Incisive Media’s Law Technology News today announced law firm and in-house law department winners in its sixth annual Law Technology News Awards program. The awards recognize outstanding innovation by law firms and law departments in their use of technology. Awardees in the law firm categories are: BartkoZankel; Fish & Richardson; Constance Hoffman, chief information officer of Bryan Cave; and Joy Heath Rush, director of training at Sidley Austin. The winner of the in-house law department award is the Vulcan Materials Company Legal eXchange Team, while Miriam A. Buhl, pro bono counsel at Weil, Gotshal & Manges was selected as the pro bono award winner and Donna Payne was named Consultant of the Year. These individuals and firms, plus vendor winners in 25 technology categories, will be honored at the LTN Awards Dinner, at LegalTech New York on February 2^nd.

“As in past years, each of these winners has demonstrated leadership, creativity and innovation in using technology to meet legal challenges and serve their clients. We applaud their achievements and look forward to celebrating their accomplishments at our upcoming LTN Awards dinner,” said Monica Bay, editor in chief of the magazine.

Most Innovative Use of Technology During a Trial: BartkoZankel created a system that helped successfully handle e-discovery for a groundbreaking anti-trust case involving more than 19 million electronic pages and 1,100 boxes of hard copy materials. The system is now available for other small firms and is gaining recognition for leveling the e-discovery playing field.

Most Innovative Use of Technology for a Pro Bono Project: To help make the practice of pro bono more effective and efficient for its 1,300 attorneys in 20 offices, Miriam Buhl and others at Weil teamed with Pro Bono Net, an organization that serves the public interest legal community. Weil became the first user of Pro Bono Manager, PBN’s new commercial software product that integrates content from the public interest legal community (including training events, volunteer opportunities and news) with powerful pro bono reporting, knowledge management and lawyer matching tools.

Most Innovative Use of Technology by a Law Firm: Fish & Richardson was selected for development of OutLaw, an in-house application that allows the firm’s attorneys to access their documents, docket and CRM contacts within Outlook; search the firm’s 9 million-plus documents; and enter time billings. OutLaw shows that a strong in-house software development team paired with motivated attorneys can create compelling and easy-to-use software.

IT Director of the Year: Constance Hoffman, CIO of Bryan Cave, was named IT Director of the Year for her ability to solve real legal and business problems, to partner with clients and to create innovative options. Examples cited by the judges included Web-based analytics developed by Hoffman to help client Wal-Mart gather and evaluate diversity information for their hundreds of law firms.

Consultant of the Year: Donna Payne from Donna Payne Consulting was named as the inaugural winner in this new category, introduced this year. She was recognized by the judges for her substantial contributions to both her clients and to the industry through volunteer participation and community activism.

Champion of Technology: Joy Heath Rush, director of training at Sidley Austin was selected for her 20-plus years as an innovator, leader and mentor, both within her firm and throughout the legal technology community. As president of the International Legal Technology Association, she has worked tirelessly to identify and promote emerging technologies, and to educate the legal community at large on them.

Most Innovative Use of Technology by an In-House Legal Department: Vulcan Materials Company receives 4,000 paper legal invoices each year from its more than 125 outside law firms. The company’s Legal eXchange Team developed a centralized system that accelerates legal bill review and approval, ensures compliance with predetermined billing guidelines and creates a comprehensive view of legal spending.

Law firm and in-house nominations were solicited throughout the year from the magazine’s subscribers, and through the publication’s Web site. The recipients were selected by an independent panel of three jurors, all members of LTN’s Editorial Advisory Board: Andrew Z. Adkins III, director of the Legal Technology Institute at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Fredric Lederer, law professor and director of the Courtroom 21 Project at the College of William and Mary, and David Whelan, director of the Cincinnati Law Library Association.

Additional information on the awards and winners will be available in the March issue of Law Technology News and on the magazine’s Web site at www.lawtechologynews.com/awards.

Law Technology News provides timely information and insight into the latest technologies, products and services available for the legal marketplace. Each month, LTN features new product announcements, as well as monthly articles and columns written by industry experts and senior law firm decisionmakers. LTN is distributed to more than 40,000 selected subscribers and is also available on at www.lawtechnologynews.com. The magazine is published by Incisive Media.

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