For Immediate Release

Contacts:
Steve Kenney, Association of Legal  Administrators,
847-267-1395, [email protected]
Beth Anne Stuebe, International Legal Technology Association,
312-533-4127, [email protected]
Kat Seiffert, Legal Marketing Association,
312-673-4742, [email protected]

SALI Litigation Extension and Innovative LMSS Viewer
SALI Efforts Accelerate During Pandemic to Provide More Depth for Litigation Attributes While Facilitating Code Viewing with a New LMSS Viewer

Chicago, October 12, 2020 — The Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry (SALI) Alliance announced today prototype additions to the SALI standard for litigation and disputes, and a new tool to more easily access and deploy the LMSS taxonomy. Because SALI is an open standard, the SALI Alliance welcomes feedback and comments on the proposed new data categories and content.

By extending the LMSS, SALI adds new operational dimensions tied to dispute specifics, the initiative’s first deep dive into a service area. These enhancements address key litigation factors such as causes of action, motion practice history, and event and milestone definitions while answering questions regarding business objectives and risks. The standard accommodates litigation documents such as complaints and motions, handles specific litigation actions like presenting affirmative defenses, and factors in engagement terms such as fee arrangement and scope.

“SALI litigation extensions will provide the framework to delineate the intersections of legal business and practice,” said Jim Hannigan, SALI Standards Leader, and Director of Legal Project Management at Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP. “Through this planned expansion of the LMSS, SALI is bridging the gaps between legal client/consumer goals and practice, offering the means to catalog and document the substance of the legal services within the enterprise-level context of the matter. Doing this will better align service delivery and value with the practice.”

Today, SALI also announced its use of a new innovative tool to support the LMSS standard’s access and deployment. Using WebProtege, developed by Stanford, SALI can present the standards through an easier to consume format, with advanced features such as tagging, relationships, and embedded definitions. SALI believes that standards are most valuable when used, and this initiative will support much broader visibility into the standard’s content and what it can offer. For more information about accessing the LMSS viewer and content, email [email protected].

SALI has achieved significant milestones over the past year, including:

• Several firms completed live implementations of the LMSS codes in their internal systems, with many others utilizing the standard’s components.
• SALI has begun speaking with several cutting-edge organizations in the legal ecosystem; more to follow.
• A forthcoming code set for Areas of Law geared to Canadian practice, and the formation of a working group in Europe.
• The release of LMSS 1.0 in January 2020 represented a development milestone by providing a base standard for legal matter data interoperability to aid in the buying and selling of legal services and the improvement of efficiency and innovation in delivering legal services. LMSS 1.0 includes over a dozen code sets ready for use today.
• In December 2019, SALI announced the addition of the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) to its list of managing members. ILTA joined the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) and the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA), who provided the initial seed funding for SALI in 2017.
• By August 2019, SALI secured the commitment of early adopter law firms and law departments, including Microsoft.

“The wheels of change in the profession continue and are needed more now than ever. I am excited to see how the SALI standard is evolving into practical uses and applications,” said Toby Brown, SALI President and Chief Practice Management Officer at Perkins Coie LLP.

SALI Members

The SALI Alliance has as members the Association of Legal Administrators (founding member), the International Legal Technology Association (founding member), the Legal Marketing Association (founding member), Allen Matkins, Barnes & Thornburg Bloomberg Law, Clifford Chance, Cox Automotive, Fish & Richardson, GSK, Goulston & Storrs, Greenberg Traurig, Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn, Humana, Intapp, King & Wood Mallesons, Level 2 Legal Solutions, LexisNexis, McKool Smith, Mishcon de Reya, Pepper Hamilton, Perkins Coie, Prosperoware, Schulte Roth & Zabel, Shearman & Sterling, Shell, Thomson Reuters, Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, WilmerHale, Winston & Strawn, and Wolters Kluwer. SALI endorsers include the Association of Corporate Counsel, Baker Donelson, Buying Legal, Citigroup, Edge International, Foundation Software Group, LawVision, Institute of Legal Project Management, LegalShift LLC, Microsoft, Stinson. LEDES is an allied partner. Microsoft announced that it is piloting the standard as a first user at ILTACON 2019.

About the Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry (SALI) Alliance

The SALI Alliance is all-inclusive for firms, clients, organizations, industry technology, and service providers. SALI originated to ensure all industry stakeholders have a voice to shape the most useful and relevant standards to foster transparency.

Any company or organization can become a member at www.sali.org. Members can participate in defining the legal services market through regular SALI standard committee meetings.

Membership tiers are available for clients, law firms, solution providers, and other industry stakeholders.

The SALI Alliance promotes an inclusive industry neutral standard for legal industry transparency, efficiency, and innovation. It was founded by the Association of Legal Administrators, the International Legal Technology Association, and the Legal Marketing Association. Its mission is to create a common language for all participants for the delivery of modern legal services. Learn more at www.sali.org or on Twitter at @SALIalliance.

###

For more information, contact Steve Kenney, Association of Legal Administrators at [email protected] or 847-267-1395; Beth Anne Stuebe, International Legal Technology Association at [email protected] or 312-533-4127; or Kat Seiffert, Legal Marketing Association at [email protected] or 312-673-4742.