ILTA 2014 kicked off with a bang on Monday morning in Nashville, TN, with a keynote by Peter Diamandis, author, innovator and co-founder/executive chairman of Singularity University, the leading institution for the study of exponentially growing technologies.

The theme at this year’s ILTA conference is “Imagine,” and Diamandis capitalized on that theme by asking the audience to imagine several future scenarios related to technology, crowdsourcing and abundance. During his keynote, titled “Innovation on the Road to Abundance,” Diamandis talked about how we’ve redefined poverty in America because of technology. In 10 years, it’s predicted that 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies today will no longer exist because of linear versus exponential technologies. Simply put, the world is speeding up due to technology, according to Diamandis. The first computers were electromechanical, then transistor, then integrated circuit, and so on. We keep using faster computers to make faster computers. This is likely to continue, and this exponential growth of computing is what makes us feel like the world is speeding up, he said.

Diamandis uses a framework called the 6Ds: Digitize, deceptive, disruptive, dematerialize, demonetize, and democratize. Anything that becomes digitized goes through exponential growth, according to Diamandis. When he talks about deceptive, he means that the early days of any technology is very slow. Take 3D printing, for example. It’s been around for 30 years, but we are only hearing about it in recent years because the beginning years of development were very slow. After going through disruptive growth, a technology dematerializes. This means that in the span of 20 years, several technologies dematerialize into one small technology. For example, a boom box, TV, flashlight, camera and alarm clock can now all be found on a smart phone in the form of apps. This dematerialization is constant and seen later in demonetization, where the taxi cab is replaced by companies like Uber and Lyft, or bookstores are replaced by amazon.com and the like. Finally, democratization comes in when a technology spreads across the world. It is predicted that there will be a billion handsets in Africa in 2016, which is a good example of this kind of democratization.

Diamandis went on to talk about how things like artificial intelligence and sensor explosion (i.e., the first digital camera in 1976 versus the digital camera today is a billion times better) are transforming our world. “We are living in a period of sensor explosion,” he said. “Imagine where we will be in 30 years. Molecular. Free. Everywhere.”

He also talked about how we are seeing a paradigm change in the form of robotics, how 3D printing will become a disruption to intellectual property in years to come (“What happens to intellectual property when we can go and scan anything and print it? Disruption in IP.”), and genome sequencing and synthetic biology.

Diamandis concluded his talk by summarizing his four insights on technology:

1) The only constant is change and the rate of change is increasing

2) You either disrupt your own company/products or someone else will. Standing still = death.

3) Competition is no longer the multinational overseas. It is the explosion of exponentially empowered entrepreneurs.

4) If you’re depending on innovation solely from people inside your company, you are missing out on huge opportunities.

In summary, Diamandis said, “Technology is what has transformed our world of scarcity to our world of abundance.”

No matter what size your firm is or its location, you must have a global mindset. Oh, and we will all be replaced by robots.

Those were the key takeaways after the Wednesday morning keynote at ILTA 2014. Rohit Talwar, CEO of Fast Future Research Limited presented “Unleashing IT to Disrupt, Define and Differentiate Future Strategies,” which drew on the ILTA Legal Technology Future Horizons global study about how IT could impact the legal profession over the next decade. The study used a combination of desk research, interviews, workshops and two global surveys – one explored business applications of IT in the legal sector and the other provided input to create an emerging technology timeline. Talwar discussed the findings in his keynote, most notably:

1) 73 percent of respondents strongly agree that the capacity for rapid IT-enabled innovation will be a critical differentiator for law firms in the future. Rapid IT and emerging technologies will become much more important to court systems because of cost pressures, according to Talwar. In addition, he mentioned that lawyers are getting increasingly frustrated because they aren’t able to accomplish innovation on their own at their firms, so they are partnering with technology venture capitalists to get it done. Not to mention, we’ll see companies like Google figuring out ways to “house our brains on the internet in 10 to 15 years.” Talwar went on to talk about how wearable technology will create bigger challenges around the bring-your-own-device phenomena, since more companies are working to create technologies that are actually embedded in our bodies (i.e., cocular implants, GPS chips, memory devices, etc.). This trend will be connected to an immersive multi-sensory “internet of everything.” We could see a big shift in legal systems to take this into account. And we already are with automated systems like those that fine you for running a red light. No human interaction needed.

