Technology

The Lasting 6%: My Impressions Of The 2017 Legaltech Show

But, what I've been asking myself in the two weeks following Legaltech is why certain things were sticking out in my memory and others had already faded.

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legal technology legal tech law gavel digitalI know that most of the other legal tech journalists / bloggers / writers / opinionators published their Legaltech round-ups immediately following the conference (that’s right Bob Ambrogi, I’m looking at you). And while I admire their discipline, I like let some time pass after the conference to let the new information I absorbed marinate, so to speak. Studies show that, when listening to a presentation, you only retain around 6% of the speaker’ content, which is why good speakers make sure to repeat their key points over and over and over again.

The same could be said of my information retention at Legaltech: and 6% is being generous.

Now, I should say that I do LTNY a little different than most, which is to say that ALL that I do is take meetings with tech companies, law firm decision makers, in-house counsel and legal operations. I attend ZERO panels or speeches about futurism and, if I’m at an event, it’s because I’m meeting someone there. It’s hard to retain every detail from 25+ meetings, especially when you’re bolting clumsily from one end of the hotel to the other (more on a that below).

But, what I’ve been asking myself in the two weeks following Legaltech is why certain things were sticking out in my memory and others had already faded. In other words, what made it into my 6%? So with no further ado, here are my impressions from three days at Legaltech.

1. I heard the usual rumblings that the conference shouldn’t be called the Legaltech Show, it should be called the eDiscovery Show. Fair, but keep in mind that eDiscovery is estimated to become a $20 billion dollar business within the next five years, not to mention the most of the eDiscovery companies will tell you that legal is just the beginning. It’s BIG, and it’s only getting BIGGER and more sophisticated.

2. The cloud is here. I know this because this year NO ONE was talking about the cloud. That said, it’s crazy finding out how many Fortune 500 cloud companies keep their own data behind the firewall. That feels like those Silicon Valley tech execs who send their kids to schools that ban iPads.

3. Was Enterprise Legal Management always this big or was I just that small? I don’t know why, but it felt like ELM was everywhere, and business seems to be booming. I only got a chance to meet with Mitratech and Wolters Kluwer, but Onit had some cool lego themed booth that kept catching my eye (remember the 6%?). It’s easy to understand why ELM could be a hot market. If you’re an in-house counsel who is being instructed (as the trends suggest) to bring more work in-house, then, at the very least, you want a better way to manage your legal spend and be on the same page (or dashboard as it were) with your outside counsel. And now that data and analytics are becoming less frightening, ELM software contains the promise of being able to flag a “timekeeper-happy” attorney and help predict fees in advance.

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4. It must be fun to be an in-house counsel or head of legal operations at LTNY. Not only are the lawyers sniffing around you for business, but now every legal software  company wants to take you to lunch. Common wisdom amongst some of the top tech execs is that the law firm is not your buyer, it’s the in-house counsel.

5. I remember once grouping Kira Systems, RAVN and Seal Software in the same competitive landscape. And while there’s definitely overlap, I’m becoming more and more convinced that these companies are tackling different problems oftentimes for different customers, and that the space is big enough for multiple companies. What I’m more curious about is whether document review technology and eDiscovery technology, which both deal with making sense of unstructured data, will ever cross paths. I spoke with law firm people who want to evaluate whether or not they can use their eDiscovery solution for both processes.

6. Evolve Law has done a great job with their events and community. I even noticed that Wolters Kluwer, an established company, was sponsoring Evolve Law’s Darwin Talks on Monday night before the conference. Remember how I told you I don’t do events at LTNY? Well a walking meeting Monday afternoon with the Doxly folks turned into a visit to Evolve Law’s unconference. A good number of exciting start-ups were on hand, many of which I’ve covered here on ATL. The folks at Evolve Law are always coming up with interesting initiatives, and right now they are running a new fellowship for in-house counsels who want to implement technology solutions across their practice. Nominations for the fellowship are currently open if you know someone who’s a good fit.

7. I don’t know what to make of this, but some of the top companies I met with at the conference didn’t have a booth. I’m not some grizzled industry vet who can provide context because this was my 27th Legaltech show, so maybe that was always the case, but I did hear some grumblings that less companies were putting up a booth at LTNY. I have no idea — the conference seemed as busy as ever, but then again I was running all over the place.

8. Friendly suggestion to LTNY: create a press section where folks like myself can meet with companies other influencers. I had about 25 meetings over the course of two days, but I could probably have scheduled over 40 if I didn’t always have to run from one end of the hotel to the other.

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9. Bonus suggestion: more places to sit in general. I ended up doing a bunch of walking meetings, but not because I’m some drunk-on-his-own-craft-beer-millennial who doesn’t believe in chairs around the office. I just couldn’t find a place to sit.

10. I’ve been writing recently about the intersection of tech and service which is one of those trends that once you see, you cannot unsee. Just my opinion: the companies that continue to get this balance right will be the ones that last.

Are you a tech company, in-house counsel or law firm decision maker who didn’t get to meet me at Legaltech? Schedule time with me here.

Zach Abramowitz is a former Biglaw associate and currently CEO and co-founder of ReplyAll. You can follow Zach on Twitter (@zachabramowitz) or reach him by email at zach@replyall.me.

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