The Future of Virtual Legal Proceedings Just Became More Certain with the Launch of Calloquy

By Staff Writer Atlanta Trend

• Oct 31, 2022

Calloquy, PBC, builders of the first platform intentionally designed to support how litigation is practiced now, officially debuted on October 3rd with a launch event held at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. The theme was centered around Calloquy’s mission to help forge The Next Era of Litigation and empower everyone in the legal ecosystem to thrive in it. Michele DeStefano, founder of LawWithoutWalls and author of Legal Upheaval, headlined the event with a message focusing on seeing innovation and technology as a path to both justice and client service.

“Incremental improvements in the way litigation is practiced, which mostly benefit corporations and large law firms, are not enough for me”

Ms. DeStefano’s remarks were followed by a panel discussing how corporations, law firms, legal service associations and the courts can leverage technology and updated practices to improve everything from access to justice to lawyer wellbeing to law firm profitability. The panel represented the full breadth of the litigation ecosystem and included Kelly Campanella, senior litigation counsel at NCR Corporation; Judge William S. Duffey, chair of the Georgia state elections board and former US District Judge; Zanele Ngubeni, director of defender development at Gideon’s Promise; and Melvin White, partner at Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP and former president of the Washington D.C. Bar.

The event celebrated the launch of Calloquy’s new virtual legal proceeding platform, which offers distinct usability benefits on a foundation of world-class security and industry-specific videoconferencing technology, including:

• The platform’s intuitive design delivers a virtual experience that is akin to conventional legal proceedings, with clearly marked titles for all participants and traditional seating arrangements. The participants in a remote deposition, for example, are organized with plaintiffs on one side and defendants on the other.

• Robust collaboration tools, combined with role-based security, ensure that only the right people have access to only the right information—and only at the right time. Documents or comments cannot accidentally be passed to an adversary.

• The platform’s integrated case management tools streamline the complex litigation process by enabling meetings and proceedings to be scheduled, exhibits to be managed and transcripts to be created and archived all in one place.

“We jumped at the opportunity to beta test the Calloquy platform because we constantly look for innovative ways to best serve our clients,” said Bill Koch, chief knowledge and innovation officer at Womble Bond Dickinson (US). “What we found is that the platform supported efficient and productive legal work through its intentionally designed features and intuitive user interface. Feedback from our beta testers revealed that the Calloquy platform was engaging, easy to use and a major advancement for our online proceedings. Given how seriously we take innovation at Womble, it only made sense for us to be part of honing this new technology devised for the way litigators actually practice.”

Remote proceedings not only reduce costs and improve flexibility for corporate litigators, but they also make the litigation process more equitable for everyone. Calloquy was organized as a public benefit corporation (PBC), so that the profit-driven side of the business can help fund a solution to a systemic challenge in our society by making the justice system more accessible for all.

“Incremental improvements in the way litigation is practiced, which mostly benefit corporations and large law firms, are not enough for me,” said David Carter, president & CEO of Calloquy. “My goal in starting Calloquy is to help drive ‘the next era of litigation’, which means improving the way all people experience the legal system, from the most high-profile commercial litigator to the most underserved defendant and the lawyer who works pro bono on their behalf.”

As this new technology and team were introduced, the keynote speaker had this message for the audience: “Even if your business model isn’t broken, all lawyers should learn how to innovate,” said Michele DeStefano. “That is the answer to the next era of litigation. How does your client want or need litigation to flow and how can you make that more efficient and successful for them?”