InsideLegal

ILTA Launches Legal Technology Future Horizons Project

2013-05-24T20:01:27-04:00

Earlier this week, ILTA announced it's newest technology thought leadership initiative -- the nearly year-long Legal Technology Future Horizons (LTFH) project, a partnership effort with futurist Rohit Talwar and his Fast Future Research Limited team. Although this effort has not been officially labeled Law2020 2.0, that's how we see the progression of thought leadership, critical thinking and content around the future of legal technology as it relates to law practice. The LTFH initiative has a prominent research component which includes a global qualitative and quantitative legal survey to explore the potential impact of new and emerging technologies for law firms and the resulting strategies 10 to 15 years down the road.

Below is the complete press release with many more details...

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Media Contact: Jobst Elster,InsideLegal.com

ILTA Launches Legal Technology Future Horizons Project

New thought-leadership initiative includes global study focused on potential
impact of new and emerging legal technologies over the next 10-15 years

Austin, Texas, May 20, 2013 - The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), a peer networking organization focused on maximizing the value of legal technology, today announced the ILTA Legal Technology Future Horizons – Transformational Forces Project (ILTA Future Horizons), a thought-leadership initiative focused on the future of technology for the legal sector. The project’s core component, a global research study conducted in partnership with Fast Future Research Limited (Fast Future), looks at the potential impact of new and emerging technologies for law firms and the resulting strategic priorities over the next 10-15 years. Key study findings and recommendations will be delivered through several interim updates, with the final report, an executive briefing and a keynote speech scheduled for ILTA’s INSIGHT 2013 conference in London on November 14, 2013.

The ILTA Future Horizons research study focuses on the emerging technology timeline, major forces shaping both the business landscape and the future of the legal sector. The study is led by Fast Future’s CEO and futurist thought leader Rohit Talwar, who advises global companies, governments and associations on emerging change and how to develop innovative future growth strategies.

The study is designed to challenge current thinking and provide insights into the development of future business and IT strategies for law firms, law departments and legal technology vendors, including:

Key driving forces shaping business and the legal profession
A timeline of future IT developments
How to leverage IT advances that help enable and enhance tomorrow’s legal organizations
Possible scenarios for the role and management of IT in tomorrow’s legal organizations
Strategic IT imperatives specific to law firms, legal departments and legal technology providers

"This research highlights how advances in information technology will disrupt and transform the legal sector, how this will impact law firms specifically, how work is done and how value can be delivered,” said Talwar. “The range of innovations already taking place and in the pipeline suggests everything from the structure of client briefs and analyzing documents through to court room practices and client reporting will change dramatically as a result of rapidly accelerating advances in areas such as a mobile computing and communications, deep personalization, wearable and embedded technology, artificial intelligence, big data, predictive analytics, collaborative technologies, knowledge management, automatic translation and smart user interfaces.”

Based on the first interim ILTA Future Horizons report (summary now available on the ILTA project site), there are key themes emerging around the role of technology in tomorrow’s legal enterprise:

End users increasingly will be mobile, using wearable technologies enhanced with augmented reality (AR) and holographic displays and supported by intelligent digital personal assistants.
Devices will offer AI-enabled smart interfaces and automatic language translation, and will support user interaction via gestures, language and thought.
Customer service delivery could be enhanced through deep collaboration environments, portals, shared databases, telepresence robots, advanced videoconferencing, touchable holographs, novel data handling tools and sophisticated security technology.
Law firm processes could be transformed through developments in AI, KM, the smart capture and analysis of data, predictive analytics, intelligent document production systems, video and audio mining, integrated analytics and true gamification.
At the IT management level, the cloud will be used for infrastructure, applications, development and data, and priorities for IT management will shift from production to innovation.

Numerous project elements will come into play during the year-long study, including desk research, telephone interviews, an associated global survey and legal industry workshops conducted in New York City on June 14th and during ILTA’s 2013 annual conference in August. Project deliverables include two interim findings reports, a global ILTA member survey, and the final report in the fall. In addition, findings and results presentations and workshops will be held during INSIGHT 2013, ILTA’s Europe event in London on November 14th.

“We are very excited about the Legal Technology Future Horizons project and the resulting insights and findings. ILTA members will have the benefit of this knowledge as they prepare their firms for the future,” stated Randi Mayes, ILTA’s Executive Director. “While ILTA’s Law2020™ initiative is the catalyst for thinking about the future of law firms, Future Horizons has a sharp focus on transformative technologies, and those findings will be of great interest to legal business leaders and IT professionals alike.”

