In Reward of Smaller Authorized Tech Conferences: Classes from Case Standing’s Shopper Expertise Summit

For the second time in a month, I attended a first-time convention. And, as soon as once more, the inaugural convention exceeded my expectations.

A number of weeks in the past, I wrote about Kaleidoscope, the debut convention produced by 8am. This time, I discovered myself on the Shopper Expertise Summit, the inaugural convention of the authorized expertise firm Case Standing, held in its hometown of Charleston, S.C., Sept. 24-26.

Because the authorized tech convention panorama turns into more and more crowded – on this month alone, there are a number of conferences each single week – a counterintuitive development is rising: smaller, customer-focused conferences are additionally delivering worth, however in a extra focused means.

The Energy of Focus

The 2-day summit centered on a single, important query: How can regulation corporations enhance their shoppers’ expertise? As cofounder and CEO Andy Seavers (pictured above) stated in his opening keynote, “With out the consumer, there isn’t a case. With out the consumer, there isn’t a agency. It is a consumer enterprise and we have to put an emphasis on the consumer.”

This was not a sprawling occasion attempting to be every thing to everybody. As a substitute, it introduced collectively practitioners from small and medium-sized corporations – largely centered on private harm, immigration, household, and employment regulation, and all united of their curiosity in higher serving their shoppers.

This focused strategy created one thing you don’t at all times discover at bigger authorized tech conferences: alternatives for peer-to-peer studying and sharing. When one speaker, the chief of a California employment agency, described her follow as “a Case Standing agency” – going as far as to say she is not going to take shoppers unwilling to make use of the app – you would nearly sense it resonate with others within the room.

What Made It Work

Very like the Kaleidoscope convention, this first-time summit felt polished {and professional}. Among the many components that made it so:

• Sensible information from practitioners. The speaker lineup featured attorneys and agency leaders who’re actively concerned in working their very own practices. That meant that the packages supplied battle-tested insights from individuals who do that stuff every day. Periods coated consumer expertise, consumer service, expertise integration, and sustainable agency development, all grounded in precise expertise.
• Two complementary tracks. The summit supplied two complementary tracks. The “Future-Targeted” observe examined consumer expertise as a long-term development engine and strategic differentiator, whereas the “Tech-Ahead” observe explored how information, AI, automation and built-in authorized expertise can modernize consumer interactions.
• The Charleston benefit. Let’s face it: location issues for a convention. The summit came about at Resort Emeline, a superbly up to date historic lodge within the coronary heart of downtown Charleston, a gorgeous and historic metropolis. With almost all packages and meals held on-site, attendees have been simply steps away from the summit’s studying and networking alternatives.
• Common CLE credit score. In a element that issues to training attorneys, each program supplied CLE credit score for each state. That detailed reworked the convention from merely good to take care of a sound funding in skilled growth.

The Buyer Convention Benefit

The CX Summit mirrored a rising development amongst authorized tech firms, together with smaller ones, to host their very own buyer conferences. Whereas that makes the authorized tech convention calendar more and more crowded, the proliferation of occasions is definitely a optimistic for the authorized group.

Relatively than forcing everybody into one-size-fits-all mega-conferences, this increasing array of smaller conferences affords occasions tailor-made to particular pursuits, follow areas and expertise ecosystems.

A reside recording of the Moral-ish podcast centered on the ethics of AI, with Brian Web page, chief authorized officer, Belief Guss Damage Attorneys; Constance Anastopoulo, president, Charleston Regulation Faculty; Ty Robinson, founding lawyer, Ty Robinson Regulation Agency; Marina Bradley, government director, Ostroff Godshall; and Angel Evan, AI ethicist and follow lead, AG Consulting Companions. 

For a Case Standing buyer, spending two days with fellow customers and the corporate’s group arguably delivers extra actionable worth than a generic authorized innovation convention ever might.

It’s value noting that not everybody on the CX Summit was a Case Standing buyer, they usually needn’t have been to have benefitted from it. Some attendees got here merely to learn to higher serve their very own shoppers, and there was loads of programming for them.

Sure, some panels centered particularly on utilizing – and maximizing – the Case Standing platform. However many others addressed ethics, expertise, information, AI and consumer expertise rules relevant to any regulation follow.

Charleston’s Church and Union restaurant was a fantastic setting for the summit’s feast.

To my thoughts, such a steadiness is essential. To achieve success, a buyer convention can’t be simply an insular product coaching session.

‘A Enormous Alternative’

The CX Summit achieved one thing extra by bringing collectively a group of authorized professionals united by their shared values and challenges, with the product serving as a catalyst relatively than the only focus.

The summit demonstrated how smaller, focused conferences can ship outsized worth. By bringing collectively a selected group round a centered mission, it was capable of foster the form of real studying and relationship-building that bigger conferences generally wrestle to realize.

If this inaugural CX Summit is any indication, Case Standing has created one thing helpful not only for its clients, however for anybody critical about remodeling how regulation corporations serve their shoppers. In a crowded convention panorama, possibly that form of focus is one thing the authorized career wants extra of.

To not point out, for regulation corporations, the chance is large. To cite Seavers once more:

“Eighty p.c of regulation agency shoppers really feel neglected. After we take into consideration an business that has an moral obligation to take care of shoppers, and that’s the usual we’re at, we now have an enormous alternative to essentially change and actually develop and actually begin placing deal with the consumer in a novel means.”