Bressler Risk Blog

Our April Sponsor Spotlight from Inflection IT highlights an upcoming Risk Roundtable event they’re hosting at the San Francisco Offices of Cooley on May 12th): “EVENT: Risk Roundtable (San Francisco).” (As this is in my neck of the woods, they’ve invited me to attend and present, so I’ll be looking forward to connecting live with those who are able to join us!)

Event Logistics:

• Monday May 12th in the San Francisco office of Cooley. The session will run from 12pm – 2pm.
• Lunch will be provided, and we’ll be offering attendees complimentary copies of the 2024 Bressler Risk Blog Compensation Survey report.

Event Agenda:

We’ve set an engaging agenda, including several expert speakers, and aim to facilitate plenty of group discussion and exchange:

• TOPIC 1 — Risk Staffing & Success — Guest speaker, Dan Bressler (of the Bressler Risk Blog), will share some highlights from his annual industry compensation survey, including law firm risk leader commentary on industry staffing challenges, objectives, aspirations, and strategies.

• TOPIC 2 — Risk News & Perspectives — Mike Guernon (25+ year risk operational veteran and now Inflection Principal Consultant) will share advice on managing risk staff retention and development, and then explore several urgent and emerging issues on conflicts and new business intake. He’ll talk about important delicacies in managing client pitches and pre-engagement communication, the evolving Anti-money Laundering landscape, and recent risk news and decisions worth noting.

• TOPIC 3 — Risk Execution & Efficiency — Christopher Dove (20-year risk veteran and Inflection Intapp Practice Group Leader), will talk technology. Based on attendee interest, he’ll cover any or all of:
  • Intake “Healthchecks” & Maintenance — Why it may be time to revisit your processes, forms, data flows and more
  • Intapp Cloud Migration — What changes and what doesn’t when firms move to the cloud, and how the cloud provides opportunities to increase staff efficiency and expand risk capabilities.
  • Beyond Paper — Moving from paper PDF conflicts reports to more “interactive” options
  • Tracking Fiduciaries — If you’re not already, why your firm may want to start…

Interested in joining us in San Francisco?

• Given limited space, attendance is limited to qualified firms and individuals.
• Please submit your personal details here, and our team will follow up: REGISTRATION REQUEST — Risk Roundtable (San Francisco)

Our March Sponsor Spotlight from Inflection IT highlights a just-published article from principal consultant Mike Guernon. He’s been a leader in the law firm risk arena for over 25 years, and today shares his advice on selecting and supporting A+ risk staff in: “The Critical Role of NBI Analysts (aka ‘The Air Traffic Controllers of Intake’)” —

• “Every successful law firm deals with a steady stream of new clients and matters. Bringing that business on board in an efficient and compliant manner requires the disciplined application of policy, technology, information, and execution. At the center of this critical process, law firm risk analysts are the “air traffic controllers” — keeping everything running smoothly and safely.”
• “They must typically navigate and orchestrate parallel streams of activity including:
  • Gathering key data and details
  • Enabling effective evaluation of new business along criteria which may include ethical conflicts, regulatory compliance, and general business risk
  • Managing expectations of internal and external stakeholders”
• “Of course, every operational risk leader I speak with already understands this in theory. Today, I want to highlight specific qualities of exceptional analysts and explore how strengthening this function builds a foundation for broader success — that’s the opportunity I want to focus on today.”
• “Let’s start at the beginning. Analysts form the bedrock of your risk and intake department. There are two critical skill areas for anyone looking to excel in this role:
  • Ability to maintain situational awareness and anticipate challenges
  • Ability to navigate the complexities of data management, risk policy, and stakeholder needs”
• “When it comes to managing and motivating risk analysts to perform at their best, I would highlight three key recommendations for operational risk leaders…”

For more, read the complete article here.

Other Inflection It Updates:

• Intapp Software: “We’re excited to announce that Inflection IT is now an authorized Intapp reseller! Thinking about adopting Intapp risk and compliance solutions at your firm? We offer product license and implementation services with a unique cost model.
• Risk Survey: “We still have free copies of the BRB Risk Compensation Survey Report available to share…”
• Intrigued about either? Reach out to learn more!

Our February Sponsor Spotlight from Inflection IT focuses on their expanded relationship Intapp as a reseller.

They write:

• We’re excited to announce that Inflection IT is now an authorized Intapp reseller!
• Thinking about adopting Intapp risk and compliance solutions at your firm? We offer product license and implementation services with a unique cost model.
• Intrigued? Reach out to learn more!

Our January Sponsor Spotlight from Inflection IT focuses on their new enhanced Intapp service and support offering. They write:

• Your firm has made a significant investment in Intapp. It’s critical you get the experience and return you expect from that investment. Doing that means taking advantage of the full scope of product capabilities, tightly integrating other internal systems and data, resolving issues, and extending software capabilities over time to meet evolving needs.
• Intapp Assurance provides firms with access to Inflection IT’s expert technical resources and subject matter experts to accelerate their ongoing success with Intapp software.

Why Enhanced Support?

Having worked with over 300 clients, we frequently see firms face:

• support challenges that exceed the scope of Intapp’s standard or premium helpdesk
• short-term / modest service needs that don’t warrant spinning up extensive third-party consulting engagements or formal project initiatives to address
• internal resource constraints (technical and business analysis/process experts)
• a backlog of desired Intapp product enhancements, configuration changes, or integrations
• a need for assistance in defining your short or long term Intapp strategy
• a desire to be more technically self-sufficient, scaling internal capabilities to address product enhancement needs and provide additional internal support
• a recognition that it can be easier to secure approval and funding for external assistance, versus hiring and growing internal teams

Intapp Assurance provides firms with access to Inflection IT’s expert technical resources and subject matter experts to accelerate their ongoing success with Intapp software.

