12on12: Favorite Moments at LegalTech New York

Monica Bay

Law Technology News

02-12-2013

This article was updated at 9:00 a.m.

For this February edition of "12on12," Law Technology News asked attendees about their favorite moment at LegalTech New York. We were flooded with responses, so in no particular order, here are just a few of what we received:

1. THE EXHIBIT HALL

• I really enjoyed my time walking the exhibit hall floor and seeing so many familiar faces. Having been to LegalTech now for nine straight years, I'm always amazed at how many people I know from the industry. — Brad Jenkins, president and CEO, CloudNine Discovery, Houston.

• As a marketer for several exhibitors ... it was pretty amazing to see the depth and breadth of technology [offerings] specific to the legal market all under one roof. — Gwen Hoover, vice president, marketing services, Altitude Marketing, Emmaus, Pa.

• Meeting people we have only spoken to on the phone. We are so far away down in Australia that it is hard to get a sense of where things are moving, technology-wise. Attending the show allows us to get an overall feel rather than a skewed view from just a couple of suppliers. Anthony and Georgina Ridley-Smith, Matrix Solutions, Sydney.

• Law firm partners came by our booth, and asked us to scan their badges and to pitch our products, because one of the partners identified us as the "bosses" of our marketing associate — who had chatted with one of the partners at length earlier. — Chi Eng, CEO, Neulexa Corp., New York.

2. THE JUDGES

• The keynote address, " The Morning Show," with Patrick Oot and Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck. I thought that the jazz music was energizing and refreshing — a great way to start the day. Daniel Regard, CEO, Intelligent Discovery Solutions, Washington, D.C.

• The Wednesday predictive coding mock hearing ["How Safe is Your CAR?"] with Magistrate Judge James Francis IV and some of the experts and participants in Global Aerospace. The results of Global Aerospace, (the first judge-ordered and utilized predictive coding) were published just before LegalTech, it was good to see a live, almost "re-creation" of a matter where predictive coding should be argued to be used. — Michael Dalewitz, director of e-discovery, Trustpoint International, New York City.

• My favorite moment was hearing Judge Peck say that search terms are not dead, but they must be carefully thought out, vetted, and the subject of discussion between counsel. — Carolyn Southerland, managing director, Huron Legal, Chicago. [Huron sponsored the panel, "Are We Here to Bury Search Terms?"]

• In general, I enjoy meeting with all prospects and following up with all of my customers at every LegalTech. However, my favorite moment was meeting Andrew Peck at our booth at this year's event and discussing our flagship product, Viewpoint. — Tony Reyes, director, business development, Lateral Data, Chicago.

3. CHARLES DUHIGG

• I loved Charles Duhigg's keynote speech. And not just because of the hilarious video of the kids in the "marshmallow experiment." The talk was full of interesting insights into human behavior. I enjoyed it so much that i downloaded his book, The Power of Habit, to my Kindle before I even left the ballroom. — Allegra Rich, pro bono and philantrhopy partner, Seyfarth Shaw, Chicago. (Seyfarth won the 2012 LTN Innovation award for best use of technology in a pro bono project.)

• Other than Recommind's Top of the Rock party ... my favorite part of LTNY 2013 was definitely Thursday's keynote address by author Charles Duhigg. The Power of Habit was my favorite book of 2012 and I've recommended it to several friends and colleagues. It was a thrill to hear Charles speak live and relate his study of habits to the world of lawyers and e-discovery. Afterward, he was gracious enough to take a picture with me and sign a copy of his book as well. — Jon Moreland, regional manager, e-discovery, Recommind, Washington, D.C.

• The keynote on The Power of Habit was fascinating. His insight into how habits evolve was excellent but the methodology in which to change them in an organization was priceless. — Roberta Gelb, president, Chelsea Office Systems Inc.

• Beyond my work to represent LexisNexis on site during a very busy and successful week, I really enjoyed the day three keynote by the author of The Power of Habit. I found his insights and perspectives not only personally interesting, but appreciated what they may mean for the legal industry. — Mark Osborn, senior director, communications, LexisNexis, Seattle.

• It was amazing to see [Charles Duhigg] in person and make you think about how the day-to-day [tasks] we do in e-discovery become habit — and how to think about changing them. I think that starting off with that as the keynote for the week would have made a number of people attending rethink about the habits they have established in attending the conference. I went back to our meetings with a different point-of-view on how to take them and how to meet the people I wanted to meet. — Maribel Rivera, senior director of marketing and operations, The Cowen Group, New York.

• The Duhigg keynote made me think about how the current crisis in the legal industry might make it stronger long term. — Steven Harber, president, DiscoverReady (sponsor of the keynote), New York.

