Abby Ewen, IT Director, BLM 
Stephanie Hamon, Former Managing Director, Head of External Engagement, Barclays

We live in an era of technological disruptions. Almost every industry is being affected by automation on some level, and the legal sector is not an exception. In the past, one of the most important aspects of practicing law was one's technical knowledge and skills, most of which can now be transformed into algorithms and hence commoditized. Our education systems and the corporate culture have not prepared us for this transformation, so we need to do it ourselves. Somi Arian will take you through four essential skills that will equip you and your team to survive and thrive in the age of technological disruption. These skills are mindfulness, emotional intelligence, critical thinking and contextual creativity. 

 

Somi Arian, Founder and Managing Director, Smart Cookie Media

This opening panel will examine whether the law firm and client should collaborate to redesign the legal service delivery process, as well as consider how legal service delivery will evolve in the future. As transformation happens, the law firm needs to work with the client to engineer and codify their delivery process in order to drive real results. But does the client know what they want? How can law firms use step changes in technology to enhance rather than distract the work of the lawyers and their support teams? Who is, and should be driving innovation & change, and what should the spectrum of legal service delivery look like?

 

 

Katie DeBord, Global Chief Innovation Officer, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

 

 

Stephanie Hamon, Former Managing Director, Head of External Engagement, Barclays

 

Nathan Hayes, IT Director, Osborne Clark

 

Jamie Whalebone, Head of Legal Service Delivery & Transformation, DWF

Firms are increasingly investing internally in innovation and technology, improving efficiencies and saving money - yet this gets no visibility externally. How can leaders of innovation convince their firm to showcase their work to the client? Clients want to hear from those who are driving change, so what steps can you take to elevate your visibility and convince your firm that the disruption of the traditional firm model gives a competitive edge?
 

 

Andrew McManus, Global Chief Information Officer, Eversheds Sutherland

 

Darren Jones, Head of Service Excellence, Company Commercial, Eversheds Sutherland

 

Mark Mountford, Head of Business Solutions, Bird & Bird

Who truly is the biggest threat to the law firm? Everyone is discussing the Big Four, but how disruptive are they in reality? What impact is legal process outsourcing having on firm's work, and who is producing the most innovative solutions? What impact are M&A’s having on the legal landscape? This session will look at who is truly disrupting the legal industry – and who firms should watching to protect their business.

 

 

Derek Southall, CEO and Founder, Hyperscale Group

 

Eric Hunter, Chief Technology Officer, Bradford & Barthel LLP

 

Nick Pryor, Director of Innovation Solutions EMEA, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP

Abby Ewen, IT Director, BLM 
Stephanie Hamon, Former Managing Director, Head of External Engagement, Barclays 

What are the risks and tensions involved with developing increasingly sophisticated algorithms and technology that can shape real people’s lives? What obligation do lawyers and technologists have, and what regulation is in place? What strategies should firms have to protect themselves?

 

Speaker: Professor Lilian Edwards, Chair of Law, Innovation and Society - Newcastle University

Moderator:

Abby Ewen, IT Director, BLM

 

Panelists:

Belen Bautista, Office Manager - Latham & Watkins Spain

David Aird, IT Director - DAC Beachcroft LLP

As technology and innovation becomes ever more embedded into law firms, how can you find the right people to work in your IT department? Are you bringing in the right people to create investment, and build the best tools and systems? How should your current talent be developed and encouraged towards innovation, and how can you best attract the latest talent from the pool?

 

Moderator:

Caroline Hill, Editor-In-Chief, Legal IT Insider

 

Panelists:

Eric Wood, Partner, Chapman & Cutler LLP

Marco Imperiale, Lawyer & Innovation Officer, LCA

Tony McKenna, Director of Information Technology, Gowling WLG

In a quick fire closing session – 2 lawyers will have 10 minutes to argue for, or against whether it should be mandatory for all lawyers to now be able to code. What will you decide?

 

Moderator:

Caroline Hill, Editor-In-Chief, Legal IT Insider

 

Panelists:

Andrew Dunkley, Head of Analytics, BLM

Tony McKenna, Director of Information Technology, Gowling WLG

 

In tomorrow's IT team will there be any space for the techie geeks of today. Will it be just relationship managers, business partners, project managers and supply managers. What sort of skills will we all need? Should we be planning today for these changes? Or is everyone a techie in the digitally enabled future we are moving to?

 

David Aird, IT Director, DAC Beachcroft LLP

B:     Collaboration and communication: frequency and format of discussion through the project

Join our interactive group discussion on effective communication and collaboration to discover the seven questions to ask when building a communication strategy, featuring examples from succesful projects around business change management.

 

James Grice, Client Platform and Innovation Lead, Eversheds Sutherland

 

Many law firms have opted to modernise by investing further in their on premise estate doubling down on the security that this brings but additionally the constraints and restrictions inherent with legacy technologies.  In this session we aim to breakdown and address some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding the use of cloud based services across the legal sector with real world practical examples of how you can confidently “Detect”, “Protect” and “Manage” your environments vulnerabilities to ensure your lawyers and customers have full confidence that only authorised persons have access to specific matters and associated documents; the flow of documents and data is controlled both within and outside of your organisation; data sovereignty considerations are fully understood and effectively implemented; all whilst enabling a more productive working experience for all concerned.

 

Chris Hibbert, Enterprise Solutions Director, Bytes Software Services

 

Abby Ewen, IT Director, BLM 
Stephanie Hamon, Former Managing Director, Head of External Engagement, Barclays 

Law firm leaders are continuously looking to improve and introduce new innovations but face an ongoing battle to receive the support and commitment required to really drive change. How can leaders overcome the strain of gaining people's support and willingness to change? This panel will explore some basics about our brains all leaders need to know, why our brains find organisational change difficult and some practical steps leaders can take to gain people's involvement in, and commitment to, change.

 

Hilary Scarlett, Founder and Director, Scarlett & Grey and Author of 'Neuroscience for Organisational Change'

In a world where data and documents are key to a firm's value and competitive edge, how do you handle the massive amount of information and data you have? This panel will examine the importance of having a master data management strategy and having an enterprise data model. What requirements do you need in order to monitor, extract and leverage the data you have?

 

 

Mark Collins, Global Head of Knowledge Management, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP

 

 

Judy Mackenzie Stuart, Global Chief Knowledge Officer, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP

 

Andrew Dunkley, Head of Analytics, BLM

Join us for our final session where will we deep dive into the world of risk management and learn how to protect your firm from reputational crisis

Aisha Tummons, Head of Legal Growth, Tessian

 

 

Abby Ewen, IT Director, BLM
Stephanie Hamon, Former Managing Director, Head of External Engagement, Barclays