2011 may go down in history as the year the ABA-Legal Academy cartel controversy moved beyond the law prof blogging reformers to receive major legal media and, more importantly, major general media attention by some opinion leaders that has caught…
Posts Tagged ‘controversy’
Controversy Over the ABA Denying Provisional Accreditation to Duncan Law School
22
Dec
Duncan Law School of Lincoln Memorial University was recently featured in David Segal’s Dec. 17, 2011 NYT article For Law Schools, a Price to Play the A.B.A.’s Way. In fact, the article opened and closed with comments from Duncan Law…
Venture Capital Flowing Into Legal Enterprises: Total Attorneys Receives Infusion of Capital
22
Jan
Private capital is beginning to flow into companies that are operating at the intersection of the delivery of legal services and the Internet.
Total Attorneys, a Chicago-based company, just announced that they received a multimillion dollar investment from BIA Digital Partners, a Virginia-based venture capital firm. Total Attorneys is most known for the marketing services that it provides to law firms and the recent ethical controversy in some states surrounding the use of pay-per-click advertising on behalf of law firms. (Apparently this controversy has been resolved in favor of Total Attorneys in every state where it was considered by bar ethics committees.)
The company plans to extend its technology assisted services to law firms by expanding its virtual law firm Software as a Service offerings (SaaS). Total Attorneys mission is to become a leading provider of elawyering Services to solos and small law firms by providing a comprehensive suite of outsourced technology services, from marketing to web-based practice management tools to a robust client portal.
The company licenses virtual law office technology to solos and small law firms as a subscription service, that now consists primarily of a robust suite of "back-office" practice management tools. The pan is to expand the service into a more comprehensive "front-office" client portal, providing a total solution to solos and small law firms.
This expansion would entitle the company to claim that it is a leading provider in the eLawyering space and it would compete more directly with our own DirectLaw virtual law firm platform service and other web-based companies moving in the same direction. [ See: Legal Vendors Cloud Computing Association ] .
The concept of "technology-assisted service" is an interesting category for the legal industry for it describes a form of outsourcing which combines both a digitally-based service combined with human service. Thus Total Attorneys also provides "virtual receptionist services", and at one point virtual support services to bankruptcy law firms. One management solution for solos and small law firms it to out source to independent specialized companies functions which can be done more effectively and at less cost than the law firm can do itself using internal resources.
It is good to see competition heating up in the eLawyering space, which has been moribund for a long period of time. The eLawyering Task Force of the Law Practice Management Section of the ABA was created in 2000, more than a decade ago. For many years there was not much to report in terms of the innovative delivery of on-line legal services by law firms. The last 2 years has witnessed an explosion in elawyering industry developments as lawyers adapt to change — caused by a severe recession, widespread unemployment of recent law school graduates, and the challenges created by consumers who are seeking lower-cost and "good enough" alternatives to lawyers, [such as LegalZoom.]
Competition among a variety of vendors provides choices to law firms. Competition focuses attention on the fact that delivering legal applications as a SaaS is emerging as a new paradigm for enabling solos and small law firms to access complex Internet technologies at a fraction of the capital cost of developing these applications internally. Private capital moving into the legal industry will create more choices for law firms, and as a consequence more choices for consumers.
Creative legal outsourcing will enable solos and small law firms to become more productive and survive in an increasingly competitive environment.
The Brits aren’t coming, THEY’RE HERE!
Tonight, PIERS MORGAN, 45, starts his CNN contract on air, replacing the redoubtable Larry King, 77, in the time-slot of Larry King Live. King avoided controversy. Morgan looks for it. He comes from his editorship of the London tabloids The Sun, The News of the World, and the Daily Mirror. Interesting choice. I was only aware of him as a judge on America’s Got Talent.
But last night I saw him as an interviewer on a 2 year old show from England, with his take on Hollywood in January 2009 from the British POV. Much has happened since then due to the economy, but one remark of his rings in my ears.
"Talent success in Hollywood is measured by how much money you make – for others."
That is so true, and is why so many lives fall apart when the talented souls are no longer useful to the real world, and are left with personal identity crises. I’ve always avoided the middle men, the agents and managers and press agents, since my child actor days and the following 33 years with the late Lynn Redgrave. Now? My bad!
Then I watched the Golden Globes. Host Ricky Gervais is not my favorite comedian, with his scattershot technique. But the shots he lobbed to any and all sitting there were what we used to call Home Truths, nobody being spared. And my question is, is America going through a phase of self flagellation? If so, then Morgan will last just so long as he’s put up with. But his style will obsolesce the likes of Barbara Walters and Regis Philbin for a while. However, middle America won’t like him at all. Will that translate into money problems for CNN, the advertisers and the like? CNN is in it for the money, and as long as it comes in, he’s there to stay. But I think he won’t last too long.
Good luck to him, a healthy change – for now. Look forward to real debate Oxford style, instead of the steady stream of one-sided right wing invective which flows from most well paid radio talk show hosts, who assume we are a nation of idiots, and ignore the fact that there are a lot of schizophrenics out there. But that’s a whole other subject!
Posted in COMMENTARY