2) Despite the importance placed on the role of IT in delivering law firm innovation, only 15 percent agree with the view that in the next decade, the role of the CIO will evolve from chief information officer to chief innovation officer.

3) Given the scale of the opportunity, 77 percent agree to some extent that technology firms will increasingly enter the legal industry, using disruptive innovations to provide direct legal service delivery.

4) 91 percent expect the transparency of the legal process to increase as a result of client demands.

5) 88 percent expect emerging technologies to become an integral part of courts in developed countries.

6) Artificial intelligence (AI) is going mainstream. It is seen as a potential long-term game changer for the legal sector, with 88 percent agreeing that AI advisers and helper apps will structure legal documents and check the content generated by lawyers. Talwar noted that law firms need to develop quick responses to client problems, and intelligent agents can help from previous experience. He also stressed that we will see true artificial general intelligence, where synthetic intelligence will be smarter than humans.

The 2015 Serengeti Summit was held in early October in Seattle, with three evenings of networking in great venues, including Pike Place Market. Recording the largest attendance ever with more than 150 attendees, it also proved to have the largest number of first-time conference attendees (approximately 65 percent).

The conference kicked-off with a keynote speech presented by author Dan Clark entitled The Art of Significance: Achieving the Level Beyond Success. During the conference, there were dozens of breakout sessions with original content created by Serengeti staff and partners. Attendees learned about corporate legal trends, new technology, best practices and the Tracker roadmap.

Cheetah Award winners at the Serengeti Summit.

The week of learning and networking was capped off with the Golden Cheetah Awards Dinner, celebrating excellence in law department management. This year’s winners were: Best Innovator, Unilever; Best Inspiration, Sykes; Best Process Change, Jabil; Rookie of the Year, Gordon Food Service; Honorable Mentions: UST Global, The Hershey Company, and Texas Roadhouse.

Next year’s Summit will be joining VANTAGE, the worldwide conference from Thomson Reuters Legal Enterprise Solutions, which includes the Elite business, and will be held in Nashville on May 23–25, 2016.

ILTA 2014 kicked off with a bang on Monday morning in Nashville, TN, with a keynote by Peter Diamandis, author, innovator and co-founder/executive chairman of Singularity University, the leading institution for the study of exponentially growing technologies.

The theme at this year’s ILTA conference is “Imagine,” and Diamandis capitalized on that theme by asking the audience to imagine several future scenarios related to technology, crowdsourcing and abundance. During his keynote, titled “Innovation on the Road to Abundance,” Diamandis talked about how we’ve redefined poverty in America because of technology. In 10 years, it’s predicted that 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies today will no longer exist because of linear versus exponential technologies. Simply put, the world is speeding up due to technology, according to Diamandis. The first computers were electromechanical, then transistor, then integrated circuit, and so on. We keep using faster computers to make faster computers. This is likely to continue, and this exponential growth of computing is what makes us feel like the world is speeding up, he said.

Diamandis uses a framework called the 6Ds: Digitize, deceptive, disruptive, dematerialize, demonetize, and democratize. Anything that becomes digitized goes through exponential growth, according to Diamandis. When he talks about deceptive, he means that the early days of any technology is very slow. Take 3D printing, for example. It’s been around for 30 years, but we are only hearing about it in recent years because the beginning years of development were very slow. After going through disruptive growth, a technology dematerializes. This means that in the span of 20 years, several technologies dematerialize into one small technology. For example, a boom box, TV, flashlight, camera and alarm clock can now all be found on a smart phone in the form of apps. This dematerialization is constant and seen later in demonetization, where the taxi cab is replaced by companies like Uber and Lyft, or bookstores are replaced by amazon.com and the like. Finally, democratization comes in when a technology spreads across the world. It is predicted that there will be a billion handsets in Africa in 2016, which is a good example of this kind of democratization.

Diamandis went on to talk about how things like artificial intelligence and sensor explosion (i.e., the first digital camera in 1976 versus the digital camera today is a billion times better) are transforming our world. “We are living in a period of sensor explosion,” he said. “Imagine where we will be in 30 years. Molecular. Free. Everywhere.”