Project sponsors include AccessData, BigHand, BillBLAST, Microsoft, Mimecast and Thomson Reuters. For the complete press release, more details on the initiative and future updates, go to http://www.iltanet.org/MainMenuCategory/Future-Horizons.

Accelerate Your Legal Marketing ... Tune in to 2013 Super Marketing Conference Today

2013-05-16T02:48:58-04:00

Touted as "New England’s premier legal marketing conference", the 3rd edition of the annual Super Marketing Conference (SMC) is being presented by the Center for Advanced Legal Studies and Institute on Practice Technology & Innovation; the Massachusetts Bar; the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program (LOMAP) and Suffolk University Law School.

Join the Conference Webcast Now

Tale of the SMC 2013 tape:

All day (8:30-5:15pm) conference featuring Avvo CEO keynote; 3 moderated roundtable sessions covering legal technologies, social media and marketing content; and 3 presentations focused on internet marketing, SEO and video marketing
150 attendee RSVPs (as of Wednesday AM); 3 producers; 13 sponsors (including 7 local and state bar associations); and 14 speakers/panelists
'No excuses' participation/attendance operations including in-person, online/via streaming media or via social media streams such as Twitter and Facebook
Great value tuition ranging from free for Suffolk University students and faculty/staff to $69 at the regular rate. If you are interested but are nowhere near Boston or Suffolk University, check out the affordable 'On Demand' web cast for $49.

Also, to make it easier to participate via Twitter, we have assembled a custom Twitter group including all SMC speakers, sponsors and producers. Use this list and follow the hashtag #LHLM.

Get Rewarded for Innovation...Check out the 2013 InnovAction Awards

2013-05-09T00:50:15-04:00

Who doesn't like to be recognized and rewarded for a job well done? Especially if the kudos and hat tips are coming from peers, collegues and influencers within the legal profession. While we all seem to have the best intentions when it comes to promoting our own good deeds and innovations, we usually end up focused on the 'daily grindstone' stuff (aka looking at our feet vs. the sky). Well thanks to the College of Law Practice Management's (COLPM) annual InnovAction awards (which are now open for entries), any legal professional or legal organization can show off their greatest legal 'game changers' and shoot for the stars. InnovAction chair Tim Corcoran provides the award skinny on his blog plus we've included the corresponding press release below. Any and all award details can be found on the InnovAction Award site and specific award and eligibility questions will be gladly addressed by Tim Corcoran.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2013 InnovAction Awards Now Open for Nominations

The College of Law Practice Management to recognize innovation and ingenuity in law practice

Denver, CO, May 8, 2013 - The College of Law Practice Management (COLPM), an international organization that recognizes excellence in law practice management, is calling for entries for its 2013 InnovAction Awards, a worldwide recognition of lawyers, law firms, law departments and other legal service providers that have innovated and successfully applied new business practices to the delivery of legal services. Since the award’s inception in 2004, 22 InnovAction award winners have been crowned including 15 law firms as well as law schools, not-for-profits and legal service providers. Submissions for the 2013 InnovAction Awards will be accepted until June 30, 2013.

The goal of the InnovAction Awards is to demonstrate to the legal community what can be created when dedicated professionals with big ideas and strong convictions are determined to make a difference. Any individual lawyer or law firm (locally or globally), or any business providing services to lawyers, law firms or consumers of legal services, is eligible to submit an award application. Recipients of the 2012 InnovAction Awards include Littler Mendelson, PC and Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Prior winners are listed in the InnovAction ‘Hall of Fame’.

“The InnovAction Award recognizes creativity as well as genuine and disruptive ways of thinking when it comes to legal services delivery worldwide,” said COLPM President Ron Staudt. “We know that innovation fuels solutions that help solve the business challenges faced by law firms and legal professionals and are proud to recognize those at the forefront of this change.”

All award entries are reviewed and judged by a panel of five COLPM Fellows. This year, a past InnovAction Award winner will join the judging panel plus the legal community will vote online to serve as the 7^th judge. This crowd-sourcing component will allow legal professionals to participate and vote for their favorite submission online.

InnovAction Award entries will be judged on the following four primary criteria:

Disruption: Does this entry change an important element of the legal services process for the better, and marketplace expectations along with it?
Value: Is the client and/or legal industry better off, in terms of the affordability, ease, relevance or its effect on legal services?
Effectiveness: Has this entry delivered real, demonstrable or measurable benefits, for the provider, its clients, or the marketplace generally?
Originality: Is this a novel idea or approach, or a new twist on an existing idea or approach?

