SPONSORED
BY :
2B
| MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA
Mechanic’s Liens – Fixed Rate, Any State
CONSTRUCTION SANDBERG PHOENIX & von GONTARD P.C.
CONGRATULATES
QUINN MURPHY And the LienBuilder Team 2018 Top Legal Innovation Award Winners
»
Check out our LienBuilder Sandberg Phoenix video on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpQlRLj2Xls
lienbuilder@sandbergphoenix.com
844-383-8632
314·231·3332 800·225·5529 SandbergPhoenix.com Kansas | Missouri | Illinois The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertising.
3B
MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA |
Publisher’s Note PUBLISHER Liz Irwin lirwin@molawyersmedia.com EDITORIAL Editor, Cindi Lash clash@molawyersmedia.com News Editor, Rachel Webb Senior Reporter, Scott Lauck Staff Reporter, Nicholas Phillips & Jessica Shumaker Digital Editor, Allyssa D. Dudley ADVERTISING Advertising Director, Johnny Aguirre jaguirre@molawyersmedia.com Senior Account Executive, Gaibrielle Hauff-Bowen CIRCULATION & MARKETING Audience Development Manager, Disa Ehrler dehrler@bridgetowermedia.com DESIGN & PRODUCTION Production Manager, John Reno jreno@molawyersmedia.com Special Projects Supervisor, Kady Weddle kweddle@molawyersmedia.com ADMINISTRATION Accounting Assistant, Kathleen Travis ktravis@molawyersmedia.com www.molawyersmedia.com 319 N. 4th Street, 5th Floor • St. Louis, MO 63102 1-800-635-5297
Like most of us, innovators probably don’t own a shiny crystal ball. Still, they seem to have crystal-ball-like qualities when it comes to their soothsaying. They don’t wait for things to happen. They foretell a need and find a solution before most of us realize its requirement. You might call them trailblazers, leaders or transformers. We call them deserving. Missouri Lawyers Media created this new awards program to celebrate excellence in legal innovation across the state by recognizing attorneys, firms and businesses whose progressive work drives new practice areas, services and strategies. Top Legal Innovations Awards, through this inaugural class, spotlights quality, leading-edge work by attorneys and those who support the profession. And while we know Midwest lawyers are a clever bunch who are often underestimated, even we didn’t know how clever they are. From bitcoins to Opportunity Zones and points in between, these honorees lead the next legal charge, clearing a path for those who follow. It’s a privilege for our company to recognize these men and women who have made a unique contribution to a long-standing traditional profession. They’re the ones adding new relevance and expertise to a natural evolution of change.
PHONE (314)-621-8500 • FAX (314) 621-1913 E-mail: mail@molawyersmedia.com Circulation: (877) 615-9536
Enjoy reading the accomplishments of our honorees. There’s a big dose of inspiration to be found from each.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Subscription Services, PO Box 1667, Minneapolis MN 55480-9936. Copyright 2018. Missouri Lawyers Media, LLC. All rights reserved. We have prepared this material at substantial expense and for the sole, exclusive and personal use of purchasers and subscribers of this publication. You may not republish, resell, record, or otherwise use this material for any purpose, without the publisher’s written consent. We will seek legal redress for any infringement of our copyright. Missouri Lawyers Media, LLC is an equal opportunity employer and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bridgetower Media, 222 South Ninth Street, Suite 2300, Minneapolis, MN 55402
Liz Irwin Group Publisher,
MissouriLawyers Media
Missouri Lawyers Media
4B
| MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA
TOP LEGAL INNOVATION AWARDS HONOREES, BY CATEGORY: Emerging practice areas: SANFORD J. BOXERMAN ............................... 4 MAUREEN BRADY ........................................ 5
New services or products that support Missouri’s legal community:
KORB W. MAXWELL/ NANCY M. HAWES ...................................... 6
MICHAEL D. FIELDING .................................. 9
JOHN TYLER ............................................... 6
RICHARD R. LOZANO ................................. 10
JAIMEE HALL/SARA STOCK ......................... 10 QUINN MURPHY ........................................ 11
Law firm business changes: KIRK A. DAMMAN ....................................... 7
POHLMANUSA ......................................... 12 ANNE POST ............................................. 13 MANU STEPHEN ........................................ 13
PHILIP KIRKPATRICK ...................................... 8
DEBORAH C. WEAVER ................................ 15
MATT KITZI ................................................ 8
DREW WINSHIP......................................... 15
C
E MERGING P RACTICE A REA
Sanford J. Boxerman CAPES SOKOL
apes Sokol’s entry into advising clients about blockchain and cryptocurrencies earlier this year was especially well-timed. The announcement of the St. Louis law firm’s new Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice in January — the first of its kind in St. Louis — coincided with a surging national interest in Bitcoin, a type of digital, largely unregulated currency that operates without a central bank. Cryptocurrencies instead rely on encryption to generate and share currency and verify transfers. A global network of computers records Bitcoin transactions in a digital ledger, or blockchain, in which transactions are organized into groups known as blocks. The Capes Sokol practice is chaired by Sanford J. Boxerman, a white-collar criminal defense attorney who first encountered cryptocurrencies while advising a client whose Bitcoin-related business became the target of a state investigation for potential securities-law violations. His client was found to be doing everything right, and the state closed the case without further action. Still, the case led Boxerman to learn more about the technology and join a related meetup group. He quickly saw opportunities for his firm to handle more blockchain-related matters, particularly in its tax practice. “There are a lot of unresolved tax issues that have arisen from digital currency,” he said. “It just kind of grew from there.” A St. Louis native, Boxerman studied business administration with a minor in political science during his undergraduate years at Washington University in St. Louis. He began to consider a legal career during an internship in the Washington, D.C. office of Missouri Sen. Thomas Eagleton. “I saw all these lawyers running around Washington, and I didn’t know if they were important but they seemed like they were,” he said. “I thought I’d go to law
school so I could be one of those people.” He went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1988. After law school, he joined Lewis Rice, where he worked for three years with Barry Short, a former U.S. Attorney and criminal defense attorney, until 1991. He spent the next three years as an assistant public defender in the City of St. Louis. From 1994 to 2001, he worked for the Clayton firm Rosenblum, Goldenhersh, Silverstein & Zafft, where he met David Capes, his current law firm partner and a former prosecutor within the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Tax Section. He left that firm to help found Capes Sokol, where his practice blends criminal defense and tax law. Quickly, the idea of handling blockchain and cryptocurrency matters grew beyond the firm’s tax practice. Boxerman said the firm’s leaders realized they needed to establish their own group. In addition to Boxerman, the practice group includes Michael Kahn, Michelle Schwerin, Douglas S. Dove and Andrew Blackwell. Boxerman said the team represents a wide variety of legal experience, from intellectual property to tax and securities law. “We wanted to cover a wide variety of practice areas,” he said. “I think we have accomplished that.” Since its launch, the practice has continued to pick up business and gain traction, Boxerman said. “Primarily what we’ve been doing is help people with the tax aspects of cryptocurrency,” he said. “But we have advised some people interested in starting blockchain and cryptocurrency. We’ve helped them with regulations.” He said it is cool to be at the forefront of a new legal practice, even though he is also continuing to learn more about the subject as he goes. “It’s kind of a challenge to pick out what has staying power and what doesn’t — trying to separate the Facebooks from the Myspaces,” he said. — Jessica Shumaker
5B
MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA |
M
E MERGING P RACTICE A REA
Maureen Brady MCSHANE & BRADY
ost people deal with HIPAA only in passing. When they visit the doctor, somewhere in the stack of paperwork is a form that says something about privacy, which they sign and hand back in before sitting back down. It’s not the sort of thing most of them think about — until something they don’t want out in the world makes its way there. “Those disclosures can have catastrophic effects on patients, because once it’s disclosed you can’t unknow it,” attorney Maureen Brady said. Brady has obtained millions of dollars for clients in cases involving medical-privacy breaches, and her own trailblazing work has made that possible. She has become the go-to authority on issues of medical privacy, developing CLEs on the topic and representing clients through her Kansas City firm of McShane & Brady. HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is widely hailed as the federal law that ensures patient privacy on the part of medical providers. The law actually protects healthcare providers by outlining the situations in which they may disclose patient information, Brady said. This distinction meant that patients had little legal recourse if a provider violated their privacy, as no course of action existed for them. That is, until Brady stepped in. “I would like to see more people be able to ensure their privacy,” Brady said. “Health care providers are giving lip service to HIPAA, [and] then they turn around and disclose [patient information]. They’re not taking it seriously.” A graduate of Michigan State University College of Law, Brady became interested in medical-privacy law when she worked as a civil-litigation defense attorney at Sanders, Warren & Russell. Her work often brought up questions involving medical privacy, such as whether defense attorneys could have ex parte communications with plaintiffs’ treating doctors. She became even
more interested after she started her plaintiffs’ firm in 2013. She worked on a case in which her client lost a child-custody case due to the release of medical records that disclosed he had received treatment for substance abuse. Brady realized that even though HIPAA is a procedural statute that did not allow plaintiffs to bring a cause of action, state laws recognized the importance of patient privacy. Brady has since recovered millions for her clients in cases with “Breach of Fiduciary Duty of Confidentiality of Medical Information” as a cause of action. “There was no precedent on it,” Brady said. “Nobody had ever done it before.” Brady’s victories in developing the area of law include a $17 million settlement in the Pennsylvania case of Beckett v. AETNA, a $1.6 million settlement in the Jackson County case of Cox. v. Valley Hope Associates, and a $400,000 settlement in Shorts v. Midwest Women’s Healthcare Specialists, when medical records for 1,500 patients were tossed in an open trash receptacle and scattered by the wind. Breaches of privacy most often happen when records-keepers release information without confirming that a court order authored the release, Brady said. Health care consumers should realize, however, that privacy guarantees are built into medical costs. Training staff and maintaining computer systems cost money, and those costs are passed along to consumers. This also means that providers have a fiduciary duty to maintain patient privacy, Brady said. Disclosures also often happen when health care employees get curious about patients who they might know personally and then relay that information to others, Brady said. “Everyone thinks ‘What’s the big deal? She stubbed her toe,’” Brady said. “The big deal is she has the right to keep that private, and you don’t have the right to know it.” — Rachel Webb
McShane & Brady Law Congratulates Maureen Brady on being honored with a 2018 Top Legal Innovation Award.
