Andre Davison - Winning with Diversity and Technology

Andre Davison was literally a sixteen year old student when he began his career in law firm libraries. Now the Research Technology Manager at Blank Rome's Houston office, Andre has taken a leadership role both within his firm with technology and diversity programs, and has been rewarded for his efforts with multiple awards. Andre was awarded his firm's Nathaniel R. Jones Diversity Award for his diversity efforts, and he was the American Association of Law Libraries' Innovation Tournament winner for his Seamless Access to Secondary Sources (SASS) which enabled lawyers and others at his firm to dive into the portions of research materials directly, and without having to worry about usernames, passwords, or client numbers.  Andre's work expands past his award winning efforts at his firm, and he has taken on leadership roles on the local level with the Houston Area Law Libraries (HALL) as the current President. The local chapters are a wealth of professional development, and local community efforts which he says brings a family-like environment to him and his peers.  How does your family describe what you do? Speaking of family, we share stories of how our families describe to others what we do for work. As might be expected, it doesn't always match the reality of the situation. Greg thinks that it might have been easier on his family if he worked at Walmart. We'd love to get more stories to put on the show of what it is that your family members think you do. Leave us a voicemail at 713-487-7270 or email us at [email protected] and share your story! Information Inspirations How Should Law Schools Adjust for Gen Z? Wake Forest Law School LR&W Director, Laura Graham wrote an excellent law review article which was featured as a Thursday Think Piece on SLAW. Gen Z's are very different from their Millennial law school predecessors. Learning and social styles are different and like it or not, law schools (and eventually law firms) are going to have to determine how to make adjustments for these new entrants into the legal profession. Greg would love to get a book club going on this topic, so reach out to him if you want to share ideas! Tech Trends and the Meeker Report The annual Meeker Report is out, and our past TGIR Interviewee, Stephen Embry has a review of how that relates to the legal industry. Marlene highlights three areas of how people educate themselves online with videos and podcasts. If you learn via podcasts (and we hope you do!), then the Kennedy-Mighell podcast covers this topic as well. American Law Firms in Transition This book from Randall Kiser just might be the next End of Lawyers? for the legal industry. Kiser discusses how law firms are still spinning the data of how healthy they are and ignore problems in their business model. WIth the recent collapse of LeClaireRyan, maybe firms might find Kiser's insights to be more relevant. Rise of the Alternative Business Structures (ABS) in the Legal Industry Our friend, Jordan Furlong has a series of Tweets covering the adoption of ABS in states like Utah, and in some Canadian provinces. Furlong says that we should be prepared for a “seismic change ripping through legal service regulations.”