ONE400 Wins Innovators Award

Originally published October 24, 2014 in The Recorder.

The Recorder has named 25 winners of its first-ever Innovators awards, which honor original approaches to improving delivery of legal services to clients of all kinds. The honorees were chosen by The Recorder’s editorial team, and come from large and small law firms, legal departments, startups, nonprofits and academia.

• • Julio Avalos, GitHub
    The GC’s legal department is open-sourcing its legalese.
  • Itai Gurari and Adam Hahn, Judicata
    Judicata’s founders have created a tool that turns unstructured case law into highly organized data.
  • Bryon Bratcher, Reed Smith
    Bratcher’s brain-child, Periscope, analyzes data to improve results and reduce document review costs.
  • Michael Ward, Morrison & Foerster
    The MoFo partner figures out new ways to protect valuable vegetables.
  • Scott Rechtschaffen, Littler Mendelson
    The Littler chief knowledge officer has rolled out a series of tools that help employment clients flatten and predict compliance and litigation expenses.
  • Ray Gallo, Gallo LLP
    The firm founder developed software to ease the mass handling of claims in a post-Dukes world.
  • Ron Dolin, Stanford Law School
    He’s leading a movement to use legal technology and design to improve access to justice in underserved communities.
  • Josh Becker, Lex Machina
    The legal tech CEO is leading the way in leveraging data in litigation.
  • David Faigman and Marsha Cohen, Lawyers for America/UC-Hastings College of the Law
    These professors have created a new fellowship platform for law students.
  • Greg Nitzkowski, Paul Hastings
    The managing partner helped institute Matter Management, which guides lawyers down the most efficient paths and has helped improve realization rates.
  • Robin Feldman, UC-Hastings College of the Law
    The Institute for Innovation Law director’s Startup Legal Garage offers free legal services while providing law students real world experience.
  • Janelle Orsi, Sustainable Economies Law Center
    The nonprofit chief’s Resilient Communities Legal Cafe offers pro bono legal advice to small businesses at the heart of the sharing economy.
  • Daniel Lewis, Ravel Law Inc.
    More than 5,000 attorneys use the founder’s technology to reduce time spent searching for cases.
  • E. Julie Lee, eBay Inc.
    The legal program manager streamlined eBay’s RFP process for more transparency and cost predictability.
  • Roger Royse, Royse Law Firm
    The founder’s online document system provides for automated, DIY documents, but requires attorney sign-off to release the docs.
  • Craig Jacoby, Matt Bartus, Peter Werner, Cooley
    Championed by the three Bay Area partners, the Cooley GO site lets some-day clients get free advice, and generate basic business documents, on the fly.
  • Mark Radcliffe, DLA Piper
    The partner has been at the forefront of helping clients create corporate venture programs and drive innovation.
  • Allen Rodriguez and Eva Hibnick, One400
    The co-founders boost legal tech startups with help in marketing, growth and client acquisition.
  • Noreen Farrell, Joelle Emerson and Monali Sheth, Equal Rights Advocates
    ERA staff and attorneys are bringing scale to sexual harassment legal help, training more than 700 people at 21 organizations to aid would-be claimants.
  • Jennifer Hagle, Sidley Austin
    The Sidley Austin partner mentors female attorneys on social media use, co-authoring papers and developing the building blocks of their practices.
  • Gerard von Hoffmann and Bryan Wahl, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear
    The partners collaborate on KnobbeMedical, a portal to launch new medical device technologies.
  • Eugene Blackard, Archer Norris PLC
    The managing partner launched a client-service makeover that all but did away with the billable hour.
  • Garry Mathiason, Littler Mendelson
    The employment partner is building a robotics and artificial intelligence group for the not-so-far-off future.
  • Kevin Jakel, Unified Patents
    The CEO has put a new spin on the old patent-pool plan.
  • Carrie LeRoy, Skadden Arps
    More than 2,000 high school students have participated in the Skadden counsel’s program to prevent damaging social media practices.

The innovators and their ideas will be featured in a Dec. 8 special section and recognized that evening at an awards reception in San Francisco.