New Orleans, New
Law:
Community Revival with Technology
"It is just not natural to speak
of New Orleans in the past tense. There is an element about it
that is timeless, that is always the present. The past in New
Orleans cohabits with the present to an extent not even
approximated in any other North American city."
"Why New Orleans Matters", Tom Piazza, (Regan Books
2005)
We
wish to thank all of our
wonderful sponsors.
Without you, none of this would have been
possible.
For
ongoing assistance and a chance for you to become involved check
out
Second Wind: Renewing Small Business for Greater New Orleans
As Director of the non-profit Legal Electronic Document
Institute and a member of the ABA Katrina Task Force, I have
been active in the ongoing renewal efforts in New Orleans. At
the recent request of the Louisiana Bar Technology Committee, I
have begun working on two projects.
The first is a free two-day legal technology session to
be held May 22-23 at the Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street in New Orleans, which will be followed by the
establishment of a centrally based Technology Resource Center.
The Resource Center will provide ongoing advice, resources and
support.
By way of reference, there are roughly 17 thousand attorneys
in Louisiana, half of whom work in greater New Orleans. All of
them were displaced by the hurricane and the majority of them
need a great deal of assistance in rebuilding their practice.
New Orleans, New Law: Community
Revival with Technology, scheduled for May 22nd and 23rd at the
Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street, is critical to jump start our
efforts and start teaching the attorneys about the tools they
could be using to get them back on their feet while the Resource
Center will be critical to help them maintain their practices by
providing access to resources not available at their homes (or hotel
rooms or trailers) and give them a professional setting where
they can meet
clients.
At this point, what we're looking for is
vendor support for our efforts. We believe these two
endeavors will be extremely successful since we have the full
support of the ABA and the Louisiana Bar however what we need
now are donations to proceed. Every company we've approached so
far, including numerous vendors at New York LegalTech, said they
wanted to help, no questions asked. Keep in mind that because
this is a very worthwhile cause, there will be no cascading
levels of sponsorship. We are simply asking companies to donate
from their good will and their varying degrees of ability.
I sincerely hope that you are willing to participate in this
urgently needed effort for the legal community in New Orleans
and I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Tom O'Connor, Director, Legal Electronic
Documents Institute
|
