I was very excited this week to discuss legal technology trends with one of the industry's most influential thought leaders, Monica Bay. I learned a lot and was fascinated by her knowledge on all topics ranging from cloud computing and social media to who will win the world series (although I hope her world series prediction is false).

Q: First off Monica, give me a little background on what you do?

Monica: I've been with ALM for almost 26 years; I currently am editor-in-chief of Law Technology News. As part of my duties, I write a daily commentary for the LTN Daily Alert, and write The Common Scold blog; broadcast Law Technology Now podcast, and twice-monthly LTN Videos; co-manage the EDD Update blog; attend and speak at conferences such as LegalTech New York and West Coast, and ILTA, and more.

Wow. That's quite a resume.

Q: With all this acquired knowledge, if you were to start a mid-size law firm from scratch, how would you build your firm from a technology standpoint?

Monica: I would talk to colleagues, read Law Technology News, attend LegalTech, and join ILTA, to learn as much as possible about current technology. Then I would hire the best possible CIO and project managers, have them take a needs assessment of ALL potential users, establish evaluation criteria, interview vendors, and give me their recommendations. I would devote a good chunk of our budget to technology, and would put special emphasis on remote access and "green" choices.

Well readers, there you go! Step by step guide to a green, technology forward law firm.

Q: What role should social media play in law firm marketing?

Monica: It is one of many marketing tools — firms and law departments must realize that social networking has tremendous advantages to any organization, but also has huge risks. We have had conferences on this and I wrote our April issue cover story on this. The next conference is Nov. 3

I actually remember reading that article. It's a must read for anyone interested in enterprise social media.

Q: What do you know now regarding technology that you wish you would have when you started your career?

Monica: Not to invest a lot of my disposable income into 8-tracks.

What's an 8-track?

Q: What are your thoughts regarding legal SaaS and cloud computing?

Monica: This is a maturing technology. It has tremendous growth potential as bandwith becomes cheaper and more effective. Wonderful green opportunities.

I totally agree, especially regarding the value of green technology.

Q: Can the Yankees win the world series this year?

Monica: Knee-jerk answer: OF COURSE. Serious answer: We first have to get past the red-hot Texas team. If we do, I'm rooting for my hometown San Francisco Giants. My mom and I are NYY fans, it will be big fun to go to the World Series in NYC and SF and irritate my brother and sister-in-law when the Yankees take it all.

As a Dodger fan, that would be the worst case scenario but I guess we can let the Giants have one year right?

Thanks Monica for joining me. Awesome insight and very useful information.

Post written by Danny Johnson of the NetDocuments marketing department. If you'd like to be featured in a NetDocuments Q&A, send a tweet to @NetDocuments or drop Danny an email at djohnson@netdocuments.com.