Agenda 2023

Conference Chairman’s Opening Remarks

Professor Richard Susskind OBE KC (Hon) – President, Society for Computers & Law (Conference Chairman)

UK Lawtech in the 2020s

Jenifer Swallow – Business & Legal Innovator

• Current landscape including innovation & crystallisation
• Where we are and where we are heading
• Governance and why we are here.

A Legal CIO: Predictions and Reflections

Daniel Pollick – Legal CIO

• 2016 vs 2026 legaltech/IT predictions - what was right, what I got wrong, what I completely missed
• Revised predictions for 2030
• My observations about Legal IT & leadership over the past 30 years.

Email Security in the Legal Industry: Threat Trends, Attack Examples, and How to Enhance Your Defenses

Jack Chapman – VP, Threat Intelligence, Egress Software

• How inbound & outbound threats are a major risk to the legal industry
• Live analysis of real phishing examples that have impacted law firms
• How you can protect your firm through advanced detection & change end user behaviour.

Fireside Chat: Richard Susskind & Bruce Braude

Professor Richard Susskind OBE KC (Hon) – President, Society for Computers & Law (Conference Chairman)

Bruce Braude – CTO, Deloitte Legal 

• Reflections since the BLTF2020 Keynote
• The next 3 years & what we can expect from Generative AI
• The road map through to 2030.

STAGE BREAK

Where Law Meets Technology: The Ostrich Strategy

Tamara Box  – Managing Partner EMEA, Reed Smith

• A wakeup call to the legal industry on the impact of legal tech.

Predictions, Presumptions, and Planning: How Forward Thinkers Build Their Security Defenses

Phil O’Hagan  – Head of Pre-Sales and Customer Operations, Tessian
David Robinson  – Head of Global IT Security, Herbert Smith Freehills

• Security leaders’ ability to plan for the unplanned, predict the unknown and presume the inevitable
• Defending & protecting your organisations against the most dangerous attacks
• A deep dive into building resilient security defenses
• Cyber predictions for the year ahead.

KEYNOTE: Fireside Chat & Live Audience Q&A

Steven Bartlett – Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author and Host of ‘The Diary Of A CEO’ Podcast
Professor Richard Susskind OBE KC (Hon) – President, Society for Computers & Law (Conference Chairman)

• Digital mindset: 'Lean In vs Lean Out'
• Emerging technology shaping the future and the extent of the impact
• Economic uncertainty & new investment opportunities
• Building resilience.

Conference Chairman's Closing Remarks

Professor Richard Susskind OBE KC (Hon) – President, Society for Computers & Law (Conference Chairman)

• A summary of the issues & opportunities presented during 'The British Legal Technology Forum 2023'.

STAGE CLOSED

Stage Chair’s Opening Remarks

Christina Blacklaws – Managing Director, Blacklaws Consulting

The State of Legal Technology in 2023: More People, More New Roles, More Investment

David Wood – Productised Services Consultant, Simmons & Simmons

• People & changing organisation charts
• Business impact & opportunities
• What clients are saying about these changes
• Our legal market
• Beyond the legal market and being competitive
• Looking ahead.

The Evolution of Legal Data Management

Aditya Udas – Head of Digital Commercial,  Iron Mountain

• Keeping pace with the new world: new ways of working & pressure to reach ambitious sustainability goals
• How the sector is currently optimising resources & processes to adjust to the new environment
• Supporting law firms in their digital transformation journey.

Has Your Business Harnessed the Value of Data?

Raj Boora – Information Architect, Pinsent Masons

• Creating the single source of the truth
• Fusing multiple applications & databases (is data really becoming an asset for firms & their clients)
• Data the ‘new oil’?
• Combatting the multiplication of different apps & sources: should be getting simpler but is getting more complex
• Use of PowerBI standardising data taxonomy & categorisation.

Realising Your Digital Dividend

Colin McArdle – Head of Sales, Large Law and EMEA, Advanced

• Making businesses a more attractive place to work & do business with – streamlining practices & maximising profit
• How is digital innovation making this possible?
• How digital avenues generate & retain more profits
• Increasing client & staff satisfaction - the importance of this to your budget sheet.

PANEL DISCUSSION: Leveraging Digital Transformation and Advancing Services Beyond Law

Paul Hogg – Senior Legal Transformation Manager, Herbert Smith Freehills
Tuna Kutsal – Senior Manager, Legal Operations Advisory, Herbert Smith Freehills
Lucy Shurwood – Partner, Pinsent Masons
Christina Blacklaws – Managing Director, Blacklaws Consulting (Chair)

• What IT training looks like in 2023
• New approaches to adoption, training & communication
• How do lawyers learn best in the 2020’s
• Digital Upskilling a business-critical issue
• How do IT find the time to focus on upskilling / training?
• The client angle – what do clients expect & demand from their lawyers?