He also talked about how we are seeing a paradigm change in the form of robotics, how 3D printing will become a disruption to intellectual property in years to come (“What happens to intellectual property when we can go and scan anything and print it? Disruption in IP.”), and genome sequencing and synthetic biology.

Diamandis concluded his talk by summarizing his four insights on technology:

1) The only constant is change and the rate of change is increasing

2) You either disrupt your own company/products or someone else will. Standing still = death.

3) Competition is no longer the multinational overseas. It is the explosion of exponentially empowered entrepreneurs.

4) If you’re depending on innovation solely from people inside your company, you are missing out on huge opportunities.

In summary, Diamandis said, “Technology is what has transformed our world of scarcity to our world of abundance.”

No matter what size your firm is or its location, you must have a global mindset. Oh, and we will all be replaced by robots.

Those were the key takeaways after the Wednesday morning keynote at ILTA 2014. Rohit Talwar, CEO of Fast Future Research Limited presented “Unleashing IT to Disrupt, Define and Differentiate Future Strategies,” which drew on the ILTA Legal Technology Future Horizons global study about how IT could impact the legal profession over the next decade. The study used a combination of desk research, interviews, workshops and two global surveys – one explored business applications of IT in the legal sector and the other provided input to create an emerging technology timeline. Talwar discussed the findings in his keynote, most notably:

1) 73 percent of respondents strongly agree that the capacity for rapid IT-enabled innovation will be a critical differentiator for law firms in the future. Rapid IT and emerging technologies will become much more important to court systems because of cost pressures, according to Talwar. In addition, he mentioned that lawyers are getting increasingly frustrated because they aren’t able to accomplish innovation on their own at their firms, so they are partnering with technology venture capitalists to get it done. Not to mention, we’ll see companies like Google figuring out ways to “house our brains on the internet in 10 to 15 years.” Talwar went on to talk about how wearable technology will create bigger challenges around the bring-your-own-device phenomena, since more companies are working to create technologies that are actually embedded in our bodies (i.e., cocular implants, GPS chips, memory devices, etc.). This trend will be connected to an immersive multi-sensory “internet of everything.” We could see a big shift in legal systems to take this into account. And we already are with automated systems like those that fine you for running a red light. No human interaction needed.

2) Despite the importance placed on the role of IT in delivering law firm innovation, only 15 percent agree with the view that in the next decade, the role of the CIO will evolve from chief information officer to chief innovation officer.

3) Given the scale of the opportunity, 77 percent agree to some extent that technology firms will increasingly enter the legal industry, using disruptive innovations to provide direct legal service delivery.

4) 91 percent expect the transparency of the legal process to increase as a result of client demands.

5) 88 percent expect emerging technologies to become an integral part of courts in developed countries.

6) Artificial intelligence (AI) is going mainstream. It is seen as a potential long-term game changer for the legal sector, with 88 percent agreeing that AI advisers and helper apps will structure legal documents and check the content generated by lawyers. Talwar noted that law firms need to develop quick responses to client problems, and intelligent agents can help from previous experience. He also stressed that we will see true artificial general intelligence, where synthetic intelligence will be smarter than humans.

The 2015 Serengeti Summit was held in early October in Seattle, with three evenings of networking in great venues, including Pike Place Market. Recording the largest attendance ever with more than 150 attendees, it also proved to have the largest number of first-time conference attendees (approximately 65 percent).

The conference kicked-off with a keynote speech presented by author Dan Clark entitled The Art of Significance: Achieving the Level Beyond Success. During the conference, there were dozens of breakout sessions with original content created by Serengeti staff and partners. Attendees learned about corporate legal trends, new technology, best practices and the Tracker roadmap.

Cheetah Award winners at the Serengeti Summit.

The week of learning and networking was capped off with the Golden Cheetah Awards Dinner, celebrating excellence in law department management. This year’s winners were: Best Innovator, Unilever; Best Inspiration, Sykes; Best Process Change, Jabil; Rookie of the Year, Gordon Food Service; Honorable Mentions: UST Global, The Hershey Company, and Texas Roadhouse.

Next year’s Summit will be joining VANTAGE, the worldwide conference from Thomson Reuters Legal Enterprise Solutions, which includes the Elite business, and will be held in Nashville on May 23–25, 2016.

As traditional models of success are evolving in nearly every sector of industry, Don Tapsoctt, CEO of the Tapscott Group, opened the 2017 Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Annual Meeting with a discussion centered on blockchain.

Tapscott has authored more than 15 books including Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Paradigm Shift and his most recent, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Underlying Bitcoin is Changing Business. Tapscott was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2015.

Tapscott noted that blockchain represents the second era of the internet. And implementing this technology, we have an opportunity to create change improving people’s lives, making business operate more efficiently and build a stronger, more stable organization.

During the keynote, he emphasized that blockchain is the biggest thing for corporate counsel in the next decade and that this is the biggest innovation in computer science in more than a generation. To get there, one must understand blockchain and Tapscott mentioned the Blockchain Research Institute, founded by Tapscott and his son, Alex, as a resource for organizations to join and learn more.

Tapscott walked through eight of the multiple business models that benefit in this space for the massive audience of legal professionals. The eight he walked through are listed below.

• Blockchain Cooperatives (e.g. Uber, airbnb)
• The Rights Creators (music, movies, journalists, scientists)
• The Re-Intermediators (this is the flip side of the disintermediators; think of how travel is booked, reservations at restaurants)
• The Blockchain Supply Chain (provides security, tracking)
• Animating the Physical World (the rise of machine currency)
• The Platform Builders (old: initial public offerings; new: initial token offerings (ITO) – this delivers opportunities for funds faster, more secure and less costly)
• The Data Partners (enable people to own and monetize their data and protect their privacy; currently the virtual “you” is owned by intermediaries and they benefit from information)
• The New Public Sector (deliver public value, transparency, trust)

To connect it all back to his audience at the ACC annual meeting, Tapscott delivered a list of several areas corporate counsel should explore leveraging blockchain technology within their organizations to be viewed as leaders and employing the latest technology to help the business advance. Those included:

• Smart contracts
• Harness the power of initial coin offerings (ICO or ITO)
• Protect intellectual property
• Patent opportunities
• Government policy and regulation
• Leadership for new business models
• Personal development and opportunities

Tapscott concluded noting this is a new paradigm that can create uncertainty and leadership crisis. Yet, there is an opportunity to embrace the new.

To learn more about Don Tapsoctt and his multiple books, visit dontapscott.com.

How many generations do you work with in your organization? Three? Maybe four? Does your frustration level ever rise due to how different generations work or their expectations?

These questions were just a couple that Jason Dorsey, co-founder and president of the Center for Generational Kinetics, asked the audience, spanning four generations, during his opening keynote at the 2018 Association of Corporate Counsel Annual Meeting.

Generations are not a box to put people in, but they provide clues and are highly predictive to gain an understanding of people of various ages. The predictability of generations is largely derived from two things: parenting –how one was raised; and technology – everyone has a different natural relationship with technology depending on their age.

Dorsey emphasized that everyone should “be open to the idea that some of what you have heard about generations is not true.” And regardless of where a person may be categorized, every generation brings value to the workforce and still has something they can learn. Referencing many forms of innovation or technology that have come and gone, Dorsey noted that “technology is only new if you remember the way it was before; otherwise it is all that you have known.”

Capitalizing on that lens, Dorsey walked through multiple attributes, as well as some light-hearted moments of certain stereotypes of Baby Boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z.

Typically older than most people assume, and against popular belief, millennials are the largest generation in the workforce. Millennials also are the most diverse generation in the workforce and expect diversity in their organization at all levels.

Gen X’ers tend to be extremely loyal, but more to individuals than organizations.

Gen Z have been heavily impacted by the Great Recession as they saw their parents lose jobs, homes and possibly even more, and therefore try to be fiscally responsible. And they are extremely tech-empowered, but believe they will have to work harder and longer to get a promotion.

Baby Boomers view work ethic by hours per week and are not sure if you are working unless they can physically see you in the office. Baby Boomers are still the most influential generation in the workforce through their vast experience and tenured relationships, and they largely control access to capital.

