SKILLS Showcase | 13-Jan 2022

8:30 AM (EST) Virtual Networking Reception 

Join your colleagues for an interactive breakfast on Shindig.

9:30 Opening Remarks

• Oz Benamram will review house rules and set expectations for the day.

9:40 Keynote | Practicing Law In Exponential Times 

• Jason Barnwell, Microsoft’s General Manager for Digital Transformation, explains why our organizations must make substantial investments in our knowledge management infrastructure (expertise, culture, processes, and tools) to prepare us for the continually increasing demand for our work. Read about the topic or listen to a recent interview with Jason.

10:10 Digital Transformation - Shark-TED-Talk-Tank – Part 1

• People, Process & Technology | Gina Lynch & Iris Skornicki - Collaboration among clients, firm lawyers and the Knowledge & Innovation team to take existing firm tools, HighQ and Neota Logic, and customize them to meet a specific need of a client and its evolving business.   

• Value-Add: Selling Solutions to Clients | Susan Sommers & Max Paterson - Creating a generic tech solution, that can be applicable and sold to a wide variety of clients, from a solution that was originally customized for a single client.

• DealSite - A Hub for Corporate Lawyers | Gina Lynch & Iris Skornicki - A custom application for lawyers to memorialize key information about their transactions, manage post-closing tasks, submit key documents and ultimately contribute to a firm “what’s market” database.

• Accelerating Digital Legal Services | Michelle Mahoney - KWM’s Digital Transformation Programme was launched in May 2020, with the firm recording 621% uplift in LegalTech adoption in Y1, creating initiatives that are behaviour-driven, systemically enabling, make an impact creating lasting change, and ultimately, enable new ways of working to uplift the client experience.

10:50 Breakout Room Small Group Discussion

11:10–11:20 Break

11:20 Partner Perspectives on Legal Innovation 

• Legal industry analyst Ari Kaplan will share the results of his conversations on innovation with 34 large law firm partners. 

11:35 Rethink your KM & Innovation Model - Shark-TED-Talk-Tank – Part 2

• Models for Avoiding Firm Constraints | Carla Swansburg - How to build a law firm affiliate that avoids the constraints of a traditional law firm.

• LIFT - a case study for successful ground up innovation | Alicia Hardy - Growing a program promoting innovative mindsets, tools and best practices - from the ground up. 

• The Real Skills of Innovation | Monet Fauntleroy & Anna Moca - Centering  people and their skills around service-oriented innovation.

12:05 PM Breakout Room Small Group Discussion 

12:25–12:55 Lunch Break 

12:55 Data Enabled Legal Practice- Spotlight on ESG 

• Bobbi Basile & Sarah Happy will explore how data analytics, visualization and prediction models are advancing the practice of law. Specifically, how third-party data was used to in the context of ESG to evolve a transactional client relationship into a recurring service.  

1:10 Data-Driven Innovation - Shark-TED-Talk-Tank – Part 3

• Matter Profiling to Leverage Firm Intelligence | Jeannine Zito & Cindy Bare - Establishing a Matter Profiling Program to capture firm-wide experience and identify and leverage global firm intelligence.

• First, always, the use case | Bill Koch & Tom Humberstone - Starting with a use case led to the creation of search experiences that delight the users.

• New Intranet; New Features | Patrick Dundas - Tackled traditional intranet requirements and incorporated some unusual (and long-sought-after) features based on user feedback. 

1:40 Breakout Room Small Group Discussion 

2:00–2:10 Break 

2:10 Legal Tech Hype Cycle Highlights 

• Ron Friedmann and Zack Hutto will share findings from the 2021 Gartner Legal Tech Hype Cycle. 

2:25 No Innovation without Adoption - Shark-TED-Talk-Tank – Part 4

• Concierge Services for Tech Adoption | Barbara Taylor & Elisabeth Cappuyns - Using concierge services to encourage attorneys’ adoption of new technology, alleviate their tech fatigue, and limit their time commitment.

• Good Work Goes Virtual | Kay Kim & Nicole Bradick - Simpson Thacher and Theory and Principle partnered to help pro bono teams streamline and improve the delivery of pro bono legal services in a digital age.

• Automation for Everything Else | Josh Waddell & Emily Cohen - AI and Database Tools to Unlock Productivity in Processes Unique to Your Organization.

2:55 Breakout Room Small Group Discussion 

3:15–3:25 Break 

3:25 The Evolution of Data and AI in Legal 

• Brian Kuhn will present on Lessons Learned and Suggested Best Practices: a practical framework for identifying viable data and AI use case. Read about Brian's recent move here.

3:40 AI, ML, NLP (and other acronyms) - Shark-TED-Talk-Tank – Part 5

• NLP for Timecard Analysis | Andy Sprogis & Matthew Dunne - How to use NLP on attorney timecards to get insights into how people are spending their time.

• PE Market Study - Heretik + Relativity | Hunter Jackson - Steps in training Heretik AI, which works with Relativity, on items from an M&A/PE market study.

• Advances in NLP | Evan Shenkman & Pablo Arredondo - Breakthroughs in application of neural nets to language have created enormous opportunities for legal professionals.

4:10 Breakout Room Small Group Discussion 

4:30 Closing Remarks and Awards

4:45 Virtual Closing Reception

5:30 Thank you for coming to #SKILLS22 !