INSIGHT had great attendance, a great venue and terrific sponsor support. One panellist said even for his session at the end of the day the audience proved lively. Delegates enriched the discussions in all of the sessions with great questions and input.
Conference Co-Chair, Janet Day
Following INSIGHT I spoke with Janet Day, Director of Technology and Infrastructure Services at Berwin Leighton Paisner (retired). Janet Day and INSIGHT go hand-in-hand. She has worked to develop programming, recruit panellists and promote the conference since the first INSIGHT 10 years ago. Day said ILTA's INSIGHT has grown to now become “one of the most exciting technology conferences in Europe." This year more than ever she saw multiple delegates from the same firm able to attend when typically only the leader has the opportunity. Delegates from firms of all sizes attended, not just the large firms. With this diverse set of delegates, Janet Day noted education now reaches a wider audience of legal technology professionals. She attended the data analysis session and appreciated the key steps and pointers provided for making data analysis feasible and successful in a law firm. Many delegates shared their praise of the litigation support track, the AI session and the entire conference with Day. Many expressed desire to be in two places at once to learn all the rich content INSIGHT offered.
Session Overview: "Using Knowledge and Technology to Deepen Client Relationships."
Peter Busby, a partner at Thomas Eggar with a history of testing and “breaking things” for his IT department, presented on the panel, "Using Knowledge and Technology to Deepen Client Relationships. On his panel, Busby recommended that when applying new technologies in a firm, lawyers should act as the pivot point between what the client wants and what the client needs. He strongly recommends that clients meet not just with the lawyers but the “entire business with the whole series of professionals.” During his presentation he surveyed the delegates to determine how many had direct contact with clients. Two people raised their hands. All types of professionals in a law firm add significant value by providing the right tools and recommending better technology and process solutions. Busby and his fellow panellists stressed the importance of professionals from all departments in a firm meeting the client to strengthen the relationship. Besides presenting on a panel, Peter Busby attended the artificial intelligence session and appreciated the focus on narrow AI. He praised the AI session for the panellists’ ability to explain the powers of narrow AI reasoning in a context relatable to law firms and comforting to lawyers.
Session Overview: “Transformers: Lawyers as Agents of Change? In Disguise!”
Glyn Morris and Krishna Balthu presented the session, “Transformers: Lawyers as Agents of Change? In Disguise!” They shared their journey to innovation at Higgs & Sons through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project in collaboration with Aston University’s business school. This endeavour resulted in substantial changes to the culture and operations of the firm and has received national and international accolades. Morris’ portion of the presentation focused on encouraging innovation in law firms while approaching change in a “context-sensitive” manner. Understanding the firm’s current standing at the beginning of projects, communicating throughout projects and keeping the firm wide audience engaged at all stages are key actions to successful innovation in law firms. Balthu provided background on the connection with Aston University and the approach used, PrOH modelling. He then spoke about the methodology Higgs employed to achieve results. He believes adopting this methodology will foster innovation within other organisations. Balthu and Morris sent me the takeaways from their session to share with the wider ILTA audience. Thank you, Krishna Balthu and Glyn Morris!
Takeaways from “Transformers: Lawyers as Agents of Change? In Disguise!
- Combining the perspectives of lawyers and clients to redesign legal services.
- Enabling creative thinking to develop innovative tools and frameworks that will support delivery of added value services.
- Asking for help and being open to collaborating with a knowledge base such as a University.
- Methodology for designing and delivering change projects.
- Understand your culture and status quo of operations.
- Design a suitable intervention to enable change.
- Make your lawyers central to this change.
- Do not leave out clients.
- Communicate, communicate and communicate.
Find materials from the INSIGHT sessions on the Downloads page of the INSIGHT website. Legal IT Insider also wrote about INSIGHT in, “ILTA: Innovation and the Generation of Legal Services.”
If you attended INSIGHT and want to share what you learned, please use the comments section below or contact me at joanne@iltanet.org and I will include your input in the next post.
#UK