The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/1065281
26 The data collection and mapping were based on downstream systems and had complex requirements. Fish is an Intellectual Property (IP) firm primarily, which means its focus lies with Patent, Trademark, Copyright, and Litigation. At the time of launch, Fish additionally had practices in the Pro Bono, Corporate, and Regulatory areas. After launch IPR and Post Grant also became expanded areas of focus. As you can imagine, very different information must be collected about a Regulatory matter as opposed to a Patent filing matter focusing on semiconductor design. These differences led to customized views and in the case of completely different practice groups, customized workflows. Many Firm systems we integrated with, not only as cleared matter destination systems, but as data sources, and interactive parts of the approval workflow. The most heavily used system in the interactive workflow was Legalkey which is a conflict searching and clearance system. It had a built in API There was a lot of back and forth and a very iterative approach where each feature would be shown to the stakeholders when it was done. It wasn't all smooth sailing as there were many significant changes along the way, but what was developed was a custom system that filled the need of complete information needed to open a matter, keep us out of ethical issues, maintain our conflicts space, and ensure new clients were vetted for their ability to pay. The system we ended up with was called the Matter Intake Wizard (MIW) which had a long tenure and proved very reliable over its life. Launched mid-2007, MIW had New Client, New Matter, Matter Copying, General Inquiry, Change Request, and Lateral Hire capability at its start. These were supported by approval workflow, integrations with our firm systems, and conflicts searching. It would later go on to be integrated with a third-party conflicts database, and drive updates to and from various firm systems. T H E S T O R Y C O N T I N U E S Check out ProLaw Series - 2 coming January 2019.