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A record crowd of ~ 2,500 legal professionals from 25 countries gathered in Las Vegas this month for the 2023 Corporate Legal Operations Consortium Global Legal Institute (CGI). Most attendees observed that the general energy of this year’s conference was higher than at any similar industry event in recent memory. The conference once again focused on transformations in legal operations, training, technology, and innovation, combining favorites from previous programs with new engagement features and education formats.

Data-driven decision making is a best practice that is increasingly becoming the norm in law firm management, and the library is no exception. Information professionals can leverage reputable benchmarking data to strategically support department decision making and position department needs to firm leadership.

Late last year, we shared the news that the private equity firm Renovus Capital made a strategic investment in HBR Consulting.  In the months preceding that, Renovus Capital had made significant investments in two other specialist companies also serving the legal ecosystem – LAC Group and Wilson Allen.  

The Federal Reserve Bank’s recent aggressive actions with raising interest rates, combined with leading indicators from both the equity and fixed-income markets, suggest that the risk of a recession this year is rising. As of January, the probability of the U.S. falling to an economic recession by December 2023 is now at 47.31%, according to the Statista Research Department.

On October 7, HBR Consulting premiered the sixth annual 2022 Benchmarking + Legal Information Services Survey (“BLISS”) results exclusively on our interactive dashboard website for the 71 participating firms. We want to extend another sincere thank you to all the firms who continue to contribute their time and provide insights by completing the survey.  Participating in the survey helps to support and inform the larger law firm library community with key benchmarking data.

HBR Consulting recently hosted over 30 legal operations leaders for our CounselCommand Community Update. CounselCommand is HBR’s proprietary, tech-enabled services solution that provides legal analytics to law departments looking to improve data visibility and gain better insights to make informed business decisions. CounselCommand allows law departments to gather and collectively analyze data from disparate sources to manage costs, reduce risks, and accelerate business decision making.

HBR Consulting recently held its second annual Legal Information + Knowledge Services (LINKS) Conference. I had the privilege, alongside industry veteran Jean O’Grady, Editor & Author of the Dewey B. Strategic Blog & Director of Research at Venable LLP, and moderator Peggy Chevel, Senior Manager at HBR Consulting, to present findings from this year’s Start / Stop survey. I have previously commented that this survey has for years provided outstanding intelligence and insight into buying patterns of law libraries, but having now reviewed the raw data, I am excited to see how it is overflowing with wonderful nuggets.

HBR recently concluded the second annual Legal Information and Knowledge Services (LINKS) Conference, bringing together information and knowledge leaders, managers, and professionals from over 70 law firms.

I recently had the opportunity to speak on a panel at ILTACON 2022 regarding effectively managing outside counsel guidelines. Here’s a synopsis of my thoughts following an engaging panel discussion and related audience questions.

Fundamental changes in the way that law firms operate today have transformed the nature of collaboration across firm networks and information systems.