Your colleagues warmly recognize you for your expertise, dedication and innovation that is changing the legal field.
6B
| MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA
K
E MERGING P RACTICE A REA
Korb W. Maxwell and Nancy M. Hawes POLSINELLI
orb W. Maxwell spent part of the December 2017 holiday season reading about the new Tax Cut bill — then a major news story — and he ran across a provision that wasn’t getting much attention. Around the same time, Nancy M. Hawes, a Polsinelli shareholder in St. Louis, also learned about the provisions in the bill. The bill established so-called Opportunity Zones, which seek to direct unspent capital to investments in economically distressed areas of the country. Opportunity Zones aim to spur economic development and job creation in rural or low-income communities by offering tax benefits to investors. When the new year began, Hawes and Maxwell got to work, assessing how the program would mesh with their legal practice. In September, Polsinelli established its Opportunity Zones working group, led by Maxwell. “The leadership of the firm was unbelievably supportive of this,” said Maxwell, who is based in Kansas City. “We’re really happy to have a 10-month head start on this and help clients start funds and deploy this capital.” The program works when investors put capital gains into special funds, 90 percent of which must be invested in businesses or other ventures in a designated opportunity zone, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Investors who keep their money in a project for at least five years will see a tax break of 10 percent, and an additional 5 percent if they stay in for seven years, Hawes said. Also, taxes that are paid aren’t due until 2026.
T
E MERGING P RACTICE A REA
John Tyler
THE EWING MARION KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
he Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is acclaimed for its commitment to improving education and entrepreneurship through innovative practices. The foundation’s general counsel walks the foundation’s talk by advancing innovation in both fields. John Tyler joined the foundation as general counsel in 1999 and became its chief ethics officer in 2004. During that time, he has helped the Kansas City-based foundation as it used its roughly $2 billion in assets to improve the world by empowering people and communities through entrepreneurship and education. He’s also been busy on that front himself, as he helped to start the foundation’s charter school and works on the foundation’s grant-making efforts. Where he has truly been a pioneer has been his work to boost entrepreneurship, including education programs for entrepreneurs, and to improve access to capital, specifically new forms of business. Tyler has been at the forefront of establishing the field of social-purpose businesses, designed for entrepreneurs who want to make money but also have a focus on improving the world, much like the foundation for which he works. The entrepreneurs Tyler seeks to assist are looking for payoffs that are beyond financial profits in seeking to do social good. Ben & Jerry’s was a corporate pioneer in the arena, selling ice cream while emphasizing environmental responsibility and sustainability, Tyler said. “We’ve got this emergence of things like benefit corporations and social-purpose corporations, and low-profit limited liability corporations,” Tyler said. “Some of what I’ve tried to do is create awareness about these forms and the opportunities and challenges that they present.” Before joining the Kauffman Foundation, Tyler was a litigator at Lathrop Gage, working on cases involving trademark and copyright law, employment law and en-
“This is designed for fast and quick deployment of funds, which I think, candidly, will further send people to invest in areas where they would not originally invest because there is a critical mass based on the timelines,” Hawes said. “Instead of a one-off rehab in a distressed area, I think you’ll see much more influx of capital.” Missouri’s zones were developed to meet specific census criteria during the administration of former Gov. Eric Greitens, with input from local authorities, Hawes said. Dozens of census tracts throughout the state have been designated, including the areas of Jennings and Berkeley in north St. Louis County, as well as areas of North Kansas City and Independence. There are also zones in non-urban areas, including a zone that includes significant portions of Sullivan County in northern Missouri and large portions of New Madrid County. Polsinelli has about 21 attorneys working on the program. Its team is collaborating with state, regional and local planners to coordinate efforts so that areas with multiple zones and multiple investment funds will be more likely to reach success, Hawes said. “When you look at all other tax-credit programs, they are complex,” she said. “They are expensive because they’re so complex. This is, comparatively speaking, a simple program. Make no mistake, it’s a tax credit, but it’s me telling the federal government ‘I invested at 111 Main Street.’” The program is still being shaped, but Hawes said there are a number of industries and sectors that could be involved in it, including technology, housing and more. “This is a full-firm effort that we are trying to push forward,” said Maxwell, whose law practice focuses on real estate development. “It’s exciting to work on this and exciting that management has been so supportive.” — Rachel Webb vironmental law. During that time, the graduate of Notre Dame Law School also did nonprofit and pro bono work on the side. When the position at the Kauffman Foundation came along, it appeared to be an excellent opportunity, Tyler said. “As a litigator, there were a lot of creative-thinking and problem-solving and strategic-analysis skills that I continued to get to use and have them make a difference in a different kind of way,” Tyler said. Tyler’s work has led him to design a curriculum on the subject for Columbia University, author or co-author nine academic or law-review articles and become a sought-after speaker at conferences and guest lectures. Tyler became involved in the field in 2006, when he attended a meeting organized by the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., to gauge interest in businesses that emphasized social good and discuss whether new forms were necessary. In 2010, Maryland passed the first legislation establishing benefit corporations, and 32 other states have followed suit. Companies establishing themselves under this form include Plum Organics, Patagonia and Kickstarter. Interest has picked up since then, Tyler said. “There is increased attention to wanting to have the ability to make decisions based on outcomes other than profitability and maximizing investor return,” he said. “Both are good things. I’m not anti-for-profit, I’m very much pro-for-profit, but at the same time, I think there are benefits to having other options where there’s clarity around what the fiduciary duty is and what the legal accountability is.” His next focus will be bringing these new forms of business to Missouri through legislation. “I think there are some people that are wanting to start and grow their business in Missouri,” Tyler said. “They aren’t interested in forming out of Delaware; they want to be a Missouri business and would like to have some of the flexibility that comes with being a Missouri benefit corporation.” — Rachel Webb
7B
MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA |
F
LAW
FIRM BUSINESS CHANGES
Kirk A. Damman LEWIS RICE
rom Kirk Damman’s perspective, most patent lawyers serve big companies as “hired guns.” “Which is great — when you know what you want them to shoot at,” he said. But what about smaller companies who might have a great idea but no notion of how to protect it, how to market it or how to make use of the legal advice they get? That’s where Damman, a partner at Lewis Rice, comes in. While a large company might need a lawyer simply to file a patent application, Damman is able to bring big-firm help to small companies as they navigate the trickier question of whether such an application is strategically necessary or financially feasible. “In some sense, I’m trying to bring the concept of being an in-house counsel as outside counsel, and I’m doing it for companies that just have no way they could afford an in-house counsel,” he said. It’s a role that Damman sees few other law firms taking on. It’s an approach toward innovation that is, in its own way, innovative. “I think everybody should be doing that,” Damman said. “But I’m not sure they are.” Damman grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as the son of an entrepreneur who started, among other things, an HVAC company. Damman wanted to be an entrepreneur as well. He earned degrees in physics and economics at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, including a foreign study program at Kings College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom. After that, he’d intended to go to business school, but he was advised that he should get some other experience first to make himself a more attractive applicant. He applied to and was accepted at Harvard Law School, even though he had no intention of being a lawyer.