“We are thrilled to continually recognize legal innovators with the InnovAction Award and invite the legal community’s thought leaders and influencers to participate in the process,” stated Tim Corcoran, Chair of the 2013 Awards and principal, Corcoran Consulting Group. “Applicants should take some time to reflect on what differentiates them … What approaches have you employed this year that have produced fantastic results? What efforts have resulted in higher client satisfaction? Generated more leads? Provided a substantial number of people with access to justice? Or improved operational efficiency or service quality?”

Further information about the awards, past winners, eligibility rules, sponsorship information and entry forms are available at the InnovAction Award website.

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About COLPM

The College of Law Practice Management (COLPM) is a not-for-profit organization formed in 1994 to honor and recognize distinguished law practice management professionals, to set standards of achievement for others in the profession, and to fund and assist projects that enhance the highest quality of law practice management. The COLPM and its Fellows inspire excellence and innovation in law practice management by honoring extraordinary achievement; developing, exchanging and disseminating knowledge, and stimulating innovation in the delivery of legal services.

About 2013 InnovAction Awards

The COLPM continues its global search for ingenuity in law practice management. Designed to inspire creative thinking in a field known for its over-reliance on precedent, the InnovAction Awards are intended not only to identify effective innovation but also to inspire it through international recognition. Since its inception in 2004, 22 legal organizations including law firms, not-for-profits, legal service providers and law schools have received the annual InnovAction award.

About 2013 InnovAction Award Sponsors

The 2013 InnovAction Awards are sponsored by the following organizations and companies with a passion for innovation including:

Platinum Sponsors: Attorney at Work, Greenfield/Belser Ltd.,InsideLegal.com, Practical Law Company
Gold Sponsors: ABA Law Practice Management Section, International Legal Technology Association (ILTA)
Silver Sponsors: Altman Weil, Inc., Association of Legal Administrators and Legal Marketing Association

LawTech Futures Kicks Off 2nd Annual Event in London

2013-04-30T01:16:43-04:00

Today, much of the legal IT community in the UK, as well as a healthy share of US legal tech professionals, are convening at the QEII Conference Centre in London for the sold out event, LawTech Futures 2013 – The Future of Legal Technology’.

Following a strong debut in 2012, LawTech Futures (LTF) producers Netlaw Media and Charles Christian of the Legal Technology Insider have upped the ante with a ‘bigger and better’ approach in terms of number of delegates, exhibitors, educational sessions and speakers. For all the details, check out LTF statistics infographic or full event brochure.

LTF 2013 features three presentation stages - Main Stage, Lounge Stage & Demonstration Stage - including a 400 seat conference room hosting 10+ hours of content delivered by 40 speakers & panelists including keynoter Ray Kurzweil; leading IT/EDD consultant Andrew Haslam; Neil Cameron, Founder Neil Cameron Consulting Group; White & Case Head of KM Oz Benamram; Norton Rose's Sam Dimond; Jason Plant of DLA Piper; and Herbert Smith Freehills CIO Haig Tyler.

Here's our top two session picks:

"Managing Innovation in an Era of Accelerating Technology": Keynote speaker Ray Kurzweil looks to touch on all the current 'biggies' - leveraging tech to deliver better legal services; recognizing disruptive forces and capitalizing on them; virtual reality will bring us all closer, how can law firms take advantage?
"Big Data Analytics - Innovating Services in a Rapidly Changing World": Big data is a favorite topic of ours these days, especially since most legal professionals still don't know what to do with it. This LTF session is lead by the EMEA Lead of Business Solutions for Google, Matt McNeill, so hopefully he'll be able to demystify and surely add fuel to the big data fire.

When not attending LTF sessions, delegates will be able to check out 65 exhibiting companies spanning all aspects of legal technology and services. According to Charles Christian, 45% of all exhibitors are from outside the UK.

Stay tuned for more information and follow throughout the day on Twitter at #LTF2013.

