Innovating, Eventually: A Review of Clio 2019

When Clio's CEO Jack Newton took the stage to open this year's Clio Cloud Conference, we expected big things. The room was just set up for it.

Big stage, big screens, big lights. The size of the Clio crew and attendees list just keeps growing, too.

And Jack delivered bigly. After listing some important updates (including significant changes to Clio's mobile interface) and introducing this year's Legal Trends Report, Jack closed his talk with this year's biggest mic drop product...

...it was...

...a...

...book.

Credit Cards Are Why We Need a Book

Okay, a book might not seem like much of an advancement, but stick with me here. He also showed why the book is needed.

During Jack's talk he mentioned Clio's improved payments system. He emphasized the update saying something to the effect of, "We think credit card payments are gonna be big in the future."

The entire audience laughed. Jack paused, seemingly a bit surprised.

That experience tells you something about this audience. Clio attendees are so accustomed to the innovation of accepting credit cards that we laughed at the suggestion that it'll be "big." Of course it'll be big—it's big now!

But Jack wasn't just talking to that room. As he pointed out, a huge chunk of lawyers still use paper files and send emails to tell people to call the office where no one will answer. Innovation is happening, but slowly.

Innovations Won't Be Adopted Without Culture Change

By definition, innovation is uncomfortable. It's new. It breaks our assumptions and makes us question what we think we know. It requires new habits. No one actually wants to innovate. We make ourselves do it.

Why? What prompts someone to push through the discomfort? It is language that promotes the culture shift.

Without engaging and supportive uses of language, lawyers don't even see the need for something as obvious as credit card payments. Surprisingly, what the legal tech world needs more of is hype.

Obviously I'd add a thousand caveats to that term. We don't need hyperbole exactly, but we do need excitement and persuasive language. Especially among such a cynical crowd, tech companies that serve lawyers will have to thread the needle of persuasive leadership.

The LEGO Movie, Revisited

Bill Henderson gives a great breakdown of this language>culture>innovation dynamic in his writing about Diffusion of Innovations. Definitely recommended reading. The short version is that Change Agents and Opinion Leaders come before the widespread adoption of innovation. It is their use of rhetoric that takes adoption across the chasm.

If you're not inclined to dig into Bill's many long and wonderful articles on the subject, just think of the LEGO Movie. Nowhere in that film did you see a "Buy Now" button. That wasn't the purpose.

The LEGO Movie encouraged creativity because creative kids buy LEGOs. It really is that simple.

And Jack wrote a book about client-centered lawyers because client-centered lawyers buy Clio. The language promotes a culture which leads to adoption of an innovation. Simple.

Buy Jack's book. Even if you don't plan to run a firm, it's worthwhile to see how Clio's use of language (including the Legal Trends Report) changes the culture and increases adoption. It's working for them, so learn from it.

On the Consumption of Alcohol

On a somewhat related note, I wanted to give kudos to the Clio team for eventually innovating on a more inclusive conference experience.

Last year I pointed out how incongruous it was to preach about alcoholism in the profession during the day then host parties that risked promoting alcoholism at night. It was an uncomfortable subject for me to mention. I don't drink and don't want to be the pooper of parties for people who do. But the juxtaposition was weird.

Others echoed my concerns and it reached the top of the Clio conference food chain. They made a special effort to balance the parties with more "sober" options. It showed.

The venues for both evening blasts provided for bump-and-grind time (if you're into that) and quiet chats among colleagues (if you're into that). I felt that Clio took a leadership position on substance abuse through this small gesture, and that means a lot. Because that is how culture changes.

My main reason for going to this event is to connect with smart people, my own "legal supply chain." Interactions like this create a network of experts all working on big problems. Our industry needs that, and I'm grateful to Clio for providing a place. (Not to mention the Spanish guitar players keeping it calm while we chat.)

Casetext Wins By Being Great

Finally, I want to congratulate the Casetext team. Several months ago Nicole Fuentes and I hopped on a call with Joshua Lenon to ask how we could improve our connection to Clio. He told us that Clio is increasing its focus on the integration platform and that we should improve our integration. Nicole spearheaded getting that done, and the product team delivered. The result was a huge leap in the quality of our connection with Clio.

As an advocate for solo attorneys, these commitments to quality matter to me. We're all stumbling through, trying to improve the future of law in our own little way. Clio has provided a central ecosystem for those improvements and Casetext grabbed hold of that opportunity, winning Clio's Launch Code award for best new integration.

I've been so proud to be associated with Casetext. That project is ending soon as I focus more on my book and large data+storytelling projects for other legal tech companies, but Casetext has set a heck of a standard. As I create language for other tech companies aiming to help solo and small firm attorneys, I will use what I've learned from this amazing team.

I work in language. I write the words that promote adoption by first changing culture. As important as that work is, it is meaningless without engineers and artists doing the hard work of making something great. Casetext has done and is continually doing that. I am grateful for the chance to speak for them for the last several months.

Again, congratulations on the Launch Code win. It is only one signal of the team's commitment to quality, but it matters. It matters to those of us trying to improve the practice.

Will You Go Next Year?

That's it. Innovation is happening, if slowly. And we need a better use of language tools to reach adoption of tech tools. I'll continue to do my part in that, and I hope you'll keep reading and engaging. That's how we make the leap.

Will I see you at Clio next year?