Favorite Takeaways from the Inaugural Legaltech Hub Conference

Legal tech pioneers, Nicola Shaver and Jeroen Plink , hosted the inaugural Legaltech Hub conference in New York this past Friday. The one-day event brought together some of the best thinkers on the topics of Knowledge Management and Innovation with perhaps 100 attendees from as far away as Hawaii and Sydney, Australia.

While the panels were obliged to hit upon many of the same topics as recent sessions at ILTACON and Legal Week, the topics were addressed in more depth, and perhaps with more transparency than I've previously seen. This event gave us a rare look behind the curtains, under the guidance of those working at the leading edge. Here are some of my favorite takeaways.

The Sky is Not Falling

If you’re a service provider, you’ve probably been reading the apocalyptic reporting on the state of funding in legal tech. During his session, Scott confirmed what we all know –the number and value of deals in the global legal market capital raised is down in 2022. But he pointed out that the legal market is less tied into global economic conditions than other markets. And the rapid growth of private equity-backed legal strategics is great news for those vendors with highly differentiated capabilities. Scott noted that growth plans within these PE-backed strategics are all planning for inorganic growth – meaning we can expect continued consolidation, mergers, and investment.

So no, you’re probably not getting a 66x revenue valuation in 2023. But stories of the death of legal tech investment are greatly exaggerated.

Session Name: Keynote Address

Speaker: Scott Mozarsky , Managing Director, JEGI CLARITY

Keep It Authentic When ‘Conferencing’

In this rapid-fire lunchtime session, Sameena Kluck encouraged attendees to share the most authentic version of themselves possible when networking. People work for and buy from people, not companies. Your continued development of your network, both in depth and breadth, is critical to your future success. And, according to Sameena, you can make great gains by spending about 20 minutes per week engaging on LinkedIn.

I have engaged Sameena to help me develop my personal brand and have persistently been refining my approach over the past six months. I’m a big fan of measuring success, so I’ll share with you a newfound KPI that you might want to look at. Want to know how you stack up to others in your network and industry? Learn more about the LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI) here: ?https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/social-selling/the-social-selling-index-ssi

Session Name: Networking Superpowers: How to Get the Most Out of Conferences

Speaker: ? Sameena Safdar , CEO and Founder, Amplify Your Voice LLC

“The Power to Act”

The explosion of new law firm subsidiaries and captive ALSPs is changing the way legal works. While their approach to organization may differ, the panelists here all agreed there is one universal. For there to be progress and innovation, these teams have to have the power to act – independently of the firm. If you’re a law firm leader thinking about spinning off a new entity, it’s integral that innovation has its own budget, its own mandates, and the freedom to do things that the firm might otherwise fear.

Session Name: Subsidiaries and Captive ALSPs

Speakers: Brad Blickstein , Partner and Co-Head, NewLaw Practice, Baretz Brunelle ; Carla Swansburg , CEO, Cleary X, Cleary Gottlieb; Daniel Farris , Partner and Director, LX Studios, Norton Rose Fulbright; Jeroen Plink, COO and Co-Founder, Legaltech Hub (formerly CEO,?Clifford Chance Applied Solutions)

Blockchain: Where are They Now?

As recently as four years ago, it seemed like we couldn’t stop talking about how blockchain was going to foundationally change the practice of law. Well, not me – I’m a realist who has gained a respect for how good at ignoring change the legal industry can be. But I digress.

I’ve been lucky enough to attend many of the big conferences of 2022, and I’ve been surprised that the word ‘blockchain’ has all but disappeared from the legal tech conversation. Looking ahead to Legal Week 2023, the word blockchain is completely absent. As moderator of the last session of the day, Nicola Shaver aptly posed the question to her panelists – whatever happened to blockchain?

The answer blew my mind.

David Gaskey proposed that blockchain has vanished due to lack of adoption. Uh, duh, David. Legal tech suffers from some lack of adoption. But, as he shared more detail about his thinking, it hit me. Records in the blockchain are permanent. They’re not destroyed in 7 or 10 or 20 years aligned to firm policy. Instead, the transactions are recorded outside the four walls of a firm and its policy. So, if everyone isn’t doing it, why would anyone create that sort of indisputable evidence? There’s a legitimate barrier to the adoption of blockchain in legal. I’m no convinced that the only way blockchain gets adopted is it it’s legally or ethically mandated. I’m officially retiring the topic from any panel I appear on!

?Session Name: How the Hot New Tech Will Transform Our Industry

Speakers: Horace Wu , CEO and Founder, Syntheia ; David Gaskey , CEO and Co-Founder, Altumatim; Nicola Shaver, CEO and Co-Founder, Legaltech Hub

About The Author

Cheryl Wilson Griffin has spent the last 20 years using technology to enable the practice of law.?