LMA 2013 Conference Revisited: Marketing Take-Aways from a Non-Law Firm Marketer

2013-04-19T17:26:17-04:00

Click for InsideLegal's LMA 2013 Conference Photo Album

We have spent the last 14 years working within the legal community and a central connection point has always been attending industry events ranging from LegalTech to ABA events and legal administrator programs as well as technology conferences such as the annual ILTA educational conference. For some strange, ‘bad timing’ reason, we have never participated in the Legal Marketing Association’s (LMA) Annual Conference so when we spoke with LMA's Executive Director, Betsi Roach, and discovered the 2013 conference was directly after LexThink.1 and the ABA TECHSHOW, we decided to join 1,200+ legal marketers and law firm marketing-specific vendors at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas, flying directly there from Chicago.

We thoroughly enjoyed the high caliber educational sessions and numerous networking and collaboration opportunities. In the spirit of voicing our 'clean slate' opinion, and with the intention of ‘keeping the marketing innovation ball rolling’, we are sharing our 2013 LMA Conference session take-aways and marketing observations:

Be proactive and timely with marketing outreach & client communication: One of the big themes all week was the heightened expectations general counsel and corporate legal departments have when it comes to the marketing and content efforts put forth by law firm subject matter experts and legal marketers. The two biggest ‘must provides’ focused on timely and relevant content—new case rulings; relevant legislation; opinion and thought leader pieces by law firm leaders; and email alerts with dynamic, real-time content versus static, re-packaged dated information. As stated by a few panelists during InsideCounsel’s General Counsel Panel, law firms need to be their corporate clients' ‘eyes and ears’ in their particular practice area of expertise: “Before we give you our business, make it yours to know ours, inside and out.”
Share + inspire: We left LMA inspired to implement what we learned and share lessons learned and examples with our community. Not everyone was so lucky as to attend the annual meeting, but thanks to social networks and tools everyone can benefit from the output of the various sessions. Case in point, we have seen several top notch LMA recap/follow-up blog posts and articles so simply search for #LMA13 on Twitter to view some of these. As you are reading this post, we encourage you to share your ‘take-ways’ not only with other marketers and business development folks, but with lawyers who might wonder why you are out of the office and in Las Vegas. It is your job to share this information and inspire your colleagues to try out new marketing efforts and at a minimum be open to you initiating new marketing programs that could benefit your firm. Also, the best way to ‘share and inspire’ is to get out of your office. Marketers need to proactively engage their attorneys – schedule some visits, take your partner out to lunch and find out what their biggest pains are and how marketing can help. Take this a step further and get involved in the next business pitch, be it by lending creative expertise, statistical and business analysis, a social media primer or something else your attorneys will value and want you to share.
Bet on big data: While several LMA Conference sessions touched on how legal marketers can make better use of the client data they already have to provide better communication, Wednesday’s final ‘Leveraging Big 4 Consulting Best Practices to Bolster your Business Development Strategies’ session really drove home the big data mining point. As featured in BTI Consulting Group’s session wrap-up, the Big Four accounting firms have long been using aggregated client data and client preferences to determine which content, educational sessions and special programs their clients and prospects might be interested in. Keeping clients looped in on timely information and relevant educational opportunities not only helps marketers standout in the era of the ‘exploding’ inbox, but let’s clients know they know their business and needs as intimately as they do. Our Head of Content Jobst Elster was recently interviewed by ABA’s Law Practice Today - Digital Edge podcast's hosts Sharon Nelson (Sensei Enterprises) and Jim Calloway (Oklahoma Bar Association) on ‘Big Data for Lawyers’ and much of the discussion focused on law firm marketing’s role in pushing the big data envelope. In fact, a recent Gartner survey revealed that by 2017, marketing will have a larger technology budget focused on big data mining and analytics technology than IT!
Manage + measure: We’ve all heard ‘you can only manage what you measure’ (and vice versa), so prioritize establishing metrics for your marketing efforts. This has many benefits beyond being able to determine the return of your marketing spend and efficacy of your marketing tactics. For one, being able to scientifically prove that a marketing effort works or doesn’t can empower you to experiment more and show your attorneys that say their ‘tried and true’ brown bag sessions are really not adding new clients. LMA Conference presenters mentioned several useful free tracking and measurement tools including Twitter (track new followers and popularity of specific content and call-to-action messages); bitly (provides custom shortened links for blog posts/articles/content that can be tracked revealing click-through rates and popularity); Google Analytics (to track website traffic and online content and link popularity); and Google Alerts (to keep track of legal issues, competitors and trends).
LMA Conference Keynote
Professor David Wilkins, Harvard Law School

