Firmex is in the business of providing M&A advisors, lawyers and corporate executive staff a secure online data room for sharing critical operational, legal and financial documents with 3rd parties. Recently, a group of lawyers were convicted for trading insider information which was gleaned from picking through other lawyers’ client documents and another company was saved from losing all their documents in a fire by storing everything in their Firmex virtual deal room.
Firmex is in the business of providing M&A advisors, lawyers and corporate executive staff a secure online data room for sharing critical operational, legal and financial documents with 3rd parties. Not surprisingly, as the company’s CEO, I run into resistance from senior partners and executives about putting critical and highly confidential company information on the Internet. They are worried that it’s “not safe.”
Digital dictation is an efficient, time-saving alternative that offers lawyers many benefits over traditional dictation methods.
Most lawyers are familiar with old-fashioned analog tape dictation. First, you dictate into a hand held device, which records your voice onto a tape. Then you drop the tape, which holds an assortment of dictation projects, arranged sequentially rather than in order of importance, into your secretary’s desk. It’s a familiar song and dance and one that most attorneys despise. Eventually you receive the transcribed result of the dictation, which then needs to be reviewed, edited and returned to your secretary, who then must revise the document, return it to you, etc.
According to technology guru, Steve Blank, there are two types of risk for a Research and Development based company – market risk and technology risk. For example, technology risk applies to Life Sciences firms when they are searching for a cure for a terminal illness – it may take them 10+ years to prove the drug works. If they find the cure, however, there really is not a market risk; the product will be in large demand.
Recently, I have been reading Steve Blank (founder of 8 technology companies) on how to successfully take a technology to market. He has a tremendous blog with all his articles. Here is my summary of some of Mr. Blank’s key points.
In order to reduce the possibility of a recurring financial collapse, the SEC wants to bring greater transparency to the rating of structured debt products. The Firmex deal room offers arrangers a simple solution to comply with the SEC.
A common complaint by participants in the recent credit collapse is they did not understand what they were buying, rating or selling. Part of the reason for this lack of clarity is that the structured debt products CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligations) and related derivates products were themselves convoluted, consisting of large volumes of mortgages and other forms of debt which were aggregated and sliced into tranches with varying risk profiles.
Tips regarding how the iPad can be used by attorneys in their law practice.
I’ve had my iPad for a few weeks now and am slowly but surely discovering how it fits into my daily routine. After using it for a while, I continue to believe that the iPad is primarily a media consumption device, but it does have some utility for lawyers and will become increasingly more useful as more third party applications are released.
In late 2008 we at Firmex were discussing strategy around enhancing our data room service for client satisfaction and planning for the future. We identified the need for a benchmark to measure our success in delivering our service to our clients. We also needed a better understanding of how clients feel about we deliver, and what they need in the future to enhance their experience.
In late 2008 we at Firmex were discussing strategy around enhancing our data room service for client satisfaction and planning for the future. We identified the need for a benchmark to measure our success in delivering our service to our clients. We also needed a better understanding of how clients feel about what we deliver and what they need in the future to enhance their experience.
Handy voice command apps that transform an attorney’s iPhone into an information gathering and transmitting tool.
A few really interesting iPhone apps were recently released that could prove very useful to lawyers, each incorporating speech to text dictation into their platforms in various ways.
Digital Rights Management, commonly known as DRM, refers to the ability to protect various types of electronic media. In recent years, DRM technology has become topical because of its role in protecting digital music and movies that make their way online. However, DRM also plays an important role in the financial transaction world offering security to those who share documents online in Virtual Data Rooms.
Digital Rights Management, commonly known as DRM, refers to the ability to protect various types of electronic media. In recent years, DRM technology has become topical because of its role in protecting digital music and movies that make their way online. However, DRM also plays an important role in the financial transaction world offering security to those who share documents online in Virtual Data Rooms.
With cloud computing, just as with any other type of storage of confidential client information, lawyers have the ethical obligation to exercise reasonable care to ensure that the cloud computing provider will preserve confidentiality and security of the data.
Lawyers have ethical duties to protect sensitive client data. When it comes to storing information in “the cloud,” just as with any other form of storage, taking steps to ensure that confidential client data is protected is imperative. Unfortunately, there are very few ethics opinions that have been issued on this topic, causing many lawyers to fear the potential ramifications of storing confidential client files via the cloud computing model.
I am awestruck with the economic impact SaaS has had on the software industry in the last half decade and, I suspect, it will grow to be of similar magnitude to the Internet’s effect on newspapers, music and publishing. I have no doubt that the efficiencies SaaS drives will completely disrupt the software business and here are the reasons:
I was in the client-server business from 1993-2005 and since 2005 I have been in the SaaS business. I am awestruck with the economic impact SaaS has had on the software industry in the last half decade and, I suspect, it will grow to be of similar magnitude to the Internet’s effect on newspapers, music and publishing. I have no doubt that the efficiencies SaaS drives will completely disrupt the software business and here are the reasons:
