You should plan to attend our second annual The Future is Now conference on May 18, 2017 in Chicago. Our first future law program last year was a great success. And based on feedback from those participants, this year’s program will be even better.
The Future is Now: Legal Services 2.017 conference will engage speakers and practitioners in exploring the changes affecting legal practice and ways to equip lawyers to deliver more impact in the future.
Our profession is more dynamic than ever. Because it’s based largely on information—accessing it, analyzing it, applying it—the profession’s delivery of legal services is rapidly evolving in multi-dimensional ways. New approaches abound. One over-riding question is how we hang on to the core values of being a lawyer professional while embracing methods that better serve the public? We need to answer this question in order to be relevant.
Our conference speakers are on the cutting edge of leveraging technology and pushing our profession to “do law differently.” It will be a fascinating day that should unleash optimism and create possibilities. Here are highlights of some of the thought-provoking TED-like talks:
- Josh Kubicki will show us how to analyze the customer’s journey and improve both lawyers’ efficiencies and the clients’ experiences through the SeyfarthLean
- Indiana University’s Bill Henderson will explain the problems with the profession’s current business model that rewards production rather than efficiency and propose a business model that better supports the profession’s investment in technology, processes and business methods.
- Nicole Auerbach of Valorem Law will explain how she charges clients for results, not units of time and analyze where we are as a profession with alternative billing arrangements.
- The “father” of online dispute resolution, Ethan Katsch, director of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution, will explain how technology is being used open the virtual courthouse door to many more individuals.
- Darth Vaughn of Haight, Brown & Bonesteel and Procertas will explain how generational biases are frustrating law firms’ strategies to properly employ technology, and will argue that competency based training based on mastering technology skills can turn this paradigm around.
- Chase Hertel will explain how Road to Status, an immigration software company, is providing attorneys and immigration service providers with expanded abilities to serve clients of modest means–who earn more than would qualify them for legal aid and–who otherwise would be stuck in the justice gap.
- Being proactive and educating potential clients through insurance plans is the focus of the talk by Nicolle Schippers of ARAG. She believes that making legal insurance more readily available is a key to helping close the access to justice gap.
In between the “TED-like talks” will be my favorite part—a town hall discussion. Participants will have ample opportunity to ask questions, react to, and make comments about the topics addressed in the speakers’ talks. I will be the moderator. And the conversation will continue at breaks during the day and over lunch.
The Future is Now: Legal Services 2.017 will take place Thursday, May 18, 2017 from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm at the Art Institute of Chicago. The cost is only $75.00 and lawyers will be able to receive 5.0 hours of professional responsibility credit.
Between now and May 18, we will be adding reading materials to the website. As you read, if you think of questions you want asked of the speakers, feel free to let me know. Last year, this conference filled to capacity and had a waiting list, so be sure to register early.