Last week's Ignite Law event, presented by LexThink and InsideLegal.com on the eve of ABA TECHSHOW 2010, started with a bang. In our previous Ignite Law post, we spotlighted the first 8 speakers and their 6 minute contributions to the future of law practice. Act 2 "igniters" included 5 lawyers, a trial consultant, cloud software provider, and legal research vendor. Jack Newton with Clio kicked-off post break providing a very insightful synopsis of Zappos' customer service focus and how extraordinary service can elevate a commodity product company to a specialized service provider (who happens to sell shoes). Jack referenced Richard Susskind and how an extreme service focus could catapult lawyers to stardom.
Will Hornsby's musings on lawyer advertising and the ethics of it all was next up. While Will discussed the ability or inability of the legal profession to regulate the modern incarnation of lawyer advertising- web 3.0 and portable avatars, the crux of the argument focused on the content of ads and promos not the vehicles.
Teresa Rosado, a seasoned trial consultant, spotlighted our self-service, full access society and the implications technology and social media have had on juries. Her 6 minutes focused on how the jury box has changed since web 2.0 and what litigators (and judges) can do to limit outside juror influence.
Axiom Law's Rebekah Stafford spent her 6 minutes speaking about the evolution of the legal model and how corporate counsel can make sense of changes such as alternate fee arrangements and performance-based compensation to select the best services available to them. The key mantra of her talk: impart "value, predictability and trust" when introducing alternative law firm business models to your clients.
CaseMaker's Steve Newsom pondered the viability of offering free online legal research in the future, an interesting proposition considering his company currently charges for its online research solution, and along with the likes of Thomson and Lexis, competes for legal research dollars. Along the lines of free, Newsom offered current examples including Google Scholar free searching and FastCase's wildely popular free iPhone app. His parting shot-free online legal research is a very viable option for future law practice.
Nikki Black tackled the topic of lawyers and change and how adopting change is critical to the alternative of facing extinction. Black's view of change in legal comes in the form of web based technologies, mobile applications, social media and cloud computing. Her appeal to lawyers: boldly go "where no lawyer has gone before" and take a leadership role in embracing such tech-influenced change.
Ignite Law saved the best for last with the final two presenters. Doug Sorocco (photo on right), an Oklahoma based IP and technology lawyer, focused his insights on how small firms and small firm thinking can slay the large firm beast. He encouraged the Ignite audience to fight dirty, explore some dirty places, be fearless and most notably "grow a pair" when it comes to standing toe to toe with large firm competitors. "You'll fail, get over it and move on".
Ernie Svenson (aka Ernie the Attorney) placed the Ignite Law cherry on top of with his information processing for lawyers talk. Ernie pointed out that since over 80% of all communication is electronic, there's absolutely no need to create more paper especially when it comes to taking emails and printing them out- that's just crazy he stated. Ernie is a New Orleans lawyer with a passion for the paperless office and commonsense efficiencies powered by technology.
We want to thank our sponsors - ABA TECHSHOW, ABA LPM, ABA Journal, Peach New Media, Clio, JD Supra, CaseMaker, RocketMatter. We'd also liked to thank Kristin Bakota with the ABA LPM and Andrea Cannavina for all their help.
Ignite Law was conceived on the premise of "build it and they will come", and we built it and they came, and survived for 6 minutes X 16, and left with the future of law squarely in the present.
Event Links
- Videos from Ignite Law
- Photos from Ignite Law
- Ignite Law Sponsors (Thanks to our sponsors for making this event possible. Please take a minute to visit their sites.)
Thanks for the mention - that picture is going to haunt me forever!
Y'all did a fantastic job on the program and I was thrilled to see the quality and passion of all the speakers. I was honored to be part of such a distinguished group of legal heavyweights.
Posted by: Douglas Sorocco | April 09, 2010 at 09:42 PM