I had a great day out at the Legal Futures" 2020 Vision conference yesterday. Rather than the usual RBS venue at 250 Bishopsgate we'd been upgraded to a small oven at 280 Bishopsgate! Brilliant chairs (Brilliant chairs I said, not BrilliantLaw), so much so that I could see at least a few people throughout the day taking a power nap. One of my clients even ‘fessed up' as much!
Yet again the Legal Futures team had assembled a great set of speakers from all points of the legal market compass. Speakers ranged from the Legal Services Board right through to regional firms like SAS Daniels. Speakers from niche firms like Schillings and small, and innovative start ups like iSolicitor were a great addition to the line-up.
That said, it's not just the panels which are important but the audience, and there were some well known legal market professionals in the audience asking great questions and making astute observations. There is an embedded Twitter stream at the bottom of the page.
Some of my highlights of the day :-
• Patricia Greer's explanation of The Law Society's research on scenario planning for the future of the legal sector
• Kerry Underwood's passion in the last panel discussion (@kerry_underwood)
• Gabe Miller's comments about why the UK is an attractive market to Jacoby & Meyers (@JacobyandMeyers) Note, Jacoby is pronounced Ja-coby not Jacob-y.
• Many panellists in the Brand New session properly understanding the difference between RECOGNITION and BRAND. Buying the first does not mean that you are building the second.
• Gabe Miller saying "You can buy recognition, you can't buy brand".
• Archana Makol from BT Law being clear about their vision and saying they are not looking at the B2C market at all.
• Gabe Miller saying that there is nothing unique in the legal industry that stops it being "rolled up" like any other industry.
• And then telling me that he loved my phrase when I told him what I think sums up the differences between the UK and the US, that "In America, one hundred years is a long time and in the UK, one hundred miles" is a long way
• Jonathan Whittaker's passion for his firm. But that has to be tainted with comments from some commentators in the audience who thought he sounded a bit aloof.
• Listening/watching to Alex Mills (ex-BBC Apprentice) up close and in person. He was "OK" as a presenter, but generally the people sitting around me thought this views on the sector were a bit "unsubstantiated". Which bearing in mind that on the 3-Jul this year Alex told Neil Rose that Dynamo Legal had a “We’ve got a six-month window to capitalise on the opportunity [arising from the publicity]”. So, he’s got two months left then!
• Robert Postlethwaite for having the beginnings of an employee-owned law firm (I've often thought about it as a model for Conscious).
• Some of the most beautifully designed PowerPoint slides I've even seen presented by Chris Mills (Schillings) along with a GREAT story about the last six years of their development. Although the Triton Global slides were good, they were slightly eclipsed by the Schillings ones.
• The panel session as Matthew Briggs from BrilliantLaw was on the panel and gave me the chance to post a link to my cartoon on how they chose their name! (@BrilliantLaw)
• And, over drinks at the end of the day, someone asking me if I like "orange". I mean, really, do you think I wear it for fun??
The thing I still can’t get over after two years of going to Legal Futures events is how such a low percentage of “traditional” law firms turn up at such events. Sure, I under stand it’s a day out of the office, away from fee earning, but this is their FUTURE that we are talking about (yep the hint is in the Legal Futures name). How come traditional law firms don’t seem to pay attention. Oh, don’t get me wrong, some do, and I’m pleased to say that many of my clients do (show up and pay attention that is), I just wish more did. And no, I’m not on a commission deal with Neil Rose, but hell, next time try asking for the CON20 discount and see what happens ;-)
I've captured what I can in my usual set of mindaps, downloadable below in PDF format, or here in the native Xmind format.