Standard Will be Deployed in Reference Implementations Setting the Stage for Acceleration and Adoption

NEW YORK, January 29, 2019 – The Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry (SALI) Alliance announced today, during LegalWeek in New York, the release of the SALI Version 1 matter category standard, which includes the publication of area of law and process codes. SALI’s matter coding structure is unique: structurally consistent, digitized via modern programming interfaces, scalable, extendible, and party-neutral, providing a common language for firms and clients. SALI also announced its intent to publish the second release of the code during the LMA P3 Conference this coming June, which will further extend the taxonomy for location, jurisdiction, and other key business drivers of legal matters.

Vince Cordo, Central Legal Operations Officer at the Shell International, commented that “the SALI standard offers a unique coding for matters and simplifies how they can be managed, while improving our data analytics and reporting, digitizing procedures – moving the needle with measurable value. Legal departments are accelerating the innovation process and the SALI standard is an enabler to that end.”

Unlike typical legal matter work type codes, the SALI matter category standard offers enhanced flexibility to slice and dice matter data, particularly when used to aggregate information from multiple organizations.

The SALI Alliance founding principle is industry inclusiveness for firms, clients, organizations and industry technology service providers. SALI was created to ensure all stakeholders in the industry have a voice to shape the most useful and relevant standards that will create a common language to drive efficiency and serve as a foundation for innovating.

The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) and the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) are the two founding organizations of the SALI Alliance, and SALI’s board consists of Toby Brown, Chief Practice Management Officer at Perkins Coie LLP; Oliver P. Yandle, J.D., CAE, ALA’s executive director; and Kat Seiffert, LMA’s interim representative and head of marketing.

“It is exciting to see the standard come to life with our first release and reference implementation," said Toby Brown. "Our progress will accelerate now that it is being deployed in real-world settings both in law firm and client environments. We are now marching forward from the drawing board to actual practice."

The SALI Alliance is initially building a matter standard for describing legal matters to foster innovation and provide consistency for buyers and sellers of legal services. This standardization is welcomed by buyers and sellers of legal services. A preview of the SALI Version 1 matter category standard is available for download here.

Justin Ergler, Director, Global External Legal Relations, GlaxoSmithKline said, "SALI has always been about standardization to drive efficiency and bridge the gap between firm and client. Now that the standard is released, the pace of change will move more quickly."

Any company or organization can become a member at www.sali.org. Members can participate in defining the legal services market through regular SALI standard committee meetings. Membership tiers are offered for clients, law firms, solution providers and other industry stakeholders.

About the Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry (SALI) Alliance

The Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry (SALI) Alliance promotes an inclusive industry neutral standard for the progress of legal industry transparency, efficiency and innovation. It was founded by Legal Marketing Association and Association of Legal Administrators. Its mission is to create a common language for all participants for the delivery of modern legal services. Learn more at www.sali.org or on Twitter at @SALIalliance.

SALI members include:

• Association of Legal Administrators (founding member)
  
• Allen Matkins
  
• Bloomberg Law
  
• GSK
  
• Greenberg Traurig
  
• Holland & Knight
  
• Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn
  
• Husch Blackwell
  
• Intapp
  
• Legal Marketing Association (founding member)
  
• Level 2 Legal Solutions
  
• Lexis
  
• McKool Smith
  
• Pepper Hamilton
  
• Perkins Coie
  
• Prosperoware
  
• Schulte Roth
  
• Shell
  
• Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP
  
• Wolters Kluwer
  

SALI Endorsers include:

• ACC
  
• Buying Legal
• Citigroup
  
• Deutsche Bank
  
• Edge International
  
• Foundation Software Group
  
• LawVision
  
• Microsoft

For more information, contact Kat Seiffert, Legal Marketing Association at kseiffert@legalmarketing.org or 312.673.4742, or Oliver Yandle, J.D., CAE, Association of Legal Administrators at OYandle@alanet.org or 847.267.1570.

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