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CCCA61_039-043.qxd:CCCA_V1No1_DriversSeat-FIN.qxd 02/07/2008 06:16 PM Page 39 T he brainchild of a techno-savvy group of corporate to file a certain document under a specific jurisdiction’s securi- counsel, Legal OnRamp (LOR) took flight in 2007. ties laws? Are there franchise disclosure laws in this province or That’s when Mark Chandler, general counsel of U.S- that state? Tbased Cisco Systems Inc.,called on the legal profession To find the answers, LOR members can search through dis- to adopt new technologies and reform itself out of its current cussion groups on a particular topic, contact members on their position as the“last vestige of the medieval guild system to survive growing “network” to seek assistance, even ask for follow-up in the 21st century.” information. From this standing start, in-house counsel can opt At issue is the method of communication between law to contact and hopefully, from the law firm’s point of view, hire departments and law firms.Historically,answers to even the most outside lawyers to provide more detailed information. basic questions are answered on a one-to-one basis. The law “Companies are engaged in intense global competition, seek- department asks, the law firm answers. ing efficiency gains,but law firms are not keeping pace,”says Paul In contrast, Chandler says he — and a number of like-mind- Lippe, founder and CEO of Qulas Legal Automated Systems, the ed GCs who jumped on the LOR bandwagon — envisioned a SiliconValley start-up that created and manages LOR. legal network, an online system that would “drive the transition Founded in cooperation with Cisco Systems to improve legal from top-quality legal information being provided on a one-to- quality and efficiency through collaboration, automation and one basis to being provided as an information service.” process re-engineering,Qulas seems to have tapped into a recep- That vision translated into Legal OnRamp (www.legalonramp. tive market. com),an invitation-only online network and information re-source “Mark [Chandler] gave a talk on the state of technology in the for in-house and corporate legal professionals.Less than a year old, law at Northwestern Securities Institute in Jan ’07 which got LOR is already shaping up to be a major testing ground for the picked up by Wall Street Journal’s blog.As a result, we were con- power of collaborative online networking in the legal industry. tacted by over 100 companies and 200 law firms seeking to join In truth, many basic legal questions can be easily answered LOR,” remembers Lippe, a former in-house counsel and execu- without a lot of research. How many days does a company have tive with various U.S. companies. Photography by Mark Stegel PRINTEMPS 2008 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 39