Kiss the ‘traditional’ sales process goodbye: We are all too familiar with the age old sales funnel concept which starts with a large number of prospective contacts on top, continues with a handful of qualified leads further down the funnel, and ends with one client or new customer at the bottom. The idea is that sales is a ‘numbers game’ and the more you pour in the top (unqualified prospects) the more will eventually come out at the bottom (even if not your 'ideal' client). This is conducive to mass marketing and cold-calling centered lead generation all of which have proven to not work within the realm of law firm business development. New attention must be given to client relationships, client loyalty and influence, and the establishment of trust and advocacy. We have seen this before of course but have noticed creative interactive agencies like One North Interactive increasingly advising their clients on how they can establish greater client influence, trust and loyalty leveraging personalized website content and customizing the online user experience based on preferences and real time needs. Client feedback and client loyalty were also central themes of Wednesday's final session moderated by BTI Consulting's principal Marcie Borgal Shunk and highlighted research findings reiterating how far ahead of BigLaw Big 4 Accounting is when it comes to client feedback and satisfaction. It boils down to knowing your clients and what they expect of you. This point was hammered home by LMA Conference keynote speaker and Harvard Law Professor David Wilkins and is clearly articulated as part of the ACC Value Challenge which goes far beyond improving legal spending and is focused on the entire law firm-corporation relationship.
Thought leadership ... is NOT dead: While it might be an overused and tired buzz word with much promise but lacking content substance, law firm thought leadership remains one of the top criteria GCs look at when engaging potential outside counsel. Your firm leaders not only need to know what they are talking about (subject matter expertise) but display leadership and a ‘voice of authority’ when it comes to their legal expertise. If your traditional thought leadership outreach is falling flat, explore new avenues of reaching your clients and prospects such as concise videos, webinars including actionable intelligence and content, and intimate client events.
Don’t give up on social media, just ‘spoon feed’ it: While ignorance might be bliss, there’s nothing blissful about avoiding or ignoring social media for your law firm. While your lawyers may not yet see the light when it comes to leveraging social media tools to participate in the online legal conversation, chances are the competition does and within the next few years there will be no alternative. It’s sort of like the proliferation of smartphones these days, everyone has one; the only differentiation is the preferred mobile platform and scope of use aka which apps are you using. With that said, its legal marketing’s job to know which social tools are out there and which ones the firms should consider and vet. Based on what we heard this week, the two pieces of social media ‘low hanging fruit’ are blogs and Twitter. Both can be gradually rolled out and in the case of Twitter, research gathering and content aggregation can be a major firm benefit without actively tweeting or growing your Twitter presence. This week's InsideCounsel 'In-house New Media Engagement Survey' findings revelaed that 74% of all corporate respondents are so called 'invisible users'; they use LinkedIn and other social media tools but mostly to listen in and receive information versus actively participating and sharing. Equally intriguing is the statistic that 55% of GCs read attorney-authored blogs as frequently as blogs authored by professional journalists and 53% of counsel envision a future in which a well executed blog will influence hiring decisions.

While this is not an exhaustive list of ‘lessons learned’, we hope it will inspire and motivate to keep on pushing the envelope when it comes to your firms’ marketing effort. Stay tuned for our next post on ‘No Regrets Marketing … Vegas Style’.

Legal Marketing Association 2013 Annual Conference Photo Album

2013-04-19T16:09:06-04:00

We recently returned from the 2013 Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Annual Conference in Las Vegas. We will be posting our coverage of the event, but in the meantime, below is our photo album from the event. If you have problems viewing the slideshow or prefer to view the album, visit the album directly here.

Thanks to LMA Executive Director Betsi Roach and the Conference Committee for an incredible event.

LexThink.1 and ABA TECHSHOW: Disruption, Disruption, Disruption

2013-04-08T15:52:10-04:00

Click for InsideLegal's Photo Album - LexThink.1; ABA TECHSHOW; Exhibit Hall; Keynote & Parties

Knowing that Britt Lorish would lead the charge this year as ABA TECHSHOW 2013 Chair, meant we’d all be in for a well run conference, not dissimilar to past years. As it turns out, 2013 was a record breaker with new attendance highs and heightened vendor interest to the tune of 112 exhibitor booths (5% increase over 2012). While embarking on our 14th TECHSHOW, we have come to expect world-class legal technology content (12 separate tracks, 65+ sessions, plus various dedicated vendor sessions as well as 'meet the author' Q&As); expert insight and advice, 'free of charge', to all -- Adriana Linares' brainchild many TECHSHOWs ago was to setup a concierge desk to enable conference goers to more easily interact with TECHSHOW staff and speakers. This legal technology 'oracle' along with the 'Taste of ABA TECHSHOW' dinners and the annual 'Beer for Blawgers' shindig (thank you Kevin O'Keefe and ABA Journal) makes this conference a definite 'one and only'. Another party worth mentioning was Clio's MeetUp Thursday night at the Luxbar. As usual, Clio was an incredible host and the event brought together a great group for a great time.

