Must-See Legal Technology – Recommind's New MindServer Legal Matters & Expertise.
One of the fun things about being me these days is that people keep calling me to show me their cool new products.
Yesterday, I was on the phone with Bob Tennant and Kathryn Rakow at Recommind
getting a preview tour of their new MindServer Legal Matters &
Expertise, an addition to the MindServer Legal product suite that also
includes Enterprise Search. Matters & Expertise extends document
search to include a firm's attorneys, matters, deals, cases and
documents associated with any topic.
Anyone who tells you that
document and file management in many law firms are not disasters
waiting to happen are just whistling in the dark. I've commented on
this issue as I've wondered whether large firm document management systems are broken.
I've also talked with corporate counsel and corporate execs who have
told me that they are afraid to ask their law firms about the state of
the electronic records. They really doubt that their law firms can
produce anything like a “complete” file with all of their documents.
I've
been impressed with what Recommind has been doing for a while. After
they showed me a great demo a year or so ago, I was begging them for a
“personal” version of the search tools. They've, probably wisely,
decided that they had other business to do than create tools for me.
Here's
my reaction to MindServer Legal Matters & Expertise. It rocks. It
took me only a few moments to see the power and simplicity of this
tool. I realy like the way that the search tools focus on what is most
important to practicing lawyers in their work. Recommind has clearly
listened to lawyers' needs.
I like the way they've expanded the
search universe to include not just documents, but “back office”
systems and even designated information repositories.
However,
the breakthrough, at least for me, is the way the tool focuses on
matters and expertise. It makes it easy to find out who in the firm has
worked on certain types of cases or matters, who has experience with
certain clients or types of clients and other information that it
always frustrated me that I couldn't get in my years in large firms.
Is it enough to get me back to a large firm? If I learned a firm was using the Recommind system, they'd get my attention.
Here's what I liked best – you can see the benefits in just a few minutes of demo.
Recommind
is exhibiting at LegalTech in New York next week, so you'll get the
chance to see MindServer Legal Matters & Expertise there. Even if
you are not there, I suggest that you put this product on your
must-review list for this year.
I don't have any financial relationship with Recommind – I just like the people there and what they are doing. [DennisKennedy.blog]