Leading Law Departments Share Advantages of Good Legal Process at Inaugural Law Department Operations Roundtable

CHICAGO, IL — (MARKETWIRE) — 09/28/12 — The inaugural Law Department Operations Roundtable took place on September 10 at the headquarters of CDW in Vernon Hills, IL and included presentations from some of the leading thinkers involved in law department operations, including David Cambria of CDW, Ted Jankowski and Mark Barron of Johnson Controls and Paul Zengilowski of Onit. The session was sponsored by Onit, a leading provider of business productivity and process management Apps.

Attendees were intrigued by three presentations. Paul Zengilowski led off with a discussion of the history of law department operations, where he pointed out that chief legal officers have been facing the same two biggest challenges — managing the law department’s workload and workflow — for the past 25 years. He foreshadowed the presentations to follow by suggesting the next wave of technology innovation for law departments will look beyond traditional matter and spend management systems and be focused on process initiatives that impact client service and attorney productivity directly.

David Cambria followed with a discussion focusing on the differences between systems of record, which host processes, and systems of engagement, which touch people. Cambria explained that systems of engagement are the future of technology-led innovation involving high levels of communication amongst the most valuable workers a company possesses. He also discussed CDW’s initiative to leverage data from their system of record to improve client service, and compliance with company and partner business programs.

Finally, Ted Jankowski and Mark Barron concluded with a case study on their experience with process improvement within Johnson Controls’ legal department. JCI is currently in the execution phase of its Legal Quality Improvement Plan which was initiated in 2008. To date, they have piloted, tested or are in development on 25 Onit Apps. The legal team has seen improved lawyer and non-lawyer engagement in predictable processes that focus on results. Additionally, JCI has seen improved accountability across these transactions and enthusiastic adoption among lawyers, largely due to the simplicity and flexibility of the Apps.

“Our goal is to help law department operations managers understand the value and implications of a focus on legal process and provide them with actionable ideas they can implement right away,” said Paul Zengilowski, Onit. “David, Ted and Mark highlighted innovative, yet real-world process initiatives that are driving significant business benefits within their organizations. Their results strongly suggest that legal process improvements greatly impact operational efficiency and enhance delivery and execution capabilities of attorneys and professional staff.”

Onit plans to launch additional events under the Legal Department Operations Roundtable umbrella. For more information, please visit http://www.legaldepartmentoperations.com.

About Onit

Onit was formed by legal software industry experts Eric M. Elfman and Eric A. Smith co-founders of Datacert, a leading provider of enterprise spend management software. Launched in early 2010, Onit deploys Onit Apps to simplify business process automation and improve business productivity across all departments and industries. The Onit App Builder allows business users to drive efficiency and productivity by combining business process management, project management, and information management into one easy to use tool so the user can create their own Onit Apps without having to rely on IT for support.

Businesses have processes for everything — whether it’s hiring a vendor or law firm, terminating an employee, submitting a contract for review, requesting a trademark request, obtaining an NDA, etc. Most of these processes are manual, paper intensive and cumbersome. With Onit Apps, processes are automated in a few clicks, responsible parties are notified immediately, and data collection is centralized. Onit doesn’t require any software to download or resources from IT. For more information, visit www.onit.com or contact 1-800-281-1330.