“I’m here because they wouldn’t let me into business school,” he joked. His legal education made him more interested in what lawyers did, however, and after earning his law degree in 1999 he worked as an associate at Foley Hoag in Boston. He did patent litigation — close in some ways to his original passion, but ultimately “too much civil procedure and not enough patent,” he said. Damman did have a chance to work with startups in Boston. So when he followed his wife to St. Louis in 2001 as she completed her post-doctoral studies, he looked to fill a similar role after landing at Lewis Rice. At that time, there wasn’t much of a startup community in St. Louis, but he helped to foster those firms that were out there on the cutting edge. “I can get involved in this exciting thing, which is people building something from scratch,” he said. Damman said his role is often to help the companies ask “Should we do this?” and not just “Could we do this?” For example, he said, a company with several great ideas might ideally want to file multiple patent applications. The reality, he said, is that the company “can’t afford one, much less five.” Instead, Damman is able to help find creative solutions to offer as much protection as existing resources will allow. “I feel like I’m legitimately advising them,” he said. “I don’t use that word lightly. I really see my role as being an adviser, that that is the purpose of a lawyer to advise them of what they should and shouldn’t be doing.” Lest anyone think that Damman just talks the talk, he also is an entrepreneur in his own right. He is quietly pursuing a startup that hopes to develop a baby bottle for premature infants. “I still have the entrepreneur bug,” he said. “It’s helped me understand my startup clients a lot better.” — Scott Lauck
rise to the top We proudly congratulate Korb Maxwell and Nancy Hawes for being honored with the Top Legal Innovation Award by Missouri Lawyers Weekly Weekly. In their legal careers – each spanning nearly 15 years – Korb Maxwell and Nancy Hawes have cultivated countless strong and longstanding relationships with colleagues, clients and community members. As passionate champions of Missouri and respected leaders within the profession, Korb and Nancy symbolize the very definition of legal innovation. Reaching greater heights.
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation congratulates
John Tyler General Counsel, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
for being honored with a
2018 Top Legal Innovation Award
Your colleagues and friends thank you for your innovation, inspiration, and leadership.
real challenges. real answers.SM Am Law 100 firm with 825+ attorneys nationwide 21 offices from LA to NY 170+ services/industries polsinelli.com The choice of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Polsinelli PC, Polsinelli LLP in California.
8B
| MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA
I
LAW
FIRM BUSINESS CHANGES
Philip Kirkpatrick RABOBANK
n the banking world, every loan is different. Or is it? Two years ago, Philip Kirkpatrick, then the senior deputy general counsel of St. Louis-based Rabo AgriFinance, launched an ambitious program to make better use of the wealth of data lurking beneath every transaction. “There’s predictability,” said Kirkpatrick, who is now regional general counsel of the agricultural lender’s corporate parent, Rabobank. “There’s so much predictability if you know the right variables to measure.” Kirkpatrick pioneered an unusual relationship between Rabo and the St. Louis law firm Thompson Coburn. Although Thompson Coburn serves as outside counsel, it has a small team that works out of the lender’s headquarters and is “fully ingrained” into its business. “One of the key business elements of that was to ensure that we had a partner who was willing to be flexible with us, to leverage tech, to measure the relationship and also, quite candidly, that we trusted,” Kirkpatrick said. To get the most out of the arrangement, Kirkpatrick’s team analyzed how many hours of legal work a loan should take to review. Loans are of varying complexity, involving factors that range from the amount of money at stake to the water rights associated with the property. Still, patterns quickly emerged: A typical loan ought to take no more than 15 hours of review. Above that threshold, it’s time to take a closer look at what’s going on. “We’ll never be right on every individual loan, but if we look at it from a portfolio perspective we can be pretty darn close on the average,” Kirkpatrick said. Rather than rely on the standard method of billing by the hour, Rabobank pays its counsel a flat fee — an arrangement that gives the law firm an incentive not to draw out the review process. Of course, flat
M
LAW
FIRM BUSINESS CHANGES
Matt Kitzi
ARMSTRONG TEASDALE
att Kitzi spent seven years honing a uniquely marketable skill. From late 2005 to 2013, Kitzi served as Missouri’s commissioner of securities under then-Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. As the country’s youngest state securities commissioner at the time, Kitzi oversaw the regulation and licensure of Missouri’s large broker-dealer and investment-adviser industry, including during the financial recession. Kitzi had worked as an associate at Armstrong Teasdale after earning his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2000. When Kitzi returned to Armstrong after his government service, it made sense to put that experience to work. “I knew everybody in the industry, having been their regulator,” he said. Two years ago, Kitzi launched ATGS Compliance Solutions, part of Armstrong Teasdale’s Government Strategies subsidiary. Kitzi realized that brokerage and advisory-firm clients needed a wide range of advice, not all of which necessarily needed to come from a lawyer or at the cost of that lawyer’s hourly rate. “I don’t think that’s a long play. I don’t think that’s sustainable,” Kitzi said. “You might be able to get away with that on a one-off basis, but you’re not going build trust and be able to keep clients if you’re overstaffing the work.” Instead, ATGS Compliance Solutions uses a small team of lawyers and nonlawyers to provide a one-stop guidance shop for its industry clients. Along with Kitzi, the heart of the practice is Judi Lahr, a longtime compliance professional formerly of the Missouri Securities Division. “She can provide some insight or guidance on those compliance issues at a better rate than I
fees come with their own potential for abuse as well. To combat that, Rabo cross-charges the legal fees to its individual territories and regions so that branches are accountable for their greater consumption of legal resources. Kirkpatrick is always looking for ways to wring greater efficiencies from the system, from streamlining conflict waivers to making special fee arrangements for monster loans that wind up taking 50 hours or more to review. While the company could always just bring that legal work in-house, having the backing of a large law firm makes it easier to cope with vacations, illnesses and unusually heavy workloads. Rabo reports that it has seen a 10 percent savings in legal costs and a 167 percent reduction in turnaround time for legal reviews. Kirkpatrick said the goal is to make sure the arrangement works not just for Rabo but also for Thompson Coburn, where Kirkpatrick began his legal career. “This isn’t a one- to two-year relationship,” he said. “We look at this as very long-term.” Kirkpatrick said Rabo looked at three firms to take on the project, though Thompson Coburn was hardly an unknown. After getting his law degree from Syracuse University, Kirkpatrick was an associate there from 2002 to 2005. That led to in-house positions at several other St. Louis-area companies, as well as a master’s of business administration degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2008. “That’s when I really started to pay more attention to numbers and the finance side of legal,” he said. Data analytics, he added, remains an area where law firms could move beyond their slow and steady approach to business. “We have all kinds of data, and the law firms do too, through their billing practices,” he said. “I’m just amazed they haven’t leveraged them yet.” — Scott Lauck can,” Kitzi said. “Clients gobbled it up. They really like to pay a better, more effective, efficient and competitive rate for experienced, knowledgeable, very good insight.” Kitzi and his colleagues’ relationships with regulators across the country often pay off. During his tenure as securities commissioner, Kitzi served on several boards and task forces for the North American Securities Administrators Association, as did Lahr. As a result, they often know the regulators who are asking questions of their clients and can narrow down the issues with a phone call. “Boy, that can really expedite and make more efficient those responses if you can drive right into what the regulators are looking for, rather than trying to guess at it or preparing a wholesale response,” Kitzi said. Of course, knowing everybody in the industry cuts both ways as well. A few of the people who had been on the receiving end of Kitzi’s regulatory job were still “pretty sour,” he said. “I had a lot of aggressive, adversarial and intense interactions with folks in the industry,” Kitzi said. “It took a while to build trust and build an interest among industry members for using me and my firm for services.” Because ATGS Compliance Solutions operates independently of the law firm, it is able to be more flexible on rates, allowing Kitzi to pursue flat-fee and other alternative arrangements that can lead to more efficient services. But having the backing of one of the state’s major law firms gives Compliance Solutions a lot of reach. “It’s not just that specific ATGS Compliance Solutions clients have the backing of a large law firm,” Kitzi said. “The large law firm clients have the backing of ATGS Compliance Solutions for their maybe specific or one-off needs.” — Scott Lauck
