Legal Commentary

A jam-packed trip to California last week.

First, to the ALM conference in San Francisco, for  "Social Media: Risks & Rewards," which was awesome and nuanced. As expected, American Express' Mark Bisard got a lot of buzz during his discussion of the @AskAmex Twitter team. Check #LSMC to get a sense of the discussions. Expect to hear from Bisard on an upcoming Law Technology Now podcast!

In Palo Alto, I had a chance to catch up with IntApp's new prez, Dan Tacone, as well as CEO John Hall and mktg veep, Dan Bressler. We had a fascinating discussion at a terrific relatively-new restaurant,Resposado.

I also met with Law Technology News board members James McKenna, senior manager of infrastructure at Morrison Foerster, and Matthew Kessner, CTO of Fenwick & West, who both helped me understand how Bay Area firms are addressing technology as we all climb out of (hopefully) this nasty recession.

McKenna introduced me to MoFo's new CIO, Neeraj Rajpal, and we talked briefly about how establishing repeatable processes will be increasingly important. Kessner was joined by SharePoint guru Mark Gerow, oft-featured on LTN's pages and website, and Kevin Moore, IT director, and we pondered the changes that are confronting the legal IT community, including what appears to be a trend towards cutting back on IT staff.

As if on cue, I got home to find a message in my inbox from an East Coast IT leader, who said a rumor was circulating that at least three senior IT folks have recently lost their jobs. One, DLA Piper's Mary Pat Poteet, already is confirmed. Said senior partner Browning Marean via BlackBerry: "True. Sad day for me. Reorganization."

More details soon, as I reach folks for confirmations. Pop me an e-mail if you've heard any news: commonscold@alm.com.