Our big focus for 2013, and the main theme for our LexThink.1 legal innovation and disruption event the night before TECHSHOW kick-off, was disruption. As mentioned in our own disruptive post pre-show, we headed into the week with key questions in mind -- what can we learn from market disruption? can innovation and disruption be 'force-fed'? and is 'build it and they will come' still the best way to 'acid test' disruption?

LexThink.1. Yet again the (10) speakers all stepped up in a big way - focusing your thoughts and emotions into a 6 minute, timed presentation has to be one of the hardest things on the planet. And, our audience, 200+ legal professionals, all showed up as planned to support the cause and embrace disruption heading into TECHSHOW. In order to get a better sense of what our speakers' thought of disruption, we asked all 10 of them to name the biggest market disruption they had witnessed in legal. Answers included much of what these days we take for granted ... the internet, email, the cloud and others such as the advent of electronically stored information (ESI) in e-Discovery; the demise of paper; the emergence of the virtual law practice; the potential of big data analytics; LegalZoom-type, online legal services companies; and the end of traditional firm business models. Thanks again to our sponsor, Clio.

Vendor Mix. As mentioned in last year’s conference round-up, one of the many refreshing facts about TECHSHOW is that it remains an educational conference and expo focused on legal technology, not merely eDiscovery or litigation support. In fact, per the official show guide, only 9 of the 112 exhibiting vendors spanning an abundance of legal technologies, apps and legal services touted eDiscovery or litigation support solutions. That's an exhibitor representation of 8% versus 41% eDiscovery vendors at LegalTech NY in January. Is this a fair reflection of smaller & mid firm needs (as in they don’t have the same EDD challenges as bigger firms …) or a sobering reminder that eDiscovery tools for the small and medium firm market are few and far between?!

What we did see as a consistent reality of TECHSHOW technology was the focus on cloud applications spanning storage and archiving to full featured case/matter/practice management systems. In fact, the rapid growth of the 'practice management as-a-service' category and the accelerating ‘arms race’ of the ‘big three’ [Clio, MyCase & RocketMatter] must be putting big smiles on attorneys and legal professionals everywhere, who are or at least should be really getting their money’s worth depending on what they value most. Just in time for TECHSHOW, Clio, for us by far the most prominent (in terms of overall presence, involvement and sponsorships) of the 3 companies, announced a technology integration with NetDocuments. Via the integration, small and mid-sized law firms using NetDocuments get the benefits of practice management through Clio, managing their practices from intake to invoicing, and Clio users, get the power of NetDocuments for storing, organizing and searching documents.

California-based MyCase, which since TECHSHOW 2012, was acquired by AppFolio last October, showcased an app that allows both clients and lawyers to access their case information. Law firm clients are now able to view information about their case; send and receive messages to and from the law firm as well as view and respond to comments.

The biggest ‘what could this mean for ‘SmallLaw’?’ announcement came from the Rocket Matter camp with the introduction of Rocket X1, a new internet marketing service for law firms. A stand-alone RM business, Rocket X1 is designed to bring together several "agency" marketing services, such as website design and search engine optimization, under one umbrella and is initially targeted at 10 or more attorney practices. While this, at first glance, sounds very much like what FindLaw and Lawyers.com offer, we’ll definitely stay tuned to see how this advances.

