40 Facts About Reed Smith

Reed Smith: A Legacy of Excellence

Reed Smith LLP has been a cornerstone in the legal world for over a century. With a rich history and a commitment to excellence, the firm has grown into a global powerhouse. Let's dive into some fascinating facts about Reed Smith.

1. Founding and History: Reed Smith was established in 1878 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The firm has a storied history of serving clients across various industries, including energy, financial services, life sciences, and real estate.

2. Global Presence: Operating from over 30 locations worldwide, Reed Smith has offices in major cities like London, New York, Paris, and Singapore. This extensive network allows the firm to cater to clients in diverse markets and jurisdictions.

3. Services: The firm offers a wide array of legal services, including corporate law, litigation, intellectual property law, employment law, and tax law. Reed Smith is particularly known for its expertise in cross-border transactions and international arbitration.

Commitment to Community and Diversity

Reed Smith is not just about legal services; the firm is deeply committed to giving back to the community and promoting diversity within its ranks.

4. Pro Bono Work: Reed Smith dedicates over 88,000 hours annually to pro bono work. The firm has been actively involved in addressing global public health crises, social upheaval, and natural disasters through these initiatives.

5. Diversity and Inclusion: The firm focuses on supporting the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women. Reed Smith believes that diverse and inclusive teams offer the best client service and has implemented various initiatives to promote diversity within the organization.

6. Client Service: Emphasizing the importance of client service, Reed Smith believes that diverse and inclusive teams provide better service. This approach is reflected in its commitment to hiring talent from diverse backgrounds and fostering a culture of inclusivity.

Navigating Legal and Business Challenges

Reed Smith's expertise extends to helping businesses navigate complex legal landscapes and regulatory challenges.

7. Legal Implications and Business Constraints: Reed Smith lawyers have discussed the implications of various regulatory rules on businesses. For instance, the firm has analyzed the impact of EU rules targeting multinational companies and foreign investors in Europe, highlighting the need for strict compliance.

8. Decree 34 and DIAC Transformations: Since Decree 34, the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) has undergone significant transformations, including the adoption of new rules and the revamping of its administrative function. Reed Smith has been actively involved in these changes, providing guidance on differential treatment, product design, information accuracy, and right-of-review clauses.

9. Monetary Authority Guidance: The Monetary Authority has added guidance on various aspects, including differential treatment, product design, information accuracy, and right-of-review clauses. This guidance is crucial for businesses operating in the financial sector, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Ethical Considerations and Pro Bono Initiatives

Ethical considerations and pro bono work are at the heart of Reed Smith's mission.

10. Vulnerable Considerations: Reed Smith emphasizes considerations for the vulnerable, ensuring that businesses operate ethically and responsibly. This includes protecting consumer rights and adhering to ethical standards in all business dealings.

11. Pro Bono Initiatives: Last year, Reed Smith devoted a record number of hours to pro bono service. This commitment reflects the firm's dedication to giving back to the community and addressing social and economic issues.

12. Support for Women: Reed Smith is actively involved in supporting the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women. The firm believes that a diverse and inclusive team offers the best client service, and it has implemented various initiatives to promote gender equality.

Simplifying Legal Language

Reed Smith recognizes the importance of clear communication and has been a pioneer in promoting plain language in legal documents.

13. Plain Language in Legal Documents: The firm has been involved in initiatives to simplify legal language, making it easier for readers to understand and use information. This approach is crucial for reducing confusion and improving communication.

14. Plain Language Examples: One example of plain language in action is the revision of the Michigan Rules of Evidence. Joe Kimble, a renowned expert in plain language, has worked on simplifying legal documents, reducing prepositions from eight to one in a single sentence. This example illustrates how plain language can significantly improve clarity and readability.

15. Medical Power of Attorney: Reed Smith has been involved in developing medical power of attorney documents that are clear and easy to understand. These documents introduce what the document does, how it’s organized, and how to use it, making them accessible to non-lawyers. The use of bullet points, white space, and headings enhances readability and usability.

Field Tests and Empathy in Writing

Reed Smith's commitment to clear communication extends to rigorous field testing and an empathetic approach to writing.

16. Field Tests for Plain Language Documents: Kimble has conducted field tests by having non-lawyer readers review drafts and provide feedback. This process has led to multiple revisions, with the medical power of attorney going through 50 drafts. The end result is a document that is clear, concise, and easy to follow.

17. Empathy in Writing: Kimble emphasizes the importance of empathy in writing. He believes that writers should consider their readers' needs and strive to write in a way that is clear and understandable. This approach is essential for avoiding confusion and ensuring that readers can easily find, understand, and use information.

18. Impact of Unclear Writing: Unclear writing can have significant consequences, including wasting millions and billions of dollars due to public documents and websites that are not clear. This waste of time, energy, and money creates ill will, frustration, and anxiety in people. Kimble's work aims to mitigate these issues by promoting plain language.

Collaboration and Innovation

Reed Smith fosters a collaborative environment and continually seeks innovative solutions to improve legal services.

19. Collaboration with Colleagues: Kimble's approach to writing is collaborative. He works closely with colleagues, often comparing notes and edits. His edits are so consistent that his colleagues can recognize them before he suggests them. This collaborative spirit enhances the quality of the documents and ensures that they meet high standards.

20. Redrafting School Bylaws: Kimble has worked on redrafting school bylaws, a project that involved separate work followed by comparing notes. The edits were almost identical, reflecting Kimble's consistent approach to writing. His unique ideas, however, made a significant impact, demonstrating his skill and creativity in plain language.

