John Gilman is the founder and CEO of LegalRelay.com, bringing twenty years experience in new product development in the legal industry.
John has successfully developed many new products over his career, beginning twenty years ago with the creation of new legal research products, which are now offered by Lexis/Nexis. In the past 10 years John has designed commercial software applications and solutions used daily by attorneys and support staff at the largest law departments and law firms in the world. These applications are used to process billions of dollars in legal invoices annually.
John's professional experience includes new product research and development, product management and a few years practicing insurance defense law. With his background in law and experience in user experience design, agile software development methodologies and continuous quality improvement, John brings a unique set of skills to problem solving in the legal domain.
John has a B.A. in Philosophy from Purdue University, and a J.D. from University of Kansas. His interest in technology began with his enrollment in some of the earliest High School computer programming courses offered in the United States. His focus on legal operations began when, as an associate, he stumbled upon a copy of Roberta Cooper Ramo's seminal work "How to Create a System for the Law Office."
John brings a strong philosophical belief that software is an important tool used by legal professionals to help perform their work. Like any tool used by any craftsman, legal technology should make it easier for legal professionals to produce great work and should always be a joy to work with. John believes that the measure of great software is that it helps users do their work more effectively and achieve their business goals. John created LegalRelay.com with a goal of allowing legal professionals to share their experiences with the software they use and help technology providers put better product into the hands of their customers.
Dan Simon, Vice President of Sales for LegalRelay, has spent 12 years in business development and customer relationship management in the legal and compliance industry.
In his previous positions at Sterling Infosystems and LexisNexis, Dan consistently achieved territory growth and client retention targets in serving law firms, corporate law departments and government agencies.
Dan has a B.A. in Economics from The College of William and Mary, and an M.B.A. in International Business from both the University of Georgia and Nyenrode Business Universiteit in The Netherlands.
Dan volunteers at several non-profit organizations, including Forty Plus, which supports executives in job transition and Upwardly Global, which helps immigrant professionals find occupations in their respective fields. As an Alumni Ambassador for Nyenrode, Dan counsels prospective international MBA candidates. Dan is a certified Six Sigma Yellow Belt, speaks several foreign languages, has a black belt in Karate and currently practices Aikido.