John R.("Jack")Weider

Partner & Chair of the Financial Reorganization practice group

Harter Secrest & Emery, LLP

Photography by Brenda Washington

Attorney Jack Weider's first attempts at using speech recognition software did not go smoothly. Four years ago or so, he was approached by his firm's tech group about trying out the relatively new technology. He readily agreed in the hopes that it would be faster than his fairly slow typing. It wasn't.

"I was frustrated with it," he admits, though he could certainly see its potential. So, when Harter Secrest & Emery's IT team offered to bring in Achieve Results, experts in speech recognition software to train a group of 10-12 legal staff members and review with them the hardware installation, Jack decided to give it another shot. "It was like night and day," he says of his new understanding of how the software works. The trainer's experience with the product proved useful in determining that what appeared to be a software problem was actually a problem with Jack's hardware. "With the problem diagnosed, Achieve Results was able to suggest a solution that worked."

Once the hardware was fixed, Jack was able to focus on improving his software skills. As a lawyer whose clients come to him because he has a particular focus – solving problems for businesses in need of financial restructuring and their creditors – Jack recognizes the value Achieve Results, with specialized expertise in speech recognition, provides. "Achieve Results was able to focus on this particular installation, where our IT team, balancing the demands of hundreds of users with myriad software and hardware needs, could not."

Achieve Results was able to simplify the program for me and to really focus on what was going to be most effective for my working style and practice," he says, which helped him quickly become comfortable using it for a variety of tasks.

In the creditors' rights and bankruptcy area, matters move very quickly.  
                                                 
Today, 95% of his written client communication is via email, he says, and he uses Dragon software to draft and respond to nearly all of his email messages.

Jack also verbally creates legal documents and then has his secretary take care of any needed formatting, minor edits, and other detail work. And because Dragon links the voice file and Microsoft Word document that results, his secretary can play back the audio file if she has any questions about particular terms he's used in the document.

Using Dragon, Jack estimates that he spends 25%-35% less time responding to email - a significant time savings. But that's only one aspect of the savings the firm enjoys - his practice also saves money through reduced secretarial needs. Because all four of the professionals in the bankruptcy and financial reorganization practice group use Dragon, they have a higher ratio of professionals to administrative assistants than the firm's average.

What's been most surprising for Jack, however, is the improvement he's seen in his overall vocal clarity. Listening to yourself on the audio playback feature of the Dragon software when making corrections "prompts you to speak more clearly in general conversation.  Hearing how you actually sound to others causes you to think about how you phrase things, so you speak more clearly."

  Interview by Marcia Layton Turner, Layton & Co.