A quarterly magazine for our friends and clients | Spring 2015

BRIDGEWAY
QUARTERLY
A Bridge to New
Career
p. 4

What is Bridgeway
University? p. 12
Q1 Event Highlights p. 14

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPRING 2015

GREETINGS FROM THE EXEC

p. 3

CLIENT STORY: A BRIDGE TO A NEW CAREER

p. 4

LAW MANAGER p. 8
Q&A: HARRISON UNDERWOOD p. 9
WHAT IS BW U? p. 12
Q1 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS p. 14
DOCUMENT VAULT p. 16
EMPLOYEE STORY: FROM THE RUNWAY...TO BRIDGEWAY p.17
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: PLANT IT FORWARD p. 19
BRIDGEWAY U. p. 20
COMIC: THE ADVENTURES OF
MATTER MANAGEMENT MAN p. 21
BRIDGEWAY MAGAZINE
Editor: Abbey Peckis
Executive Sponsor: Jason Emanis
Designers: Kaveh Soofi & Christina Emanis
Writers: Stephanie Hashagen, Jason Emanis, Abbey Peckis, Chelsea Jochetz, Steven Beers
www.bridge-way.com
2

GREETINGS FROM EXEC

Greetings
from the Exec

ack Welch, once said,

several years after retiring
from GE, strictly speaking,
shareholder value is the dumbest
idea in the world. I could not
agree more. I do not understand
how our competitors can
claim to have a truly beneficial
relationship with their clients,
given they ultimately answer,
not to their clients, as we do,
but to nameless shareholders.
Bridgeways success is
directly tied to our culture of
relationships. Because we
are not hampered by quarterly
earnings targets nor shareholder
primacy, we are free to put the
client first.
We sell enterprise legal
management (ELM) software and
services to world-class brands
like Starbucks, Citigroup and 3M.
Our stability and growth over
the past 25 years has hinged

on our respect for the client,

thoughtfully listening to their
need and providing real-world,
in-house legal management
operations know-how. Like you,
the rest of the market has had
to choose between providers
that disrespect your intelligence
by showing loyalty, not to you,
rather nameless shareholders,
along with declarations that
software will solve all your
problems and miserably
poor, after-the-sell service. We
knew there had to be a better
way, so we created a company
possessing the flexibility,
character and competence to
solely focus on you and your
desire to perform at a high level.
Bridgeway is dedicated
to serving in-house, legal
professionals and helping
them reach their full potential.
The world in which in-house

professionals and their

companies compete is changing
fast. Bridgeway, more than any
other legal service provider, is
prepared and dedicated to their
success. If you are not already a
client, I hope that you will give
strong consideration to us as
your next business partner. If you
are a client, we cant thank you
enough for choosing Bridgeway
and look forward to your
continued success!

Pat ODonnell
Chief Executive Officer
& Co-Founder
Bridgeway Software Inc.

CLIENT STORY

A Bridge to a
New Career
by Stephanie Hashagen

Putting tech,
business, and
law together
to help legal
departments be
more efficient.
4

atrina Keiffer, Manager

of Administration at
Navistar, is a Pioneer in
Legal Technology. When most
people come down with a case
of career burnout, they try to
find other things to focus on.
Some enroll in continuing
education classes or do
volunteer work to find that
missing sense of fulfillment.

Others take a few days of

much-needed vacation time to
recharge. And still others dive
into new hobbies or interests.
But Katrina Keiffer isnt most
people. And when she began
to feel less-than-enthusiastic
about her very structured IT
career,
she took drastic measures:
She enrolled in law school. Law

CLIENT STORY

had always interested Keiffer,

and she felt that an extra
degree would give her a wider
variety of career options.
I had a computer science
degree, and Id found a job
working as a programmer,
she says. But it was very
structured. You started as a
programmer, and after two
years youd be promoted to
senior programmer, and then
every two years or so youd
move up another little level. In
twenty years, you might get to
be a manager. I just didnt feel
comfortable with that path. So,
I enrolled in law school.
Keiffer attended night school
at Loyola University Chicago,
heading to evening classes
after a long day at her IT job.
She took extra classes during
the summer. It was a tough
schedule, she says. But it was
worth the effort and she even
finished a little early.
Law school normally takes four
years but I plowed through
it and got it done in three and
a half, she says. I got my

J.D., and I got my law license. I

really enjoyed it. It was a very
interesting experience.

a good fit for me. Somewhere

along the line I just said, No,
thats not really me.