9B
MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA |
A
NEW SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT
MISSOURI’S LEGAL COMMUNITY
Michael D. Fielding HUSCH BLACKWELL
worried husband and wife came to Michael D. Fielding with a problem. A bankruptcy trustee had sued them, trying to recover $70,000 from them. Fielding began plugging numbers into an Excel spreadsheet, working to calculate their potential exposure. As he waded deeper into the process, he thought there had to be a better, faster way to analyze the data. So he made one. “The final product is a specialized Microsoft Excel file with just a boatload of programming,” said Fielding. Technically, that is true of Pref-Defend, the proprietary spreadsheet Fielding developed at Husch Blackwell, where he is a partner in the Kansas City office. But it functions more as software in that an attorney needs to enter only a basic payment history in Excel format in order to use it. The program automates much of the financial and legal analysis required to defend preferential transfer claims filed frequently in bankruptcy proceedings to “claw back” payments made to debtor’s creditors within the 90 days prior to the bankruptcy filing. Pref-Defend generates about 400 results, assessing key facts and showing an attorney where the best defenses may be found or the most exposure lies with in the case in question. The attorney also can run hypothetical scenarios in real-time and can forecast the likely settlement in a case. Pref-Defend also creates reports that can be shared with opposing counsel, clients or judges. “It is tons more efficient,” Fielding said. “What literally would have taken me a couple days [to complete] earlier, especially when my program was in its infancy, I can do in two to three minutes.” Those hours of savings translate into savings
for clients in attorneys’ fees without sacrificing accuracy, which in turn increases the value of the service he provides, Fielding said. Pref-Defend also offers a more complete picture of a case, for better or worse. Knowing when to settle as quickly as possible is just one more benefit of using Pref-Defend, he said.
“IT
IS TONS MORE
EFFICIENT .
WHAT
LITERALLY WOULD HAVE TAKEN ME A COUPLE DAYS
[TO COMPLETE] ... I CAN DO IN
EARLIER TWO TO
THREE MINUTES .”
“There [have] been times when I’ve used it . . . and I thought, ‘Holy cow, we’ve got terrible defenses,’” he said. Using Pref-Defend enables him to explore and analyze the defenses he is considering, while other attorneys may have just “scratched the surface,” Fielding said. Ultimately, that makes him a more persuasive advocate, and it’s given him greater knowledge of bankruptcy law in Missouri and around the country, he said. There have been times when his legal opponents have questioned the validity of the outcomes, Fielding said. But the Pref-Defend program allows him to essentially show his work — something that is particularly helpful in settlement discussions. “That’s the beauty of my program,” he said. “I just lay my cards on the table, so to speak.” — Allyssa D. Dudley
Leading toward better. At Husch Blackwell, we’re driven by the pursuit of better and believe that the talent, knowledge and perspectives of our people help our clients identify smart solutions, advance their goals and move forward. Congratulations Michael Fielding, a first-year honoree for Top Legal Innovation Awards.
Michael D. Fielding Partner
huschblackwell.com
4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64112 | 816.983.8000
Arizona | California | Colorado | Illinois | Missouri | Nebraska | Tennessee | Texas | Washington, DC | Wisconsin
10B
| MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA
F
NEW SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT
MISSOURI’S LEGAL COMMUNITY
Jaimee Hall and Sara Stock LEGAL BACK OFFICE
or attorneys who work in solo and small firms, the biggest struggle often is not the practice of law but running the back office. Bookkeeping, marketing, technology take up time, and in an industry that measures days in billable hours, that’s a problem. In June 2018, Jaimee Hall and Sara Stock established a solution: Legal Back Office, a company that enables small to mid-sized law firms to outsource their accounting, human resources and marketing. The company also offers consultation services for business development. “We do all the [administrative] work so lawyers can do the real work,” Hall said. Hall served as the chief operating officer and director of human resources and operations for Cordell & Cordell from 2012 to 2017. She led a back-office operation of more than 100 people that focused on strategic planning and other areas. Previously, Hall was the Leadership Development Director of CHAN Healthcare Auditors, an internal-audit company with more than 350 employees. Stock is a graduate of Saint Louis University School of Law and also earned an MBA at SLU. She was an equity partner at Lewis Rice when she started to see herself out-pricing her clients. She said she believed she could better serve small and mid-sized businesses from a small to mid-sized firm, so she founded Stock Legal in 2016, which has grown to 10 attorneys. Hall and Stock met in a CEO advisory group in St. Louis. The pair ended up discussing how Stock, even with her business background, had encountered chal-
R
NEW SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT
MISSOURI’S LEGAL COMMUNITY
Richard R. Lozano MONIKUR
ichard R. Lozano’s cell phone used to be a problem. As a St. Louis defense attorney, he needed to be accessible to clients. Traditional SMS texting, though, allowed for late-night messages from unknown numbers; it also constituted billable labor that was cumbersome to capture and monetize. He searched the marketplace for a messaging app that could serve as both a gatekeeper and a secure filing system, but he couldn’t find one. So he created it. With the help of his wife Kim and developers in Chicago, Lozano created the monikur app and rolled it out in August. Here’s how it works: Giving a client a link to your monikur profile, Lozano said, is like handing out your business card, only this business card prompts your client to download an app that creates a direct texting channel through both of your cellphones — and you, the attorney, have total control over that channel. Want to block texts before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m., Monday through Friday? monikur lets you set “office hours” for them. This function filters out texts at odd hours sent by clients seeking emotional, not legal, support. And it won’t even allow texts to be typed outside of the designated window, so there’s no danger the clients will think their texts are being ignored. Want to get paid for all of this texting? The app allows you to export all texts from one client within a date range, either as a PDF or as a CSV data file that is compatible with spreadsheets and billing software. If you’re an attorney who charges a rate of $300 per hour, and you use the app to bill just an extra one-tenth of an hour for texting activities, you’ll make your money back on monikur’s $20 monthly subscription.
lenges in managing the operations of her mid-sized firm. From that discussion, the idea evolved to combine Hall’s operations experience with Stock’s business acumen and knowledge of the legal community — creating a company to help attorneys manage their day-to-day work and achieve their long-term goals. For about six months they conducted research on the industry. “Every lawyer we talked to gave us positive kudos for what we’re doing because they see the need,” Hall said. In the five months since they established their company, they’ve gained as many clients. Although they initially expected attorneys to support the idea of handing over bookkeeping and other tedious aspects of running their businesses, Hall said she and Stock have encountered even more enthusiasm for the strategic planning and marketing Legal Back Office offers.