For all generations, the lens through which they have experienced the world is a major defining attribute. For millennials and Gen Z, 9/11 is a landmark date for different reasons. If someone only knows of 9/11 from a historical viewpoint, they fall into Gen Z. But if they remember that day, they are a millennial. Dorsey shared a personal experience related to 9/11 and how he viewed the incident, compared to his father (impacted by Vietnam War) and his grandfather (influenced by Pearl Harbor). Each generation has moments that define many of their attributes.

Every generation brings something important to the workforce and all are needed. And to help the wide-ranging generational workforce thrive, communication is still key. Dorsey suggested specific examples be provided about the performance expected as well as ongoing feedback. Dorsey closed the presentation by encouraging the audience to look past why someone did something and try to understand why they did not do something, noting the reasons why “people don’t do something is always more powerful than why people do something.”

Thomson Reuters surveyed more than 150 attorneys working in corporate legal departments in late 2016 and the results showed most legal departments are unprepared for the influx of this generational shift. Since then, has your legal department adapted for this impending change? The survey report, The Generational Shift in Legal Departments: Working with Millennials and Avoiding Baby Boomer Brain Drain, is available here.

It’s opening day for ILTA>ON, the virtual version of the International Legal Technology Association’s annual ILTACON conference, and Thomson Reuters will be connecting with attendees – those working in technology within law firms, legal departments and G100 firms – all week long.

The virtual version of one of the world’s largest legal technology conferences spans five days and includes live and on-demand sessions, with both educational content and virtual networking components. During ILTA>ON, 12 Thomson Reuters speakers will share their insights, including Richard Punt, managing director of Legal Strategy and Market Development, who will deliver a keynote address on the future of the legal market.

ILTA>ON tracks are divided by day, and today’s sessions focus on leadership and professional development. Four Thomson Reuters speakers will present seven sessions today; some are live presentations, and some are replays or prerecorded sessions. All times are Eastern:

• The Real Cost of eBilling with Ken Wineke, senior sales executive, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• How to Increase Your Share of Client Legal Spend with HighQ with Chris Kitchener, vice president of Product Management, at 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.
• Exploring a Move to the Cloud with Ruby Lee, manager of Product Management, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.
• The Benefits of Intelligent Document Analysis with Carol Jo Lechtenberg, senior director of Product Management, at 4 p.m.

On Day 2, ILTA>ON sessions will focus on training and tech support, data science, knowledge management and legal service delivery. Zorik Pesochinsky, director of Market Development for Global Large Law, will present Innovative Alternatives to Technology Enterprise Search on Tuesday at 1:45 p.m. Eastern.

In addition, Thomson Reuters will host several live chats and demos for HighQ, Westlaw, Elite and eBillingHub throughout the week.

Watch Legal Current and follow @LegalCurrent on social for updates during ILTA>ON. We look forward to connecting virtually with ILTA>ON attendees this week!

On Day 3 of ILTA>ON, the spotlight will be on Richard Punt, managing director of Legal Strategy and Market Development for Thomson Reuters, who will deliver the keynote address, After the Quake: Predictions for an Uncertain Legal Future.

Punt’s address will explore the longer-term implications of the past few months for a legal market already in flux. Will we see a return to business as usual, an acceleration of existing trends or genuine discontinuity?

Tune in at 10 a.m. Eastern on Aug. 26 to hear his insights.

Also, watch his interview with Beth Anne Stuebe, ILTA director of publications and press, about ILTA>ON and why it’s important for Thomson Reuters to take part in the conference.

In addition to Punt’s keynote on Aug. 26, two Thomson Reuters Labs colleagues – Aileen Schultz, senior manager, and Brian Romer, director of design – will present a master class, Activating the Change Mindset.

Their session will help participants cultivate change in their organization, focusing on the change mindset that is needed for the adoption of technology, particularly those technologies that are emerging and difficult to understand. They will explore some of the common barriers to the adoption of change and new technologies, and share concrete mechanisms and techniques for helping teams break down those barriers. Their session begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern on Aug. 26.

Watch Legal Current and follow @LegalCurrent on social for updates during ILTA>ON.