InsideLegal

The ‘future of client service’ was the theme for the third annual LexThink.1 (formerly Ignite Law) ‘future of law practice’ event that we at InsideLegal produce each year with Ignite Law brainchild Matt Homann of LexThink. The event now serves as the opening act of the ABA TECHSHOW, taking place the night before the conference kicks off, and is hosted by the ABA Law Practice Management Section. Each year, we invite anyone in the industry to submit a speaking topic, we then compile the submissions and have the industry vote on what interests them the most, to ultimately determine the agenda. Once choosen, the speakers (we had 11 this year) are charged with preparing a 6 minute, rapid fire presentation on their specific topic. Once again this year, we had a sold out audience of 250 solos/small firm attorneys, legal technologits and legal influencers attend the two hour event.

You can view the intro video by Matt here and below are the links to the videos of this year's presentations. Enjoy!

Mark Britton – Back to the Future

Richard Granat - Legal Industry Startups: An Overview

Roe Frazer - Being a Web 2.0 Lawyer in the "Thank You Economy"

Will Hornsby - Ignite This! Five Ethics Rules That Should Be Incinerated

Ruth Carter - Flash Mob Law

Jason E. Dyer – Where Canasta and Counsel Collide

Eric Hunter – Moving Towards 100% Web

Jay Shepherd – One Word That Will Reinvent How You Serve Clients

Matt Spiegel – Don't Just Communicate …

James F. Ring – Ending Cheap Talk in Legal Bargaining

Steve Best – Passion

Matt Homann – Client Service Design

ABA TECHSHOW 2012  Click for Photo Album

ABA TECHSHOW is one of our favorite shows of the year, if not our favorite. We've been attending for 13 years and it keeps getting better. This year's TECHSHOW kicked off last Wednesday evening with Reid Trautz, 2012 ABA TECHSHOW Chair, welcoming hundreds of conference attendees gathered to partake in a couple of 'eve of' events. First, the ABA LPM section and marquee sponsor RocketLawyer hosted a 90-minute interactive session focused on entrepreneurship … specifically how lawyers would go about starting a business, in this case, building and marketing a food truck. The idea was novel and the session format very unique — RocketLawyer MCs asked the crowd to split up into break-out groups and design their own food trucks with the help of a professional artist who captured group ideas via colorful sketches. Based on fairly sparse crowd participation and post crowd feedback of 'what did this have to do with technology', the session may not have been a huge hit, but definitely 'A for effort' on RocketLawyer's part for trying to engage TECHSHOW goers in a new creative way. An unfortunate lesson that you can never compete with a bar in the same room! LexThink.1, our 3rd 'future of law practice in 6 minutes' event, followed to wrap up the evening's programs.

Content is King

A 'tale-of-the-tape' of the 2012 TECHSHOW conference education program revealed 60 highly qualified faculty speakers covering 13 separate tracks (ranging from advanced IT, cloud computing, Mac sessions, paperless, solo and small firm basics) and 72 sessions. Financial support was provided by 24 sponsors and 25 state bar associations were listed as event promoters. Based on feedback we received from some consultants, technologists and attendees, the new 'wars' sessions offered in the mobile/smartphone tracks were a huge hit and everything Mac was standing room only. One session that we missed that we really wish we had been in was the Plenary Session "The Future of Law Practice" led by legal tech guru, Jim Calloway. We heard it was one of the best sessions. Of course, one of the most popular sessions each year is the finale '60 Sites in 60 Minutes' session, which this year was hosted by Natalie Kelly, Dan Pinnington, Catherine Sanders Reach and Reid Trautz. We'll be posting some of the 'best of' from the session soon.

Exhibit Floor Impressions

We created a separate TECHSHOW Guide file with just the exhibitor listings. One of the many refreshing facts about TECHSHOW is that it remains a tradeshow focused on technology, not merely eDiscovery or litigation support. In fact, per the official show guide, only 14 of the 107 exhibiting vendors spanning an abundance of technologies and software touted eDiscovery or litigation support solutions. That's an exhibit representation of 13% of eDiscovery versus 45% eDiscovery at LegalTech NY 2012.

On the flip-side, the cloud and 'web-based' providers dominated the Hilton's show floor this week with approximately 40% of all vendors advertising cloud and web products and services (compared to 14% cloud representation at LegalTech NY). One product launch enjoying a 'home field' advantage was Law Bulletin Publishing's soft launch (generally available in a few months) of JuraLaw, their new web-based case, calendar & docket management product. Leading the show in terms of new news and super busy booths was the smattering of cloud-based practice management systems including Advologix, Clio, HoudiniESQ, MyCase, RocketMatter and Total Attorneys.

APIs In the House

The application program interface was all the rage in Chicago with all the major cloud-based practice management players announced the availability of APIs thus giving third party developers an open platform to integrate products and develop new ones within the technology framework of the existing systems. In fact, API mania was running so wild, that Law Technology News technology editor Sean Doherty joked he'd be doing API reviews during the week as opposed to his usual 'under the hood' product inspections.

A Little of This, a Little of That…

We were asked by quite a few people what the trend of the exhibit hall this year was and my very non-technical answer was "a little of this, a little of that." We've been attending and analyzing the industry and its events since 1999, but this how was a true example of participation by a lot of different technologies that would be useful in a law firm. We saw all types of technologies – electronic signature; cloud-enabled Wi-Fi, smart file trackers; collaboration tools; credit card processing systems; backup systems; web archivers; virtual receptionists; and email encryption services.

Calendaring/Court Rules

What we found interesting this year was the evident focus on calendaring and court rules/calculation services which often, despite their mission critical nature, are overlooked by firms looking for new technology. Case in point, long established online legal deadline calculation service Deadlines.com (owned by Aderant and based on CompuLaw's comprehensive court rule calculations), announced a simpler pricing model that will provide law firms with the ability to generate unlimited events for cases, a more cost effective pricing option. JuraLaw and HoudiniESQ touted calendar and court rule integrations and LawToolBox.com came out of virtually nowhere (never heard of them before) to offer cloud-based court-rule sets. How the calendaring/court rules landscape will shake out is anyone's guess, but as we noted while chatting with lawyer and legal thought leader Bob Ambrogi, not all court rules are created equal, and the true test will be in how comprehensive offered deadline calculations are and how many lawyers are actually dedicated internally to consistently update rules.

Wrapping up our product impressions, the 'welcome back to legal' award goes to Roe Frazer and his TECHSHOW debut of the Barrister App, a firm-branded app giving firms the ability to give clients direct access to their pertinent contact information, attorney bios, areas of expertise and messaging capabilities. Roe, former CEO and Founder of CaseLogistix, and now managing director at digital marketing and creative agency Digome, celebrated his re-entry into legal with the Barrister launch and his web 2.0-themed LexThink.1 talk on Wednesday night. 

Finally, the most non-traditional vendor nod goes to TLO and its TLOxp^® tool used by global corporations and law enforcement agencies to investigate and research people, locations, companies and their interrelationships for due diligence, risk assessment and identity authentication. An interesting side note — One of TLO's founders is John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted TV show and long-time proponent for new legislation to protect children from predatory crimes.

'Beer for Blawggers'

Thanks to Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog and the ABA Journal for hosting the '5th Annual Beer for Blawggers' get together celebrating law blogging and law bloggers Friday evening. We enjoy this event every year as it is a great way for us to connect with every one before the end of TECHSHOW. Special thanks to Molly McDonough, deputy managing editor of the ABA Journal for coordinating the event.

As always, we had a tremendous time this week catching up with many of our consultant, vendor and technologists friends. Good luck to the future Chair of TECHSHOW 2013, Britt Lorish of Affinity Consulting Group and make plans to attend April 4-6, 2013. We'll see you there!