“EVERY LAWYER WE TALKED TO GAVE US POSITIVE KUDOS FOR WHAT WE’RE DOING BECAUSE THEY SEE THE NEED.” Stock and Hall said they have built their business in such a way that will make it easy to scale up as they add clients. It isn’t just a local endeavor, but a national — even international — opportunity, Stock said. The company is entirely virtual, with employees working from coast-to-coast. In the future Stock and Hall said they hope to add IT and call-center operations, as well as a one-year all-inclusive startup package for their clients. “The business case for this company is extremely persuasive,” Stock said. “When people start running their own firm, it can be overwhelming and lonely.” — Allyssa D. Dudley That subscription model relieves monikur of the burden of seeking revenue by selling user data. And because the system is end-to-end encrypted, even Lozano and his developers can’t see the contents of other users’ text conversations. So far, Lozano himself is using monikur to communicate with dozens of clients. He plans to attend several legal conferences in the next six months to tout the app’s virtues. In addition, he has arranged for a pilot program in the Missouri Public Defender System wherein 10 of its attorneys will try out the app for free and give feedback. The public defender’s administrators also will get to use a central control panel that allows them to access chats and contacts from their public defenders. Large law firms already do this with emails, Lozano pointed out. “Texting has become a primary means of communicating, and for millennials, it’s their preferred means,” Lozano said. “So we’ve created this control panel so organizations can have control and ownership over text conversations, not just email.” Lozano and his team are now developing two new features. One is a reminder function for both counsel and client. Its purpose is to reduce missed court dates. The other is a private-label version of monikur enabling law firms to customize their own app using monikur’s infrastructure. In the meantime, he said, monikur has plenty to offer individual lawyers like himself. “I’m an attorney first and foremost,” said Lozano, who earned his law degree from the University of Kansas in 1993. “I created this as a solution for myself, but there are many solo and small-firm attorneys just like me that have both benefited from cellphones and been tormented by them.” — Nicholas Phillips
11B
MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA |
H
ere is how Quinn Murphy, a construction attorney at Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard, summarized the birth of the online tool LienBuilder: “We went out and spent a ton of money so we could get paid less.” It started with complaints. Murphy kept hearing contractors and subcontractors lament that they weren’t getting paid — a standard gripe in construction. But Murphy also noted their impatience with the legal mechanism for court-enforced payment: a mechanic’s lien. That process, the construction companies concluded, was tedious, technical, and risky. A lawyer’s expertise often was necessary to prevail, but it was also pricey and not worth paying for if a crucial lien deadline already was blown. So companies were either trying to file the paperwork themselves or simply eating all losses under a certain threshold. Murphy and his colleagues wondered if software and artificial intelligence could ease the dysfunction. They looked at the options on the market. The only solutions they saw deployed either all humans or all software, and neither was ideal. They decided to create an A.I.-human hybrid: LienBuilder. The basic idea was to automate all tasks that didn’t require an attorney’s expertise or required it only once for all possible cases. Consider a construction company’s crucial first step: determining whether it’s too late to file a lien. Rather than have an attorney determine this on a caseby-case basis (while racking up billable hours), Murphy and his colleagues researched the lien laws in all 50 states and came up with algorithms so that a construction company could scan documents and enter data into LienBuilder and figure
NEW SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT
MISSOURI’S LEGAL COMMUNITY
Quinn Murphy SANDBERG, PHOENIX & VON GONTARD
out very quickly — before spending a lot of time and money — whether a lien still could be pursued. One reason companies are willing to do this, Murphy observed, is that LienBuilder charges a fixed fee, so it renders the process less of a gamble. “The value of predictability is what drives this,” Murphy said, adding that the next version could offer a way for construction companies to even automate their decision on whether to submit a matter through LienBuilder by linking the tool to the company’s accounting software. The current version has created other efficiencies, Murphy said. If you file a lien and still haven’t been paid, your next remedy is to ask the court to order a seizure of property and a foreclosure sale to ensure payment. LienBuilder can take a customer’s information that already has been entered and produce such a petition, which is then reviewed by an attorney before being filed with the court. After tinkering with a beta version of LienBuilder, Sandberg Phoenix rolled it out about four months ago. The firm, he said, is already doing “multiple dozens” of liens so far and has 10 attorneys taking cases through the tool. What would stop another firm from creating a similar, competing tool? Murphy mentioned two things. First, the up-front investment on the tech was formidable. “Frankly, it was shocking,” Murphy said. The other barrier to entry, he said, was a risk-averse culture at many big firms. He considered Sandberg Phoenix to have a more disruptive mindset. “The goal of this project was not to get more lien work,” Murphy said. “The goal of this project was to take over all the lien work in the entire market.” — Nicholas Phillips
Showcase your accomplishments
Reprints of Missouri Lawyers Weekly articles, news items and Verdicts & Settlements can add depth and style to your marketing program. These products are highly effective when you use them to: • Enhance marketing packages and press kits • Provide practice specialty literature • Develop direct mail and e-mail campaigns • Present information at conferences and seminars • Provide instant access to articles on your website
PDFs
Missouri Lawyers Weekly offers this versatile option for clients seeking a “one-size-fits-all” product. It can be posted on your website, sent out in emails or used to print your own hard copies. The one-time fee means you never have to renew your order. $495
Flat Rate:
Missouri Lawyers Weekly offers reprints, printed on high quality, bleach-resistant glossy stock that are suitable for framing. Size 8.5” x 11” 11” x 17”
■ Volume 27
Cost $176 $204
number 6
January 28, 2013
MissouriLawyers w w w. mol a w ye r sme d i a .com
WEEKLY
■ DefenSe VerDict
MissouriLawyers Your verdict or settlement goes here Tatur adis erchite omnia vel eum eiciet exero core, sunt dolorunt
w w w . m o l a w y e r s m e d i a . c by om Staff Writer Medical Malpractice
■Court: Beatem doloriam autem quias ■Case Number/Date: iame plaborro bla con ■Judge: ureri nonet utes ■Plaintiff’s Experts: ent reperciumqui is mod eium ut ea adit quate netureri nonet utestiatas con restrum harcidu nduciame plaborro bla conem ventia solupta dolupta sam et veleste maximposse pla vellori busdam audipsam aliberes cuptatem ut et arum fuga. Tatur adis erc) ■Defendant’s Experts: oloriam autem quias re dem sum adit hil et es idia volut ullent reperw wciumqui . m isomod l aeium w utyeaeaditr quate s mnetureri edia nonet utestiatas co ■Last Pretrial Demand: solupta dol ■Insurer: Tatur adis erchite ■Caption: solupta dolupta sam et veleste maximposse pla vellori busdam audipsam ■Plaintiff’s Attorneys: atur adis erchite omnia vel eum eiciet exero core, sunt dolorunt es ■Defendant’s Attorneys: dolorunt es necti voluptae nimperum quis sam, omnis et officipis estrum quid qui as aut fugiae rectumqui vit lique nossequia aut assinte c
Missouri Lawyers Weekly
Nonserferum dolor ad quam que audaes ra et laboreh enistiatem sequo erate rest ulpa volupta tescit rectiae niet alignimus sapelen imagnis et omnis as dernatis eos recto iume voloreped eaque eicidunt quatquiata int fugia imintiu sanihitas ditibusant laccus ut oditatur? Ficillu ptibus, si omnime velit enem dolor si dolupta essimin remporibus magnimpos moleste molestis estibus abora conseque parcide lecaecus quis eos qui quate aute int untorios comnimusae estiisque comnihicia . c verro o m incimus volupta amendus pre sit quam ut fugitis ipsus magnihi llorem quias el molo venihillaut eic tem. Pa voluptate lition conet rem quia saperferia doluptissit, earit mos et prem fuga. Nam am, illanienit, quoditatur as aut et explit, ex et et adite et acidern atibusam, alia num is dus et labo. Et odit volorrovide plam reribus tionseceatur re qui bero custiae a que mo te nos ilit, conserum, sectate nistia pratur sum volorepudi dolorruptas maio blat. Lis si rehenis estem aut ut invelig natur? Itatem veris coraerum nulparum, to verrum eria quia quos eatum rem apidunti officate conseri orectur aut idus reptas este volupta nobitiorum earum, coribus eos doloruptia int voluptatum repraturerum quis ulliqui bereniatis nis alique nonseriatur site veritaq uisseque cusam et odipsus dolupide nam quat. Tatem volo debit, offic temporunt eum ant lignim cum ut molum nobit voluptam, velluptatem ipsaped eosam dolorum eosam labo. Caborum re mo experem pelloribus res cone vendit ipit ped quist aliquis dest, volestionse ressequo odi omnis intorepre re verrum ant hicae pa vel mil iliti odictio. Nam que re volum de volore ipsa vitius, ne volorum experi vid eum quam quid que porerspero eniatur ma experio nsequam labor sequis dis aceptas perchil et, quatia ditatqui sus ipsam niminctem susdam, eatemod que odiciur aspeleseque culliquuntis et peliqui ommoluptam venihiliquos sapitio essusanis assequi dellaboreic tessint est aspe nobitatur, sinulli genduci psandan danihil icimust harum verum quo ommodita dolenis ressunt volorest, quat es quae la simusdaerum aliqui aditati oreperuntis et ipsum de sant laut faceper spient, volum harum sitate aborem inis anduntin rem volores dolore ne venihit labo. Di cor alicatur maiorem porpossuntur si dolesti aspeliqui nimoluptio dis et aut voluptae plicae cume quamus sus ad quatentur, vitatem neseque lacerspiet occulla consend itiisci antio eic to ommolum et officide dolut moditibus, ut ut arum am imagnatur sand-