4. THE PARTIES

• The Walter Isaacson event [sponsored by Thomson Reuters] was really inspirational. I know it was not strictly legal tech, but it was awesome! I also thought the e-billing trends and best practices session was quite good. I have to say this was one of the better LegalTechs in a while. Nice work! — Jeff Hodge, general manager, law department management and Serengeti Law, Thomson Reuters, Eagan, Minn.

• Playing at the Three Monkeys Bar. We just posted it on our blog. It was a great night. — John Tredennick, CEO, Catalyst Repository Systems Inc., Denver, Colo.

• The eDiscovery Journal party was the best. Great people and conversation, positive vibe, and a short walk in the rain. The Catalyst party at the China Grill was a close second. They had quite an international audience. — Mark Beese, marketing director, Catalyst, Denver.

5. THE LTN AWARDS

• Having our firm be recognized by ALM with the LTN 2012 Award for Most Innovative Use of Technology in a Small Firm and connecting with other winners to learn about their inspiring projects. — Chad Burton, principal, Burton Law, Dayton, Ohio.

• My favorite moment at LTNY was talking to lawyers I had never met who had heard of me and The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, and the work we are doing in the Access to Justice space. Yes, we live in a connected world, but we also toil in solitude — us and our machines. Nothing beats meeting and talking to people face-to-face and connecting without a mouse. — John Mayer, executive director, CALI, Chicago, and winner of the 2012 Law Technology News' IT Champion award.

6. THE COFFEE

• Excellent coffee bar. Made for a great spot to meet people and recaffeinate. — Nichole Renner, inside sales manager, eMag Solutions.

7. THE DINNERS

• My favorite moment was when, enjoying truly splendid company at the most raucous table at the annual E-Discovery Institute dinner at Becco, it was determined that Judge Andrew Peck had the scales of justice tatooed on his chest. To be clear, this is just something made up from whole cloth (and, like much conduct attributed to Judge Peck of late, may not be remotely accurate); but, it's emblematic of the high level of dialogue enjoyed among all the wonderful folks breaking bread that evening. The best part of LegalTech for me will always been the chance to socialize with the many bright and engaging lawyers, judges and technologists in attendance. — Craig Ball, attorney and forensics expert, Austin.

8. THE SEMINARS

• During the panel "Defensible Disposal: If It Doesn't Exist, I Don't Have to Review It ... Right?," I was asked if I had secret EDRM tattoos. — Dean Gonsowski, associate general counsel and senior director, business development, Recommind, San Francisco.

• Listening to Ed Basart, CTO and founder of ShoreTel. The need for unified communications is growing so rapidly. (We do not sell or even use their products.) — Gary Gross, vice president, business development, Mercury Development, Atlanta.

• Listening to attorneys in the audience of my panels engaging me and other speakers and thus allowing everyone to go "off script" and discuss matters of concern. — Ronald Hedges, consultant and retired U.S.D.C. Magistrate Judge, Hoboken, N.J.

• At our session on the topic of social media and law firm marketing, we encouraged the use of the Twitter hashtag #LNSOCIAL and projected a live tweet stream. The response was amazing — the online community came together and we also increased our followers. — Daniella (Dee) Latham, senior copywriter, marketing, LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, New Providence, N.J.

9. THE DEMONSTRATIONS

• Doing hundreds of demonstrations at our booth in the exhibition hall and seeing the high quality of the prospects that we were able to meet with in person at the show! Kudos to a show well done! — Winslow Chapman, director of sales, OrcaTec, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

• One moment that stood out was Wednesday morning, when I dropped into the booth, and a new prospect was getting a demo of Legal Hold Pro. A group of three current users dropped in just to say "hi," but then proceeded to take over the demo and were selling better than we ever could! — Monica Enand, CEO, Zapproved Inc., Portland, Ore.

• Watching the crowd at our booth grow, like a snowball affect, as our CTO Andy Wishart gave a demo of ContractExpress 4.3, projecting his screen onto our display back wall. At that moment I knew the months of preparation were worth it. — Anatoly Soyer, marketing director, Business Integrity Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y.

• My favorite moment was finally sitting down Thursday afternoon to give the feet a well needed break. This, though, because of all of the great booth time, events, and conversations I was able to have this year. This was truly one of the best LegalTech shows I have had in years. — Richard Clark, director — D.C. legal/government accounts, iConect Development. Reston, Va.

10. THE NEWBIES

• As a first time attendee, there were too many favorite moments to count. Overall, it was just the opportunity to be around so many people focused on legal technology. — Adam Camras, CEO, LAWgical/Legal Talk Network, Los Angeles.