We posted our coverage of LexThink.1 yesterday, but below is our photo album from the event. Videos of all the LexThink.1 presentations will be released when they are through the editing process (2-3 weeks). In the meantime…

InsideLegal's LexThink.1 Album

Produced by InsideLegal.com

Last week we were in Chicago for LexThink.1 and the ABA TECHSHOW. This was our 3rd year producing LexThink.1 (aka Ignite Law) with Matt Homann and our 13th year attending TECHSHOW. The events kicked off Wednesday night with a reception hosted by ABA TECHSHOW and RocketLawyer (we'll cover in our TECHSHOW post) and then moved into the evening's main event – LexThink.1 – which again played to a sold-out audience of 250 legal professionals, thought leaders, innovators and commentators. This year we featured 11 speakers with 6 minutes each to share their vision of law practice futures, specifically the future of law firm client service. 2012 saw 9 new presenters, Jay Shepherd repeating his 2011 debut, and the ABA's Will Hornsby as the only 3-time presenter. If 2011 was the year of the JDs (9 presenters were lawyers), 2012 was the year of the CEOs with 5 of the 11 carrying the chief exec title. Three of this year's presenters were at TECHSHOW for the first time (it was nice to have some fresh perspectives also) and 5 of the 11 are currently authoring books. One thing never changes — when asked the difficulty of the Ignite presentation on a scale of 1 to 10, the average was 8 out of 10. Within the month, we will have the videos ready for release, but in the meantime, let's look at the presentations…

Mark Britton

Avvo's CEO Mark Britton kicked-off LexThink .1 2012 with 'Back to the Future' – his vision of how lawyers can embrace the web and their web communities in a permanent way. He shared 8 'to dos': set objectives; identify your target audience; identify your target time; establish a core web presence; stand out; don't report, commentate; monitor and measure; and understand mobile. "We went from offline to online and now we are moving from online to mobile."

Richard Granat

Richard Granat focused on legal industry startups and clients' desire for transparency, convenience and better technology. He noted that startups eliminate friction and offer unbundled legal services in the form of legal advice startups; document automation startups; web advisor startups; and walled garden startups. "Clients want fixed pricing and they know technology is all around. They want you to use technology to reduce their costs." He warned that "LegalZoom is going to eat the business of solos and smart firms for lunch."

Roe Frazer

Web 2.0 and the 'thank you economy' was the focus of entrepreneur (and developer of the Barrister App) Roe Frazer's talk. He stressed the importance of a firm social media plan with the focus being the firm website. He encouraged to get involved in the conversation, whether that's via Twitter, Facebook or tumblr or seek out the likes of Quora.com for crowd sourced advice from legal professionals. "3/4 of worlds' internet users now use social media to find answer in addition to search engines." One key takeaway – "If you have a blog, put it on Tumbler. Google indexes it highly."

Will Hornsby

ABA ethics guru Will Hornsby shared a plethora of ridiculous state ethics rules that for one reason or another are still in effect to this day. One example, "Hawaii has a rule that attorneys can't use email to solicit clients. A conspiracy by Obama to save the USPS?" His appeal – "If you have a 21st century practice, you deserve 21st century policies. Get involved."   VOTED FAVORITE SPEAKER!

Ruth Carter

Young attorney and marketer Ruth Carter shared her passion for participating in and organizing flash mobs and touched on the many related legal gotchas to be aware of. For example: "If you invite people by Facebook, that can be solicitation." Ruth warns that ideally a Flash Mob involves an attorney from the beginning.

Jason Dyer

Eggplanter CEO Jason Dyer offered some reflection … how can all of us, in this case with the use of technology, better serve our clients? "Is our technology really going to focus on our users or just give up?" He urged attorneys to pay attention to how you treat clients, "think about every single interaction and avoid turning our clients into commodities". His call-to-action: "Don't forget you can't replace skill with technology. Within the next week, formulate one sentence that captures how you can increase client interactions."

Eric Hunter

Eric Hunter, director of KM of Bradford & Barthel, focused on how integrating consumer driven social media, intranets, extranets and client portals into a 100% web approach can and will drive organizational & behavioral change. "All the innovators (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, etc.) are working on ways that change the way people think." We have known Eric for a while and he puts his money where his mouth is – he has moved his 275 user California law firm to a 100% cloud and now Google+ firm.

Jay Shepherd

Jay Shepherd presents the one word that can change how you do business - Simplicity. "If complexity is the problem, simplicity is the solution". Focus on the result triangle — clarify the goal, show you care and address the fear. It's fear that keeps people from doing what you want them to do. His example, Southwest simplifies everything (boarding, no bag fees, etc.) because it allows them to spend 30% more time in the air which is where airlines make money. 