WEEKLY
unt issint, earum nus reius, sapicabo. Est volo bea ad que eume peratur eptatium rae net faccull ignatis moluptat voluptat vitiant iantem cuptati orepel iduntia aspedia tquamus tiamet, cum faccum ea veliqui sinis nullamus persped millaborum que nia que molupta tusantur? Me nus essit, tem fugitaturit voloreheni atecte dolorei ciminct atiate simpor min nate volor molupta tiaeptae volor sin ratius aut aniet fugiate voloria tatque dolumet quam conem qui quiduci picate comnim estis Jane Doe evel eaquo eum harum qui cus ernam quis assi ut ut lia am eat parum idenitam re natest, cor aliquiatur aliquodis autatis si recaboratur aliciisquiat quo optam incte que velitaq uiatisi temolup tatumque nus as vendaerum vendam nonecum fugit ipsaped itemolu ptibusae corepelibus. Ihilibu stotam natatur, seque nonescienim qui ut maion rae accusci minvele ndeliquam quibus rem harunt idi dollabo ratiistiis et quod magnatios pro dolor aces inctur sequatur? Alit reribusda sandici umenis aborias quam res et et latio derum qui cupid que con nobis dolupta tectam, sintibus, earum fuga. Sunt la vit porehen imilluptatur andit rehenda ipsanimus eos unt vendus endione ventibus, commos dipsa volorrumqui repererum quae volupta tiatiis volupta sum que maio blaces el in everatem aut molorro exerciassit, quatis dolor re rent. Beaturit, niam, optatis simolorio. Doluptas qui dolupis ma parum rae prepudae con nimi, suntem qui consecae parum quam quidi anisin nonem nos magni alit facesto taturibus eum qui occae volor aut arum sitat labor reris rem ulpa porro everibus, qui vitae di venduci taquasped mil ipsuntis sapidus ratet, ut facepella sunt eveliqu oditiam reruptatiunt volo bero ipidunt.at eum ex et odipsandae que consed esequ
MissouriLawyers w
John Doe
Reprinted with permission from Missouri Lawyers Media, 319 North Fourth Street, Fifth Floor, St. Louis, MO 63102.
WEEKLY
© 2009
M APRIL 2018
Frameable Reprints QTY 1 1
WWW.MOLAWYER SMED IA.CO
Plaques
Deluxe black plaque with your choice of 1) black, gold or silver bevel, and 2) gold or silver trim. Plaque Size 11.5” x 14" 14” x 20”
Cost $367 $421
Rates do not include tax, shipping or handling. Requires 6-8 weeks for delivery. Alternate plaque sizes available upon request. Prices will vary. Alternate plaque
sentiment has started to make sense. “What you feel 30 years out has its own intensity, but it’s a deep heat that is completely different from the hotness of a new relationship,” she said. “It’s like those coals where you let them turn ashy; that’s when it’s really hot, not when you’ve got fire shooting up. That’s when they tell you to cook.” She laughed. “Being from Kansas City, of course I would have a referen ce to a barbeque grill.” The benefits of the low-and-slow approa ch rarely is apparent to the participants on her show. Most of those couples, she notes, have never been in a long-term relation ship or known anyone who has. The show appears to owe its success partly to the Cutlers’ mediation skills and partly to their ability to set an example. “It’s kind of, in its own quirky way, commu service,” she said. nity On an episode in Februa ry, they asked a couple explain why they still to wanted to be togethe r, despite the man’s mysterious year-long absence during their second pregnancy. The woman, who seemed to genuinely love her mate, said she liked his goofy jokes. “A good woman will laugh with you, not at you,” Keith said. “Well, she’ll laugh at you sometimes,” Dana responded, to audienc e applause. “Mr. Cutler, know, truth be told, you you get a little corny too, and I laugh at those corny jokes in spite of me.” “For the last 35 years,” he reminded her. Saving a relationship before it breaks down tirely is somewhat enakin to the practic e of law, where Cutler notes that the job falls “somewhere in the middle between minim izing risks and cleanup .” It was those same concerns that drove her to start Courageous Collab oration, a Missouri Bar initiative that encourages lawyer s, law firms and courts talk about the subtle to misunderstandings and biases that cause problem s across the board, from low partnership rates among minority lawyers to rampant substance-abu se issues feel pressured to perform among attorneys who . People spend too much time together at work, she said, without learnin show their co-wor g to By Scott Lauck Photo courtesy of The kers a measure of Missouri Bar. grace. slauck@molawye “We’ve got to start rsmedia.com won a Partnership having these kinds of converAward from the Americ sations for the health Association in 2017, of our profession, while “Couples Court”an Bar even if it’s ruth be told, Dana earned a Daytime recently painful,” she said. Tippin Emmy nomination. doesn’t like to be busy. Cutler Whether it’s about Tricia Scaglia, preside nt of the Association lawyer she’s compel But as a or possible infideli implicit bias in the workplace Women Lawyers of for led to note, “The ty in a relationship, Greater Kansas City facts don’t suppor t Dana Tippin Cutler, Missouri Lawye and a my position at member of The Missou all.” the Year, is the unchal rs Weekly’s 2018 Woman of ri Bar Board of Govern is a longtime fan of ors, tough but necessary lenged champion of having Cutler Cutler’s — in 2014, conversations. nary year. In Septem is coming off an extraordishe seconded Cutler’s nomina “If you’re creating ber, she completed tion for a leadership role the places where people term as president of her one-year those ganization. Cutler orcan The conversations, big has the perfect demean the first time a woman Missouri Bar, marking or small, then I just have your organization or to succeed with a program think is going to be that tion. That same month of color led the organizalike Courageous Collab much she said. better,” oration that requires particip Court with the Cutlers saw the premier of “Couples ants to talk about Cutler’s outlook on ,” the syndicated televisi things they don’t want to talk show in which she on about, she said. cation is a byproduct the need for honest communiand her husband, Keith of dispense advice to her “She’s Cutler, multi-d so ecade relationapproachable,” Scaglia ship with Keith, who trouble said. “She’s so also is a partner at “This past 18 months d couples. human.” Tippin James W. but not a scary one,” has been a real rollercoaster, Kansas & Associates, the small but wide-ra Just as Cutler the TV nging she said. “Just intense City firm that judge is a model for It’s hard to think of .” Cutlers began dating Dana’s father founded. The those with poor relation in college in Atlanta ship skills, Cutler apart on the spectru two accomplishments further ago the immediate m than the preside 35 past president of The ncy of a state- 10. and will have been married for 29 years years wide professional Missouri Bar (“the organization and a on June best title ever,” she said) remain TV show with the motto, “Don’t s a model for the diversi cheat Cutler is a little bemuse But there is a theme. if you can’t take the heat!” its leadership team ty d that her long has become one of wants to see. She’s her most marketable marriage just the third As bar president, Cutler African Americ But assets. she notes an lawyer ever to lead pioneered the Courag Collaboration program the organieous now-grown that, between marriage, raising three zation, though she’s to encourage law sons and ambivalent about the talk about issues of Keith have seen just running a law firm, she and historic race, gender, disabil firms to significance of her about everything a and sexual orienta term. ity, age encounter. She recalls couple can tion. Both efforts have “Whether you’re a accolades in their received lawyer or a kid who when she got marrie something her father told her to fields: Courageous wants be a lawyer, to see d: Collaboration people that look like years out. As she and that the real joy was about 30 you is Keith approach that important for them,” mark, that she said. “It was less important for me.” “Whether you’re a Cutler said the bar’s lawyer or a kid who board of governors is more diverse than wants to be a lawy ple that look like you ever and wants to be inclusiv er, to see peo- but it needs the is important for them e, state’s diverse array ,” she said. “It was of attorneys to respond. Perhap less ims it needs to hear the portant for me.” advice that Cutler once receive Dana Tippin Cutler, d from Leona Pounce Missouri Lawyers Thurman, the first y Weekly’s 2018 Woman African American of the Year woman to practice law in Kansas City, whom Cutler met as a child. She recalls the legendary lawyer’s raspy voice telling her: “You just go for what you want, Reprinted with permissio little girl.” n from
OMEN’S JUSTICE AWARDS
2018 WOMAN OF THE YEA
R
DANA TIPPIN CUTLER
T
Missouri Lawyers
To order, contact Ashley Alexander at 314.558.3203 or aalexander@molawyersmedia.com
Media, 319 North
Fourth Street, Fifth
Floor, St. Louis, MO
63102.
