The recent AALL Annual Conference in Austin was “hands down,”  the most exciting AALL Program I have ever attended. The programs were great – it was often hard to decide which panel to attend. I found my own panels  (Moneyball Analytics and Hits and Misses in New Products) up against programs that I hated to miss (the Innovation Tournament and an “all star”  CEO panel ( Fastcase – Walters, Casetext – Heller, Ross – Aruda,  Ravel – Lewis ) on AI and analytics prodded and provoked  by moderator Prof, Susan Nevelow Mart.

Legal Bloggers O’Keefe and Ambrogi Join Me in The AALL Exhibit Hall

Legal Tech thought leaders Bob Ambrogi and Kevin O’Keefe were a familiar sight at the panets, events, exhibits (and the nightly Fastcase after party). Earlier this week Ambrogi lauded AALL as one of the best conferences for those interested in legal tech. Is the market finally getting what information professionals have known all along? The legal profession requires content experts to navigate the burgeoning market of AI and analytics offerings. AALL: The Other Legal Tech Conference

The Second Oldest Legal Profession I spent time in the exhibit hall with Lexblog’s Kevin O’Keefe who commented on  the quality and variety of  panels and programs at the conference.

O’Keefe was surprised to learn that AALL had been around since 1906. In fact, in the legal community,  only the American Bar Association has an earlier founding …1878. AALL predates every other law related association by decades. It was 65 years before the Association of Legal Administrators was founded in 1971, 74 years before ILTA was founded in 1980, 79 years before the Legal Marketing Association was founded in 1985.

O’Keefe also commented on the importance of information professionals by comparison to other law firm administrative functions. “Lawyers could still practice law without technology, or marketing or administrative help, but legal information always was and remains core to the practice of law.”

O’Keefe has a point which goes beyond the core practice of law. Law firms have become complex, regional, national and multi-national organizations. Business intelligence and legal knowledge has never been more critical to the current high stakes competitive market, no one else in the firm is better qualified to assess the potential value of research products offering AI and analytics… and yet…information professionals occupy relatively few seats in the legal C-Suite compared to the technologists and marketing professionals. The person who understand the quality of information should be at the table and not down the organization chart out of ear shot.

But this may be about to change…
Continue Reading The Second Oldest Legal Profession: Law Librarians: The Analytics and Algorithms of Change in the Legal C-Suite

Steve Martin, Jean O’Grady, Scott Baily, Greg Lambert
 

On February 1st, the first panel of the new Legal Pros track at Legal Week– 
New Ways for Law Librarians & Knowledge Managers to Become Indispensable
brought in a standing room only crowd.

Steve Martin, a Principle and head of legal design practice at Gensler provided an overview

Yes Libraries are Shrinking Now What?

Two weeks ago American Lawyer Media released it’s 2016 library survey with the unfortunate headline “Downsizing continues at  law firm libraries.”  The headline is problematic for two reasons: 1. Shrinking libraries are old news and 2. Information professionals are driving some of the most important new technologies into the practice of law….

On Thursday May 29th, at noon est., the ABA, Law Practice Management, Knowledge Strategy Interest Group is offering the 5th in a series of free webinars. Register here

Checklists in the practice of law are not merely “to do lists. The best checklists for improving efficiency in legal practice are more like roadmaps which provide

Project management, Lean Six Sigma, efficiency and workflow optimization are among the hottest buzzwords in law firm management as law firms compete to show clients that they are both smart and lean. If you are confused about where to start, this  upcoming  American Bar Association webinar promises to offer some answers.

The ABA, Law Practice Management,

Knowledge strategy is not about technology; it’s about
efficiency. In the current  buyers market, value conscious clients shop around for law firms that can demonstrate that they have a knowledge strategy. For law firms, alternative fee arrangements can not be profitable unless they have optimized efficiency by leveraging internal knowledge and time saving tools and resources.. Savvy clients  will go

“Knowledge management and knowledge strategy are not well
understood at the senior management level in law firms. Yet economic
pressures today make this practice management technique an even
more important activity, which should be managed and accountable at
the senior partner level. A handful of law firms are doing this now and
the trend will likely continue. Our Group hopes to facilitate