Tom O'Connor

Tom O'Connor is a nationally known consultant, speaker and writer in the area of computerized litigation support systems. He is a New England native who graduated from The Johns Hopkins University in 1972 with a BA in Political Science. After attending law school for one year at The University of Notre Dame, Tom returned to Baltimore and undertook a career as a paralegal specializing in complex litigation.

His initial exposure to a document intensive case came several years later when he assisted several public interest firms in Boston with a class action voting rights suit brought on behalf of patients at state hospitals. Over the years he has been involved in asbestos litigation, the Keating case, the San Diego Civic Center construction litigation, California class actions against crematoriums, national breast implant litigation, tobacco litigation on behalf of the Attorney General of Texas and various phases of the Enron litigation.

Tom's involvement with large cases led him to become familiar with dozens of various software applications for litigation support and he has both designed databases and trained legal staffs in their use on many of the cases mentioned above. This work has involved both public and private law firms of all sizes across the nation and, over the past several years, has expanded to include electronic document depositories and trial presentation systems.

A frequent lecturer on the subject of legal technology, Tom has been on the faculty of numerous national CLE providers and currently teaches a course on legal technology in an ABA approved paralegal program at a local college. He is also a member of the American Bar Foundation and the Governing Council of the Law Practice Management Section of the ABA. A frequent lecturer on the subject of legal technology, Tom has been on the faculty of numerous national CLE providers and is also a member of the advisory board of the national LegalTech conferences. A prolific writer on the subject, with articles in numerous legal publications as well as being the Editor of several legal newsletters, Tom is also the author of The Automated Law Firm, a guide to computer systems and software published by Aspen Law & Business, now in its fourth edition and The Lawyers Guide to Summation, published by the ABA.

Sometime over the past 15 years, Tom also found time to return to law school and acquire a J.D. He currently resides in the Puget Sound area with his eighteen year old son, Seamus. They hope someday to have their own float in the Krewe of Tucks Mardi Gras parade in which they ride every year, down the Mississippi down in New Orleans.