© 2018
12B
| MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA
W
NEW SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT
MISSOURI’S LEGAL COMMUNITY
PohlmanUSA MYCASE
hen PohlmanUSA decided to redesign MyCase, its online calendar-management and deposition-repository tool, it did not simply tweak the software and hope for glowing reviews. Rather, it convened focus groups and listened closely to what their clients needed. “They’re full of ideas,” said Alicia Hart, who was the architect of the redesign and serves as executive director of litigation support and technology services. “We’re constantly evolving.” MyCase enables attorneys to coordinate depositions with co-counsel, opposing counsel or both. It’s set up to cater even to attorneys working on complex litigation that involves multiple firms nationwide — and just as well, for St. Louis-based Pohlman serves thousands of firms each year, both in the U.S. and abroad. The new system is streamlined and intuitive. To register, for example, the legacy system required two page-loads; now it’s a quick dialogue box. The user interface is different, too. In the “Schedule” tab, you can establish the depo location, court reporter and any extra services that require coordination, such as teleconferencing or videoconferencing. In the “Calendar” tab, you can manage, for each deposition, the date and time, witness, case details and associated files such as notices of deposition, stipulation letters, signature pages and errata sheets. You also can set up email alerts in case there’s a last-minute change or cancellation. “We’ve heard from lawyers that we’ve prevented them from getting on a plane,” Hart said. The “Download” tab also grants access to depositions that clients already have ordered from Pohl-
man, even if it’s outside of business hours. Hart said this will be especially useful on the eve of a trial when attorneys are frantically getting their files in order. While Hart is obviously proud of MyCase, she calls its subsystem, MyCase TRAKS, the company’s most recent “pride and joy.” TRAKS stands for “Transcript Repository and Keyword Search.” It’s a digital library of approximately 110,000 depositions, primarily from cases involving toxic torts such as asbestos. Thanks to a recent acquisition in Baltimore, Maryland, the library is in the process of growing by about 40,000 depositions, Hart said. In MyCase TRAKS, the depositions are digitally searchable and keyword-indexed. The tool helps attorneys who are having trouble finding previous expert testimony or the testimony of co-workers of certain plaintiffs or defendants. It also helps lawyers pinpoint toxic products identified by specific work sites, and it allows them to search depositions within particular time periods. The new MyCase system was officially rolled out on Sept. 18, and it now has about 1,500 users daily. Hart said it has been very well received, and that clients are coming up with ideas for new features. “There’s constant communication and feedback,” Hart said. “They already have a laundry list of wishes and wants.” MyCase is not the only online web tool that Pohlman offers. It also offers MyDocServe, which is a service-list and online-docket-management system, and MyRecordsRetrieval, which provides file storage, management and encryption. Pohlman USA was founded in 1990 by Vicki Pohlman after she had spent eight years as a freelance court reporter in asbestos litigation and other complex multiparty cases in St. Louis and in Madison County, Illinois. Today, the company has offices in those two locations plus Kansas City, Chicago, Baltimore and Kalamazoo, Michigan. — Nicholas Phillips
Thank you, Missouri attorneys for recognizing MyCase™ with a Top Legal Innovation Award! MyCase™ is our online case management system designed so that our clients can schedule/cancel depositions, order transcripts, track depositions and more all at the click of a button.
For the past 28 years, we have provided law firms with the following technology-driven services from deposition to trial: Court Reporting - Videography - Records Retrieval Multi-platform Video Conferencing - Trial Services
Stay ahead of the law. Subscribe to Missouri Lawyers Weekly & receive the award-winning legal newspaper that helps you be:
• • •
more competitive. better informed. successful in a competitive market!
24/7 Global Coverage
877.421.0099 PohlmanUSA.com
800-451-9998 subscriptions@dolanmedia.com molawyersmedia.com/subscribe
MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA |
A
NEW SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT
MISSOURI’S LEGAL COMMUNITY
Anne Post
XAKIA TECHNOLOGIES
fter 20 years as a litigator, Anne Post left the full-time practice of law behind her to join legal tech company Xakia Technologies. She said the Australian company — whose North American operations are based in Kansas City — was an opportunity too good to pass up. “I thought it was an innovative, exciting product,” she said. The company, whose name is pronounced zah-kia, offers a solution to in-house legal teams looking to corral all of their legal matters in one place. The company’s name is derived from the Arabic word sakia, a water wheel of efficient flow. “The idea being, we keep information flowing efficiently through the legal team,” Post said. After graduating from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 1997, she joined the business litigation team at Shughart, Thomson & Kilroy in Kansas City. From 2001 to 2002, she worked at Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman in civil litigation. She went on to open her own litigation boutique, The Post Law Firm, in 2002. In 2017, Post left the full-time practice of law to join Xakia Technologies as its senior vice president. Post was the company’s first North American hire. While she loved her cases, she said she disliked the administrative hassles that accompanied them, such as workflow management, budgeting and reporting. She is passionate about using legal tech innovations to empower lawyers to focus on what they do best — practice law. Xakia is a reflection of that interest. Post said Xakia’s software was developed in response to the needs of in-house attorneys. In surveying the needs of attorneys, Xakia’s founder, Jodie Baker — a tech entrepreneur who lived in
L
NEW SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT
MISSOURI’S LEGAL COMMUNITY
Manu Stephen INVENTR
ike many innovators, Manu Stephen was inspired to seek a solution after he encountered a problem. The solution came in the form of a web app, Inventr, which Stephen invented and launched in summer 2017. The problem he sought to solve emerged during his work in a lab in the neurosurgery department of Washington University in St. Louis, where he developed medical devices to help people with brain, spinal-cord and nerve injuries. While working on a device, he had to determine if it could be patented. “I remember that process was really kind of difficult and convoluted,” Stephen said. “There’s technology that can help improve this process. That thought was kind of stuck in my mind.” As he and his colleagues continued to develop the device, “intellectual property and patents kept coming into the mix,” he added. “That’s where the spark for Inventr came about. There’s this area of the legal industry that’s ripe for innovation.” Stephen says the Inventr app uses artificial intelligence to help companies discover patentable inventions in 24 hours. “[It] provides a quick score and report,” he said. “You can kind of think of it as a credit score for an invention.” Stephen’s role as CEO and founder of Inventr is a culmination of experience in the worlds of both research and startups. He studied mechanical engineering during his undergraduate years at the University of Iowa. He moved to Missouri to complete his master’s degree in mechanical and biomedical engineering at Wash U. An interest in science from a young age steered him in that direction, he said. “I think I had always been interested in science in general,” he said. “Engineering seemed like a really
13B
Kansas City for two years before returning to her native Australia in 2012 — found that in-house attorneys routinely lamented the lack of information about what their teams were doing. As a result, the key components of Xakia are visibility and automated reporting, Post said. She added that the system was designed by lawyers, for lawyers, to be intuitive and easy to use. “A major challenge for lawyers, especially inhouse teams, is that they don’t have time,” she said. “The last thing that they have is time to sit down and learn some complex piece of technology that is supposedly going to make their life easier.” Xakia’s dashboard gets to the heart of the company’s interest in creating visibility. The dashboard allows general counsel to have an overview of all of the legal team’s pending matters. A particularly powerful aspect of Xakia’s software is its ability to collect data that can be turned into a variety of reports. The program has the potential to generate 17 different types of reports, from executive summaries to charts. Without that data or graphic representation, it can be hard for in-house teams to show their companies all of the work they do, Post said. “The idea is to start taking the legal work from just words and putting it into pretty pictures, which is what the rest of the divisions in the companies are providing from a reporting standpoint,” she said. The software is cloud-based, and companies pay a subscription per attorney to access it. Since Xakia’s North American launch in 2017, the company already has acquired more than 50 corporate clients across three continents. In Missouri, its clients include the general counsel for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority and BlueScope North America, an Australia-based company that designs, manufactures and erects metal buildings. — Jessica Shumaker good, practical application of that.” Stephen said he wasn’t interested in going into academia, but he worked in the lab to get more research experience. He also took on an analyst role at Cultivation Capital, which gave him experience with venture capital. Inventr is primarily aimed at early-stage companies, he said. The app also helps companies to find attorneys to work on their patents by providing the companies with a list of attorneys who have been vetted and preselected by Inventr. Stephen said companies often struggle with finding attorneys to handle their patents. “They’ll just Google ‘patent attorney,’ or they’ll reach out to whoever is recommended in their network and hope for the best,” he said. On the other side, patent attorneys struggle with finding clients. Stephen noted patent attorneys are especially excited about the potential to be connected with early-stage companies through the app. About 40 companies have used the app since its launch. Inventr also has worked with firms such as Lewis Rice in St. Louis. It also has partnered with GatewayVMS, an organization which administers the U.S. Trade and Patent Office pro bono patent program. Through the partnership, inventors who can’t afford legal assistance with the patent process can receive reports through Inventr. Stephen said it’s been an amazing process to see the company grow. “[Seeing it] evolve from being this one moment years ago of thinking, ‘Huh, this seems kind of frustrating, I wonder if there’s a better way to do this?’ to today, where I think we have carved out a better process — I’m incredibly excited about that,” he said. “I certainly feel very thankful to have learned so much in the process and have a great network of people to get that feedback from.” — Jessica Shumaker
14B
| MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA
day is about to get better
business is about to get better
Maybe all your business needs is a strong cup o’marketing.
