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Richard S. Granat is presently Co-Chair of the eLawyering Task Force of the Law Practice Management Section and most recently a member of the Section Council of the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management Section. He also serves on the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services of the ABA.   Richard is also a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia Bar and was, chair of the Law Practice Management Section of the Maryland Bar Association.

Richard has been involved in developing innovative legal services delivery systems for over 30 years, first as part of the initial working group that created the National Legal Services Program, and then later as Director of the Center for Legal Studies at Antioch Law School in Washington, D.C., the nation's first clinical law school, and later President and Dean of the Philadelphia Institute for Paralegal Training, the nation's first paralegal school. He was the founding CEO of Automated Legal Systems, Inc., an affiliate of The Philadelphia Institute, one of the first legal software companies to publish legal applications for the personal computer in the early 1980s. He is an acknowledged expert on the delivery of online legal services.

Richard created the first virtual law firm in Maryland in 2003, which was the prototype for the DirectLaw Virtual law firm platform.

A frequent speaker and writer, Richard's articles about elawyering have appeared in Law Practice Today, the New York State Bar Association Journal, the Maryland State Bar Association Journal and other legal industry publications.

Richard named a "Legal Rebel" by the American Bar Association Journal in 2009. and was awarded the Louis M. Brown Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation in the Delivery of Legal Services in 2010.

Richard has taught at the University of Maryland School of Law, the District of Columbia School of Law, Rutgers School of Law of Law,  courses in Computers and the Law and Law Practice Management. Richard is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law (J.D.), the University of Pennsylvania (M.S. in Organizational Development) and Lehigh University (B.A.).

Legal Rebels Profile 2009 - American Bar Association

 

GRAHAME COHEN - Member of Board of Directors, SLF

Grahame Cohen graduated from City University in 1991 with a First Class BSc. Honours degree in Property Valuation and Finance. In 1994 he founded Epoch Software (now Epoq Group). In 1996, in conjunction with Richard Cohen development began on the Desktop Lawyer CD-ROM, which was launched in 1997. Since then Grahame has been focusing the Company and its resources on the continuing development of its Rapidocs document automation software and the UK Version of Directlaw's technology platform for the delivery of legal services. Along with Richard Cohen, Grahame is a regular speaker for the English Law Society, Scottish Law Society, American Bar Association, Society for Computers and Law and private seminar organizations.

RICHARD COHEN - Member of the Board of Directors, SLF .

Qualified in 1981 as a solicitor, Richard Cohen has extensive experience in a number of legal areas, and founded the firm of Landau & Cohen which has become a specialist conveyancing firm providing services to a number of high street mortgage lenders. He is a recognized expert on the commoditization and unbundling of legal services and their delivery over the Internet and is a regular speaker for the English Law Society, Scottish Law Society, American Bar Association, Society for Computers and Law and private seminar organizations.

He is one of the founders of and is also the Joint Chief Executive Officer of the Epoq Group, and has been instrumental in the Epoq Group developing a blue chip international customer base. His role focuses on general strategic direction and forging alliances with major corporates and government departments.

Richard has a long history of involvement with community legal advice particularly with the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaus ("NACAB"), chairing Grahame Park CAB for four years and the Barnet CAB Management Committee for three years.

PETER GRANAT - Member of Board of Directors,  SLF,  Media and Marketing Consultant

Peter Granat is President and Chief Operating Officer of Cision North America, the leading public relations services company in North America. Most recently, he was the President of Cision’s European division based in London, and was previously the Senior Vice President of Business Development at MediaMap which was acquired by Cision in late 2003. Since 1992, Peter has been instrumental in the development of cutting-edge products and services to enable effective communication between the PR and media communities. He has worked closely with clients to deliver solutions that address a wide range of agency and corporate communications needs. Peter is also responsible for establishing alliances with industry leaders to enable Cision to provide one-stop solutions for PR and marketing professionals. Before joining MediaMap, Peter worked for Springer-Miller Systems in Stowe, Vermont, a leading provider of electronic property management solutions. He holds a BA from the University of Vermont and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

GREGOR WEEKS - Chief Technology Officer, SmartLegalForms, Inc. and DirectLaw, Inc.

Gregor is a graduate of the University of Scranton and has completed his J.D. at the University of Maryland School of Law. As chief technology officer, he is the architect of the DirectLaw virtual law firm platform. Gregor has been with SLF, US since its inception in 2000.  Gregor was previously an Intranet Administrator with Planning Systems, Inc. and Technical Assistant at the Office of Naval Research.

PAM ANDREWS - Director, Marketing and Law Firm Development,  SmartLegalForms, Inc. and DirectLaw, Inc.

Pam is Director of Marketing and Law Firm Development. In this role, she manages all online advertising campaigns for our retail operations; coordinates the marketing and lead management of our DirectLaw Virtual Law Firm Service, serving as project and relationship manager. Pam has over 15 years of combined experience in human resources management, sales/marketing, and managing client service operations.

JANELLE MINTER- Director, Document Automation Team, SmartLegalForms, Inc. and DirectLaw, Inc.

Janelle is an experienced document automation specialist. She has built and maintained custom legal and form templates libraries for public finance companies, including GE Franchise Finance, as well as for commercial real estate and law firms. She also has ten years' experience in corporate communications.  As a project manager, she directed in-house creative and project teams that have involved management, finance, sales, and in-house counsel that have produce automated legal forms to satisfy legal and brand standards. She previously worked for GE Capital Franchise Finance where she was responsible for automating over 35 loan document templates. Janelle is a graduate of California Lutheran University in Thousands Oaks, California.

LYNETTE MAHANEY - Director, Customer Support & Training, SmartLegalForms, Inc. and DirectLaw, Inc.

Lynette has over 10 years experience with Epoq in managing customer support systems for the company large network of legal form web sites. Lynette is a graduate of the University of Maryland, has extensive paralegal experience and was previously employed with Kubovcik & Kubovcik, a Washington DC law firm specializing in patent and trademark law.

ADRIENNE COOK - Legal Editor,  SmartLegalForms, Inc. and DirectLaw, Inc.

Adrienne has had 15 years of writing and publishing experience in transforming unwieldy amounts of complex legal information into useful parcels of organized, enhanced content, tailored to the specific professional needs of lawyers and business people.

Adrienne was previously Director of New Product Development and Executive Editor for ABA Publishing, American Bar Association. In this role, among her other responsibilities, she authored ABA Internet Content Guidelines which are designed to promote best practices in writing for online publications and presenting content online and also produced the ABA Publishing Manual to instruct authors and editors in producing quality and consistent content. She has also served as Senior Legal Editor, Product Development., Dearborn Financial Publishing and Legal Editor, Commerce Clearing House, Inc. (CCH). Adrienne is a graduate of Earlham College, B.A. International Studies, and Indiana School of Law (J.D.). She has also completed all of her course work towards an M.A. in Social Science at the University of Chicago.