Legal Tech New York 2020

After a year off I found this years Legal Week (LTNY) to be very good. I was able to attend with a colleague (Simon Walsh) for the first time and that made life a little easier. We went to LTNY for different reasons, mine as ever was to see what technology lay ahead for the next 12 months; whilst Simon’s was to network and build some invaluable connections as he starts life developing business in this industry.

The first point and call at for any non native US resident is the International Brunch, hosted this year by Nuix, Consilio and Apt Search @ the famous Tavern of the Green.

There was a sizable table with some new faces and some old. There were people from as far away as New Zealand. The food was excellent as was the scenery and company. This is a fantastic way to start the week and sets a very strong tone for the rest of the conference.

Once brunch was over Simon and I explored Central Park, before taking in the mandatory stop at Home Alone’s Plaza Hotel and then down to midtown to explore Times Square.

The Monday was going to be a big day for me as I was meeting with Nuix for an interview and I needed to prep. As a first time Legal Tech attendee, Simon was invited to a networking event at the Hilton on Monday evening.

I spent the Monday morning working on my UK case load and preparing for my interview with Corey Tomlinson the Nuix Content Marketing Manager. Corey had kindly agreed to re-film an interview that Nuix conducted with me under our old business name of City Docs. The time I spent with Corey, I found very useful and hopefully the finished interview will be a success.

The rest of the Hilton was starting to buzz with delegates for LTNY starting to turn up from across the globe. DISCO were the big sponsors in the Hilton this year, while Consilio made their mark on the lamp posts around the 6th Avenue event. I ended the day by meeting with former colleague and favourite manager David Varacchi, Vice President Cyber Solutions. Dave is vastly experienced and I always welcome the chance to shoot the breeze with him!

Tuesday is the day things really kick into gear with the opening remarks and keynote speech, but for me the main event, the opening of the exhibit hall. I had filled my calendar while in the UK, my first scheduled meeting was with Patrick Looney and Brainspace in the Conrad hotel opposite the Hilton. The biggest issue Simon and I faced here was trying to use the elevators, which for some reason the hotel had chosen this week to upgrade them; meaning that it took 15 minutes to ascend the 38 floors to our meeting.

Brainspace is a really good piece of kit and something that I will be looking to bring into the department over the course of 2020. We particularly liked the updated communications analysis. The power that Brainspace brings to the table is exceptional.

The second of our Tuesday meetings was with Milyli. Milyli is a software development company set up to develop apps/plugins for Relativity. The two standout applications that I was interested in were Blackout (an automated redaction tool) and Delegate (an admin tool that you can provide your clients with so that they can manage their own users). Blackout is especially powerful, particularly on native Excel redactions.

I ended my first full conference day walking round the exhibiting companies. Clocking which exhibits I would like to follow up with. I was impressed with the following software from Vertical Discovery – Optimum – the software is very good but the pricing for me, is set too high.

I started the Wednesday with Relativity and their road map for 2020. It was a great conversation with Ryan Kowalczyk. The biggest element of the Road Map was the new look and feel for Relativity One, its a full face lift and underneath the hood has been designed for optimum speed and performance. What Relativity has coming for Relativity One is very impressive, however, it is very frustrating that as an on-prem vendor, there will only be one update a year, compared to the four updates Relativity One vendors have – how can we compete with that?

I spent some time with the Exterro team at their suite on the 42nd floor of the Hilton. I have been interested in this software for a while, not necessarily for their eDiscovery element but more on there information governance side. Unlike most tools out there Exterro run with a questionnaire based solution, I think this coupled with a scan solution would be ideal for any firm wanting to get their data house in order.

My final meeting / demo on Wednesday was with Venio. I was almost ready to go home and give this a miss, but after spending a good 45 minutes with Charles Lavallée I was impressed and pleased I stopped by. The software is definitely worth reviewing and having a longer conversation about. Charles made us aware that other vendors used Venio as a basis for their review platforms, which I found intriguing.

Wednesday evening was great fun, my good friend and industry veteran Cheryl Moretti suggested that we sign up to the EDRM and ACEDS networking evenings. If you work in the industry and don’t know Cheryl then you really should try and find a way to meet her. She is an incredible lady who is vastly experienced and has provided me with advice over the last decade since we first worked together. She heads up the Woman in eDiscovery chapters in London and the North East Region of the US.

I ended Wednesday catching up with my other favourite manager from my time in the industry Ron Essig, Dave Varacchi also joined us for a couple of beers. I cannot thank them both enough for the support they gave me when I reported in to them and the advice they have given me when I moved on to pastures new. I look forward to meeting with them each Legal Tech as it is always wild!

Exploring the exhibit hall is always fun and below are a few photos I took of various vendors that I work with and looking to work with. If you havent been to Legal Week (Tech) before then I would strongly recommend you go at least once. Its very educational and a fantastic place to network with like minded individuals.