Management Profiles
James Seidl
President
James Seidl co-founded Minneapolis-based Legal Research Center, Inc., in 1978 and
has served as President since 1987. Legal Research Center (www.legalresearch.com)
provides legal research and writing, research management, and regulatory compliance
services to attorneys in corporate and private practice throughout the world. Mr.
Seidl’s primary responsibilities are in the areas of business, product and service
development; he is also responsible for new business planning and corporate strategic
partnering.
Mr. Seidl co-produced and published the Legal Transformation Study: Your 2020 Vision
of the Future (www.legaltransformation.com).
The Study identifies key global trends and uncertainties shaping the future of the
legal industry and creates a set of four detailed planning scenarios from these
forces. The scenarios challenge current service models within the legal industry,
answer key strategic questions, and enable corporate law departments and law firms
to proactively identify decision-making strategies to ensure their future business
success.
Mr. Seidl is former a Minnesota State Chair for the Council on Litigation Management
(www.litmgmt.org). Mr. Seidl serves on the
Board of the Open Legal Standards Initiative (www.openlegalstandards.org),
whose mission is to establish standards for quality and efficient legal services
through the development of business process and metrics classification systems.
Mr. Seidl serves as business development and strategic advisor to Click Industries,
Ltd. (www.clickandinc.com), Miller/Davis
Company (www.millerdavis.com), Decision
Strategies International (www.thinkdsi.com),
and VersusLaw (www.versuslaw.com), in which
LRC is a strategic and financial partner. Mr. Seidl also serves on the Managing
Litigation as a Business and Managing Litigation Reference Model Advisory Board
(mlrm.net/advisory-board); the Board
of Directors of The Priyanka Foundation (www.thepriyankafoundation.org);
and the Board of Directors of Friends of Flicka (www.flickasfriends.org),
of which he is a co-founder. Mr. Seidl previously served on the board of directors
of Law & Politics Media, Inc., publisher of SuperLawyers™ and the monthly Minnesota
Law & Politics and Washington Law & Politics magazines, and the Board of Managers
of Novus Law (www.novuslaw.com), a global
legal services outsourcing company in which LRC is a strategic and financial partner.
In mid-1990, he co-developed TheLawOffice.com on the Microsoft Network and Internet.
In early 1980, Mr. Seidl co-founded Templeton & Associates: Legal Assistant Services.
In 2003, Mr. Seidl co-produced the PricewaterhouseCoopers & Legal Research Center
Knowledge Management Study: An In-Depth Look Into the Current Use and Future Trends
of KM in the Legal Profession, in collaboration with PwC and the Legal Technology
Institute at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. With Vance Opperman,
former President and CEO of West Publishing; Edward Friedland, General Counsel of
The Thomson Corporation; Richard Weise, former General Counsel of Motorola; and
Stacey Supina, LRC Director of Research, Mr. Seidl co-authored the Legal Research
Management chapter in the 2002-08 ACCA/West publication Successful Partnering Between
Inside and Outside Counsel. He also co-authored the Legal Research chapter in the
2003 ATLA/West publication entitled Litigating Tort Cases, and was a contributing
author to the Legal E-Business Guide (John Kelly, ed., Assoc. of Legal Administrators
2002). In 2000, Mr. Seidl was the co-editor of Strategic Partnering for Legal Services:
New Rules, New Roles, Leaps of Faith and Spectacular Results for In-House and Outside
Counsel at Heller Financial, authored by Mark Ohringer and Debra Snider. Mr. Seidl
has been interviewed for articles in a variety of local and national publications,
including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, National Law Journal, New York Times,
Trial Magazine, ACCA Docket, Inside Counsel, Legal Information Alert, Minnesota
Law & Politics, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Mr. Seidl’s
law-related lobbying activities include formal presentations to the Department of
Justice, the National Press Club, and Op Ed articles in the New York Times.
Mr. Seidl frequently produces educational programs and speaks before major trade
associations and conferences on issues in the legal industry. In 2008, Mr. Seidl
produced a series of educational programs entitled Leading Legal Transformation:
Your 2020 Vision of the Future for the InsideCounsel SuperConference in Chicago;
The Texas General Counsel Forum’s Annual Meeting in Dallas; the Legal IT Forum in
Turnberry Scotland; and the Association of Litigation Support Professionals Fall
Conference in Chicago. In 2009, Mr. Seidl produced a Leading Legal Transformation
program for the FDCC Annual Meeting in New York, and a program on Alternative Fee
Arrangements for the Minnesota Council on Litigation Management in Minneapolis.
