Sitting with the C-Suite: Hal Blackman, IST Management Services

This week, we are joined by Hal Blackman, the founder and CEO of IST Management Services, via WebEx.  IST calls itself the “Company with Passion,” and during this episode, Hal covers lessons learned in technology adoption, electronic records retention, and considerations for outsourcing eDiscovery.Hal has a business background and was hired by Marriott in 1981, where he learned the importance of employee empowerment.  Hal founded IST in 1997, and states that the company is “obsessed in everything we do, from technology and process management, to people programs, and we will stop at nothing to make sure that we exceed the expectations of our clients.”During our discussion, Hal shared that IST Management Services started out as a facilities management (FM) company in 1997.  IST grew over time to a national company, starting with two employees and expanding to the 1,800 employees that it has today.  IST provides services ranging from FM and eDiscovery to forensics collections and court reporting, with a client mix that is equally split between law firms and corporate legal departments.If you have any questions, please feel free to email the team at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you.LeanDiscovery: Sitting with the C-Suite is a series of interviews designed to provide in-house legal counsel with a birds-eye view of the eDiscovery marketplace, particularly its various technology and service providers. A key component of great eDiscovery management and execution is having a great supply chain. Sitting with the C-Suite is a forum to hear directly from the C-Suite of various eDiscovery providers about the marketplace history, current and future service offerings, and expectations of things to come. This is not an advertisement or endorsement of any of the speakers, or the companies, services and technology that they represent, by either the interviewer or Baker Donelson. The views expressed are those of the speaker. Baker Donelson’s eDiscovery team seeks to provide the best client value throughout the eDiscovery life cycle. If you have any companies or speakers that you would like to see featured, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].