Stephen P. Gallagher Director Law Practice Management Department New York State Bar Association One Elk Street Albany, NY 12207 Phone: 518-487-5595 E-mail: SGallagher@nysba.org

Statement

Bar Associations as a "Plug-and-Play" Enterprise

1. When providers and users of information can deal with each other directly, the way companies utilize their people, market their products, manage their information, and work with partners will all change.¹
2. We will show how the value of a complex digital network like the Internet, can actually allow the community of users to improve the utility of information -- creating enhanced value to all community members.²
3. Rather than using the Internet to merely convey information from one user to another, we began seeing how connecting companies and individuals into temporary alliances created greater knowledge -- greater value for all parties on the network. Sawhney and Parikh referred to these temporary and flexible alliances as "plug-and-play" enterprises, and as these become more common, "value shifts from entities that own intelligence to those that orchestrate the flow and combination of intelligence."³
4. Renowned thinker and business trailblazer, Rosabeth Moss Kanter calls this new way of working, e-culture⁴, because it derives from basic principles of community; shared identity, shared knowledge, and mutual contributions. It seemed clear to us that, having the ability to communicate directly with nearly anyone, anywhere, set this new e-culture apart from the more traditional business model.
5. As bar associations move towards greater use of online communities, they will have to take a serious look at how they can take greater advantage of creating temporary and flexible alliances that Sawhney and Parikh refer to as "plug-and-play" enterprises.

   Stephen P. Gallagher Exhibits
    

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[1] See Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster. Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy. (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing 2000).

[2] See Mohanbir Sawhney and Deval Parikh. "Where Value Lives in a Networked World," Harvard Business Review, (January 2001), p.79-86.

[3] See Mohanbir Sawhney and Deval Parikh. "Where Value Lives in a Networked World," Harvard Business Review, (January 2001), p.82.

[4] See Rosabeth Moss Kanter, e-Volve: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow. (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001).

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Biography

Stephen P. Gallagher is Director of the Law Practice Management (LPM) department of the New York State Bar Association headquartered in Albany, NY. The department was established in 1990 to help lawyers in New York improve their efficiency and effectiveness in the deliver of legal services. Steve is liaison to the Electronic Communications Task Force (ECTF), and as such he has been working with sections, committees and staff to explore new opportunities for utilizing the Association's Web site. The site contains thousands of pages of information, multimedia displays, and links to hundreds of law related sites. http://www.nysba.org.

Mr. Gallagher has more than twenty years of experience in working with bar associations, law schools, private law firms, as well as the corporate legal environment. Mr. Gallagher has worked in the Law Placement Office at Temple University School of Law, and later he served as Director of Administration for the law school. Steve has also worked as a Legal Administrator in several mid-sized firms before joining First Fidelity Bancorporation in Lawrenceville, NJ. as their Legal Operations Officer.

Mr. Gallagher is a regular contributor to the New York State Bar News and other professional publications, as well as a frequent speaker on practice management and technology related topics. Steve has been involved in developing practice management materials for CLE bridge-the-gap programs, and he has authored numerous articles on the changes taking place in the profession and the need for Practice Management Standards.

Steve is a member of the ABA Practice Management Advisors committee of the ABA LPM Section, and a member of NABE's LOEM forum. Steve holds a masters degree in Counseling Education from West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

Steve is married and the Gallaghers have five boys.

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