P2P

29 I L T A N E T . O R G required soft skills since those are often difficult for people to learn and then they train people on the technical parts of the job. This tied back nicely to the first day's workshop on communication. Rounding out a stimulating two days packed full of content, I was a panelist at one of the last sessions of the conference on "Unleashing the Power of Generative AI in the Legal World: Tackling Challenges and Seizing Opportunities." Scott Kelly, Product Manager at NetDocuments, lawyer, co-founder of Afterpattern (now a technology natively integrated into NetDocuments called PatternBuilder), and ABA Legal Rebel, led the discussion with help from Gary Berger, co-chair of the Summit and Director of Information Security at Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., Josh Smith, Senior Information Security Analyst at Ogletree, and me. We covered OpenAI and Large Language Models (LLMs) and their place in the legal world, as well as some pending regulations and concerns being voiced in the media about privacy and security. There was also discussion pertaining to holding developers responsible if their technology is used for nefarious purposes. As is true of all technology, it can be used for good or evil. After a jam-packed three days, I was tired but energized by all the great conversations, meetings, and ideas. With less than 24 hours back at home, I took off to my next destination – Seattle, WA for the ALA Annual Conference. ALA Annual Conference The conference began with a keynote from Catherine Sanderson – a speaker, professor, and author who discussed the role money, marriage, friends, age, weather, and religion play in making us feel happier. Her session, "The Science of Happiness" shared a list of 10 (actually achievable) things we can all do to improve our well- being, starting with simply getting more sleep each night and some form of exercise. Other things that made the list included doing what you love, spending time in nature, expressing gratitude, smiling, and giving to others. She also emphasized how spending money on experiences versus material items and avoiding comparison can help improve happiness. On the first full day, Michelle Spencer, long-time ILTA volunteer and Product Marketing Manager at NetDocuments, and Steve O'Neal, a Senior Solutions Expert at NetDocuments, spoke about how automation can improve processes, profitability, client service, and work- life balance for legal teams. They provided a glimpse of how PatternBuilder from NetDocuments could be used to automate business processes in Hub 2 in the Exhibit Hall. I also attended a session entitled "Modernizing the Lawyer Support Model in 2023 and Beyond" which was moderated by Eric Wangler, President, North America of BigHand, and featured Gabrielle Fischer, Chief Administrative Officer of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP, Lauren Recinto, US Document Services Manager of Mayer Brown LLP, and Dan Safran, President and Chief Executive Officer of Unbiased Consulting, LLC. I attended this session without realizing that the content focused on how a particular product helped to modernize the lawyer support model. While I typically avoid presentations that focus on one company's product, as Dan pointed out, BigHand is the only company out there with a task delegation product that both manages legal work distribution and provides visibility into capacity and utilization. Previously, both firms were using email distribution lists to handle overflow work. The session covered how Gabby and Lauren were able to transform their business models by changing the attorney to assistant ratio from 4 to 1 to 10 to 1 using this product. They collectively pointed out that the product provides visibility across the board

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