LegalTech New York (LTNY) is here, again. The Super Bowl and Groundhog Day are over; the snow is here, so it must be time for another LTNY … This was how we started last year’s post, oh the irony.
2015 marks our 16th LTNY attendance and if you aren't able to be on-site with the thousands of attendees, 190+ vendors and many legal technologists, consultants, media/bloggers and influencers from literally all over the place, tune in to our daily LTNY reports and recaps.
To kick-off our 2015 edition, here’s our short list of pre-show topics, sessions to watch, trends to notice and conference stats.
Going to LegalTech … viable alternatives to exhibiting
So as many of you know, we like to track stuff … how many vendors at LTNY? How many EDD folks? Session themes and sponsorship influence; top conference topics and word cloud buzz? What are the vendors doing? And what aren’t they? And, who’s new?
Here are some stats for starters. According to the official LTNY mobile app info, 190 vendor companies registered (aka have a booth) in 2015. Compare this to 220 in 2014 and 263 (29% more) in 2009, the 2nd year we started tracking this. 44% of all 2015 exhibitors represent EDD products & services not counting the consultancies (another 5%) that specialize in EDD-related consulting support in some form or fashion. This marks the 2nd highest percentage (we counted 45% in 2012) of EDD vendors since our first analysis in 2008. Beyond EDD, we took note of several other vendor focus areas with some critical mass (at least 4% exhibitor share):
- Analytics 4%
- DMS/Document Assembly and related tech 5%
- Practice/case management 7%
- Info Governance [Privacy/security/DR/Governance] 8%
The stats above reiterate what has been on the lips of many LTNY goers for years … LTNY is EDDNY and if you are not in the information governance (IG)/Risk Management/Security/Privacy space largely within the realm of EDD; LTNY is not your best bet. Large, household name vendors are not renewing exhibit space and many other companies are looking for alternatives to connecting with targets during the week. This trend is not necessarily bad; it just clarifies the writing on the wall. In actuality, between companies attending the Law Firm CIO/CTO forum, other non-LTNY legal influencer events, a significant spike in off-the-clock soirées and separate non-Hilton hospitality and demo suites, the shear amount of legal/legal technology brainpower attending this year is at its peak. On Monday alone, we had the option of four alternate legal/tech-themed programs leading up to LTNY kick-off on Tuesday.
Hot button issues
As mentioned in our previous ‘word cloud post’, LTNY 2015 is heavily focused on IG, risk and compliance... particularly as it relates to eDiscovery, corporate security and information management. We heard it last year but this year it is loud and clear... IG is no longer a sideline, add-on activity but a broader strategy of managing information overload. The time to simply check off IG and compliance tasks is over. Big data while less of a buzz word than the past three years, is being rolled into IG, risk management, information management and business analytics priorities as opposed to being positioned stand-alone. From a technology perspective, big data is still tightly linked with the eDiscovery space and specifically Technology-Assisted Review, aka predictive coding. Considering privacy and security are on everyone's 'major challenges' and 'top priority' lists, the topics themselves are somewhat downplayed. We suspect these topics are central to most information governance discussions which seem to be dominating this year.
CIO Forum
Law Technology News and The American Lawyer are presenting the 11th Annual Law Firm Chief Information & Technology Officers Forum, a day and a half event taking place in conjunction with LTNY at the Hilton New York. The 21 session program includes 8 roundtable discussions forum attendees can choose from including: Mobility in Legal Services; Legal Services. Anywhere; Managing Cyber security Risks; Securing Your Content in the Cloud; Navigating the transition to an efficient, paperless office; and fulfilling regulatory and KM guidelines for email. Check out the full agenda here and watch this space as we’ll be covering some of the CIO Forum sessions via @InsideLegal and here.
Legaltech (new)s beginnings
Per Monica Bay’s recent post on lawtechnologynews.com, the February 2015 edition of Law Technology News magazine is its last. Last night, at a party kicking off LegalTech New York 2015, ALM unveiled "Legaltech news." The new name aligns with its sister unit, Legaltech (which will lose its capital T). The February 2015 edition is also Monica’s last, marking 30+ years with ALM. And as she put it “time for the next generation to take the helm.” Speaking of, as of February 9th, the new editor of Legaltech news will be Erin Harrison, the current Associate Publisher and Editor-in-Chief for InsideCounsel.
New class of legal entrepreneurs wanted
A few weeks ago, ALM announced a collaborative partnership with CodeX: The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, a think tank of Stanford faculty and students, as well as professionals from key organizations working on the frontier of legal technology. According to the release, the partnership will help provide compelling new educational content at ALM's Legaltech events, plus ALM will be working with the CodeX team to introduce new companies to the LTNY crowd. Eligible companies will be offered free exhibit space in a new pavilion on the trade show floor, as well as have the opportunity to host thought leadership presentations on the pavilion stage. This could be a smart move considering much of the existing educational content is sourced from mostly established vendors with the resources to pay for sponsored speaking tracks. ARMA and ILTA do a fine job plugging in educational content for their respective audiences, but what are less established, not as well financed companies to do when it comes to adding their thought leadership and know-how to the mix? The ALM/CodeX partner model might facilitate this and provide more balance across the board.
For LTNY 2015, CodeX will present three ‘future of legal technology’-themed panels and has secured exhibitor space for a group of innovative, early stage legal tech companies. The CodeX Pavilion Exhibitors include 10 vendor companies spanning big data analytics; IP/patents; compliance; document processing; web-based case management and a law firm-specific digital creative and content marketing.
We hope this gives you a quickie snapshot of what’s in store over the next several days. Stay tuned to this blog and out Twitter feed for more #LTNY15 and #LFCIO15 coverage and insights.