One of my favorite newer categories of cloud-based legal software that has recently made its mark is litigation case management software. The current market for this type of software reminds me a lot of the earlier years for cloud-based legal case management software — there are a lot of new players popping up but it’s unclear which ones will rise to the top and lead the way.
One of the contenders in this space is Everchron. With Everchron, members of a trial team upload litigation documents into the software and then create a chronology. The documents can then be labeled, annotated, and organized within the chronology.
Of course, it’s one thing to describe how legal software works; it’s another thing entirely to hear from attorneys how they use the software. Regular readers know that’s why I write this column. My goal is to showcase how other lawyers are using technology in the hopes that by doing so, other lawyers will be encouraged to incorporate technology into their practices.
That’s why I recently caught up with Ellen Kenney, a litigation associate at Hueston Hennigan, LLP, a California law firm with offices in Los Angeles and Newport Beach. Among other things, Ellen handles intellectual property litigation, including patent and trade secrets cases, as well as employment-related matters and consumer class-action defense matters.
Ellen acknowledges that old-school methods of preparing a case for litigation — which include document summaries created in Word or Excel, printed hot document binders, printed witness prep folders, and even sticky notes — can certainly get the job done. But, as she explains, these methods have drawbacks: “The biggest problem is that it can be difficult to quickly locate the information and documents that you need. Another issue is that each member of the litigation team is typically working on one thing at a time.”
According to Ellen, by using Everchron, litigation teams are able to work collaboratively and more efficiently. “Its centralized platform, which includes tagging and search capabilities, is much easier to navigate, and we’re able to work together as a team to generate and build up a case file with everyone’s thoughts and analysis in one place.”
Read the rest of the post from Nicole Black at Above the Law.