STAGE BREAK

Fireside Chat: Digital Transformation in the Law and Beyond

Sarah Chambers – Director of Digital Experience, Ashurst
Ana-Maria Norbury – Director of Global Service Design, Baker McKenzie
Christina Blacklaws – Managing Director, Blacklaws Consulting (Chair)

• Emerging new roles within law firms
• Supporting clients digital transformation journey
• What do clients expect from their law firms.

Law Better - The AI-Enabled Legal Solutions Transforming Law

Philip Demetriou –  Senior Director, International Markets, EMEA, DISCO
Joe Coffey –  Head of Innovation Technology, Beale & Co

• Slow, outdated legal tech can be inefficient & costly, preventing lawyers from doing what they are trained to do. Join DISCO for a showcase of the cloud-native, AI-enabled solutions future-proofing the business & practice of law
• Philip will be joined by Joseph Coffey, Head of Information Technology at Beale & Co, as we discuss innovative ways of approaching legal technology. As someone who has undertaken a transformative, tech-led initiative at his firm, Joe will give us his insight into the whys, how's, & results of that strategy.

Generative AI: Leveling the Playing Field - Perspectives from a Futurist

Eric Hunter – Global Futurist, Innovation Futures & Chief Technology Innovation Officer, Bradford & Barthel

• Evolutionary opportunities in legal service delivery
• Mapping the billions in capital investment within Generative AI: Open AI, ChatGPT, Bard & others
• Who are the current & emerging investing players behind these technology evolutions?
• Understanding what's driving the competition between Microsoft, Google & other companies the globe over in AI investment
• Forming the strategy - Mitigating Risk while strategizing what's next as integrating players come online
• What's next: Visual & Audio Evolutions in AI within Augmented Reality Integrations
• Quantum acceleration & competing approaches: Laying the groundwork for the future.

A Transformation Journey: The Fellowship of the Ring

Stephanie Hamon– Head of Legal Operations Consulting, Norton Rose Fulbright
Christopher Grant– Head of Legal Market Engagement, HSBC

• Identify your quest
• Find your fellowship!
• Map your journey and avoid Mordor!
• Pick your battles
• Break the curse.

Stage Chair's Closing Remarks

Christina Blacklaws – Managing Director, Blacklaws Consulting

• A summary of the issues & opportunities presented on the 'Iron Mountain' Lounge Stage.

STAGE CLOSED

Stage Chair's Opening Remarks

David Fazakerley – IT Director, Saffery Champness

PANEL DISCUSSION: Metaverse: A Legal Vision and Competitive Edge

Professor Lisa Wilson – Director & Founder, Arete Business Performance (Chair)
Jed Stone – Director of Issured Limited, Co-Founder MEA Connexus
Matteo Zallio – Chair & Co-founder, Metvethics
William Taaffe – COO, Lockdown Cyber Security

• What is the metaverse & why should I care?
• The future vision of the legal services in an open virtual world - Does the law need to change?
• The benefits of remote working, virtual offices, legal hearings, connection, collaboration, security, evidentiary trails, & greater efficiency?
• Entering & operating in the metaverse: The technologies & their developments
• New business models emerging in the metaverse.

The Future is Now: How to Create a Mandate for Technology Adoption

Justin Loftas – Technical Director, UP3

• The current reality of technology adoption
• Why is adoption a challenge?
• Digitalise back-end processes to unlock value
• Applying Hyper-automation as a business discipline
• How we’ve built a product from what we learnt in Legal.

Embracing Digital Transformation, A View from Osborne Clarke's Managing Partner

Conrad Davies – Managing Partner, Osborne Clarke

• Vision for the future
• Ensuring technology strategy aligns & delivers overall strategy
• Breaking the cycle
• Delivering on client expectations
• Bridging the gap by business partnering.

You Can't Spend Your Way Out of Cyber Risk

Federico Charosky– Founder and CEO, Quorum Cyber 

• Best-in-breed investment strategies have not worked - they resulted in great overheads for management, technology integration issues, & cost explosions
• Ecosystem rationalisation is a key dependency to improving security posture
• What does a modern security ecosystem look like?
• Once you rationalise, what opportunities does it open? > Data security.

