The annual American Association of Law Librarians Conference (AALL) kicks off this week in Cleveland. I’m a regular attendee and fan of this conference. It’s low-key and attended mainly by law librarians. Law librarians from big firms, small firms, in-between firms, and from various law schools.
What Law Librarians Are Really All About
The term “law librarian” is a bit of a misnomer. These folks don’t put books on shelves or add pocket parts to ancient tomes to keep them up to date (if you don’t know what a pocket part is, you’re really missing out). Today’s law librarians are really charged with knowledge management: getting the lawyers and legal professionals the knowledge and information they need to do their jobs.
They are also the first line of defense against ineffective, wasteful, and downright dangerous AI use. They are the people the lawyers and legal professionals rely upon to get it right. It’s a pretty important function.
Moreover, the main people who attend AALL are actual librarians on the front lines. They deal with lawyers and legal professionals who run the gamut of experience, sophistication, and knowledge. And because they come from a variety of institutions and backgrounds, law librarians have a broad exposure to issues and thinking. So, what they say and what they are experiencing and seeing is pretty important.
I have found attendees to be knowledgeable and on the cutting edge of problems and issues facing the legal community. Last year, for example, I attended a discussion on the lack of critical thinking skills among younger lawyers and how we need to go about training them in the age of AI. At the time, it was a problem that was just surfacing.
For all these reasons, it’s good to pay attention to what AALL is focused on. That’s why this year’s theme caught my eye.
Leading with Aloha
This year’s theme, interestingly enough for a conference in Cleveland, is “Leading with Aloha.” It was chosen by President Jenny Silbiger, who is with the Hawaii State Judiciary. AALL describes the theme as inviting “members to embrace Aloha as a guiding principle, calling to lead with empathy, collaboration, and integrity in a rapidly changing world.” The idea is to emphasize the need to lead through relationship building and empathy instead of authority.
Given the state of our political system and the increasing adversarial nature of our profession and, for that matter, the entire country, that seems particularly apropos. And given how AI can even further distance all of us from each other, particularly in the workplace, and how we increasingly rely upon it and let it lead us, the theme could make for a very eye-opening conference.
Aloha Content
I see the aloha theme throughout the program content.
The keynote presentation, for example, according to AALL, “will explore the power of empathy, connection, and service—what Hawaii calls ‘aloha’—as a model for leadership, highlighting how law librarians are uniquely positioned to wield influence responsibly, advance access to justice, and guide the legal profession through emerging challenges like generative AI.”
It will be given by Micah Smith, U.S. District Court Judge from, of all places, Hawaii. The description is certainly in keeping with the theme.
Other sessions at the conference focus on things like: “aloha” management and the unwritten rules, relationships, and realities that impact it, mindfulness principles, cultivating positivity in the workplace and in teams, teaching leadership, uplifting through storytelling and empowering teams feeling overlooked and overworked. All these seem designed to get to the notion of how humans can lead rather than follow not only authority but, increasingly, AI and AI agents themselves.
Of course, AALL does not ignore the practical. Some of the more practical offerings include things like how to use real-world courtroom video to teach litigation skills, making AI work for legal research, litigation in the age of AI slop, teaching legal research to LLM students, monetizing law librarian skills, how to effectively train lawyers and legal professionals, and how law librarians can use vibe coding.
There’s even a session on the rebranding of the Cleveland baseball team to the Guardians, designed, it appears, to help attendees navigate through complex rebranding issues.
Aloha Humans in the Loop
The conference looks to be very much about the proverbial human in the loop. While this phrase has all too often become a cliche, AALL appears to be focusing on what a human in the loop really means, in an overall general sense. Not just in the sense of checking cites or verifying outputs, but in a philosophical way. AALL wants to examine the place of human values in an AI world and how we make sure humans lead, instead of AI by default. Those are critical issues today and will be even more so tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if AALL’s conference can address these very questions.
I will be at the conference for Above the Law throughout it and will let you know what I learn. Hopefully, I can say aloha when all is said and done. In the meantime: Aloha.
Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and writer. He publishes TechLaw Crossroads, a blog devoted to the examination of the tension between technology, the law, and the practice of law.