(It’s like an enhanced support contract, on steroids.)

To learn more about “Assurance” and how we work with firms to provide on-demand access to our skilled consulting team,  download our overview PDF: Inflection IT Intapp Assurance Overview.

Our November Sponsor Spotlight from Inflection IT focuses on Intapp cloud migration. They write:

• With new Intapp software now available only via the cloud, and rumors building about the inevitable “end-of-life” announcement for on-premises support, wise firms are making cloud migration plans and laying necessary technical groundwork.
• Others are already carrying out cloud conversions — taking the opportunity to execute these critical projects according to their own terms, timelines, budget, and resource needs.
• Early action today can significantly mitigate risk, cost, and uncertainty tomorrow. That’s because diligent assessment and planning enables organizations to secure necessary services resources, and work cost-effectively in phases, over multiple budget cycles.
• No matter your migration plans or timeline, Inflection can help shorten the way.

The Inflection Advantage

• An independent specialist, we are the only services provider skilled, certified, and expert in the entire Intapp product portfolio — on-premises and in the cloud.
• Our team has an unmatched Intapp cloud experience — having executed over 50 net new cloud deployments and over 100 on-premises to cloud migration projects.
• We’ve created a migration framework, including guidelines and unique technical assessment tools that deliver critical detail informing project scope and cost.

Cloud Migration Assessments

• Our Intapp cloud migration assessment provides insightful recommendations, plans, timelines, and indicative costs, enabling firms to chart the best cloud migration path.
• Using Intapp’s reporting tool and our own propriety utilities, we gather detailed data and metrics from your systems.
• We review and analyze these technical findings and evaluate your broader objectives. Those often include “big picture” goals — including timing, scope, budget and resources, as well as technical objectives — like functional needs,
  integrations, reporting and other requirements.
• We prepare and review tailored recommendations, a draft migration plan, and detail on cost management approaches.

To Learn More

• Whether you’re ready to conduct a thorough assessment, or are just looking to learn more about the process or early advice on your Intapp cloud strategy, we’re happy to connect.
• You can also read more detail on our cloud migration assessment approach (which we encourage any firm with end of year budget to consider as part of their 2025 plans) on our website here.

(And don’t forget that we have copies of the Bressler Risk Blog compensation survey report to share. Several firms have reached out in the past few weeks, and we welcome the opportunity to connect and support your risk management success on several fronts!)

I’m quite pleased to welcome a new sponsor to the Bressler Risk Blog and share news of a new opportunity for those firms who didn’t participate in the recent risk salary survey (or qualify for the “extended edition” report).

Joining our existing software sponsor (Intapp), is a premier provide of Intapp services and risk best practices consulting: Inflection IT.

As part of their sponsorship, they’ve secured the rights to redistribute the “Extended Edition” of the 2024 risk compensation survey report. So if you know these folks and reach out, I suspect they’d be more than happy to connect you with a copy. (And if you don’t know them, I’m sure they’d be delighted to get acquainted.)

For those familiar with the blog’s approach to sponsorship, vendors get a monthly “spotlight” post to highlight resources or developments of note, and a section in the regular email updates to do the same. The survey piece is a new experiment, and I’m truly delighted to have Inflection’s support enable broader distribution of the report — which several of your who have had a chance to review have sent in some kind words about, particularly the community feedback section.

(These sponsorships help support the work I do here. So anytime you mention the blog to a sponsor, it helps the cause and is appreciated.)

Inflection IT is an organization I’ve known throughout their 10 years of existence. Co-founded by Intapp alumni Steve Surrette and Jeff Armbrecht, they’ve been quite active. But I’ll let them (re)introduce themselves in this month’s Sponsor Spotlight:

About Inflection IT

• We’re pleased to support Dan’s efforts and this unique resource!
• For those who don’t know, we implement Intapp software solutions and have been at it for over 10 years. In that time, we’ve execute over 750 projects for over 350 client firms.
• We work with every Intapp product, not just risk. So if your firm is looking to migrate to Time Cloud, adopt Teams Workspaces, or modernize your CRM, we have the team and expertise to deliver.
• That team is now 30+ and includes a “who’s who” roster of Intapp and subject matter experts.
• On the risk front, we just added law firm veteran Mike Guernon to the team as a principal consultant (joining experts like Christopher Dove, Corinna Malin, and Susan Shevelenko). Our 10-strong risk team has executed over 100 Intake, Conflicts and Terms projects.
• Our 6-member Time practice is unmatched (including “Father Time” David R. Robinson, and Haydn Cross and Neil Timson supporting firms in APAC).
• We know Intapp Walls like no one else, having executed 400+ projects over the past decade. (Ready to adopt Walls Cloud in support of Copilot efforts? We can point the way.)
• And we’ve executed 50+ cloud deployment and migration projects, for firms ready to advance that inevitable journey.

Connect with Inflection IT:

• See what our clients have to say about working with us
• Read case studies about Intapp Time (Holland & Hart) and Intapp Workspaces (Dykema)
• Learn about our: Intapp Cloud Migration Assessment Consulting and Services

And reach out if you’d like a copy of the risk survey report!