User:Mthomascollins/sandbox

M. Thomas (Tom) Collins (b. May 23, 1941) is an American author and entrepreneur. The London-based publication Citytech [www.citytechmag.com] called him an “outstanding individual and visionary” when M. Thomas (Tom) Collins was named as one of the Top 100 Global Tech Leaders in the legal community. Tom Collins, as he prefers to be called, is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the US Publication Law Technology News for his contribution to the use of technology in the legal community. Although now retired from the commercial world, he continues to write and speak on the subject of management leadership and pen his Mark Rollins adventure series of mysteries.

Collins is the founder and former president of Juris, Inc. purchased by Lexis/Nexis in June of 2007. In addition to his role as president and then chairman of Juris, Inc. he shared his 30 years of experience working with midsized law firms on the blog www.morepartnerincome.com until his retirement at the end of 2007.

Collins 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. He 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. Following that acquisition, Collins began Juris, Inc. in March 1986 as its primary shareholder. When Juris was purchased by Lexis/Nexis, it had become a leading provider of financial and business information systems for midsized law firms with an estimated 27% market share. Throughout his career, Collins 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 includes PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Colgate-Palmolive, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Officer for DoubleClick, Inc. and CEO of Bazaarvoice. Tom Collins continued to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Juris until he turned that role over to Stephen Collins 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 turned his hand to writing. Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and, The Claret Murders.

Collins and his family live in Franklin Tennessee. External links[edit source | editbeta]

Collins official website: www.I65North, Inc. Blogs: www.I65NorthBlog.com and www.WhatAboutEbooks.com References[edit source | editbeta]