Pioneering a New Career

So, armed with years of IT

experience and a fresh law
degree, Keiffer set out to
forge her own path as an IT
consultant for companies with
in-house legal departments.
In this role, Keiffer helped
corporate attorneys use

After she completed law

school, Keiffer interviewed
with several law firms but
she soon decided that a
traditional law career might
be a bit too structured for

When law firms are big enough

to hire people fresh out of
school, they tend to have a very
structured career path ...
That just didnt seem like a good
fit for me.
her. Many firms hiring new law
graduates reminded her of the
IT company shed recently left
behind.
When law firms are big enough
to hire people fresh out of
school, they tend to have a very
structured career path, she
says. That just didnt seem like

technology to organize and

track legal matters; create and
manage reports; and monitor
and reduce legal spending.
Her client list included big
names like Ameritech, Kraft
Foods, and Navistar.
The job was like a dream come
true for Keiffer: She found
5

CLIENT STORY

a way to combine her legal

expertise with her IT career.
And, most importantly, she was
doing something she liked
with a career path that didnt
make her feel boxed in.

departments have begun hiring

legal technology experts like
Katrina Keiffer on staff. Their
titles vary quite a bit: Some are
called IT project managers.
Others are called legal

As a consultant, I had more

flexibility and a wider range of
work activities I enjoyed that.
As a consultant, I had more
flexibility and a wider range of
work activities I enjoyed that,
she said.
When Keiffer first started out
as a legal/IT consultant, she
was something of a pioneer it
was the early 2000s, and there
werent many people who did
quite what she did. But as more
sophisticated technology was
developed to help people
like Keiffer do their jobs more
effectively, the hybrid IT/legal
consultant field began to
grow. Today, corporate legal

department managers. But

no matter the title, the job and
qualifications are very similar:
Drawing on an understanding
of technology, business, and
law to help legal departments
be more efficient.
An Attractive Offer to do
What Matters
In 2006, one of Keiffers
consulting clients Navistar, a
company that manufactures
and services commercial
vehicles like school buses and
trucks decided to make the

switch to Bridgeways eCounsel

legal matter management
system. Keiffer was brought
in to help Navistars legal
department with the
conversion to the new system.
In her role as the departments
go-to eCounsel expert, she
found that the system provided
a much more effective and
accurate way to create and
view reports, access higher
quality data, and keep better
track of invoicing. She says
eCounsel was especially useful
for tracking spending in greater
detail.
The e-billing function gave
us the ability to laser-focus in
on specific line items in our
legal bills, she says. We can
get all kinds of operational
reporting out of the eCounsel
system and we can get
that information much more
quickly than we were able to
do before. We can see every
phone call; every copy that a
legal firm makes and we can
see were spending X amount

CLIENT STORY

e-Counsel
gives us much
greater visibility
into how our
money is spent,
which helps us
stay focused
on controlling
costs.
of dollars on copies, and that
we could save X amount by
using our preferred vendor. In
the past, before we started
using eCounsel, everything
was manually entered and
there was one entry for fees
plus, there was no way to see
specific spending on travel or
copies. This gives us much
greater visibility into how our
money is spent, which helps
us stay focused on controlling
costs.
Keiffer enjoyed her consultant
role with Navistar, and she
particularly liked using
eCounsel to help the legal
department save money and
find new opportunities to
collect better data. And, the
company appreciated having

her in that role: In fact, they

appreciated Keiffers efforts
and expertise so much
that they offered her a fulltime position as the legal
departments manager of
administration in early
February 2015.
The move meant that Keiffer
would be managing the
companys eCounsel system
full-time. It also meant that
shed have to give up her
consultancy a big change for
someone wary of being boxed
into a single career path. But
Keiffer loves the work, and she
has no regrets.

of activities that go on, and

I like understanding how my
work with the eCounsel system
impacts the company. I know
that what I do matters, and
that makes it fun and keeps me
engaged.

I feel great about my new

career, she says. Im having
a great time. I like the variety

LawManager
Legal Management Software entrusted by
thousands of users across Federal, State, and
Local government agencies for over 25 years.
www.bridge-way.com/government

LawManager

EMPLOYEE Q & A

Harrison Underwood
Premier Implementations Center
of Excellence Manager

by Stephanie Hashagen

Q&A

ere kicking off

our Q&A series
with Harrison
Underwood. Harrison works
out of New York City and
he recently celebrated his
one-year anniversary with
Bridgeway. We sat down with
him recently to discuss his
career path, his passion for
travel and good food, and why
he enjoys being part of the
Bridgeway team.