• Walking in the door to the exhibitors' hall. I hadn't been to a LegalTech in years prior, and there was a certain shock-and-awe at the volume of exhibits. They were incredibly well done, and the quality of the entire event was impressive. — Adam Losey, president, IT-Lex, and associate at Foley & Lardner. Orlando, Fla.

11. THE SALES OPPORTUNITIES

• My favorite moment was at the booth, on the second day. I was starting a negotiation with an investor, while one of my partners was presenting the product to a potential client. it was so intense! — Gustavo Vodeb, president, Conexiones.com, Miami.

• My favorite moment at LegalTech was being able to speak with law firms about TW Telecom's network at our booth since there weren't many network providers at the show. — Jason Reis, account executive, TW Telecom, New York City.

• One of my employees, Justin Blessing, started Compiled Services, a software company [that provides quality control services for] productions and load files, along with several other utilities. I was helping him in his booth, and the CTO of Teris stopped by and pointed out that "in this vast sea of vendors and technology" that Justin was "the only vendor concentrating on the right end of the EDRM." I hadn't thought of it that way but it was an interesting point. Kriss Wilson, president, Superior Document Services, Richmond, Va.

• Discovering that we were stuck in the worst possible booth location in the history of (my 20-plus years of) LegalTech stuck in the back corner on the second floor behind a post and blocked on the other side by the large monitors in the booth next door — yet still having some of our customers and prospects find us for some beneficial discussions. — Doug Horton, CEO & president, Handshake Software Inc., Atlanta.

• [LTNY] let us meet potential partners face-to-face, which in turn allowed us to tee up important discussions over a few days instead of spread out over many months. It was amazing to meet all the major players, editors and bloggers for the legal industry, which helped us to put our finger on the pulse of trends in the legal industry. But above all else, my favorite moment was wrapping up a short meeting in the hotel bar with the executives for an important player in our market nodding their heads and asking: "Can you get us a proposal in writing by tomorrow." — Carol Lynn Grow, vice president, marketing and sales, LawToolBox.com Inc.

12. THE BUZZ

• The hallway buzz at this year's LegalTech was all about proactive information governance and how legal and compliance professionals are looking to managing corporate risk and liability. After attending the LegalTech sessions, so many attendees were well informed about topics such as defensible deletion. It was great to be able to collaborate with them to take the conversation one step further and help educate them on new approaches and [options]. — Jim McGann, vice president, Index Engines, Holmdel, N.J.

• I was standing in the middle of the exhibit hall looking at all these great vendors realizing how much our industry has matured in the last five years and how LTNY has become the center of the e-discovery universe. As e-discovery, regulatory compliance, and information governance converge, I expect the exhibit hall to double in size within a very short time. These are exciting times. — Albert Barsocchini, discovery counsel and director of strategic consulting, NightOwl Discovery, San Francisco.

• Listening to conversations in our booth focus over and over again on the importance of mobile device e-discovery — and I don't mean reviewing a case on a tablet, but actually collecting and reviewing data from mobile devices. I found this fascinating because it proved that mobile e-discovery is indeed the sleeper topic of 2012 that is going to explode in 2013 as more legal teams recognize the wealth of evidence that can be found on phones due to corporate BYOD policies. Great show this year! — Caitlin Murphy, director of legal marketing, AccessData, San Francisco.

• From our perspective as a vendor, it wasn't a particular moment that was our favorite, but rather the overall feeling that e-discovery continues to be more complex, so "let's do it more efficiently and correctly." It was crystal clear from the judges, the panels and client meetings that process, people and technology are now at center stage. Attendees seemed genuinely determined to reach the intersection of reasonable cost and better qualitative results. — Howard Reissner, CEO, Planet Data, Elmsford, N.Y.

• I had a lot of favorite moments, but [the best] was my realization that a sizeable and dynamic inority of people and organizations, including all the major services organizations, want to fix up the core problem of big data/too much data (i.e., information governance) rather than just reacting to it (i.e., e-discovery). This is going to drive our industry for the next 10 years. — Eddie Sheehy, CEO, Nuix, Sydney.

• I don't have one; I have hundreds. There is no other event that allows us to connect with hundreds of customers in such a short period of time, where we can capture broad themes for how we are doing in serving our customers and find meaningful opportunities to improve. — Andrew Sieja, president and CEO, kCura, Chicago.

Thanks to everyone who replied to our query. We'll continue this discussion in the next edition of "Tech Circuit" on Monday.

Monica Bay is editor-in-chief of Law Technology News and a member of the California Bar. Email: mbay@alm.com. Twitter: @lawtechnews @LTNMonicaBay