Teaching Lawyers About Their Clients’ Industries

“It’s important for us to work with firms that really understand the industry, because you can always find a lawyer who’s going to tell you what the law is.” – GC of a venture capital firm

Clients are increasingly expecting their lawyers to understand their businesses and law firms are organizing around industry sectors instead of/in addition to practice areas. Are firms doing enough to actually train their lawyers to meet these expectations? 

In this webinar, one of the co-founders of Hotshot will moderate a discussion about providing industry training for lawyers. Topics covered will include: 

• Defining the knowledge and skills lawyers need to meet client expectations
• Ideas for formal and informal business and industry training programs
• How clients can be involved in industry training 
• How needs differ based on seniority and location

Also included will be a discussion about a recent collaboration between Goodwin and Hotshot in which they worked with Goodwin clients to create a training video on the life sciences industry. Other Speakers to include:

• Caitlin Vaughn, Senior Manager of Attorney Training, Goodwin 
• Dave Sorin, Co-Chair of the Venture Capital & Emerging Growth Companies practice, McCarter & English 
• Dan Smith, SVP and Head of Commercial Policy and Pricing, Dow Jones

About Ian Nelson:  

Ian Nelson is a Co-Founder of Hotshot, which is a startup bringing digital learning to the legal industry. Before starting Hotshot, he helped start the US operations of Practical Law Company where he was an attorney-editor and Practical Law’s head of marketing. While at Practical Law, he helped introduce the concept of know-how to the US and supported the company’s US launch.

When in practice, he was a corporate associate with Kramer Levin in NY. Ian received his JD from Hofstra Law School, where he was an editor of the Hofstra Law Review.

Ian has spoken and written extensively on innovation in the legal industry, focusing on topics ranging from professional development, digital learning and training to how to practice more efficiently. 

About Caitlin Vaughn:

Caitlin Vaughn is a Senior Manager, Attorney Training at Goodwin. She is responsible for managing various firm-wide training and development programs, including the firm-wide first year orientation program, Business Law Department orientation, and the Business Law Department junior ongoing training series. Caitlin was previously an Attorney Development Manager and an associate in the Technology Companies practice at Goodwin.

Prior to joining Goodwin, she was a program manager at the New England Clean Energy Council. While at the Council, she managed the creation of executive education and executive-in-residence programs in collaboration with Boston University and the Fraunhofer Institute, respectively.

Prior to law school, Caitlin served as a manager in the Information Technology and Procurement/Supply Chain strategic research groups at the Corporate Executive Board.

About Dave Sorin:

David Sorin is Chair of the McCarter & English Venture Capital & Emerging Growth Companies practice as well as its Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and Cryptocurrency practice. He focuses primarily on privately- and publicly-owned startup, early stage, emerging growth, and middle market technology, tech-enabled and life science enterprises, as well as the investors, executives, and boards of directors who support and lead them. Dave has a long track record of successful representation of growth companies, having been repeatedly recognized by well-known periodicals for a unique combination of legal acumen and sound business judgment. Most recently Chambers, the leading publication that ranks lawyers and law firms, named Dave one of the top lawyers in the US in the representation of startup, emerging growth and venture capital backed companies. 

He brings to bear his broad range of knowledge and experience in counseling enterprises and investors in diverse emerging growth markets, technology industries (including software, information technology, e-commerce, cybersecurity, fintech, artificial intelligence, virtual reality/augmented reality, and communications), blockchain, and life sciences.

Under his leadership, McCarter & English has become one of the leading, and most active, law firms in transactions for venture-backed companies.  In fact, it is a top-ten global law firm in several distinct categories according to PitchBook’s most recent global league rankings: third in the Mid-Atlantic, eighth nationally, ninth globally, eighth with respect to enterprise software, and sixth (tied) in global early stage company transactions.

Dan Smith is SVP and Head of Commercial Policy and Pricing at Dow Jones.  He manages the commercial strategy across Dow Jones, with a particular focus on solutions for corporate customers and partners.  Dan was previously Head of the Dow Jones Professional Information Business where he was responsible for all of the Dow Jones B2B solutions including Factiva, Dow Jones Newswires, Risk and Compliance and Venture Source.  Prior to that, Dan was Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Dow Jones.

Dan’s legal career started at Hogan Lovells in London, where he was a solicitor advising within the corporate and commercial department.  He has practiced law in London, Hong Kong and the US.  Dan’s specialism is in licensing software, news and data solutions with expertise as both a lawyer and business owner.

Dan has an MA in Law from Oxford University and is dual qualified, being a solicitor of England and Wales and, more recently, admitted to the New York bar.