Peer to Peer Magazine

88 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | FALL 2016 Colleagues have described me as eccentric, peculiar, outrageous and other terms of endearment. Fitting terms for someone who has spent the last 23 years gainfully employed in the legal arena. And arena is the appropriate term, since it sometimes feels like a high-stakes winner-take-all battle! Working with the esquires has been very rewarding on both a personal and professional level. What makes it so special is the ongoing satisfaction of an exhilarating career in the areas of legal technology and litigation support. They have taken me first to a law firm and now to a corporate legal department, and I have learned about some important similarities and differences between the two along the way. Bedside Manners and Being Direct My legal career commenced in 1993 at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where I was responsible for applications including Aderant Time & Billing, PeopleSo HR and the iManage document management system. Those first weeks were a whirlwind of bold personalities, new systems and foreign terminology, including client maers, time entry, Wang, DMS and countless others. Any success I have had in a corporate legal department is in a large part due to the knowledge acquired at that law firm. With hindsight, it is obvious that aention to detail, prompt follow-up and communication skills –– or as one general counsel (GC) referred to it, "bedside manners" –– are the most important skills I honed working at the law firm. In 2008, I became a team member in the legal department of Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc. I vividly Culture, Technology and the Billable Hour: What I Learned Moving from the Law Firm to the Legal Department LESSONS LEARNED Culture, Technology and the Billable Hour: What I Learned Moving from the Law Firm to the Legal Department by Eric Lieber LAW FIRM EXPERIENCE

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