617-249-2600 | molawyersmedia.thrivehive.com
15B
MISSOURI LAWYERS MEDIA |
G
NEW SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT
MISSOURI’S LEGAL COMMUNITY
Deborah C. Weaver
ALARIS LITIGATION SERVICES
etting documents and exhibits to outof-state depositions can be a costly, time-consuming affair for attorneys. A new product, introduced in the past year by Alaris Litigation Services, seeks to solve those issues by making documents and exhibits available to attorneys in remote locations through the touch of a button. The Alaris Online Platform, a web-based platform, enables attorneys to manage documents and exhibits electronically. Alaris CEO Deborah C. Weaver said the idea for the platform emerged from discerning a need to streamline exhibits and documents used at depositions. “Obviously, there’s exhibits used in depositions all the time,” she said. “We saw a need in this day and age to put technology behind it and get away from paper.” Alaris partnered with Devin Turner of FocalCast, a software startup company in St. Louis, to develop the platform. After beta-testing with attorneys, the company formally launched the platform and now is promoting it to firms. The platform may be used firm-wide or on a caseby-case basis, Weaver said. Clients pay a subscription to access it. “You might not look at it and think it’s for every case, but it’s very useful with those document-intensive cases and cases that travel as well,” she said. Weaver said the product is responsible for savings in time and costs, particularly when it comes to shipping exhibits to attorneys involved in remote depositions. Attorneys also may use the platform to add documents electronically, on the fly, she said. Attorneys who are not attending a deposition can share documents with other lawyers in real time. Already, attorneys have found the platform helpful
F
NEW SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT SUPPORT
MISSOURI’S LEGAL COMMUNITY
Drew Winship JURISTAT
or anyone who understands patent law, Drew Winship says the concept of what Juristat does is pretty simple to understand. For everyone else, he has a sports analogy. “At its core, we’re Moneyball for patent lawyers,” he said, referring to the statistical analysis made famous by baseball and the book and movie of the same name. Juristat assesses information gleaned from U.S. patent-case records to provide patent-seekers with information that helps to predict and improve their chances for success. Using data analytics, Juristat aims to inform choices on everything from the wording to use in a patent, to the attorneys to hire to the odds of success with an individual patent examiner within the U.S. Patent Office. Turning to another sports analogy, Winship said Juristat is creating a baseball card for all of the players in the patent system. “We deal with the theory that the people matter more than the law, and so far we’ve been proven right,” Winship said. Patents have been granted faster, more often and with less expense for Juristat clients than for those who don’t use the system, he said. Winship was an attorney at Brown & James when he began to develop Juristat. Although he wasn’t looking to give up his law license or stop practicing law, he said he found himself growing frustrated with big-firm politics. In early 2012 a friend invited Winship to attend Startup Weekend, an event held Jan. 27-29 in St. Louis that brought together business people and developers. At the event, Winship met “two random strangers” — engineer Bob Ward and analyst Jordan Woerndle. Woerndle and Ward were working on a “big-data project,” and they were in need of a big data set.
to their work, Weaver said. “Recently we had a client talk to us about how helpful it was to impeach a witness,” she said, noting that the deposition was occurring in another state but all of the attorneys involved with the case were able to access the same documents. “Everybody in the room was on the same page.” The platform is an extension of services Alaris provides for its clients in the areas of litigation, trial and mediation. As CEO of Alaris, Weaver has overseen other innovations within the firm during the past three decades. After attending Brown’s Business College, she began her career with Alaris’ predecessor, Taylor & Associates, as a court reporter in 1979. She purchased the firm in 1985. Through the years, Weaver oversaw several acquisitions of other firms.
“THE BIGGEST I’ VE BEEN ABLE
THING IS TO WORK
I ENJOYED .”
WITHIN AN INDUSTRY HAVE REALLY
The firm has evolved into Alaris Litigation Services, which has 10 regional offices and 71 employees. Weaver said she was encouraged to join the legal field by her father, who was an attorney. A court reporter she knew also told her it was a good career. “The rest is history,” she said. For her, seeing the company grow and continue to serve the legal community has been a rewarding experience. “Both in the people I continue to interact with, clients and employees,” she said. “The biggest thing is I’ve been able to work within an industry I have really enjoyed.” — Jessica Shumaker Winship said he introduced them to Case.net, “and their eyes lit up.” And “magically,” during a 50-hour weekend, the three strangers eschewed sleep to write the first version of Juristat and present it to the startup event’s judging panel. They won, even though two of the four judges — both attorneys from Polsinelli —voted for Juristat to take second place because they didn’t believe it was possible for its algorithm to work, Winship said. “And they said, ‘If this is real, lawyers are eventually out of business,’” Winship recalled. Polsinelli now is a client of Juristat. Two weeks after Startup Weekend, Juristat was incorporated. About a year later, it became Winship’s full-time job.
“I
WISH MORE LAWYERS WOULD QUIT THEIR JOBS AND START STARTUPS.” In an industry largely built on precedent, Winship said there was some initial difficulty getting attorneys to adopt the new technology. But now, six years later, Juristat has added one-third of the country’s largest patent firms to its client roster. Other notable Juristat users include 3M, Kyocera, Lewis Rice and Panasonic. Although his success has come relatively quickly, Winship said he isn’t content to just sit and wait for the next fly ball to be popped to him. In addition to maintaining Juristat’s current algorithm, Winship hopes to expand it internationally. He also is looking to develop workflow automation that will ultimately make it more profitable to be a patent attorney. Reflecting on his journey with Juristat to date, Winship said he also supports the development of more legal tech companies. “I wish more lawyers would quit their jobs and start startups,” he said. — Allyssa D. Dudley
2019 save the date!
January 25 | Four Seasons St. Louis We will honor Missouri attorney’s in the categories below: LAWYER OF THE YEAR Awarded to the Missouri lawyer who during 2018 made the most significant contribution to the law or the legal community. Like all the Missouri Lawyers Awards, the award is for accomplishments during calendar year and not a career award.
INFLUENTIAL LAWYERS Awarded to the newsmakers, those Missouri lawyers who made substantial contributions to the legal community in 2018.
LEGAL CHAMPIONS Awarded to plaintiffs or defense lawyers, not based on the size of verdicts, but the importance of the principle or policy at stake.
INFLUENTIAL APPELLATE ADVOCATES Awarded to the lawyers behind the most significant appellate decisions of the year.
LAW FIRM LEADERS Awarded to chairman, managing partners or other law firm executives who demonstrated extraordinary vision, innovation and leadership during the year.
For sponsorship information contact Johnny Aguirre at 314.558.3257 or jaguirre@molawyersmedia.com