Matt Spiegel

Matt Spiegel, MyCase CEO, made the case: "If the #1 complaint submitted to all bar associations is lack of communication, why don't we make more of an effort to improve it?" He argued how lawyers can to get away from traditional lines of communication and give clients the attention that they deserve through technology. "Whether we like it or not, consumers have grown to expect a high level of attention in all areas of life, including representation by a lawyer. Lawyers need to get with it and increase customer service via better more streamlined and consistent communication." 

James Ring

James Ring, CEO of Fair Outcomes, focused on ending cheap talk in legal bargaining and how game theories can take lawyers, who often get in the way, out of the process resulting in quicker more agreeable resolutions. Most cases don't settle until the eve of trial because they are about to lose the opportunity. "Trafficking in small talk is a dirty business."

Steve Best

Affinity Consulting Group's Steve Best found a lot of resonance with his Ignite presentation focused on passion. "Passion is the cornerstone of innovation. Innovation is the cornerstone of technology." Find what you are passionate about and embrace it. Once you've embraced it, share it. Once you've shared it, encourage others to find theirs. Often times your passion in other areas, like music or art, can spill over to a passion for serving your clients better. "Do we as lawyers show passion when we talk to our clients?" 

Note: All of the presenter pics remind us of Steve Best's example of drawing his inspiration from a symphony conductoer and how he, without words, leads and inspires an entire symphony.

I'd like to thank our co-Producer Matt Homann and everyone that helped make LexThink.1 happen – from Andrea (administrative assistance) to Jobst (handling media relations). We'd like to especially thank Reid Trautz (2012 ABA TECHSHOW Chair) and Cindy Galvan from the ABA TECHSHOW and Jack Newton from Platinum Sponsor Clio - who has sponsored Ignite all three years.

In less than a week, the industry will converge on Chicago to take part in both our Ignite event, now called LexThink.1, and the ABA TECHSHOW that will be underway at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue. This will be our 13th year attending TECHSHOW and it is by far one of our favorites, mostly due to the team of thought leaders that volunteer their time to make it happen each year. This year, the show is being led by Chair Reid Trautz, the director of the Practice & Professionalism Center for American Immigration Lawyers Association. To keep up with the event, follow us at @InsideLegal or #abatechshow.

Obviously two standouts of ABA TECHSHOW are the educational sessions and the Expo Hall. I can say that we've already received some releases on product launches and upgrades that will be worth hearing about. Stay tuned for more information. If you haven't already registered to attend ABA TECHSHOW, you can print this form to register onsite. In the meantime, here is a look at this year's festivities…

Ignite Law – now called LexThink.1

This will be the third year that we have produced, along with Matt Homann of LexThink, this unique event where industry thought leaders have 6 minutes and 20 slides to present on their topic submitted earlier this year. All speakers submitted a topic and we opened up for online voting from the industry to determine which presentations they wanted to hear. Thanks to our Platinum sponsor, Clio, the event is free to attend, but you must register here. As of now, we are sold out, but if you are interested in attending, register to get added to the waitlist as we are attempting to add seats now. You can review the agenda here.
The Skinny: Hilton Chicago, Continental Ballroom, Wednesday, March 28th, 7:30-10pm, Follow on Twitter – #IgniteLaw

ABA TECHSHOW/RocketLawyer Reception

Wednesday night festivities will begin with the ABA TECHSHOW/RocketLawyer reception directly before Ignite Law beginning at 6pm. In addition to some networking, RocketLawyer will be leading "an interactive event for entrepreneurial lawyers" as explained further on their Facebook page.
The Skinny: Hilton Chicago, Continental Ballroom, Wednesday, March 28th, 6-7:30pm 

ABA TECHSHOW App

Planning for ABA TECHSHOW can now be done entirely from your mobile device or tablet with the ABA TECHSHOW Conference App. It's available for download on an iPhone/iPad, Android or BlackBerry device, and allows you to carry all of ABA TECHSHOW conveniently. Full Conference attendees have been assigned unique codes to access a secure Attendee Schedule that enables you to bookmark sessions so you know where you want to be and when. During the session, view the Conference materials within the Conference App so you can follow along with the speakers as they share their knowledge of legal technology. Once you make your way into the EXPO Hall, use the complete listing of exhibitors to find your way around and decide who has the product/service your firm needs. 

