Alextronic Discovery
Alextronic Discovery
An Electronic Discovery Blog covering News, Articles
and Thoughts for the Legal and Corporate Community Author: Alexander H. Lubarsky, LL.M., Esq. - alubarsky@enterusa.com - Tel. (415) 533-4166 OR 800-375-4222 THIS BLAWG IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE WEB SITES WWW.DISCOVERYRESOURCES.ORG OR WWW.DISCOVERYRESOURCES.COM


Friday, July 14, 2006

When will the West(tm) Be Won?  

I learned from an early age that the quiet kid who sat in the back of Hebrew school was not to be ridiculed for being a nerd, shy or a goober. The quiet kid usually ate our lunch when it came the grading curve. The quiet kid ended up with the chocolate gelt and the hamentashan. I learned that still waters ran deep. I have always respected the apparently inert. They have an innate ability to strike when the iron is hot and run into the sunset.

Speaking of sunsets, they happen in the West. What is not happening, though is West itself. Lexis/Nexis following the lead of the likes of Larry Elison of Oracle fame has made some very aggressive acquisitions as of late. CaseSoft (CaseMap), Dataflight (Concordance), Matthew Bender, Best Case Solutions, Applied Discovery, TimeSlips, HotDocs, TimeMatters the list goes on and on... Will it become impossible to practice law without having to pony up to the bargain hunting Brutches (British Dutch) who own Lexis/Nexis and who fear not throwing more of them coveted Euros against them weak greenbacks to own the industry? Will there be a backlash? Will attorneys welcome the Lexisization of the tools of their trade? Will the company truly be able to provide a flowing and somewhat seamless integration with their flagship research tool and the bevy of case management, time and billing, forms and litigation support software packages?

So why has the other giant of the West seemed to slumber? I would have bet my wacky pack collection that West would have snapped up Dataflight or perhaps some waning ED processing company which seems to be on life support (Dolphinsearch?) to get into the game. Is West waiting for the market to further soften? Are they just content owning the book and binder lot? Do they have a that ace up their sleeve or are they really just plainly missing critical opportunities to get some footing into the game moving forward? What on earth are they thinking?

Maybe West has the next 'it' litigation technology under wraps. Perhaps the perfect Frankenstein is just starting to heave its chest in some obscured and maniacal lab in Minneapolis. Perhaps not.

Still waters run deep, but not always. When Mr. Shapiro finally called on the quiet kid in the back, we braced ourselves for his words of brilliance. When all he could do was shrug shoulders and admit that he could not read the passage in Hebrew, we realized that his silence meant just what it was - there was nothing going on...

posted by Alexander | 11:10 PM

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Alex Lubarsky is a practicing litigator and legal technology enthusiast. He was elected to the California State Bar Law Technology Executive Committee in 2003. Alex is a certified trainer and regularly teaches litigation support. Alex is frequent guest speaker at numerous legal technology conferences and State Bar events across the U.S. and has authored articles for legal technology publications such as Law Office Computing and The Bottom Line.

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