Legal Market Disruptions Ignite at ABA Techshow

By Sean Doherty 

Law Technology News

April 4, 2013

An event that started as a "lark" is now a tradition on the eve of theABA Techshow: LexThink.1 (formerly Ignite Law). LexThink.1 is a collection of thematic monologues delivered in six-minute increments that expound the future of law practice. It is produced byMatthew Homann, CEO at Kendeo and founder at LexThink, andJoAnna Forshee, CEO of InsideLegal.com and Envision Agency, and last night was sponsored by Clio, the practice management sofware as a service.

The theme for 2013: market disruption in law. I attended for the first time to see if there were any lessons to learn and opportunities to apprise. Market disrupters included Big Data, computers, and legal marketing. Opportunities abound if you understand how the disruptions work and leverage them to your advantage, declared four of the presentations described below, listed in the order of their appearance at LexThink.1

Roe Frazer, CEO of Cicayda: Big Data has many unknown unknowns — aka "Black Swan" events — that can unseat litigation, bankrupt firms, and otherwise cause great turmoil in law. Advice: You can predict unknown unknowns by using "distant reading" techniques that identify and examine a lot of little relationships, using Big Data and artificial intelligence tools to decipher the big picture.

Matt Spiegel, vice president of AppFolio Inc., general manager at MyCase, and owner of the Spiegel Law Group: The death of the law office is at hand. The murderer: online delivery of legal services from the likes of Rocket Lawyer and Legal Zoom. But it's not about the ineffectiveness of brick-and-mortar offices, it's about their method of delivering services. Case in point: Blockbuster versus Netflix, and how each company delivers and offers movies and other offerings. Asked Spiegel: "Do you want to be Blockbuster or Netflix?"

Mark Britton, Avvo Inc.: The Staples' Easy Button translated to the legal industry is the "Do It Without a Lawyer" button — otherwise known as Legal Zoom, which is "eating legal's lunch, but the small stuff," said Britton. For example, "little" includes business formation documents, wills, and trusts, he said. The company generates business with great communication and "core block and tackle marketing" — then "upselling it," acknowledged Britton. Translation: Legal Zoom is taking a basic offering (e.g., a will), putting a box around it at a set price, advertising it, and then upselling it (e.g., a living trust). This is not "commoditization," said Britton, "but 21st ventury legal."

Matthew Homann: Machines disrupt continuing legal education by creating opportunities for distance learning via mobile devices, but technology has done little to change in-person CLE, which today mainly derives value in attendance to meet mandatory requirements. Ask what technology "won't do," said Homan, and we may find what we can do. For example, machines won't turn mandatory CLE into multifaceted collaborative learning experiences, continued Homan. We need to "rounden" the tables and flip the classroom to get attorneys to study outside of class and then come to in-person CLE to discuss.

Videos of all presentations will be available from LexThink's YouTube channel. The ABA Techshow starts today (April 4) and runs through Saturday (April 6) at the Hilton Chicago.