Mr. Seidl also participated in the inaugural InsideCounsel & Law Department Consortium
Managing Litigation as a Business Forum in Chicago in 2008. Other educational programs
produced by Mr. Seidl include a workshop for the American Corporate Counsel Association
entitled The Art of Appellate Brief Writing – The Corporate Practitioner’s Perspective,
and a unique program entitled Best Practices In Corporate Research Management for
ACCA’s Annual Meeting. In 1999 and 2000, in conjunction with DuPont, ACCA, CLA and
West Group, Mr. Seidl co-produced a series of legal forums entitled Partnering &
Convergence: Successful Strategies for Controlling Legal Costs. In 2000, Mr. Seidl
co-produced Partnering 2000: Profiting From Client Collaboration with Heller Financial,
Spherion, Merrill and West Group. Also in 2000, Mr. Seidl was a featured speaker
at the Wisconsin ACCA National Chapter presentation Technology Innovations In Legal
Knowledge Management and at the ACCA E-Lawyer 2000 presentation Internet Best Practices
For The Small Law Department. Mr. Seidl was co-chair of the 2001 LawPartnering Forum:
Powering-Up Partnering Relationships; the 2002 LawPartnering Forum: Team Empowerment
Through Financial Rewards and Technology Solutions; and the 2003 LawPartnering Forum:
Partnering Pay-Off—Measuring Returns on Partnering Initiatives. From 1987 through
1992, Mr. Seidl chaired the Practice Development Section of the Minnesota State
Bar Association, and produced legal education seminars on a variety of ethical,
client relations, practice development and legal service marketing subjects.
Mr. Seidl received his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law and his undergraduate
degree from Bethel College. He can be reached at 1.800.776.9377, or by email at
jseidl@lrci.com.
Christopher R. Ljungkull
Chief Executive Officer
Christopher R. Ljungkull is a 1976 graduate of Amherst College and a 1981 graduate
of William Mitchell College of Law. Mr. Ljungkull co-founded Legal Research Center
in 1978. He is currently LRC's Chief Executive Officer and is responsible for LRC's
financial management. In 1999, Mr. Ljungkull was named Co-Chairman of LRC's Board
of Directors. Mr. Ljungkull currently sits on the Board of Directors of Strategic
Radar, one of LRC’s strategic/financial partners.
In addition to his LRC responsibilities, Mr. Ljungkull was employed by West Publishing
from 1987 to 1994. At West, he managed the marketing of software products in the
Electronic and Editorial Processes and Publications Division. Prior to assuming
that position, he was responsible for WESTLAW advertising and for developing WESTLAW
marketing plans. From 1982 to 1985, Mr. Ljungkull was a co-founder and director
of the area's first and largest paralegal placement service, Templeton & Associates.
Joanne Rongitsch
Vice President of Client Services.
Joanne Rongitsch manages strategic alliances, marketing and customer service. Prior
to joining LRC, she served as an information specialist and consultant in Control
Data Corporation's business incubator, the Business and Technology Center. After
cofounding the business research service later known as FACTFINDERS, she became
part of Control Data’s external consulting group, Business Advisors. Joanne also
directed the fee-based secondary business and marketing research unit at the James
J. Hill Reference Library. In recent years, she handled compliance for Phoenix-based
Paragon Mortgage Corporation, a commercial mortgage company. Joanne received her
BA degree in library science and sociology from the College of St. Catherine and
a Master of Arts degree in library and information science with a minor in business
administration from the University of Minnesota.
Stacey Supina
Director of Research
Stacey Supina directs content operations for Legal Research Center, Miller/Davis Company, and Click Industries. With a grounding of over ten years in LRC research work, Stacey manages LRC's research attorney staff and quality control group. Her professional background includes corporate compliance, employment matters, and business-to-business contracting. In addition to her work at LRC, Stacey teaches at the University of St. Thomas Graduate School of Business in Minneapolis and has lectured extensively in North America and Europe on a variety of legal technology and corporate governance topics. A licensed and published attorney, Stacey holds an LL.M. from University College London.
Mazen Haddad
Chief Information Officer
Mazen Haddad brings over twenty years of varied Information Technology experience
to LRC’s customers. Mr. Haddad’s professional accomplishments include leading IT
organizations, managing software development organizations, and architecting and
designing software and hardware solutions, as well as hands-on software development.
Mr. Haddad spent the last seven years focusing on legal software and ways to improve
the use of technology in the legal market space. Prior to joining LRC, he managed
the software development organization for King & Spalding, one of largest law firms
in the US, where he focused on building legal practice systems, Extranets, and knowledge
management solutions for the firm and its clients.
Earlier, Mr. Haddad was on the frontier of Internet/Intranet development while working
for MCI WorldCom, a Fortune-fifty company, where he was heavily involved in modernizing
the company’s systems infrastructure.
Mr. Haddad holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland.