The Circuit: Ohhhhh, Canada!
Canada and legal technology: a winning combination.
With the U.S. presidential election almost here, conversations often turn to northern real estate. Not Seattle, Montana or Maine, rather, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec—and Ottawa.
Want to check it out? Grab a car, train or plane and head to Ottawa for The Canadian Bar Association’s annual “CBA Legal Conference,” Aug. 12-14.
The event focuses on “Building a Better Profession,” “Building a Better Practice” and “Building a Better Person,” with speakers and panels addressing all three goals. For example, a Friday panel, “Lawyers on Board,” offers guidance on “duties, responsibilites, risks and potential liability” that you face when you join a board.
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For practice improvement, panels address financial statement analysis; deciding on technology; advanced negotiation skills; and more. The “better person” track offers “Mental Health First Aid,” “Planning for Productivity,” “Wellness and Technology Tips for Happier, Healthier Lawyers” and “Mindfulness in Business” — featuring ATL contributor Jeena Cho, co-author (with Karen Gifford) of the newly-published book, The Anxious Lawyer (via the American Bar Association’s new Ankerwycke imprint).
THE PITCH
CBA invited Canada-based early-stage legal tech startups to compete at The Pitch, on Friday, Aug. 12 at 3:15. Of 31 submissions, five finalists were chosen: Beagle; Blue J Legal, Knomos, Loom Analytics and Rangefindr. The screening committee included Mitch Kowalski, Randall Howard, Monica Goyal, Carla Swansburg and Karim Benyekhlef.
At the CBA conference, the five will compete for a two-week residency with LegalX at MaRS Discovery District in Toronto—and the attention of investors. (Check out the Law Technology Now podcast, LegalX: Innovators from MaRS, with LegalX leaders Aron Solomon and Jason Moyse).
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All five of the presenters will also receive “an interview with the Chinese Angels Mentor Program (CAMP) where, if selected (and pending due diligence), they will receive an equity investment of no less than $200,000.”
Each presenter will have seven minutes to pitch their startup, and address five minutes of questions from the judges (disclosure: I will be a judge). All in front of a live audience! The event is presented by CBA, LexisNexis and MaRS. Not attending the full conference? You can buy a ticket just for The Pitch for $45.
ILTACON 2016
The International Legal Technology Association’s annual education conference—aka ILTACON—will be held Aug. 28-Sept. 1 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor, Maryland—just miles away from the White House, residence of the President of the United States. (Let’s just hope that Shonda Rhimes’s adventures do not become the playbook for the next four years. But there is some slim hope: Scandal (and Barbara Hall’s Madam Secretary) have taught us one thing that is probably more true than we think: POTUS doesn’t always have full control over the U.S.A.)
But back to the future of law: ILTACON’s agenda always has a theme, and this year, it’s “Embracing Change,” a very timely topic. “Technology and the business of law are rapidly changing, and we are all change agents,” ILTA proclaims in the website introduction. “ILTACON is where we share and learn about what’s ahead and how to succeed in driving and embracing change within our teams, our organizations and the industry.” Conference co-chairs this year are Cheryl Disch and Richard “Rick” Krzyminski; team coodinators are David Hobbie, Eric Anderson, Chris Hunt, Jim McCue and Julie Brown. ILTA staff leaders include Randi Mayes, executive director; Peggy Wechsler, ILTA program director; and T.J. Johnson, director, conferences.
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If you’ve never attended ILTACON, the easiest way to describe it is that it is the opposite of ALM’s Legaltech New York. (Both approaches are very successful.) At ILTACON, there are no “pay-to-play” panels. The peer-to-peer panels are the heart of ILTACON and are produced by participants, who typically generate more than 200 sessions each year. This year, ILTA expects more than 400 speakers! Check out the 2016 grid.
At LTNY, the Exhibit Hall is the main attraction and the panels are secondary (almost all are pay-to-play). At ILTACON, the excellent Exhibit Hall is important, but second to the panels. Both events include keynote speakers. Networking opportunities are staggering, a key reason to attend both events.
Speaking of the keynotes, this year’s include Mike Walsh, “Re-Imagining Legal Technology for the 21st Century” (Monday, 9 a.m.), and Daniel Martin Katz, “Measure Twice, Cut Once: Solving the Legal Profession’s Biggest Problems Together” (Tuesday, 8:30 a.m.).
Mike Walsh is the CEO of Tomorrow, “a global consultancy for designing business for the 21st century.” If Daniel Martin Katz’s name sounds familiar, it’s probably because of his closely watched adventures with Reinvent Law, when he was Assistant Professor of Law at Michigan State University’s College of Law. In venue after venue, Katz preached that Biglaw structure (and American Bar Association rules) often block adoption of innovation and technology—largely because adopting change often creates faster, cheaper, better and transparent service, which can reduce partner paychecks.
Katz’s themes had traction, and he wasn’t alone. In the last few years, many others have jumped on the wagon. See, for example, the recent keynote at Stanford’s CodeX FutureLaw by James Sandman, president of the Legal Services Corporation.
Katz is now an Associate Professor at Illinois Tech—Chicago Kent College of Law and is director of The Law Lab @ Illinois Tech (launching this year). Among his many connections, he is an affiliated faculty at CodeX: The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics.
“The idea for the ILTA talk is about trying to pull together the ‘entire legal supply chain’ on a shared journey towards more rational, efficient delivery of legal services, including the development of systematic solutions to persistent problems (as opposed to simple cleaning up in the aftermath of those problems),” he told Above The Law.
Other ILTACON highlights include:
• Sunday, 7 p.m. Opening Reception: Up and Away
• Monday, 7 p.m. Exhibit Hall opening party, “ILTA’s World of Vendors”
• Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. Distinguished Peer Awards & After-Glow Party
• Thursday 6:30 p.m. ILTA’s Beach Party
• Every day, 6:30 a.m. Yoga & Zumba
Ohhh! I almost forgot to tell you! There’s always a sweet Canada vibe at every ILTA conference—because the aforementioned T.J. Johnson is based in Winnipeg! 🙂
Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX: The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics and a columnist for Above The Law. She also writes for Bloomberg BNA’s Big Law Business and is an analyst and consultant. A member of the California Bar, she frequently can be found at Yankee Stadium. Email: monicabay1@gmail.com. Twitter: @MonicaBay.
