“Hiding the ball is NOT profitable.”

— Sarah Clark Kavanagh, Esq.

Sarah is a person of action — she thrives on getting law firm clients the answers they need and providing solutions they can implement immediately to see results.

She's not afraid to dig in and get results. Sarah's expert at performing in-depth yet streamlined data analyses of a law firm’s cost and usage of legal content, providing actionable and valuable information so business leaders can make informed decisions. She’ll go to bat for clients, negotiating tough contractual points with legal content vendors to make sure her clients are getting the access and value they need for their particular areas of law.

Sarah stays on top of trends and technology affecting the law industry. She understands law firm operations, and how much firm business leaders (CEOs, CFOs, CIOs and partners) value well-filtered information tailored to their unique firm needs.

She's straightforward and cuts to the chase. She can be heard telling clients "Hiding the ball is NOT profitable" — meaning firms have to change their ways. Competition among firm partners and associate attorneys is not the avenue to success. In today’s world, collaboration and knowledge management are keys to unlocking greater law firm profitability.

Industry background
Education
Speaking engagements

Sarah’s first job was in a public library at the age of 14. Ever since then, it seems she’s always been in a library whether it was in law school, practicing law or in the offices of her law firm clients. Sarah makes sure her clients are aware of the latest technological innovations to increase productivity and ROI. She also spent the last decade working with law firms to:

Determine their information needs
Compare library budgets and assets to needs
Create solutions to make the most of existing firm resources
Obtain the highest value and cost recovery of the information budget
Provide insight regarding legal industry trends, cost-saving alternatives and best practices

Sarah received her BS from Iowa State University and JD from the University of Iowa, College of Law. She is member of the California and Iowa Bar Associations.

Sarah is an active speaker at local and national legal industry meetings and conferences. Her speaking engagements and topics have included:

Orange County Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA), September 2009
Finding the “Real” Value of Your Information Resources, nationwide webinar for the American Association of Law Librarians, September 2009
The Law Library: Moving Forward Without Fear, Cleveland Chapter of the ALA, June 2009
The New Economy and Your Information Services Contracts for the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, DC (LLSDC), November 2008
The 2008 ALA Law Firm Financial Conference: Library Cost: Analyzing and Managing this Cost Center Effectively
The Law Library 2008: Skills, Strategies & Solutions, sponsored by PLI in San Francisco and New York