2024 Diversity Summit – A New DEI?: Roadblocks and Pipelines

This year’s summit will be held viz Zoom on Friday, March 1, 2024
12:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET

The deadline to register for the Diversity Summit is Friday, February 23 (with zero exceptions). Please note, check payments will no longer be accepted after Friday, February 9 and any new registrations must be paid in full with a credit card.

REGISTER NOW!

Keynote
Angela Winfield, Founder of Blind Faith Enterprises LLC

Winfield is Vice President and chief diversity officer for the Law School Admission Council. In this role, she provides leadership, vision, energy, and a unified philosophy to LSAC’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on behalf of member law schools and the students who seek a career in law. Prior to her current position, Winfield was associate vice president for inclusion and workforce diversity at Cornell University, where she led the university’s affirmative action and federal contractor compliance programs, managed the university’s five identity/affinity-based colleague network groups, provided training opportunities for the 7,000+ member staff, oversaw religious accommodations, and served on the university’s ADA coordinator team. Winfield was a commercial litigator with Barclay Damon, LLP where she was voted a SuperLawyers Rising Star. Winfield is a certified leadership coach and motivational speaker and has presented to companies including 3M, Société Générale, and LexisNexis. She also is a member of the Practising Law Institute’s advisory committee on diversity, serves on the board of trustees for Cayuga Community College, and sits on the board of directors for The Rev Theatre Company, Reader’s Digest Partners for Sight Foundation, and Success Beyond Sight. Winfield earned her JD from Cornell Law School and is admitted to the New York bar. She earned her BA from Barnard College of Columbia University.

AALL PLLIP-SIS Members Presenting at Legal Week

Private Law Librarians & Information Professionals SIS members will be participating in Legalweek 2024. On Monday, January 29, AALL PLLIP-SIS members will present three educational programs tailored specifically to legal information professionals.

• “Bridging the Gap: Actionable Opportunities for Firm-Academic Technology Collaboration” / Leigh Zeiser (BakerHostetler); Patrick Parsons (Georgia State University College of Law); and Michelle Hook Dewey (Georgia State University)
• “AI Empowering Your Law Practice: From Selecting a Tool to Partnering with a Vendor” / Katherine Lowry (BakerHostetler); Elaine Dick (BakerHostetler); and Joseph Breda (Bloomberg Law)
• “Practical Implications of Generative AI in Law Firms” / Emily Florio (DLA Piper); June Liebert (O’Melveny & Myers); and Victor Chavez (Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton)

The full 2024 Agenda is available here.

Leader Profile: All in on Law Librarianship

Jeremy Sullivan, Senior Manager of Competitive Intelligence, DLA Piper

Reposted with permission from AALL Spectrum, Volume 28, Number 3 (January/February 2024), pgs 26-29

In what has become an all-too-familiar story, Jeremy Sullivan found his way to law librarianship by accident. After receiving his BA in history from the University of California, Davis, he struggled to find a job. Unsure of what to do, he remembered he had enjoyed working in a public library, so he decided to apply for a master’s in library science. “As soon as I got accepted into library school, I also received my first job in a law library,” said Sullivan. As a result, he ended up putting library school on the back burner for a few years while he gained real-world work experience. By the time he decided to get his MLS, he was all in on law librarianship.

Sullivan’s first job after completing his MLS was as a research librarian. “I had kind of been working as a research librarian at Morrison and Foerster, which was my first firm, and when I got a new job at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, I was a full-fledged reference librarian,” said Sullivan. He earned his MLS from San Jose State University in 2000. He stayed at Wilson Sonsini from 2000-2004 before moving to Morgan Lewis’s Palo Alto office as the solo manager of the library, a position he held until 2006. From there he advanced his career by taking on a position as a research services manager with Greenberg Traurig. He joined DLA Piper (U.S.) in 2010, beginning his career as a research and library services manager. After spending over six years in the role, he transitioned to manager of competitive intelligence and analytics at the firm. In his position, he provided oversight of the competitive intelligence research function at the firm, and routinely utilized, leveraged, and evaluated business and legal research analytics platforms with an eye toward uncovering knowledge and enhancing the firm’s competitive advantage. He recently became the senior manager of competitive intelligence at the firm.

Sullivan has been an American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) member since June 1998. He has been an active member of the Northern California Association of Law Libraries (NOCALL), serving as president from 2022-2023. He also served as a member at large for the Private Law Librarians & Information Professionals Special Interest Section. He is currently a member of the Council of Chapter Presidents. He is also a frequent speaker at conferences, including at the AALL Annual Meeting.

Here, he discusses generative AI, shares how his experience has propelled his career, and presents ideas for recruiting new members into the profession.

Practical Competitive Intelligence: The Thinker & The Doer

Reposted with permission from AALL Spectrum, Volume 28, Number 3 (January/February 2024), pgs 40-41

By Josh Farley, Coordinator Competitive Intelligence, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP

Why balancing tactical and strategic intelligence is vital to building a successful competitive intelligence function.

Competitive intelligence (CI) can help law firm marketing and business development (MBD) teams gain insights, identify opportunities, and avoid threats in a dynamic and competitive legal environment. But how should CI professionals approach their work? Should they prioritize tactical intelligence support for MBD activities—like profiling potential and current clients, gathering information for requests for proposals (RFPs), and matching conference attendees with the firm’s list of clients? Or should they devote more time and resources to strategic planning—such as monitoring industry trends, assessing competitor capabilities, and developing thought leadership?

The answer is not “either-or” but “both-and.” CI professionals possess a unique perspective that transcends firm silos. They have the ability to connect dots that may not be immediately evident to the MBD team, which is often focused on the day-to-day activities of their specific practice or sector. This insight also differs from the C-suite’s perspective, which, while maintaining a high-level view of firm operations, often lacks the bandwidth to monitor day-to-day activities firm-wide. As CI professionals, it is important to incorporate both roles into your position in a way that aligns with your firm’s goals and priorities. Below, I will explore the relationship between tactical and strategic intelligence in legal CI and provide a framework for finding the delicate balance necessary to thrive.

Upcoming Webinar!

Law Firm AI And CI: A Conversation (PLLIP-SIS)

January 24, 2024
12:00 PM CST
Register Here

The application of AI (a.k.a LLMs) has been focused on cases, statutes/regulations and complaint summaries. Recently, however, there have been efforts to apply these tools to CI/BI projects, with varying degrees of success. Our panel will discuss the application and limitation of these tools to Intelligence gathering projects as well as the potential for the future.

Takeaways:
1. An understanding of how AI can be applied to industry and company research.
2. The limitations of AI in Competitive and Business Intelligence Applications.
3. A sense of where we see this headed.

Moderators:
Mark Gediman, Senior Research Analyst, Alston & Bird
Kevin Miles, Manager, Research Services, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP

Panelists:
Jim Currie, Manager of Competitive Intelligence, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
Caren Luckie, Research Attorney, Jackson Walker
Jennifer Morley, Competitive Intelligence Analyst, Blank Rome