Disruptive keynote: New York Times Columnist and personal tech gadget guy David Pogue stole the show in his Friday afternoon keynote focused on guess what, disruption: "Disruptive Tech: What's New, What's Coming and How Will It Change Everything". Pogue, a truly likable and very funny dude, was introduced, in another keynote first for us, via 'piano and song' by the multi-talented Steve Best (member of the 2013 ABA TECHSHOW planning board and LexThink.1 2012 speaker alumnus). Pogue spent his keynote hour cracking jokes and singing (hear below) about technology not just about what's out there but also and most importantly to him how it affects people. He talked a lot about what he calls 'app phones', you may know them as smartphones, and the evolution into true productivity, entertainment and business devices. He discussed the evolution of Web1.0, where site owners create content, to Web 2.0, where site visitors create content, and how this continues to shift our online experience. Sticking with the online theme and how we are now in control of content creation, Pogue cited Wikipedia and the sheer idea of 'random people' posting content and context. And, to the amazement of the standing room only TECHSHOW crowd, he stated that Wikipedia was tested for accuracy versus the iconic Encyclopedia Britannica and come out 2% more accurate leading to the recent demise of Britannica's entire print operation. While Pogue touched on a myriad of tech examples and innovations through pictures, URLs, and short video clips, he summarized his biased opinion of our favorite social media tools including Twitter in a few show tune-style songs to wrap-up the 'best ever TECHSHOW' keynote. Like many of the TECHSHOW board members and presenters said, as we walked out of the session, the 2014 planning board is 'screwed' and 'good luck' when it comes to trumping the Pogue keynote selection. Something tells us with Natalie Kelly (Program Chair of the Georgia Bar) as the 2014 Chair, they'll find a way.

Big Data. Big Hype? Of course, we couldn't complete a technology conference post (at least recently) without mentioning Big Data and what it can/should/could/might mean to legal. We started this discussion late last year, really got active on the topic during and post Legal Tech, and are now kicking-off an InsideLegal Big Data content series. Our mission in Chicago was to continue our big data and legal tech vendor conversation (stay tuned for a chat with kCura's Jay Leib) as well as getting a better sense for BD's application in small law which synched up well with a majority of TECHSHOW attendees. The short answer, based on an impromptu Big Data survey we conducted onsite, is that BD's potential in legal 'depends' on who you are, how you want to use it and how easily you can access it. With that said, there's a general consensus (at least broad enough to generalize) that analytics, business intelligence technologies and data mining tools are the most obvious way to take advantage of big data. The challenge we saw in talking with many folks is that there has not been a 'landmark' event or occurrence to make anyone do more than just think about BD opportunities or even how it might harm them or their clients. No one is yet being asked to solve any specific BD 'problems' therefore there has not been much thought given to it. This is where to us, disruption becomes paramount and ignoring the conventional 'wait and see' attitude can quickly catapult certain companies and organizations to the forefront of legal big data innovation. At TECHSHOW, we predicted that in 2014 up to half of all exhibitors will have some type of a big data story or at least know how it might impact legal. Also, while BD as a broad concept might not resonate with small law firms, tackling a small project that uses stored and on-hand data to better serve clients and one up the competition should be in everyone's realm of possibilities.

ABA TECHSHOW 2013 was a blast and we are already looking forward to 2014. Good luck to 2014 ABA TECHSHOW Chair Natalie Kelly and the Planning Committee. See you there March 27-29, 2014...

LexThink.1 and ABA TECHSHOW 2013 Photo Album

2013-04-07T17:32:00-04:00

Below is the InsideLegal photo album for LexThink.1 and ABA TECHSHOW 2013. For our coverage of the events, click here.

Also, here is a video of a performance by ABA TECHSHOW Keynote, David Pogue.

LexThink.1: Get Ready to be Disruptive

2013-04-03T16:41:32-04:00

So here we are on the ‘eve of’ ABA TECHSHOW and day of the fourth annual LexThink.1 event. It used to be called Ignite Law inspired by the Ignite-format events springing up in the 1000s all over the world, but regardless of name, venue or geography, the general premise has remained consistent - deliver an inspiring and passionate plea for change (insert ‘type of change’ details here) in oh yeah, 5 minutes, or in the case of LexThink.1, 6 minutes or a 1/10th of a billable hour.

For those of you that have attended previous editions or seen any of the 45+ presentation videos online, you'll notice an annual theme chosen by the producers Matt Homann of LexThink and JoAnna Forshee, InsideLegal CEO. This year the 10 LexThink.1 talks are all about market disruption in our profession; stuff that is starting to get ‘sticky’ now and concepts on the horizon that could have major impact. I took a closer look at the topics (everything from big data to legal zoom and the death of the office as we know it) and discovered some intriguing themes and ‘take-aways’:

