About the Author:
M. Thomas (Tom) Collins is the founder and former president of Juris, Inc. purchased by LexisNexis in June of 2007. Until his retirement at the end of 2007, he shared his 30 years of experience working with midsized law firms through his award practice management blog. The London based publication Citytech called him an "outstanding individual and visionary" when Tom was named as one of the Top 100 Global Tech Leaders in the legal community. He is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the U.S. Publication, Law Technology News, for his contribution to the use of technology in the legal community. Although now retire from the commercial world, he continues to write and speak on the subject of law firm management.
Tom completed his undergraduate work at Middle Tennessee State University and later earned his Master's Degree from the University of Alabama where he was inducted into the honor society, Beta Alpha Psi. Tom began his career in the mid-1960s as a CPA with Price Waterhouse (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers).
He was one of the pioneer entrepreneurs of the information technology industry following IBM's consent decree that opened opportunities to own mainframe computers for the purpose of providing services to others. After serving as one of the principals of Compass, Inc., and then Vice President of NLT Computer Services, he joined with four associates to found the public company Endata, Inc. Endata was later acquired by First Financial Management. Tom began Juris, Inc. in March 1986 as its primary shareholder. When Juris was purchased by LexisNexis in 2007, it had become the leading provider of financial and business information systems for midsized law firms with an estimated 27% market share.
Throughout his career, Tom has been a frequent speaker and author on management subjects as well as technology issues and the legal profession. Among his many industry roles, he is one of the founding members and officers of the consortium organized to implement standards for the electronic exchange of data within the legal community, LEDES, the copyrighted "Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standards." Tom was also the initial founding chairman of the National Association of Legal Vendors and served as a vendor advisor to several legal related associations and for the Legal Tech educational and Expo conferences.
Tom Collins served as the President and CEO of Juris, Inc. from its inception until 2002 when his son, Stephen Collins, assumed operational leadership of Juris as the company's President. Stephen's successful career outside of Juris included PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Colgate-Palmolive, and then as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Officer for DoubleClick, Inc. During his tenure with DoubleClick, the New York based startup company grew into a global organization with more than 2,000 employees in 23 countries with over $500 million in annual revenues. Stephen has worked in more than 20 countries and lived in Bucharest, Romania, in 1996.
Tom continued to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Juris until he turned that role over to Stephen in June 2004 when Tom underwent surgery for colon cancer. He remained as Chairman of the Board until the company was purchased by LexisNexis in June of 2007.
As a retiree and a cancer survivor, Tom Collins has now turned his hand to writing. Paperback and Kindle editions of his Mark Rollins Adventures can be purchased on http://www.Amazon.com. Signed copies of the books, including libary bound hard cover limited edition copes, are available in the on-line store at http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Printed and ebook editions are also available on other online book stores including http://www.barnesandnoble.com. To contact the author: info@markrollinsadventures.com
In addition to their entertainment quality his books address real life business management issues especially as related to the profitable operation of the modern law firm.
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