Technology

Lessons Learned at ILTACON

If you couldn't make it to ILTACON, check out some of the taped content.

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ILTACON is now over. The recorded sessions and uploaded materials are available here for those who were not able to make it. There were hundreds of educational sessions spread out over four days with four slots for each day. I made it to 15 of the 16 sessions I planned on attending (I was a few minutes late to one and the room was so full, there was not even any room left to stand in the back). I heard a lot of people asking, “Do you know if this session is being recorded?” Since you could only make it to 16 out of the 200 or so events, a lot of people who wanted to be in two or three places at once tried to only visit sessions that were not recorded so they could pick up the recorded sessions later. So, the link is a blessing for both those who attended and those who could not make it.

Why This Conference (and Keeping up with Legal Tech) Is Important

Technology is important for two reasons – to help you do things better and to help you do things more efficiently. First, as Sir Ken Robinson addressed in his opening keynote address, technology is a tool. Sure, you can put human eyes on thousands of pieces of paper to review everything by hand, but with better tools, you can get the job done in minutes and not weeks. We are not talking about replacing humans, we are talking about finding ways to empower them to do things they could not do before or in ways more efficiently than before.

Second, a law practice is still a business. Using technology to run more efficiently is not something that is unique to law, but it’s something a lot of lawyers forget. Whether you are running a conflict check or getting ready for trial, having automated systems to perform menial tasks can be a huge benefit. That’s why E&O carriers don’t like answers like “Oh, calendaring software? Did you know that no computer is as powerful as the human brain?” And no client likes to see line items on the bill for things like “Search for copy of deposition transcript that was on my desk two days ago of third party witness because I don’t know how to use case management software (3.5);” Hyperbole, but only slightly.

One of the Most Surprising Things about ILTACON

This was my first time attending, so I was surprised to see so many sessions that were not specifically technology related. For example, the opening keynote was by a TED talk speaker who spoke about the power of creativity. There were other sessions on collaboration with colleagues, Six Sigma, and how to become a rainmaker, among others. Monica Bay gave a great presentation on gender discrimination in law firms. Here is a partial list of some of the non-technology focused sessions from the download page mentioned above:

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Key Takeaways from the Entire Conference

The concepts that drove the conference were not new — technology is necessary to operate efficiently, and it’s becoming more so. Just like no one goes to the Consumer Electronics Show and thinks, “Wow, next year is going to have TVs and mobile devices? How unexpected!” people don’t come to ILTACON to learn new radical concepts, just how to implement better procedures to manage the evolving technology landscape by learning from our peers what has worked and what has not. A lot of the solutions discussed at ILTACON are not mandatory. It’s like some federal code was passed that mandated a change in attorney practice management software and we all needed to get together to discuss the ramifications of this new law. There was no grand council to discuss how to deal with the 2016 upcoming takeover by artificial intelligence. Rather, what was discussed was how to work better with tools both old and new, and some new insights that have come out. For example, Recommind (I’ve written about them previously) have made headway in the discovery realm by finding that there is valuable data to be mined in Bloomberg chat. People in financial firms and in the corporate legal field realized that e-mail is monitored and subject to discovery, so took to Bloomberg chat to speak their real feelings. Turns out it is a gold mine of information and Recommind has a new tool for discovery and organizing it. Here is a link to the session where that and other e-discovery tips are discussed. Looking to upgrade your storage solutions? There’s a session for that. Looking to upgrade to Windows 10 at your firm with an analysis of the risks and benefits? There’s a session for that.

Take a look through the downloads section to see if there’s anything there that could help you work more efficiently and maybe I’ll see you next year.

Jeff Bennion is Of Counsel at Estey & Bomberger LLP, a plaintiffs’ law firm specializing in mass torts and catastrophic injuries. Although he serves on the Executive Committee for the State Bar of California’s Law Practice Management and Technology section, the thoughts and opinions in this column are his own and are not made on behalf of the State Bar of California. Follow him on Twitter here or on Facebook here, or contact him by email at jeff@trial.technology.

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