February 1, 2007
LegalTech New York 2007
I have made my annual pilgrimage to LegalTech New York. I’m not exaggerating when I say that two thirds of the 2007 exhibiting vendors are touting e-discovery systems and services. It reminds me of the dot com hay days. You can bet that many of the e-discovery vendors will suffer the same fate of those dot com companies that didn’t make it. Somewhere among them are a handful of companies that will be the survivors.
Attendance through the exhibit hall had approached 12,000 by the end of the second day of the conference. Fewer people take advantage of the conference education sessions. David Thomas’ key note presentation on day one was a shocking wake up call. Cyber crime is big and getting bigger. For Eastern Europe entrepreneurs it is a growth industry. Beyond our borders, the U.S. sense of right and wrong does not always apply. Those involved consider cyber crime fair play. They operate openly often in localities where there are no laws covering criminal actives via computer or over the internet. They trade with each other. They network with each other. They train each other. You can find more about Thomas’ presentation on The Common Scold and on LawBiz Blog.
LegalTech New York is the unquestioned premier legal technology expo in the U.S. There is concern that vendor sponsorship of the educational tracks reduces the session contents to paid commercials. For example when addressing the attendees the moderator of the opening session of the Thomson Elite sponsor track said, “I assume all of you have Elite.” The session title was Analysis Software: Is it Imperative for Your Firm? I wondered why Redwood Analytics or other BI vendors were not on the panel. In fairness to the Thomson folks, the speaker line-up for the remaining sessions in the Thomson Elite sponsored track was well balanced. The track on Firm Management sponsored by Client Profiles was lightly attended. Whit McIssac, President of Client Profiles, moderated all of the track sessions but clearly took care to avoid commercializing the sessions. Of course, I’m biased since Client Profiles is a Juris Alliance Partner and the law firm on McIssac’s panel uses Juris.
It is only logical that a company sponsoring a track will want to control or influence it. And, to date, the conference does not appear to have suffered in terms of attendance as a result of vendor sponsorship of its educational content.
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