Jeff Jacobson Offers Insight in Legal Business World Q&A

In Legal Business World’s “How Litigators Can Leverage Data to Gain a Competitive Advantage,” Jeff Jacobson offered insight on business and competitive intelligence for law firms.

Jeff expressed the role data & analytics play in his practice. “The last thing you would ever want to tell a judge is that he or she is predictable because every case is decided on its own merits and is unique, yet if I know that a judge denies 95% of a particular kind of motion, or that a judge is more likely to react well to one particular argument versus another, it will help develop a strategy, particularly in a class action suit because it really does offer a number of off-ramps if you're creative enough to find them. But lawyers need to match the off-ramp to the judge and data helps to better understand a judge’s approach.”

When asked how critical it is for litigators to be aware of the most current technology available, he noted, “You need to be aware of everything because if you're unaware of it, one of your competitors is. That said, even though I want to be aware of everything and am excited about being the third one through the door, I'm a little leery of being the first one to deploy something brand new. With something like Trellis, the data is the data so there is no reason not to be an early adopter.”

Lastly, Jeff shared how he sees litigation evolving. “Prior to the pandemic, I would spend two days flying back and forth to California for a 30-minute status conference. Now, they are completed by video call, and I don’t think we are returning to the old model, but I no longer have a chance to look a judge in the eye and I cannot read the room as well on video. This means that data is even more important because if I am losing certain human interactions, at least I am armed with better information. While technology is removing some of the hand-to-hand combat aspects of litigation and replacing them with more analytical tools. If we are going to be technology dependent, let's have the best technology.”