Q: How long have you been

in the industry?
A: I started in the corporate
world 20 years ago -- but
I actually started out in

marketing for the first year and

a half before I switched to the
legal side of things. I started
working in legal and HR, and
then a little over 10 years ago, I
moved over to legal operations
and legal technology. As a
whole, Ive been working in
technology and legal area of
HR since 1998.

Q: Youre new to Bridgeway,

right?
A: Yes. I have an interesting
background with Bridgeway: I
was originally working in legal
technology for one of our
competitors. That company
was acquired by a consulting

group, and at that point I was

assigned to the role of liaison
to Bridgeway. The client would
hire my company, and we
would work with Bridgeway
and other vendors, doing
implementation. That was back
in about 2005 or 2006. Now,
Im getting ready to celebrate
one year as a Bridgeway
employee.

Q: Why did you choose to

work for Bridgeway?
A: Hands down, it was
because of all my experience
working with them as a
liaison. I started my career at
a huge corporation. When
9

EMPLOYEE Q & A

...not only are we implementing our suite of

products were also helping [our clients]
rethink their legal departments.
you work at a company with
65,000 employees and youre
employee #84,505 you kind of
feel that way. When I started
working with Bridgeway, I got a
sense of the type of company it
was: It seemed very friendly -and very focused on employees
and on client relationships.
You have an interesting
title. What does Premier
Implementations Center of
Excellence Manager mean,
exactly?
That title was actually
created for me when I came
to Bridgeway. I have a lot
of background in project
management, and Bridgeway
needed someone to manage
really large, complicated client
projects; to make sure they all
went well and were successful.
Premier implementation
means working with full-scale,
extremely large corporations,
like Fortune 100 or 200
companies. And not only are
we implementing our suite of
products were also helping
them rethink their legal
departments. Its my job to
10

manage these large projects

from beginning to end, and
to make sure that the project
is successful and the client is
happy.

like to take advantage of the

great restaurants here. We also
love to travel. My wife is from
Brazil, we go there a couple of
times a year.

You work out of New York

City, right? What do you like
about living and working
there?
Thats right. Ive been here in
New York for about 10 years.
Im a southern boy at heart, so
being in New York is a little bit
like being a fish out of water
-- this city is so fast and allconsuming. There are parts I
love and parts that drive me
crazy about living here but
Im not sure if I could live in
small town.

What is the one thing you

are truly passionate about?
At work, there are two things
Im really passionate about:
One is making sure that our
clients are happy. If clients
arent happy, we arent going
to get business. Im also
passionate about making sure
that what we deliver to clients
really meets their needs and
exceeds their expectations.
And one thing that Im
passionate about personally is
cooking. When I was young,
I wanted to be a chef when
I grew up. I spent a lot of
time in the kitchen, cooking
with my grandmother and
great-grandmother, and food
became a huge passion for
me. Food makes me feel calm.
I enjoy getting in the kitchen
and playing around.

Where are you from

originally?
I grew up in Marietta, Georgia,
which is about 10 or 15 minutes
north of Atlanta.
What do you do for fun?
Since my wife and I live in
New York, we like to go to the
theater and go to museums.
Were also big foodies, so we

What is the one thing you

absolutely hate doing but

EMPLOYEE Q & A

one that you have to do

every day?
Vacuuming. I hate the vacuum
cleaner. But we live in small
apartment and we have two
cats, so it seems like Im always
vacuuming.
If you could have a super
power, what would it be?
Id like to have some way to
travel fast. I love to travel and
go places, but going to airport
and getting on plane isnt much
fun. If I could have super speed
or a way to transport myself,
that would be high on my list.
If you could learn to do
anything, what would it be?
A: I would love to be the next
Ken Jennings on Jeopardy.
Watching Jeopardy is my
favorite nerdy pastime. Im
pretty good at it.
If you could visit anywhere in
the world, where would you
go?
My goal is to visit all seven
continents. My wife and I are
going to Japan later this year.

Do you have any hidden

talents?
I used to be a competitive
fencer for about ten years. I
tried out for the Olympic
fencing team twice. I have
a bad back so I dont fence
anymore but I like to joke that
Im deadly with an umbrella.
Another thing most people
dont know is that I like to paint.
Almost all of the artwork in
our apartment is original its
either mine or its something
we bought while traveling.
What do you like most about
working for Bridgeway?
When you work for a huge
corporation, you feel like youre
a number or a cog and its not
that way at Bridgeway. Theres
a real family feel when youre
working there; a real sense that
everybody is there for each
other. Our job can be stressful
at times, but at Bridgeway we
put each other first and that is
such a great gift.

