Meet the Managed Services Evaluator Team!

As we launch our new offering, the Managed Services Evaluator, we sat down with our lead law library consultants, Stuart Zimmerman and Becky Bowman to discuss their thoughts.  Both Stuart and Becky have distinguished backgrounds as law library leaders.

Stuart was the Director of Research and Information Services for Davis Wright Tremaine for 18 years, Becky was the Chief Research and Information Analysis Officer for Baker Donelson for 32 years. Both Stuart and Becky bring a long track record of incredible accomplishments achieved at their firms, and look forward to their leadership and insights evaluating managed services options.  Read more about Becky and Stuart here.

As Stuart notes, “Every firm’s culture is unique as well as their mission and market-positioning—there’s simply no one-size fits all solution, which is why it’s so important to have a critical eye weigh all the factors into this decision. As outsourcing becomes more prevalent, many firms are going to want to reevaluate their in-house operations.  Librarians tend to be more vocal about the research they provide and focus less so on making their value visible.  Costs, however, are laying very heavily on firms.  They know they need information services, but no one wants to pay for it.  I look forward to helping firms understand the value that flows from the library throughout the firm as well as how to most cost-effectively place that spend, in-house or outsourced.” 

Becky adds, “We will be approaching Managed Services Evaluator with firms in an unbiased way, but also holistically. Law librarians are caught between two worlds:  vendors who want new business and managers that are cost conscious.  Both have inherent self-interests which is why it really is helpful to insert an unbiased voice into the dialogue.

Some law firm leaders are reluctant to embrace what is going on.  They are disconnected and don’t have a way to connect the increasing cost to market trends.  We will help them look at the big picture, from staffing, to collection trends, and of course analyzing their contracts.  Firm management often likes the theory of outsourcing, but there are tradeoffs when there is homegrown staff right there with institutional knowledge.  I am looking forward to helping firms put data on both sides of the equation that guides better decision-making.”

Click here to learn more about the unbiased, Managed Services Evaluator.