Technology

But How Are The Lawyers Themselves Embracing Innovation?

How to understand the shifting dynamics inside corporate legal.

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Sorry, this doesn't cut it in 2017.

Sorry, this doesn’t cut it in 2017.

Over the next ten days, I’m going to be attending two conferences: Apttus Accelerate (disclosure: Apttus is covering my airfare and hotel costs) in San Francisco and the CLOC Institute in Las Vegas. Apttus and CLOC couldn’t be more different from an organizational perspective — Apttus is a rapid growth start-up company valued at over a billion dollars, while CLOC is a non-profit organization with the stated goal of “driving positive change across the corporate legal services ecosystem.”

But, despite organizational differences, the reason I flew halfway around the world to attend these two conferences is one and the same: to understand the shifting dynamics inside corporate legal.

Since I started writing and publishing conversations on legal technology, I’ve focused primarily on getting to know the players inside the cutting edge legal companies, and subsequently introducing those folks to ATL readers. Why did I begin with the start-ups? Well, for one, I like to write about what I know (I know more about start-ups than I do lawyers), plus I believe that understanding these companies is crucial to understanding the future of law so you can plan the rest of your career.

But, if you’re only talking to the “disruptors,” you’re going to come out with an incomplete picture and a whole lot of mentions of artificial intelligence. In order to get a more complete picture of how the legal industry is evolving, you have to speak with decision makers inside law firms, or with in-house counsels and legal operations folks. I was recently speaking with a senior M&A partner at an Amlaw 100 firm who had never even heard of some of the newest products on the market that, to me, seem like no-brainers.

That’s why I’m attending both Accelerate and CLOC in the span of ten days. Both of these conferences bring together decision makers; at Apttus it’s primarily general counsels and law firm folks, at CLOC it’s primarily legal operations professionals. At the moment, general counsels, law firms (and by extension alternative legal service providers), and legal operations represent the three pillars of the corporate law ecosystem and they, not just the disruptors, will shape the next phase of the legal industry. Naturally, many of the companies I’ve covered here on ATL will be on site as well, but my goal in attending is to come out on the other side having a better understanding of how LAWYERS THEMSELVES, not just start-ups, are embracing innovation.

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Not able to make it to San Francisco or Vegas? I’m going to be writing and publishing ReplyAll conversations on ATL from both conferences together with conference attendees? Drop in your email below and you can follow along as it unfolds.

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