are reopening, it is the school system that has continued to find ways of h…

Casandra Laskowski Technology & Research Services Librarian at Duke Law School has the responsibility of assisting law school students, staff, and faculty through some of the teaching and technology challenges of a remote classroom. In addition, she also chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the American Association of Law Libraries. With…

Mike Whelan, author of “Lawyer Forward: Finding Your Place in the Future of Law” is a lawyer, author, legal innovator, and recently an Above the Law podcast host. As we begin to make our way back to our respective office or identify our more permanent workplaces, will we go back to the old habits and schedules, or will we take what we’ve learned ov…

Alycia Sutor, Managing Director at GrowthPlay, coaches lawyers, law firms, and other legal organizations on the need to get out of their comfort zones, and quickly embrace the changes as a new way of being. Those are just not skills that many in the legal industry are used to using. But those who find ways of quickly deploying these skills will be …

For Cornell H. Winston, Law Librarian at United States Attorney's Office in Southern California, there have been a number of small and large changes affecting his law library and records departments. While he is generally an optimist, he knows that change will happen. People who were never allowed to work from home will not accept that limitation a…

Celeste Smith, the Director of Education for the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), works on finding educational opportunities for those of us who consider ourselves life-long learners. While we are in an industry of very intelligent people, the current situation has taught us that we can not be tied to what we think we know based on our…

Diego Alcala is an attorney and Legal Tech Founder based in Puerto Rico. The current COVID-19 and remote working conditions are just two more issues stacked upon existing challenges ranging from cuts in governmental programs, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural and man-made problems. Perhaps now is the time to challenge the legal tech commun…

Ian Nelson of Hotshot Legal believes that as we come out of the pandemic, there will be completely different expectations when it comes to how legal professionals want to train and learn. No more hour-long lectures with little to no interaction. Instead, we'll have shorter lessons with flipped classroom styles where the information is processed bef…

Vivia Chen is Senior Columnist at ALM, and Chief Blogger for The Careerist. She talks with me about how the pandemic may finally be the impetus to break large law firms from their vanity. With the cultural and societal changes that will most likely come out of the pandemic, there will be no need for lavish law offices or high-end client events to i…

This is episode 50. For something I called a miniseries, 50 episodes seem like a lot. Thanks to all who have come on the show to share their stories of preparedness, adjustment, and vision for the future. As we continue indefinitely, I hope that we all remain healthy and safe. This week has been especially hard for many of us and for many of our fr…

Maya Markovich, Chief Growth Officer at Nextlaw Labs, thinks that the current environment within the legal industry is the perfect time to rethink the old ways of doing things. The time is ripe to try new processes as well as experiment in ways that we might not normally try because we have somewhat of a safety net to try and fail with less judgmen…

Heather Morse, the Chief Business Development Officer at McGlinchey Stafford in New Orleans reminds us of the saying that “one size fits one” and that there isn’t a single way to approach how to manage the current situation. One of the key aspects of legal marketing and business development is that we are in the people business, and especially at t…

Clark Hill's Director of Marketing, Roy Sexton talks with me about how law firm marketing teams have really stepped up over the past couple of months to help their attorneys find appropriate ways to engage with their clients, and with each other. As we begin the slow process of moving away from the needs of the crisis and into the long-term redevel…

Tim Corcoran advises law firms on how to improve the business delivery side of things. One of the positive aspects of the pandemic has been the ability for firms to actually look at the processes of their business, and not just focusing on the tools. As we begin to develop a hybrid office where some people will be working in the office, and some wi…

Marcie Borgal Shunk of The Tilt Institute, Inc. is used to working closely with attorneys and law firm leadership. Traditionally, this meant gathering large groups of lawyers into a room for hours, or days at a time, and walking through scenarios together. With the current situation, it means having to adjust to fit the online nature of education a…

Janders Dean founder, Justin North, has seen many downturns in the economy and legal industry before but he thinks that the ability for us to keep our stories alive on how we handled downturns before, has helped many navigate this particular situation. And through a bit of planning, and a little bit of luck, he finds his company accidentally ready …

Sherry Kappel from Litera, flew back to the US just in time to avoid the travel ban on March 11th, and then immediately began preparation and action to move employees across the world to work from home. In the more than two months since this time, she has focused on interacting with her fellow workers, customers, and the legal community through vir…

While we may be in the middle of a crisis, there are certain processes and relationships we need to maintain in order to make sure we have those as we make our way out of the crisis. Aurelia Spivey from Digitory Legal and the host of the Pricing Matters Podcast discusses the need to maintain our community, be creative, and focus on the needs of our…

One of the themes I’ve picked up on with the now 41 episodes of this series, is that the transition to remote working environments caused by the pandemic was helped immensely by the increase in cloud and communications technology, as well as our need to work between multiple offices across vast distances. Colin Lachance from vLex solidifies that th…

Mary Jenkins, Director of Research Solutions and Senior Law Librarian at Accufile, contracts with multiple law firms and corporations ranging from smaller firms companies all the way up to some of the largest national, and international law firms. Trying to navigate the individual rules of the businesses, the buildings, and the local, state, and fe…

One of the things that many of us struggle with, but may not admit to others, is that we actually really miss the office environment. Whether it is the ability to duck into another worker’s office for advice, or bouncing ideas off others in breakrooms, there is definitely processes of an office setting that are very difficult to replicate. I talk w…

