A Word from the Editor: Privacy and Data Protection Issues Are Here to Stay
September 20, 2005
Privacy has been described as <i>"the right to be let alone,"</i> a phrase popularized in an 1890 <i>Harvard Law Review</i> article by the future U.S. Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis in which he expressed concerns about the threat posed by technology to an individual's control over his own personal information. At the close of the 19th century, the perceived technological threat to privacy was the spread of cheap photography and high-speed printing. Imagine what Justice Brandeis would think of today's camera phones, global positioning systems, employer surveillance of e-mail, and customer relationship management systems, not to mention the myriad other technological developments of the last 115 years.
Utah and Michigan 'Do Not E-mail' Programs Take Effect
September 20, 2005
Two states ' Michigan and Utah ' now prohibit the sending of certain kinds of e-mail messages to destinations listed on state-maintained registries. The new laws are directly at variance with the policy of the federal government, which so far has declined to adopt a "Do Not E-mail" list. But unless and until the Michigan and Utah registries are declared to be pre-empted by federal law, affected businesses should obtain and comply with those states' registries.
Developing Effective Information Security Programs
September 20, 2005
For many years, financial institutions and other entities that collect personal information focused on privacy as an emerging legal doctrine presenting compliance challenges and an array of business implications. These issues, while still important and subject to ongoing debate and tinkering, have become, for many financial institutions, an automatic component of ongoing business activities. Now, with all of the attention focused on security of customer information driven by the recent flood of news stories concerning security breaches in numerous industries, privacy's ugly stepchild — the security of consumer information — has moved to the forefront of concern, both for financial institutions and the various entities that regulate and oversee them. News stories reporting security breaches are an almost daily occurrence. New legislation is being introduced almost constantly, at both the state and national level. While financial institutions already face a raft of security-related compliance obligations, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and others, financial institutions and their important business partners have been a focus of many of the most highly publicized breaches.
Basics Revisited: Attributes of Intelligent Decision Support
September 06, 2005
With a multiplicity of advanced decision support tools now available to law firm managers, it's important not to lose sight of key criteria for appraising all such systems. To facilitate effective decision-making, the designers and implementers of any reporting or BI system should aspire to these attributes: decision usefulness, relevance, reliability, timeliness and understandability.
Up From Report Writers: How BI Excels
September 06, 2005
So what's all this excitement about Business Intelligence? You already have a pretty good report writer built right into your time-and-billing system. Your vendor provides over 50 pre-designed reports, each with selection options. Moreover, you have someone on staff that knows Crystal Report Writer. Isn't this all you need? <br>No, it's not. Today's law firm managers need more powerful and flexible access to financial information than canned or even custom-programmed report writers can deliver.
Delivering Actionable Information To Front-line Lawyers
September 06, 2005
Accounting and other enterprise systems amass information that is, almost by definition, not actionable by front-line lawyers. Volume of data is inherently at odds with actionability, and a good enterprise system must accommodate volume. It must account for every circumstance, every variable, every iteration. Much of this volume is chaff to lawyers. To be useful, the wheat must be winnowed out and presented to the pricing and staffing decision makers themselves (<i>ie</i>, not just to green eyeshade types deep in the firm).
Staying Competitive in the Lateral Partner Market
September 06, 2005
Over the years, it has become clear to me that being successful in the lateral market has as much to do with a firm's recruiting process as with the firm's AmLaw ranking. Those who understand the game, regardless of their size, regularly outperform those who just don't "get it." Below is an examination of some factors that separates the players from the also-rans.
Where Are the Gaps In Professional Development?
September 06, 2005
The legal profession is experiencing a renewed interest in professional development at many levels, as we predicted would occur when the situation changed from a buyers' to a sellers' market in the pursuit of talent. Not only are firms and their clients seeing an increase in work with a better economy, but also the change in the demographic picture as the large cohort of baby boomer senior lawyers start to transition out is significantly influencing the demand and requirements for professional development. More is happening on the training front; however, important gaps between what is being offered and what lawyers need in terms of skill and fulfilling of client needs are still evident.