PANEL DISCUSSION: Back to the Future - Does the Legal Sector Need the DeLorean

Caroline Hill – Editor-in-Chief, Legal IT Insider (Chair)
Mo Ajaz – Founder, LEx 360
April Brousseau – Director of Research and Development, Clifford Chance Research & Development Hub
Daniel Pollick – Legal CIO
Nathan Hayes – IT Director, Osborne Clarke

• Reflecting on changes & advancements over the decades
• Reoccurring challenges facing legal leaders
• What would the legal industry change if it could go back in time
• Are we blindsided by technological hype…

STAGE BREAK

PANEL DISCUSSION: The View From the Vendors

Aditya Udas – Head of Digital Commercial, Iron Mountain
Federico Charosky – Founder & CEO, Quorum Cyber
Josephine Good – Manager, Practice Advisors, Kira Systems (Litera)
David Fazakerley – IT Director, Saffery Champness (Chair)

• Debate the potential of digital / technical disruption in law & Technology & opportunities for growth
• Consider how the legal sector can future proof
• What market demands they are seeing & what challenges they are facing
• What the future landscape looks like & how to work with vendors in an agile world.

Why Looking After Data and Knowledge Assets Sets you up for the Future

Jack Shepherd – Principle Business Conusltant, iManage

• Why data hygiene & governance are imperative to meaningful knowledge search results
• How trust in a platform is directly proportionate to adoption.

Innovation Enablers - Technology and Enterprise Architecture Trends

Dale Hodgkinson – Head of Strategy and Architecture, Slaughter and May

• Fundamental shifts redefining the digital era
• New applications for lawyers & firms
• BYOD programme advancements
• 2024: Windows 12 - everything we know so far.

Legal Workflow of the Future

Jill Schornack – Vice President of Product, NetDocuments 

• Supporting legal professionals where they work
• Automating document creation & workflow
• Harnessing platform intelligence
• The future of M365 experiences.

PANEL DISCUSSION: Reflections from Behind the Scenes in R&D on LegalTech Projects

Professor Katie Atkinson BSc – PhD Professor of Computer Science and Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Liverpool
Ola Olusanya – Reader and Director of Learning and Teaching at Department of Law and Criminology, Aberystwyth University
Alex Baldwin –  Student and Software Developer, Aberystwyth University

• Individual reflections on 10 years of undertaking R&D projects in the LegalTech domain
• Adaptability of completed projects into new problem spaces
• Current challenges faced to enable future progression in impactful LegalTech
• Developing the next generation to equip them with the skillsets for tomorrow’s LegalTech jobs, covering first hand experiences from a student who has worked on LegalTech projects.

Stage Chair's Closing Remarks

David Fazakerley – IT Director, Saffery Champness

• A summary of the issues & opportunities presented on the ‘Quorum Cyber’ FutureTech Stage.

STAGE CLOSED

Stage Chair's Opening Remarks

Peter Wright – Managing Director, Digital Law

Disruptive Technology and AI Reforms

Lord Tim Clement-Jones CBE – LibDem Lords Spokesperson for Science Innovation & Technology / Co-chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI
Alexandra Lennox – Director of Growth & Strategic Partnerships, Orbital Witness
Mark O’Conor – Partner, Global Co-Chair of the Technology Sector, DLA Piper
Professor Richard Susskind OBE KC (Hon) – President, Society for Computers & Law (Chair)

• Reflecting on the progress of AI adoption
• What we can anticipate for the year ahead
• The profound impact of AI regulation.

(Zen and the art of) Making Your Enterprise Ready for No-Code

Ben Nicholson – Founder, Sharedo

• Moving to no-code development has the opportunity to significantly streamline the way you deliver value and innovation to your legal services
• There are however significant change implications / opportunities
• During this session Ben will share his experiences in transitioning legal service providers to no code development
• With the aim of helping you avoid the pitfalls and harness the benefits.

Data, Risk and the Client Experience: Creating Competitive Advantages by Optimising Core Business Processes

Julia Salasky – CEO, Legl

• Addressing key challenges: disjointed processes, lack of oversight and failure to future-proof the business
• Creating competitive advantages out of BAU business processes
• How flexible workflows & integrated technology can streamline core business processes, improve the employee & client experience and mitigate risk.

Amplify Your Impact - How Litera is Expanding What Law Firms Can Accomplish

Adam Ryan – VP Product Management, Litera
Alan Taylor – Chief Corporate Development Officer, Litera

• Litera's mission & overall product strategy
• Update on recent acquisitions
• How Litera's products fit in the broader legal ecosystem
• Spotlight on our new offering for marketing, business development & knowledge.

