Team Litify is excited to return as a sponsor for ILTACon 2022, the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA’s) annual education and networking event. Happening August 21-25, ILTA, Litify, Affinity Consulting, ECFx, Epiq, and countless others are on-site to help you unpack the new trends and operating strategies that legal professionals are laser-focused on in the face of an evolving industry.

With that, here are the top eight sessions you don’t want to miss. Enjoy!

1. Why You Need a New Change Management Strategy to Get Lawyers to Adopt Technology

As Debbie Foster, Managing Partner at Affinity Consulting, said in our recent webinar, “change management is a technology solution, a process solution, a people solution, and a culture solution! It’s not just about the technology, you need all four of these pieces for the change management to work.”

That’s why we recommend this session! When it comes to evaluating, implementing, and adopting new technology, so much of the conversation is focused on the tool itself, when in reality, it takes all these elements to work. Yes, you need the right tool, but you also need to understand how people are getting their work done, understand what can be simplified, agree to the new processes — and then get everyone’s buy-in to adopt those processes. If it was purely a technology problem, we’d be able to buy new software, plug it in, and everything would magically fix itself — but it’s not just about the technology!

Session 1718 | Monday, August 22 | 11:30am-12:30pm ET | Maryland B

2. Take a Chance on Me: Vetting Technology Startups

Litify COO Ari Treuhaft joins this panel to discuss how law firms can do better business with the legal startups of today — and ultimately shape the future of purchasing and implementing legal technology. He brings a unique perspective having run technology and operations at a law firm and then transitioning to running a tech startup. If you’re a law firm looking to vet and evaluate additional platforms in the coming year(s), this is the session for you to learn best practices from technology and legal leaders alike.

Session 1545 | Monday, August 22 | 4-5:30pm | Maryland C

3. Data Matters: Using Technology to Drive Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives continue to be a hot topic in legal — and the programs are getting both broader and more difficult to collect amid global privacy laws that govern how certain data can be stored and used. Faced with these challenges, technology has emerged as a more comprehensive, flexible, and secure approach to automating DEI data collection and analysis.

But in order for that technology to be successful in tracking your diversity, equity, and inclusion program, it must provide: (1) the underlying data elements that track and report on the progress of an organization toward its diversity goals, and (2) a suite of workflow tools that assist personnel to meet these goals. We recommend attending this session for a deep-dive into this topic, and if you want a refresher in the meantime, see how the Litify platform can support your DEI initiatives.

Session 1669 | Tuesday, August 23 | 11am-12:30pm | Maryland C

4. Legal Workflow Automation: From Theory to Practice

A workflow can be defined as the sequence of processes (administrative or otherwise) through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion. How you take your workflows from theory to practice may differ from firm to firm, but Litify VP of Strategy & Innovation Dov Slansky joins this panel to share his perspective. At Litify, we’ve worked with our 300+ customers to not only implement our end-to-end legal operating platform, but also to streamline and automate their legal workflows.

As Dov says, “Workflows and their corresponding challenges are often stated differently by different areas and levels at a firm. Documenting all of them is probably the most important part of the process, but once we have it all drawn out, we’re really able to dig in. It then becomes clear that the differences and problems are stemming from disconnected work being done, siloed in each department or level along the way. This leads to inefficient use of time, variable results, and no ability to look from the top down into a business and understand how it is performing. By breaking down all the individual actions and steps along the way, we can start assembling a coherent workflow that touches all facets of a matter and then power it with technology.” You definitely don’t miss Dov and the other panelists from Torys, Autologyx, Gowling WLG, and WordRake!

Session 1663 | Tuesday, August 23 | 2:30-3:30pm | Woodrow Wilson A

5. Company Update: A New Era for Firm-Client Collaboration, powered by Litify

When you’re focused on outcomes but your clients are focused on spend, what’s the key to improving collaboration? Centralized technology. Litify’s end-to-end legal operating platform is building connections across the legal ecosystem by powering both law firms and their clients with the same technology. Imagine a future where you and your corporate clients have access to the same centralized data set, performance metrics, and time and billing processes. When everything is in one place, transparency and efficiency become the rule – not the exception.

Join our company update as we reveal how our new centralized bill routing solution can help you prove your value, justify higher fees, and usher in a new era of increased collaboration between you and your corporate clients.

Tuesday, August 23 | 3:45-4:30pm | Cherry Blossom Ballroom

6. Mining for Gold: Best Practices for Breaking Down Data Silos Between Departments

If you know anything about Litify, then you know we’re all about how to #BreakLegalSilos. We believe in driving better business outcomes for legal teams, so they can focus on better legal outcomes for their clients. But silos stunt those outcomes. As mentioned above, Litify not only helps break down those silos between law firms and their corporate clients, but also within the firms themselves to power better process, communication, and performance.

A long-winded way of saying that we DEFINITELY recommend this session for more best practices in tactically breaking down those silos at your own firm.

Session 1617 | Wednesday, August 24 | 11am-12:30pm | Woodrow Wilson B

7. Working with Consultants: What Does Success Look Like?

Our COO Ari Treuhaft had this to say in a recent webinar, “Getting outside perspective, whether it’s from a peer or colleague, or from a consultant with the familiarity with what’s in the market today and knows what others are using to make software decisions, is incredibly helpful. I also feel third-party consultants and partners are especially invaluable when it comes to implementation. Having people who have done multiple implementations at many different law firms adds a tremendous value to your own internal project…you’re also getting years of experience and knowledge on that change management element.”

Outside perspective. Experienced insight. Technical and implementation know-how. It seems like your project is ripe with success when working with consultants and implementation partners. But just in case, we think you should join this session to understand what to look for in a consultant, and how to define success for your firm.

Session 1738 | Wednesday, August 24 | 4-5pm | Woodrow Wilson B

8. Avoiding "The Great Resignation" — Creating a Culture of Retention & Productivity

The legal industry has experienced a profound transformation over the past two years. Tech adoption has skyrocketed as mandated work from home throughout the pandemic helped legal professionals understand there is so much more possible with their technology. And with over $1 billion in funding invested in legal tech startups in 2021, legal technology is advancing at a rate faster than ever before. Finally, there’s now less legal talent available for an influx of demand due to the pandemic effect and great resignation.

How can you create a culture of retention and productivity amid this swirl of recent events? Throughout this article, technology has been presented as one part of the solution. In fact, 84% of US firms already taking advantage of legal automation report a significant increase in organizational efficiency and considerable financial returns.

But to reference Debbie again: this also isn’t just a technology solution! Many in the industry graduate from law school, work their work up through firms, legal teams, and departments, become that leader figure — and suddenly realize law school may not have prepared them for managing a business, or managing a culture. This level of leadership isn’t easy, but it can be learned, in this session and in our Transforming the Culture of Law podcast!

Session 1670 | Thursday, August 25 | 2-3:30pm | Maryland A

Team Litify would love to connect and give you a sneak peak into why leading law firms trust Litify to take their business to the next level. Schedule a meeting today!