Legal departments tend to run fairly lean. This means relying on external parties to accomplish any task is the norm. But when you are managing dozens of outside counsel on different matters, it can be nearly impossible to keep abreast of email traffic, calendars, and the status of any given task. Thankfully with a little bit of technology and some organization, this issue can be solved. This blog will share some tips on how other legal departments have solved this challenge. Select a technology platform to support organization and collaboration. The technology should allow internal and exte ..read more

LegalWeek’s April conference took place recently, and as with the sessions earlier this year, the April thought leadership panels touched on many of the struggles we are all facing in the legal technology space. But where the February sessions focused on the post-pandemic future of legal technology and the March sessions focused on getting back to the business of law, the April sessions weaved in a more nuanced theme: obtaining organizational buy-in from stakeholders around legal technology and processes. The need for stakeholder buy-in for any type of legal technology change is imperative. W ..read more

The March sessions of Legalweek took place recently, and as with the February sessions, the virtual event struck a chord that reverberated deep from within the heart of a (hopefully) receding pandemic. However, the discussions this time around focused much less on the logistics of working in a virtual environment and much more on getting back to the business of law. One theme, in particular, stood out from those discussions – the idea that legal professionals will need to have a grasp on the technology that is driving our new world forward, post-pandemic. In other words, the days when attorne ..read more

Co-Authored By Damian Murphy and Debora Motyka Jones The Schrems II decision invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield – the umbrella regulation under which companies have been transferring data for the last half-decade. In earlier parts of this four-part series, we described the impact of the Schrems decision, discussed how companies should evaluate their risk in using cloud technologies, and took a deeper dive on M365 in light of Schrems II. In sum, if you are a global business that previously relied upon Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) to transfer data, there is no clear guidance on what to ..read more

Co-Authored By Damian Murphy and Debora Motyka Jones In our four-part blog series on Schrems II and its impacts, we have already given the state of data transfers in light of the Schrems II decision as well as some practical tips on how to conduct a risk assessment. In sum, the foundation upon which companies have transferred data overseas for the last half-decade was recently shaken. Companies are left with no good legal options for data transfer so, instead, they need to make calculated risk assessments based on business need and convenience versus compliance with an unknown and quickly chan ..read more

The Law & Candor podcast is back for season seven, with a special guest speaker twist! In celebration of Women’s History Month (March), this season features an all-female guest speaker lineup. Our esteemed guests will not only explore the hottest topics in legal tech, but also discuss how to champion the development and career growth of women within the space in each episode. Law & Candor co-hosts, Bill Mariano and Rob Hellewell, are back to help lead those discussions in six easily digestible episodes that cover a range of topics: from diversity within ediscovery, to keepin ..read more

Co-Authored By Damian Murphy and Debora Motyka Jones In part one of this series, we described the state of the EU-US Privacy Shield and the mechanisms global companies have relied upon to transfer data from their multiple locations. In short, a recent decision – Schrems II – invalidated the Privacy Shield and shook the foundation of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs). Companies are now left asking the question of how to respond. In this post, we will share our view on how to navigate forward. If your organization is not already highly reliant on cloud software, we recommend weighing the bene ..read more

Co-Authored By Damian Murphy and Debora Motyka Jones In 2016, European companies doing business in the US were able to breathe a sigh of relief. The European Commission deemed the Privacy Shield to be an adequate privacy protection. For the next half a decade, this shield, as well as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), created the foundation upon which most global businesses were able to manage the thousands of data transfers that occur in each of their business days. Everything changed in July 2020 when the Court of Justice of the European Union gave its seismic judgment in a case generally ..read more

Do you ever feel like you are spending your day firefighting and wish you could spend more time planning and executing all the great ideas you have? Do you wish the business came to you first to ask for input so they could be prepared rather than rushing in once the alarm bells are already ringing? You are not alone. These are common refrains heard from legal operations professionals. Here are some ways to change that and go from a tactical resource to a strategic partner. Make Time for Strategic Planning Even if the majority of your role calls for real-time execution, you can still showcase ..read more

The International Women’s Day (IWD) theme for 2021 is “choose to challenge.” What a fitting theme for a year when 5.4 million women lost their jobs and over 2.1 million women left the workforce, while the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc, and social and racial inequity issues were raised to the forefront of the international consciousness. There was certainly no shortage of challenges for women to choose from this past year. However, the IWD initiative website elaborates on the “choose to challenge” theme by noting that “a challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change.” It ..read more