Those of us who have been attending LegalTech New York for more than the last decade (this will be our 12th!), or even those partaking over the past five years or so, have seen a major shift in LegalTech's exhibit hall - namely the drastic vendor landscape shift from a broad collection of technology and service providers to what these days is a eDiscovery/litigation support world. While the need for applications and services required to manage the litigation lifecycle and accommodate the various phases of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) is undeniable, what has suddenly happened to all the other technologies that were previously touted as 'mission critical'. Remember when the exhibit hall highlights included accounting software, document management, time & billing applications, contact management solutions as well as an array of consultants who focused more on helping firms run their operations? Here are some stats to prove the point:
- In 2010, by our count 96 LegalTech NY vendors peddled eDiscovery/litigation support solutions (applications as well as services).The 2011 exhibitor lists includes 103 vendors, representing 43% (out of 237) of all LegalTech exhibitors.
- The theme continues as it relates to educational sessions and pay-to-play opportunities (i.e., sponsorships) as well - 53% of all sessions and tracks contain eDiscovery and related topics and 73% of all educational sponsors (excluding association sponsors such as ARMA, ILTA, etc.) are eDiscovery or litigation support vendors.
With so much attention on the $1.2 Billion eDiscovery market (according to a Gartner Group 2010 report), all the recent talk of cloud computing and the viability of using Microsoft SharePoint as an alternate document management system provides a breath of fresh air for those of us looking forward to a new decade with more legal technology balance. We'll all see what this week's 30th edition of LegalTech New York brings, but maybe we'll be wooed and wowed by cutting edge scanning and imaging products and financial management software that will revolutionize the way you count your firm's beans.
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