ILTA 2010: What Happens There, Ends Up Everywhere, Online

Last week, the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) held its annual meeting at the ARIA resort in Las Vegas. I attended ILTA’s annual conference in 2009, but unfortunately, due to a scheduling conflict that I call “work,” I was unable to make it this year.

Ironically, in looking at all the write-ups in various blog posts and news articles, I was surprised at how much information there was on this year’s conference. Although it’s generally better to report on things that you actually see in person, it’s also easy sometimes to get caught up in the minutiae and miss the big picture when you attend an event.

With that said, here are some items I found rather noteworthy….

If you work in the law and have any interest in technology, I highly recommend attending an ILTA conference. While LegalTech is usually considered the Superbowl of legal technology conferences, ILTA definitely holds its own. With 160 sessions to attend, the conference’s focus is on education. The topics cover a wide spectrum of technology issues across the legal industry, from Biglaw to midsize firms to solo practitioners. There was even a presentation on how the iPad can be compatible with your law office.

The conference seems to have been a huge success. At least that’s what Timothy Corcoran, former management consultant and current VP at Hubbard One, thinks.

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One downside of the ILTA conference is that it lasts for something like 85 consecutive days. Jesus fasted in less time. Seriously, it will take a full Monday through Friday work week out of your schedule. This can make it difficult for firms to justify sending their employees for the whole time.

The theme of the 2010 conference was “strategic unity,” which ILTA describes as follows:

Strategic Unity, a concept that resonates the need for law firms and law departments to unite their technology with the practice of law. These disciplines must come together as never before in order to survive and thrive in the future.

That makes sense to me, but the Posse List also recognizes the ironies accompanying that theme:

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[T]here seemed to be two other major talking points on the floor of the conference: (1) the consolidation taking place in the e-discovery market: Altegrity acquiring Kroll; Autonomy acquiring CA’s Information Governance division, AccessData acquiring Summation, etc. and (2) the integrated approach to e-discovery so many vendors are striving to accomplish.

So it seems the legal technology market is as competitive and cut-throat as ever, and some vendors have been forced to consolidate and form “strategic unities” of their own.

Speaking of which, and unlikely to shock anyone, a bunch of vendors had some really big announcements to make. Roughly 150 of them filled the exhibit hall at the conference. But I will never understand why some vendors choose to keep their major news a tight secret in order to make a big splash at these conferences. It’s the equivalent of trying to be the loudest in a stadium of screaming people: you simply get drowned out. IMHO, I think it’s better to set up a carefully constructed PR campaign three to five days before a conference like ILTA, so when attendees arrive, a good number would already have heard the news.

That said, here are two developments worth mentioning:

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