For almost two decades, a single person reigned supreme about the world of legal technologies. These types of was Monica Bay’s prominence and affect that, when she retired in 2015 after 17 many years as editor of Legislation Know-how News, Thomson Reuters honored her with her name and picture emblazoned above Occasions Square. As a pricey good friend, trusted mentor, and inspirational part product to so lots of in the environment of lawful tech, Monica stood by itself.
With Monica and David Horrigan at Fenway Park in 2014 for Derek Jeter’s next-to-past sport.
I am hence deeply saddened to report that Monica died Friday, Oct. 27, at the age of 74, following quite a few yrs of battling a neurological illness. At the time of her death, she was dwelling in El Dorado Hills, Calif., close to her brother Invoice and his spouse and children.
Monica started off in journalism as a rock-and-roll reviewer ahead of going to regulation university, training legislation briefly, and then joining ALM, where by she labored for 30 decades.
She begun there as a senior editor at ALM’s San Francisco newspaper The Recorder and with Counsel Connect, the predecessor to Regulation.com. Commencing in 1998, she moved to New York and grew to become editor of Regulation Know-how Information , the former journal that has since relaunched digitally as Legaltech Information.
With Monica at a Thomson Reuters function all through LegalTech 2013.
She had just started off at LTN and was about to place her very first situation to bed when she hit a snag. A scheduled column experienced fallen via, leaving a gap in the journal that wanted to be stuffed on quick purchase.
Monica referred to as me and questioned if I could assistance her out. She prompt I produce anything about the Web, adding that she would want it in just a day or two. I dashed off an post about the Y2K bug, and that became the 1st installment of the “Web Watch” column I wrote for her for one more 15 many years.
Monica at LegalTech 2008 flanked by bloggers Carolyn Elefant and Eric Turkewitz.
In excess of the many years of Monica’s leadership of LTN, she, the magazine and its writers received some 53 journalism awards. During her tenure, she oversaw the magazine’s transfer from pure print to a companion internet edition and then also a cellular variation. Her tasks, in convert, went from making a month-to-month journal to manufacturing equally the magazine and each day updates to the web-site.
For numerous decades at the once-a-year Legal Tech convention in New York, Monica hosted a bloggers’ breakfast. In individuals early days of blogging, it became a should-attend celebration not only for bloggers, but also for lawful tech executives and PR and promoting professionals. She also hosted an yearly bash at an Irish bar not far from the Hilton that was not to be missed.
A single consequence of her transfer to New York was her introduction to the New York Yankees. She turned a rabid enthusiast. Her enthusiasm for baseball even arrived to inform her operate at LTN. As she once wrote in an LTN column:
I was mesmerized by the reality that it “takes a team” to acquire a game or the Globe Collection, and it’s not constantly the big guns who hit the walk-off household runs.
We have built Regulation Technology Information on that premise, and I vowed as editor that we would provide the overall lawful tech local community, not just the best pet dogs. That is why LTN has created our annual innovation awards challenged Large Regulation to list C-amount people on their web-sites fought for gender fork out equality and pushed to get women interested in science, technological know-how, engineering and math.
At LegalTech 2005 with blogger Bruce MacEwen.
Monica also hosted just one of the early lawful tech podcasts, identified as Law Technological innovation Now. She discontinued it in 2013, and then revived it in 2016 — with me as her cohost.
One particular of the most telling tales about Monica is her function in ALM’s coverage of 9/11, the complete aspects of which I wrote about in a 2021 put up. I was in Manhattan that working day, the place I was editor-in-chief of The Nationwide Legislation Journal.
1 of Monica’s photographs from 9/11.
Not prolonged just after the assaults, the ALM editors and reporters who experienced manufactured it into the places of work that day convened for an editorial conference to talk about how we would coordinate protection.
A single conclusion we produced was to ship a few two-human being teams to Ground Zero to see what they could understand. Of the three teams, only a single produced it — the team of Monica and David Horrigan, who is now effectively known as the discovery counsel and authorized schooling director at Relativity, and who was then an NLJ reporter.
Monica performed photographer that day to David as reporter. The photos she returned with were being vivid and horrifying — of soot-lined streets, crushed automobiles, mangled buildings. Monica and David had not recognized each other effectively before that working day. But their shared expertise spawned an enduring friendship between them.
David Horrigan and I visited Monica Bay on Sept. 11, 2020.
On Sept. 11, 2020, David and I drove out to pay a visit to Monica at her Berkshires house, where by we had lunch and shared recollections of that working day 19 many years previously. It was the past time I would see Monica in individual.
That tale illustrates the way that Monica would turn into a good friend to so lots of, and a pal like number of other people. For me, just one instant 12 many years in the past epitomizes this.
I experienced had a significant overall health scare, but experienced kept it to myself, telling just about no just one about it. A couple of months later, as I was even now recovering but accomplishing my very best to hide it, I observed Monica at Authorized Tech. It took her just a several moments to feeling that something was amiss, and quickly I uncovered myself sitting off in a corner sharing almost everything about it with her.
I have been lucky in my life to know some wonderful men and women and make several pricey good friends. But Monica was certainly just one of a kind and her loss will be mourned by several.