Last month I joined an estimated 7,000+ others in the legal technology community who converged on the New York Hilton Midtown for Legalweek.
Legalweek continues to be the largest and longest running legal technology event on the calendar. There is so many legal tech companies in the one place at the same time – if you are in legal tech, you simply cannot miss being there. This year there were 250+ speakers, 150+ exhibitors and attendees from 34 countries, with many different tracks.
Luckily the 16 hour flight over, was only 14 hours with some good tail winds (going back it was nearly 18 hours !). On the same flight over it was good to catch up with Sam Kidd of LawVu + Nick Whitehouse and Jean Yang of Onit, a good kiwi contingent flying the kiwi flag for Legalweek.
As I mentioned in my event preview, Legalweek is a hectic few days – and 2023 was no different !
Highlights of Legalweek
Each year there are usually trends that dominate the event. In the past we have seen the dominance of Big Data, Cloud, Cyber to Predictive Coding, with eDiscovery still being a key focus.
There was no doubt what dominated all discussions this year – nearly every conversation involved Generative AI and Chat GPT.
There was standing room only for many of the AI sessions on the first day !
We were able to hear more about the potential impact of Generative AI and Chat GPT for the legal industry and more widely the development of AI generally. It was great to hear and see what is happening with some of the industry leaders and also have the tech providers are either embracing the opportunities of AI, or resisting any change.
With generative AI taking the world by storm over the past few months, everyone is still figuring out how and where these tools can be applied to the legal profession. Generative AI and Chat GPT has brought AI into the mainstream. Legal has arguably tinkered around the edges with some automation tools for years, and now these new generative AI options may fundamentally change how legal services are delivered. We started to find out a lot more about the impact of AI, with no doubt a lot more change throughout the rest of this year. This is no longer a future conversation – it is now, as everything is moving much quicker than many had predicted.
We are just at the start of this journey, but it has the ability to fundamentally change how the legal profession work. The AI is going to get better and better – we have already seen this from the initial generative AI to Chat GPT-4.
It was great speaking to so many, to see and hear about how they thought AI may impact legal. There were so many views, from it being a game changer, to if and how would lawyers adopt them – or essentially be left behind if they ignored the fundamental opportunities these technologies may provide them. Regardless of where they sat (or hat they wore), everyone was talking about it.
As far as individual sessions, there were some excellent learnings from Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal and LeVar Burton. The Judges’ Debate didn’t disappoint with some great insights, and very entertaining.
It was great to be in a place where we had such a community of thought leaders and leading tech products, all looking at the opportunities going forward.
Seeing the Tech
Officially there were 150+ exhibiting at Legalweek across 3 exhibit floors. There is so many legal tech companies in the one place at the same time – if you are in legal tech, you simply cannot miss being there.
There continues to be an increasing number of non-exhibiting tech companies taking suites in neighbouring hotels – or simply meeting in coffee shops or hotel foyers. This year was probably the most I have seen in all of the years I have attended Legalweek.
Reveal took the event by storm with blanket coverage throughout the Hilton – you couldn’t go far without knowing Reveal were the main partner of Legalweek. It was fantastic to be able to spend time with so many companies talking about what they were doing.
It was refreshing to see the tech and meet a human with it, as I think we have all been “zoomed out” over recent years.
Generative AI and Chat GPT was the talking point of most tech companies, and the event in general. There were some tech companies that had already integrated AI in their solutions, whilst many others that actively have it on the roadmap with some exciting developments in the near future. Some others of course just had to be seen to be in the AI conversation !
A number of companies announced new offerings based around generative AI or OpenAI’s GPT models, whilst many others were eager to point out what they had in the pipeline.
Read more here about some of the Generative AI at Legalweek.
It was great to have in depth conversations with many of the tech providers and those from the wider community. Not only were the conversations around AI, but it was excellent to get global perspectives of what is happening and the opportunities for legal going forward to innovate and embrace these technologies.
Many tech companies that are not embracing generative AI tools, face the potential of becoming obsolete if they do not embrace AI in some capacity. If they don’t someone else will.
Networking
Even though the legal tech is fantastic to see, the greatest value I continue to get from Legalweek is the networking opportunities. Everyone is in the one place, all the leading experts, together with technology providers. The event continues to be a unrivalled platform to share experiences and discuss issues, whilst catching up with the latest technologies and trends.
It was fantastic to be back in person again, meeting so many new faces and reconnecting with so many others. We truly have a wonderful Legaltech community !
Yes it is a long way to go, but Legalweek continues to be three of the most well spent days of my year. So much is changing, and fast – already looking forward to Legalweek 24.
Thanks to everyone for all their time, meetings, demos and functions !