Theres a real
family feel
when youre
working [at
Bridgeway]; a
real sense that
everybody is
there for each
other.

11

BRIDGEWAY U

S
I
T
A
WH
?
.
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A
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BRIDG

12

BRIDGEWAY U

Bridgeway University
Real-World Education
for In-House Legal
Operations
Free and Online

nterested in tips on how

to improve productivity?
Use data more efficiently?
Looking for new ways to
measure performance or track
spending? Look no further
than Bridgeway University
Bridgeways online library
for resources related to inhouse legal technology and
operations.

Housed on Bridgeways
website, Bridgeway University
is home to dozens of highquality resources including
whitepapers, blog posts,
eBooks, infographics, and
webinars on a variety of current,
relevant topics all free and
easily accessible to clients.
Bridgeway University provides

relevant topics for Legal

Operations and Legal Analytics
professionals with knowledge
content uncomplicated to
understand and assimilate into
business practices as well as
augmentation for improvement.
The level of information
and strategic knowledge
provided comes from not just
the experts but from those
who know the space and can
provide real world experience
to improve methodology
and experience says John
Thompson, Senior Manager at
Purdue Pharma.

ranging from overviews of

legal information technology
to reporting to in-depth
discussions about legal
spending and pricing
strategies. Visitors can search
the Bridgeway University library
by topic or category, and they
can even sign up for email
alerts to ensure that they never
miss new content.
Want to learn more? Check
out Bridgeway University at
www.bridgewayuniversity.com

LEARN MORE

Bridgeway Universitys content

is created by Bridgeway
employees, clients and nonclients alike, with topics

13

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

Q1 EVENT
HIGHLIGHTS
A look back at what you might have missed.

Society Essentials Seminar

Jan 28 30, 2015
How the Society Essentials Seminar Stands
Out: Because this is a smaller (less expensive)
seminar, companies use it as a training tool
for new hires. Most of the people I met were
new to their role. This works to our advantage
because it gives us a unique opportunity to
build a relationship with someone who has no
prior prejudice of Bridgeway. They are open
to learn about everything and willing to give
us information others might hesitate to.
What I learned from the Seminar: The
presenters STRONGLY recommend that when
shopping for technology the company base
their decision on the people within the company they were considering. They emphasized that company culture has a huge impact on your overall experience/service. The
assumption is that cost and features should
effect the decision above all else. However,
leaders in the industry believe that you should
choose people and culture over features and
cost.
14

1
Personal STAND OUTS from the Seminar:
I enjoyed meeting the members of the Houston Society I have since been to one of their
local meetings.
Chelsey Jochetz

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

LegalTech NY

LawManager User Group Meeting

Feb 3 5, 2015

February 4, 2015

There was a Matter Management Man sighting at LegalTech New York!

There was good turnout at this years annual

LawManager User Group meeting. Many clients from metropolitan New York City attended in person, with a large contingent of loyal
LawManager customers attending by phone.
Many customers enjoyed the presentation by
the New York City Law Department of their
LawManager LINK notebook, allowing for
interagency communication and data sharing
via the NYC DoITT cloud. The meeting continued with product roadmap discussions as
well as new products overview performed by
the illustrious Nick Puschak. Healthy discussion was had between clients and Bridgeway
personnel and there was even talk about
holding the User Group meeting on a more
frequent basis. Rob Jarvis from the New York/
New Jersey Port Authority spoke on behalf
of the User Group, offering to host the next
meeting (possibly May) in their new offices at
the World Trade Center.

Our attendance at LegalTech New York 2015

included a visit from comic book hero, Matter Management Man. M3, as we call him, is
showcased in our recently created comic
book highlighting four client stories, click here
to download.
But, there was more. In our continued effort
to help the professionals within our marketspace, Bridgeway was one of two underwriters, helping the Institute for Law Department Excellence sponsor LegalTechs Legal
Operations Track, showcasing panelists from
Purdue Pharma, Lenovo, Pitney Bowes and
Archer Daniels Midland
Jason Emanis

