It was great to see LegalWeek back in full swing. It was a busy atmosphere at the Hilton aside from the usual elevator issues that plague attendees each year.
While still focused on e-discovery, the larger legal community flocks to New York each year in large part because of the conversations and connections. The three topics that came up the most in my talks with clients and colleagues were:
- It’s all about the cloud – an accelerated movement to the cloud has been top of mind since the height of the pandemic, but that urgency hasn’t diminished despite many being back in the office or working in a hybrid model. Law firms recognize that moving to the cloud is a necessity, not an option, regardless of where their attorneys and staff work from because of the benefits the cloud touts: security, efficiency, and lower storage and real estate costs from eliminating hardware and physical files.
- AI seems too new for legal – there’s a din of conversations and articles about AI and its applications for legal, but there are also significant concerns surrounding bias, accuracy and reliability, transparency, and of course, liability – if an AI system errs on a legal issue will it assume legal liability? For all the excitement there are equal parts consideration and pause around AI for legal.
- Digital mailroom is still a hot topic – law firms have discovered that digital mailrooms are a better way of doing things. However, many law firms are still challenged with optimizing their digital mailrooms to avoid large attachments being sent over email and accurately and efficiently profiling digital mail to their DMS. We’ve described some of the challenges with scanning directly to email, recognizing it’s the predominant workflow used amongst attorneys and legal professionals because of its UX, and have recommendations for how to optimize this process with our digital mailroom solution, MailQ.Â
One thing was very clear throughout my conversations and that was the consensus that everyone is ready to meet face to face again. Digital engagement opportunities like webinars and virtual conferences will remain a vibrant part of how the legal community operates, but attendance and registration for in-person events and conferences are going to continue to grow.
In that vein, we loved seeing everyone who came by Rosie O’Grady’s for a drink on Tuesday night. Thank you for taking the time to come out and enjoy a cold one with us – Zeke enjoyed the spotlight in front of the camera, and we enjoyed our time together.
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