What can we learn from disruptive technologies and business strategies making their way into legal? Why are they disruptive? Why now? How can we learn from this so we can a) ‘join em’; b) ‘beat em’; c) ‘prove em wrong’; d) wait it out and hope the disruption ends up being a mere distraction?
‘Force feeding’ innovation and disruption: You know the saying ‘it takes a village’ and while disruptions are often born as a single idea based on the conviction of a sole believer, the real push and momentum comes with group think and group buy-in. That’s where LexThink.1 attendees come in. We’ll have 200+ legal professionals on hand, all with the power to turn these 6 minute disruption ‘pitches’ into deeper conversations with real deliverables. Why not setup some ‘work groups’ that collaborate to see how far they can take one of these ideas. Kick-off a 12 month ‘experiment’ to prove the impact of a ‘little’ idea and present the findings at LexThink.1 2014?
“Build it and they will come”: This works if the ‘it’ is worth the trip. It didn’t really work for the 1000’s of ‘as seen on TV’ chachkies that are collecting dust in our drawers and shelves as we speak but it did for many others. Case in point, LexThink.1 which four years ago started as an idea in Matt’s head, and with JoAnna’s string pulling and execution (they pulled this off in about 3 weeks), and an online community ‘chomping at the bit’ for a new version of the old meetings and conference sessions, Ignite Law was launched. 200+ legal professionals witnessed the first conference focused on legal technology futures and since over 7,500 have voted online to nominate their favorite speaker.

So, with LexThink.1 a mere 5 hours away, I challenge all of us to be disruptive tonight … whether it’s engaging the speakers in their disruption topics, collaborating with other attendees on your own version of disruption, and most definitely sharing your own thoughts on how we can rock the legal status quo via our social networks and online resources.

See you tonight. Jobst

ABA TECHSHOW 2013

2013-03-20T08:39:28-04:00

We attend many legal conferences each year, but one that we particularly look forward to is ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago put on by the ABA Law Practice Management Section and the volunteers on the ABA TECHSHOW 2013 Planning Board - Chair Britt Lorish, Vice-Chair Natalie Kelly, Steve Best, Diane Ebersole, Randy Juip, Marc Matheny, Lincoln Mead, Nerino Petro and Mark Rosch.

Let's take a closer look at some 2013 edition highlights which will feature 50 educational sessions and over 15 different tracks.

Large Firm Track

One common misconception we hear often about TECHSHOW is that it is only for solo and small firms. Although that used to be the case, now the attendance is more varied with more medium and large firms taking part as well. To this trend, 2013 includes a "Large Firm" track on Thursday offering the following sessions:

LexThink.1

Although not part of TECHSHOW, each year we (along with Matt Homann) produce LexThink.1 on the eve of TECHSHOW at the Hilton Chicago after the opening reception. LexThink.1 brings together legal thought leaders who give 6 minute presentations on a specific theme - this year, "market disruption".

Concierge Desk

One of the coolest things about TECHSHOW is the concierge desk. The concierge desk is in front of the entrance to the exhibit hall and is staffed with veterans, faculty members, and Board members who can help you select a session or answer any technical questions you may have. You will definitely recognize many of the names hanging out there so it's also a great place to meet some of our profession's technologists and influencers.

Taste of TECHSHOW Dinners

Another program that simplifies networking at TECHSHOW is the Taste of TECHSHOW Dinners. You can visit the link and take a look at the offerings and choose either a topic you'd like to discuss or a host that you have been wanting to meet. You sign up to attend that dinner and meet the group at the restaurant assigned for a dutch-treat meal and great networking.

There's an App for That

The ABA TECHSHOW 2013 Conference App is your mobile guide to the entire Conference and EXPO and is available on iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry devices. The app includes a full-conference schedule, a detailed list of exhibitor information, legal technology resources, the #ABATECHSHOW Twitter feed and lots more. You can download the app here or visit http://crwd.cc/abatech13 on your device to prompt a download for the correct version.

TECHSHOW Sampler

The organizers offer a free Expo Pass to anyone interested in coming down and checking out the exhibit hall. This year, they have taken that one step further and are offering a 'Plenary Plus Registration' option for $125 that includes access to the EXPO Hall, Friday’s lunchtime Keynote (by The New York Times' Personal Technology Columnist, David Pogue), Friday’s 60 Tips in 60 Minutes, Saturday’s Plenary (On the Trail of the Craigslist Killer: A Case Study in Digital Forensics by Sharon Nelson), Saturday’s 60 Sites in 60 Minutes, and 1 ticket to any other session. If you have never attended TECHSHOW or it's been a few years, this is a great way to get a really good sense of the show and access to some of most popular sessions offered.

Follow TECHSHOW

You can follow the ABA TECHSHOW activity on Twitter at @ABATECHSHOW or on the conference blog at www.techshow.com/blog. Also stay tuned to InsideLegal for ongoing coverage and roundups.