Revisiting IT Director of the Year Award Winners

Law Research News announced its first annual innovation award winners in five categories at LegalTech New York in 2004. Since that time, we've designated eight IT directors of the year, among other honors. Voting is underway for the 2011 awards, and now seems like a great time to revisit past winners for their thoughts at that time. I as well checked in with some winners about issues they're wrestling with today.

The inaugural IT director of the year award went to Craig Courter, at the time the chief operating officer at Baker & McKenzie. From 2000 to 2003, he as well served as chief research officer for the Chicago-based firm. Courter received his award for establishment of the Baker & McKenzie "Shared Services Centers of Excellence" program, "to provide improved research resources in the most efficient and economical way," according to the March 2004 issue of the magazine He helped choose sites based on "reasons of cost and accessibility ... some centers have already delivered cost reductions and reduced workload." Courter left Baker & McKenzie in 2007 and is now the chief operating officer for Perkins Coie; he's after all based in Chicago.

Douglas Caddell was named 2004 IT director of the year in the second annual LTN Law Firm Awards, for his work on transitioning Foley & Lardner's decentralized research operation "to a smoothly running, centralized infrastructure," we noted in LTN at that time. Caddell offered this after all-very-much-relevant advice: "Whether you are in a large organization, a smaller law firm, or a law department, the concepts and requirements are the same -- though the mechanics of how to achieve your goals may be slightly different. It comes down to reliable innovation, teamwork, and client service."

As IT director at New Orleans-based Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann, Janine Sylvas led the charge to right her firm afterwards Hurricane Katrina hit that city, and for this, she was the 2005 IT director of the year. Without emergency infrastructure in place offsite, she realized the firm might not survive the storm. Such as Stone Pigman's executive staff were evacuating, she was working behind the scenes, as described in an April 2006 LTN article, "already negotiating with vendors and integrators to replace equipment and get research systems up and running, via cell phones, landlines, text messaging, and any other communications device she could get to function."

Judith Flournoy, based in Los Angeles, has been CIO at Loeb & Loeb since 2004. At that time of the 2006 award, she was as well the president of the International Legal Innovation Association and served on ILTA's board. Flournoy was faced with the challenge of how to improve firm processes for re-used document content. She worked with her firm's innovation department to adopt a program they called "Dynamic Document Drafting", that "helps attorneys and other legal professionals use content multiple times, without document corruption," noted the award synopsis for that year. What's changed for her since she received the award in 2007? She wrote that Loeb & Loeb has brought on a new chief operating officer, and has continued to grow in spite of economic uncertainty. She as well confirmed that "client requirements related to security" is another pressing matter.

John Sroka was CIO of Duane Morris. He won the award in 2007 for innovative implementation of Voice over IP, "to minimize the opportunity of business interruptions," according to the March 2008 issue. His move to regionalize the VoIP system at that time was considered innovative, "Using 'Survivable Gateways' in non-hub offices and newer switching technologies in all offices, the firm can now route around problems and take advantage of the technological improvements in VoIP."

Constance Hoffman, at the time the newly appointed CIO of Bryan Cave won the IT director of the year award in 2008 for embracing "synergy between firm and innovation strategies." For instance, Wal-Mart asked her firm for help in expanding a business analytics tool to improve diversity information for its outside law firms, "Hoffman and research partner John Alber met with the company and developed a prototype -- at no cost to the client." Wal-Mart subsequently rolled it out to all of its outside firms afterwards beta testing.

The CIO of Parker Poe of Charlotte

Steve Fletcher is the CIO of Parker Poe of Charlotte, N.C. He helped create Parkway, a Sharepoint 2007 intranet portal that serves as a communications center for the firm. The March 2010 LTN story detailing his honor as well noted that Fletcher has "been active in many other research areas within the firm, including establishing a server-based replication of all of its core systems in its Raleigh data center." Since he won the 2009 award, Fletcher notes that he has received more recognition inside the firm and out, saying that, "In a business where there's little if any recognition, I'm a big fan of peer awards sponsored by LTN and ILTA. There are so many folks doing extraordinary things for our law innovation profession who deserve recognition." He as well advises movement away from a traditional focus on server and software as so then as networks, to "transition our attention to innovation that enables client service improvement and business development efforts."

Martin Metz, the CIO of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and the 2010 awardee for LTN IT director of the year, has a long career in information innovation at firms just as O'Melveny & Myers and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. A innovation pioneer, he was founder of LawPort, "which provided out-of-the-box intranet -- long previously Microsoft's SharePoint and others arrived," according to an article announcing his honor. David Whelan, a judge for the awards, said that Metz was chosen because of his long-standing role as an industry ambassador. And Metz offered this sage advice to his fellow IT directors: