International Legal Technology Association Names Morrison & Foerster Most Innovative Law Firm of the Year

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Reflecting its well-earned reputation as a technology trailblazer in the legal marketplace, the International Legal Technology Association has given Morrison & Foerster its Most Innovative Law Firm of the Year Award. ILTA, the legal industry's premier technology education and networking organization, selected Morrison & Foerster from a select group of the more than 1,400 members including global law firms and technology-focused boutiques. The award recognizes "outstanding achievement in creating and championing an innovative environment…and delivering exceptional business value."

Morrison & Foerster won for successfully leveraging SAAS (Software as a Service) automation in original and unique ways, including running scripts the firm wrote with Microsoft Powershell, to speed and facilitate the firm's upgrade to Windows7 and Office2010. The Morrison & Foerster technology department conceived and implemented a solution that involved 2,500 users in 16 offices across three continents; it saved nearly 10,000 working hours on the project and trimmed the anticipated budget by $750,000.

"For a technology-minded firm such as ours, ILTA's Most Innovative trophy is the equivalent of winning the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards," said James McKenna, Morrison & Foerster's Director of Infrastructure and Administrative Systems. "Our entire technology department worked feverishly during the past year to use automation in a brand new way. We forged a simple SAAS based solution that greatly sped up our rollout, while keeping our end users completely in the loop."

"Morrison & Foerster values creativity and excellence in problem solving, and that perspective was core to our success using ServiceNow," Morrison & Foerster's Chief Information Officer Neeraj Rajpal said. "As a result, Morrison & Foerster's applications are globally integrated and much easier to maintain, and the firm is now on the leading edge of infrastructure reliability and readiness."

Moving the firm away from Windows XP\Exchange2003's biggest challenge was to export all of firm's email archives to Personal-Storage-Table (PST) files and then import them into the new Exchange2010 system because Exchange2010 is incompatible with the firm's former archival system. The firm created a process to manage workflow migration that included data imports of critical information related to user footprint (mailbox size, share size and archive size), custom dashboards to track progress or problems with migrations, and tracking users' email responses.

"The ILTA award validates a breakthrough in how we refreshed our technology platform," Morrison & Foerster Chair Keith Wetmore said. "The greatest reward, of course, is a firmwide upgrade that works for our attorneys, staff, and clients."

ABOUT MOFO.

We are Morrison & Foerster — a global firm of exceptional credentials. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, investment banks, Fortune 100, technology and life science companies. We've been included on The American Lawyer's A-List for nine straight years, and Fortune named us one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For." Our lawyers are committed to achieving innovative and business-minded results for our clients, while preserving the differences that make us stronger.

CONTACT: AMY MERRIWEATHER
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SOURCE Morrison & Foerster