During a crisis, professional associations become a touchstone for many in the profession in order to stay in touch with our peers and to continue professional development and even potential employment opportunities. I talk with the current Legal Marketing Association (LMA) President Jill Huse and LMA Vice-President Kelly MacKinnon to see how they …

Yesterday I went virtually to Hawaii to see how the pandemic has affected one of the United States’ remote locations. Today I get to go to another paradise, albeit a little bit further north, and a lot cooler, to talk with Susan Falk, the State Law Librarian at Alaska Court System. While Alaska may have missed the brunt of the pandemic, it was not …

The pandemic is sparing no one, even in the tropical paradise of Hawaii. I talk with the Hawaiian State Law Librarian, Jenny Silbiger about how she lead her staff through the transition to remote work and service to the courts, the bar, and to the citizens across the multiple islands of Hawaii. As many law librarians do, she reached out to others a…

The pandemic and the changes in our overall work structure can be challenging to even the most experienced of us in the legal industry. For younger lawyers, those just starting off, or those who are having to take care of younger children at home while balancing work, this can be overwhelming. I talk with Victor Flores, Assistant City Attorney at t…

Lucy Curci-Gonzalez is the Executive Director, and Emily Moog is Research Librarian for the New York Law Institute (NYLI). Late last year, NYLI updated its business continuity plans to include the possibility of a pandemic shutting down access to the physical location. This helped the staff and leadership navigate through the effects of the pandemi…

The State of Georgia was one of the last states to restrict movement and one of the first states to announce plans for reopening for business. I talk with DeKalb County Law Librarian, Sarah Mauldin, about her experiences over the past two months as her county went into lockdown, and is now looking to gradually reopen. Remember, we may all be In Sec…

Holly Riccio and I have a lot in common. We are both former Presidents of the American Association of Law Libraries, and we have worked in a variety of different types of law libraries over our careers. At the beginning of 2020, Holly became the Director at the California Judicial Center Library. In her five months there, half of her time has been …

One of the bright spots of this pandemic, when it comes to the legal industry, is that many of us are realizing that the important thing we provide is tied to our services rather than our physical location. Law Librarians have been saying this for well over a decade, and now other parts of the industry are realizing that we are much more than an of…

May 1st began phase one of the reopening efforts for the State of Texas. Governor Abbott's order specifically lists libraries as one of the businesses which can open at a 25% capacity rate (and social distancing), but not all libraries are ready to open right away. I talk with Joe Lawson, Deputy Director of the Harris County Law Library about how h…

Sometimes it takes an emergency situation for resources to really show their value. Many of us are seeing this when it comes to the Knowledge Management tools and process improvement methods that KM professionals like today's guest have been promoting for years. Add to this, she's only been at her current position for less than two months. Jennifer…

On April 6, 2020, most of us were just hitting our third week of working remotely. For Maribel Nash, she was starting a new job at Cooley, LLP. While the timing may have complicated things like getting computer equipment from the new employer and orientation, Nash actually found that there were actually many opportunities in transitioning at this t…

This week I am focusing on the employment opportunities for lawyers during this pandemic crisis. I hit up my alma mater yesterday, and today I go even closer to home by interviewing two incoming Fall Associates at my law firm, Jackson Walker. Tori Coates is graduating from Baylor Law School in Waco and will join us in our Austin office. Daniel Mald…

Last week I talked with a number of law students about their adjustments during the pandemic for school, graduation, the bar, and employment. This week I wanted to focus more on getting, and keeping these students employed. I reached out to my alma mater and talked with the Director of Career Development, Alicia Currin-Moore, to see how the Univers…

While most of us haven't been in a physical office for more than a month, that doesn't mean that people aren't changing jobs. The legal industry's lateral movement was white-hot before the pandemic, and there while things have definitely slowed down according to today's guest, Richard Hsu, it hasn't stopped. Richard is a former BigLaw Partner and i…

In the final installment on how law students are coping with the changes in remote learning, I talk with Michael Anderson, 3L from Emory University School of Law. Michael discusses how he finished his semester at his family's home in Maryland rather than returning to Atlanta, and how he is planning to study and take the Georgia Bar Exam and plan fo…

In part four of our week-long series on how law students are coping with the changes in remote learning, I talk with second-year law student Kanza Khan. Kanza's story is a bit different than the previous episodes in that MSU's grading is not entirely pass/fail, and her classes continued to follow a fairly strict schedule to mimic the normal class l…

In part three of our week-long series on how law students are coping with the changes in remote learning, I talk with third-year law student Rachel Sodee. Rachel discusses her experience with Vanderbilt's transition to online courses and her preparation for finals. We also discuss how the state of Tennessee is still planning for a July Bar Exam wit…

In part two of our week-long series on how law students are coping with the changes in remote learning, I talk with second-year law student Morgan McGreevy of the University of Texas. Morgan started law school after working the past decade as an insurance underwriter. He walks me through how his classes transitioned to online teaching. How the Univ…

This week, I interview 2L and 3L law students about how they are adapting to their online classes, pass/fail grades, the upcoming finals, and what, if any, changes are occurring with their Summer or Fall Associate positions. My first guest is Stephanie Nweke from the University of Houston Law Center. Stephanie is a 2L who is scheduled to go to Cali…

#HOMEsweetHOME Today's guests bring home this podcast's catchphrase that "we're in this together." Christine Sellers Sullivan and Jeremy Sullivan are both legal information professionals, and a married couple working at home. While there are many married couples who planned their lives around working together, the pandemic has tossed many married c…