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and a few with really good stories to tell. There were law firms sharing
stories, good and bad, as they tread carefully to avoid quicksand.
Everyone wants and needs to be educated on the business problems
they are trying to solve with AI and the products/services that can
actually help solve those problems.
An under-theme about the need to Upskill everyone, especially IT
but also lawyers. So much has changed and is changing, we all have
to stay abreast of the trends and the need to focus our education/
professional development on what and where we need to upskill. It
no longer OK to sit in one place and do the same job for 20 years. YOU
WILL GET LEFT BEHIND! I listened to a session with IT leaders
who have upskilled themselves and their teams, and shared how
they transformed their traditional IT departments into flourishing
IT service organizations, helping their law firms solve business
problems.
Another under-theme was the need to better integrate IT into the
business of the law firm. IT crosses paths with almost everyone in a
law firm (including lawyers) when there is a problem with technology
or a new application needs to connect to data or integrate with existing
systems. Some firms have formal relationships between practice and
business departments and IT. In other firms, KM, Litigation, Finance,
Marketing etc. deploy their own software or find ways to work around
IT systems, which can lead to Shadow IT. Having advocates and
translators between IT and the business seems to help IT understand
the needs of the practice/business team and helps everyone better
leverage existing technology capabilities and maximize overall
effectiveness.
In the cloud debate, well it's not a debate anymore, it's a mainstream
thing, the discussions were all about how to make the transitions to
the cloud systems more efficient and successful and how to leverage
the cloud systems more effectively. There was the usual technical and
security talk around all that but it's clear everyone is some if not all
the way there!! The challenge comes now to make sure you leverage
the platforms and applications you have moved to the
cloud, finding the ways to extend the value of the data so
you can do more with it than you could when you had it
all hidden in a server in your backroom.
One of my favorite things about ILTACON 2023 in addition
to the education and networking, was the Buddy Program.
ILTACON has a large number of first timers every year. And
ILTACON is a LOT!! This year there was a formal signup for
veteran attendees to spend time with a first timer or two (I had
three, great fun!). We met a couple of weeks before the conference
to talk about what their overall goals were for ILTACON and
what areas of interest they had (I had one Associate, one Cloud
Architect and one Litigation Support/eDiscovery person).
We went through the ILTACON agenda, talked about how to
navigate the exhibit hall, which networking events and affinity
groups they might be interested in, as well as the education
sessions, picking their first option for each session. I think
that gave them a good place to start. We met up onsite after the
ILTACON Orientation and caught up through the week to see
how it was going. It was fun to watch them get the most out of
this amazing conference.
A happy surprise was the Wednesday morning
keynote, Dr. Rob Archer (Psychologist). He talks about high
performance, burnout, resilience, workplace wellbeing and
psychological flexibility. I was a bit skeptical about his approach
at the beginning of the interactive session but soon saw there
were things to learn and new strategies I will employ in dealing
with my own stress reactions. If you missed it, you can look
up Dr. Archer at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robarcher/,
and there's cool stuff at www.highperformanceroutines.com/
whats-an-hpr.
SPOILER ALERT!! 500+ law firms recently completed
the 2023 Annual ILTA Technology Survey. There was lots of
chatter at ILTACON about this, and a session providing initial
results from the survey. We asked ILTACON attendees what the
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