The International Legal Technology Association announced it has appointed Joy Heath Rush, the former vice president of client development at Litera Microsystems, as its new interim CEO.

The appointment comes almost two months after the resignation of former CEO Dan Liutikas, who was at the center of the contentious 2017 firing of three longtime members of ILTA's executive team—Clay Gibney, Deb Himsel and Peggy Wechsler.

Joy Heath Rush, former vice president of Client Development at Litera Microsystems, and current Interim CEO at ILTA

Rush, a former ILTA board member who was president from 2007 to 2009, also held various IT roles at Sidley Austin, including director of applications and director of enterprise multimedia services, from 2002 to 2008.

As of publishing time, Rush has not been available to comment on her new role. However, Kate Cain, director of market intelligence at Sidley Austin and ILTA director at large, told Legaltech News that ILTA tapped Rush as its new CEO because of her collective experience working with the association, law firms, and the legal technology industry. “She really comes to this role with firsthand perspective from all three of these angles.”

Cain added that ILTA also chose Rush because “we recognize that the association has some immediate needs around our operations and wanted to focus on the right fit for that skill set.”

Specifically, Rush will be tasked in the near term with helping ILTA “around our staffing and operational needs,” Cain said. But she added that once the staffing positions are filled, ILTA will look at the possibility of keeping Rush on long term.

“Our great hope is that it turns into a permanent position. … Our hope is that we don't actually have to repeat this exercise,” Cain added.

ILTA's move to place a legal technology executive at its helm comes as the organization focuses on rebuilding its relationship with legal technology providers. Stemming from the town hall event at the ILTACON conference in August, Cain noted that the ILTA board agrees “there are things we can and should be doing better.”

But Cain reiterated to Legaltech News that Rush was not picked solely for her role in the legal technology industry, but for the scope of her experience across the legal sector. She also noted that though Rush is the only CEO to come from the legal technology industry, ILTA has only had two other CEOs to date.

Still, Cain said that with legal tech vendors, there is “a business side to that relationship that can be somewhat challenging to balance” for ILTA, and that  Rush understands “the complexities of that relationship really well.” She also noted that Rush has a great relationship with Jason Stookey, who is vice president of partner development at ILTA.

The appointment of Rush caps a trying period for the organization following the 2017 shake-up, which led some founding ILTA members to quit the association and launch a new organization named the Association of Legal Technologists.

At the August ILTA town hall, members put pressure on ILTA to recognize and look to correct past mistakes. “We are at a crossroads; what we say and how we conduct ourselves can heal or hurt ILTA,” said Judith Flournoy, chief information officer at Kelley Drye & Warren and one of the founders of a member group called “Heal ILTA,” at the meeting.