Welcome Reception in Exhibit Hall

Another event back by popular demand is the Welcome Reception being held in the Expo Hall. Join your colleagues and friends to discuss the programming from day one of ABA TECHSHOW during the Welcome Reception on Thursday. Experience exceptional cuisine and tasty beverages at the Hilton Chicago and maybe you'll make a few new friends while you're there.
The Skinny: Hilton Chicago, Southeast Hall, Thursday, March 29th, 5:30-7pm 

5th Annual Beer for Bloggers

For the fifth year, the ABA Journal and Kevin O'Keefe with LexBlog are hosting their Beer (and wine) for Bloggers event this Friday evening. Everyone is invited, blogger or not, lawyer or not, attending TECHSHOW or not. It’s been a great event for those in the legal profession and those serving the profession to get together.
The Skinny: Hilton Chicago Lakeside Green Lounge in lobby, Friday, March 30th, 5:30-7pm 

Taste of ABA TECHSHOW Dinners

Don't miss out on these dinners. It's a great way to either meet with a group of pople to discuss a certain technology or meet a specific group of people. Here's how it works… Pick a technology; pick a Chicago restaurant; or pick a host. No matter what you pick, the choice is yours with the Taste of ABA TECHSHOW. Registrants have the opportunity to participate in this Dutch-treat event where we make dinner reservations throughout the city of Chicago and each dinner is based on a technology topic with a host in the field. Most of the Dinners are sold out, but there still are a couple open. 
The Skinny: Thursday and Friday night, Review & register here  

Ben Stein Keynote

It will be hard to top their keynote of last year – Harvard's Larry Lessig, but Ben Stein definitely one not to miss! Ben's career accomplishments include working at the Federal Trade Commission, lawyer and speech writer for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and now, ABA TECHSHOW Keynote Speaker. 
The Skinny: Friday, 12:45-1:45pm 

Here we are, one week pre-LexThink.1 and the excitement and anticipation continues to build. As of yesterday, we are sold out. We will be able to add some seats, so you can still sign up for tickets, and reserve your space on the waitlist. The agenda/speaking roster is listed below and we are very pleased to welcome Steven J. Best, a new addition, and final speaker on board.

Steve, the managing partner of Affinity Consulting Group's Atlanta office, was in 13th place with votes on our talk submission list, will replace Niki Black. This week, Niki joined MyCase, and therefore had to withdraw her speaking slot since our event rules limit one speaker per company (MyCase CEO Matt Spiegel is already speaking).

With an educational background in law, accounting and economics, Steve, an attorney turned technologist, consults with law firms throughout the United States on law office software as well as sophisticated practice management issues. At LexThink .1, he will be speaking about passion and how it can help firms of all sizes and complexities better sever clients. Here is his full talk submission:

"PASSION: Identifying and then nourishing your passion will make you a more content person, drive confidence and help you serve your clients better. Find your passions and then encourage others around you to follow theirs.  Passion also leads to innovation which is the cornerstone of technology.  Technology, in turn, when properly implemented and when enthusiastically embraced will help free your schedule to give you time to follow your passion."

Along with Steve, we are excited to welcome the other 10 speakers who have been working hard on their final presentations. For more details on the final event agenda including the schedule with speakers and and topics, click here. 

LexThink.1 Agenda & Speakers

• Mark Britton:  Back to the Future
• Richard Granat  Legal Industry Startups: An Overview
• Roe Frazer:  Being a Web 2.0 Lawyer in the “Thank You Economy”
• Will Hornsby:  Ignite This! Five Ethics Rules That Should Be Incinerated
• Ruth Carter:  Flash Mob Law
• Jason E. Dyer:  Where Canasta and Counsel Collide
• Eric Hunter:  Moving Towards 100% Web
• Jay Shepherd:  One Word That Will Reinvent How You Serve Clients
• Matt Spiegel:  Don’t Just Communicate …
• James F. Ring:  Ending Cheap Talk in Legal Bargaining
• Steve Best:  Passion