Stanford University’s Margaret Hagan charmed and engaged the 141+ attendees at the Association of Legal Technologists‘ inaugural conference with an inspiring opening keynote, followed by a workshop, “Design Thinking, An Introductory Workshop.”

Hagan “directs the Legal design Lab, an R&D lab for more accessible, intuitive, and engaging legal services at Stanford Law School’s Center for the Legal Profession. She is a lecturer at the Stanford Institute of Design (the d.school).” She is a lawyer (Stanford Law School) and has a blog on legal innovation.

 

 

The Association of Legal Technologists (nick named ALT), launched its first conference (“ctrl ATL del: Networking Rebooted)” on Sunday, Feb. 11, and finished on afternoon of Feb.13. The conference was held at the comfortably warm JW Marriott Camelback Inn Resort & Spa, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

 

The audience was not what most legal tech events usually expect. For starters, when the attendees arrived, they found that their lanyard had two words: their first name (big) and last name (small). No titles, no companies. “At ALT there are just strategic partners. The ability to introduce oneself and make a new connection was refreshing,” said Jennifer Whittier, President, Cole Valley Software.

The attendees ranged from corporate law departments, law firms, vendors, law schools, consultants, and others; and there were more women than usual in tech events.

 

Getting back to Hagan: Her opening keynote was not the usual 50 minute talk. Hagan spoke from 8:15 a.m. to 10 a.m. Then she jumped into a workshop: “Small-c Change” at 10:30 until noon. The agenda reminded me of Steve Job’s “Think Different.”

The workshop included using “limits to push yourself,” “work with people not like you,” and “be visual, be concrete, always be grounding the abstract.” I can’t recall any other start like that for a conference. And unlike many conferences, almost everyone was visibly engaged.

(After Hagan’s keynote, the group broke into two tracks: “The Changing Legal Landscape,” and “DevOp.”)

Other topics in the afternoon included problem solving, delivering valuable hours; new resources for a new age, and more.

One Tuesday, the DevOps focused on “Applying DevOps to Your Own Firm” with Cornerstone IT and Kraft Kennedy. Sally Gonzalez and Jeff Brandt closed the “Landscape” group with “Envisioining the AI-Enabled Legal Team of the Future.” The final Keynote was by Ron Sepielli, “So What. Now What – FUPRA.”

Feedback

Said  Brandt, “Kicked off by a keynote on Design Thinking by Margaret Hagan, the ALT conference is living up to its billing of “rebooting networking.” I chose the Changing Legal Landscape track over the DevOps track and I can’t recall the last time an audience was so engaged. Every session involved breakouts and rotating groups and team collaborative exercises. We were applying the key note design thinking to real world legal problems.”

Said Chuck Davis, President, Adaptive Solutions: “Such and interesting and engaging time. …The approach taken by the founding circle was certainly a return to grass roots interaction and collaboration, with a strong focus on critical thinking about the future and how law firm’s must adapt to survive. …It was immediately evident by the anonymous name badges that both vendors and members were considered equals with the common goal of working together to discuss where our legal technology industry is heading. It was truly a pleasure to be a part of this exciting and new organization!

 

 

For more about the conference:

“Breaking the Traditional: The Launch of ‘ctrl ALT del: Networking Rebooted.” Legaltech News, ALM.

“A New Legal Tech Group That Wants To Help Everyone Succeed.”  Above The Law.

 

 

 

 

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a freelance journalist. She is a member of the California bar. Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu.  Twitter: @MonicaBay.

Photos: Monica Bay.

Note: ALT invited me to the conference and paid my airfare and hotel.