Steven Beers
15

Bridgeway Document Vault

TM

powered by M-Files

Organizes Legal Information

Improves Attorneys Productivity
Enforces Matter-level Security

www.bridge-way.com/vault

16

EMPLOYEE PROFILE

From the
Runway ...
to Bridgeway
Once an Aspiring Fashion Designer, Aksa Alex
Found Her Calling as a User Experience Designer
by Stephanie Hashagen

hen Aksa Alex first

came to the United States, she had
a very clear idea of what she
wanted to do for a living: A
graduate of Indias prestigious
National Institute of Fashion
Technology, Alex had spent two
years working for a clothing
factory in Bangalore - -and she
had her heart set on a career
in fashion design. When her
husband, a software engineer, accepted a position in
San Francisco, California, she

figured she wouldnt have any

trouble finding work in her
industry. Once she started her
job search, though, she was
surprised to find that every
potential employer told her the
same thing: She needed more
technology training.
Although she didnt know it at
the time, this advice turned out
to be a major turning point in
her life. Aksa enrolled in some
technology courses with the
aim of getting enough experi-

ence to get a foot in the door in

the fashion industry. But somewhere along the way, she came
to an important realization.
I took software courses for two
years, she says. And during
that process, I realized that with
the life I wanted the kind of
life where I could have a family
and plenty of time to spend
with my kids it would be much
better to do something related
to computers.

17

EMPLOYEE PROFILE

Fashion is a demanding industry: Alex recalled the long

hours she worked in her first
fashion job in Bangalore it
wasnt unusual to work until 10
or 11 PM, six days a week. That
wasnt the kind of lifestyle she
wanted.
So, she changed course and set
her sights on an entirely different kind of design. She found a
job creating software for a Bay
Area company, and eventually
she worked her way up to the
position of user experience engineer. From her perspective,
it was a job that was still essentially about design.
User experience is about
designing software and making
sure that its easy for people to
use, she says. Its about creating something to help make
people more productive.
Although Alex and her husband both enjoyed their jobs
and life in San Francisco, there
were some downsides to living
in the Bay Area: Housing was
expensive and the couple faced
long commute times. Educa18

tion was expensive too: The

couples two daughters were in
private school. Eventually, Alex
and her husband decided to
relocate; to settle somewhere
with a slower pace and more
opportunities for a better worklife balance. They heard good
things about Texas, so Alexs
husband put in for a transfer
to his companys Houston-area
office.
It was a leap of faith, Alex admits but things worked out for
the best. Within a few months
of moving to Texas, she was
hired as a senior user experience designer with
Bridgeway. She loves the work,
and she loves the fact that
Bridgeway encourages employees to collaborate and share
ideas. She also appreciates the
companys focus on things like

employee health and maintaining a work/life balance. At

Bridgeway, Alex can have a
fulfilling and challenging career -- and she still has time to
volunteer with her church and
spend plenty of time with her
family.
My kids are happy, she says.
Im doing design, and I work
for a company that really understands the importance of work/
life balance. In San Francisco,
you see a lot of people working
12-hour days; thats a struggle
when youre a mom. I like being able to go home and spend
time with my kids.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Plant It
Forward
by Abbey Peckis & Jason Emanis

hrough Plant It Forward, Bridgeway Software has partnered with

social and religious groups to
provide land and tools to refugees who
settle in Houston with agricultural experience from their countries of origin, so
they can realize their untapped potential
as members of our community.

Plant It Forward brings together the

people and resources needed to build
the infrastructure for farmers who have
fled their home countries and arrived in
our area ready to begin new lives. These
farmers receive training at a model farm,
as well as additional business assistance
to help them start their own urban farms,
and sell their produce through farmers
markets, farm stands, farm shares and
restaurants. A portion of each success
helps provide opportunities for future
program participants, and our replicable
model can easily be scaled to support
hundreds of urban farms throughout
the city and beyond. Through Plant It
Forward, new Houstonians can become
active and contributing citizens and
realize their potential.

Plant It Forward is featured on an episode

of Food Forward.

19

Real-World Education for

In-House Legal Operations
White Papers
Webinars
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Infographics
eBooks

Subscribe Today at www.bridgewayuniversity.com

20

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CASE STUDIES
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21

Bridgeway is dedicated to
providing software solutions
and professional services to
implement best practices for the
offices of the general counsel
and corporate secretary. Leading
corporations and government
agencies rely on Bridgeways
integrated technology approach
to manage risk, control cost and
ensure compliance. Bridgeway

22

implements systems in the

areas of corporate governance,
case and matter management,
cost management, contract
management, litigation risk
assessment and electronic
invoicing. Founded in 1989, the
company is headquartered
in Houston, Texas with
representative offices in
Philadelphia and Toronto.