21. Textlets Prototype: A textlets prototype was developed to improve document readability. The study focused on searchlets but also included other textlets from the first prototype. Participants were recruited from various backgrounds, including patent attorneys and researchers. The prototype was accessed via a web application, ensuring that interactions and tasks were similar to those in a non-web document editor.

22. Participant Feedback: Participants provided feedback on the textlets prototype, which was used to refine the design. The study aimed to gather feedback, identify novel uses, and discuss new ideas with participants. This iterative process ensured that the final product was user-friendly and effective.

23. Character Count Feature: The textlets prototype included a persistently-displayed character count feature, which was faster than highlighting text and invoking Word’s word count command. This feature was designed to help users manage document length and readability.

Addressing Specific Needs

Reed Smith's innovative solutions cater to the specific needs of various professionals, ensuring efficiency and clarity.

24. Searchlets and Document Readability: Searchlets were a key component of the textlets prototype. They were designed to improve document readability by providing quick access to specific information within documents. This feature was particularly useful for patent attorneys and researchers who needed to manage large amounts of data efficiently.

25. Patent Attorneys’ Feedback: Patent attorneys participating in the study emphasized the importance of human expertise in document management. They preferred manual selection of text over automatic drafting systems, which they found to be time-consuming and less effective. Human-to-human communication was essential for their intellectual work, and they valued the ability to select passages and explain them clearly.

26. Researchers’ Needs: Researchers also participated in the study, highlighting the need for textlets to address their specific requirements. They managed consistency in their papers and emphasized the importance of clear communication. The textlets prototype was designed to meet these needs, ensuring that researchers could easily manage and read documents.

27. Web Application Accessibility: The textlets prototype was accessed via a web application, which was chosen for its prototyping skill set. Participants used their preferred browsers on their own computers or a MacBook Pro running macOS 10.14 and Firefox 68.0 for those without a computer.

28. Document Sets: Two sets of documents were created to match participants’ backgrounds: two patents and two research papers. These documents were used to test the effectiveness of the textlets prototype in real-world scenarios.

Enhancing User Experience

Reed Smith's focus on user experience ensures that their solutions are practical and effective.

29. Think-Aloud Protocol: A think-aloud protocol was used to gather participants’ thoughts and reactions while using the textlets prototype. This approach ensured that the design was user-centered and addressed the needs of diverse users.

30. Task Exercises: Each task consisted of three small exercises with increasing difficulty. Participants performed these tasks using both the editor of their choice and the textlets prototype. This counterbalanced approach ensured that the results were unbiased and reflected the true effectiveness of the textlets prototype.

31. Line Number Counting: Participants had to manually count line numbers in some cases, which was tedious but essential for making evidence-based decisions. This process highlighted the importance of clear documentation and precise referencing in intellectual work.

32. Automatic Drafting Systems: Automatic drafting systems were developed to improve report-writing productivity by reducing copy-pasting and re-writing. However, many examiners were reluctant to use these systems, emphasizing the importance of human expertise in selecting the right text and engaging in human-to-human communication.

Intellectual Expertise and Research

Reed Smith values intellectual expertise and continually seeks to understand the impact of various factors on legal and business practices.

33. Examiners’ Feedback: Examiners provided mixed feedback on automatic drafting systems. Some found them time-consuming and less effective, while others valued the ability to generate reports quickly. However, the intellectual part of their work involved selecting passages and engaging in communication, which was best done by humans.

34. Synonyms for Intellectual Work: Almost half the examiners had their own library of synonyms for their respective domains. This indicates a high level of expertise and a need for precise language in intellectual work.

35. Neural Responses to Threat-Related Stimuli: Exposure to violence can have significant neural responses, potentially linking low socioeconomic status to psychopathology. A study focused on neural responses to threat-related stimuli as a mechanism underlying socioeconomic disparities in psychopathology.

36. Correlations and Descriptive Statistics: Descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations were summarized in a table. The study used Cohen’s d for all variables in relation to sex and provided correlations for other variables. This approach ensured that the data was comprehensive and accurately represented the findings.

37. Threat Composite: A threat composite was constructed by standardizing subscales of violence exposure types, frequency, and severity. This composite reflected the severity and frequency of violence participants had experienced, combining well-established measures of violence exposure into a single score.

38. Measures of Violence Exposure: The study included various measures of violence exposure, such as the UCLA PTSD-RI, CECA, JVQ, CTQ, and VEX-R. Each measure provided unique information about violence experiences, approaching the task of quantifying violence exposure in different ways.

39. Dimensional Approach to Childhood Adversity: The study used a dimensional approach to conceptualizing childhood adversity, with higher scores reflecting more frequent or severe experiences of threat. This approach is consistent with previous research on childhood adversity and its impact on psychopathology.

40. Relevance to Intellectual Work: The findings from the study on neural responses to threat-related stimuli and the construction of a threat composite have implications for intellectual work. Understanding the impact of violence exposure on neural responses can help in designing more effective interventions for individuals experiencing socioeconomic disparities and psychopathology.

Reed Smith: A Legacy of Excellence

Reed Smith LLP stands out as a dynamic international law firm with a rich history dating back to 1878. With over 30 global locations, they offer a wide range of legal services, from corporate law to international arbitration. Their commitment to pro bono work is evident, dedicating over 88,000 hours to various causes last year alone. The firm champions diversity and inclusion, focusing on the recruitment and advancement of women. Reed Smith also emphasizes the importance of plain language in legal documents, making complex information accessible. Their innovative approach, like the textlets prototype, showcases their dedication to improving document readability. Additionally, their research on neural responses to threat-related stimuli highlights their commitment to understanding and addressing societal issues. Reed Smith's blend of tradition, innovation, and social responsibility makes them a leader in the legal industry.