From Burnout to Breakthroughs: Transforming the Legal Industry with Technology

Jessica Wu – Strategic Partnerships Manager, Business Development, Everlaw

• Leverage technology to promote a healthier workload, improve job satisfaction, & retain top talent
• Empower teams to overcome the relentlessly time-sensitive demands posed by the ever-growing volume & complexity of electronic data
• Explore best practices for embracing technology in the legal industry, & how to use it to work smarter, not harder.

How to be a Tech Changemaker at Your Law Firm

Geraldine O’Reilly – Senior Marketing Manager, UK & Ireland, Clio

• Design client-centred workflows that benefit your bottom line & improve employee satisfaction
• Enable buy-in & process adoption when implementing new technology
• Creating flexibility without sacrificing security.

STAGE BREAK

Forecasting Innovation, Anticipating Disruption

Henry Ajder – Generative AI Expert & Technology Broadcaster, Ajder Advisory
Jenifer Swallow – Business and Legal Innovator
Eric Hunter – Global Futurist, Innovation Futures
Louise O’Hara – IP Assocaite,  Bird & Bird
Peter Wright – Managing Director, Digital Law (Chair)

• The journey through quantum – more change for AI, more potential, more breakthroughs
• Considering the capabilities & constraints of ‘game changing tech’
• Dynamics shaping how tech is developed, deployed & the impact on the legal profession
• Implementation for clients, the legal system and beyond: adoption at all costs?

Ransomware Recovery: How to Recover From an Attack Without Spending Weeks Restoring From Backups

Chris Rogers – Technology Evangelist, Zerto

• 2031 predictions - a ransomware attack every 2 seconds
• “It’s not only if, but when, and how many”
• The modern enterprise has an enormous attack surface & there will always be a new way in, how do we prevent or limit the damage?
• How ransomware is changing, where it is likely to go next, how to recover & the best defense.

Beyond Human: Exploring the Power of AI and Automation in the New Age of Cybersecurity

Drew Perry – Chief Innovation Officer, Ontinue

• Unleashing the power of AI to automate daily job functions
• Leveraging Microsoft Power Platform to rapidly operationalise your ideas
• Understanding what can be automated & what still requires the human brain
• Exploring ChatGPT/GPT4 which are changing the face of cybersecurity & the legal sector forever.

Seeing is Securing: The Case for Holistic Visibility in Legal Firms

Nick Dyer – Director, Sales Engineering, Arctic Wolf 

• Review the challenges & options for security visibility for legal firms across on-prem and hybrid clouds
• Distilling the marketing of security vendors - EDR, XDR, NDR, AI/ML, SIEM
• Give thoughts to achieving cyber insurance policies & easier completion of cyber control questionnaires from your clients.

Harnessing the Power of Cloud Native in Azure

Geoff Hornsby –  General manager, EMEA, iManage

Paul Walker – EMEA Technical Director, iManage

James Complin – Azure Core Director, Comms, Media & Pro Services UK, Microsoft

• Hear from Microsoft on what a modern Cloud Native platform looks like
• What are the benefits to you of a Cloud Native platform?
• What are the business & technical impacts of adopting non-Cloud Native platforms?
• Join senior representatives from Microsoft & iManage to discuss why iManage has partnered with Microsoft to provide an industry first Cloud Native platform, that is globally scalable, secure & resilient.

2024 Tech Priorities and Predictions; Driving Business Change

Chris Bull – Principal and ExCo Member, Edge International
Karen Jacks – CTO, Bird & Bird
Joel Barolsky – Managing Director, Barolsky Advisors Pty
Amir Mehdi – CIO for Legal,  Barclays

• Investing in technology to influence business change
• Importance of R&D with disruptive technology to increase firm agility
• Crystal Balling: With increasing advancements, comes increased risks, where do we see developments across the IT landscape of the future?

Stage Chair's Closing Remarks

Peter Wright – Managing Director, Digital Law

• A summary of the issues & opportunities presented on the ‘Litera’ Innovation Stage.

STAGE CLOSE

The 'Thomson Reuters' Insights Stage

Thomson Reuters provides legal professionals with open, connected, and smart solutions that enable teams to navigate through the complexity of their work. Unlike other products available, our Legal Technology centers around customer-focused solutions and use cases to amplify connections and provide users a seamless end-to-end digital journey that focuses on what matters.

Moving Your Firm’s Financial and Practice Management System to the Cloud

Duncan Hannigan –  Sales Director, Financial & Case Management, Thomson
Reuters
Nathan Hayes – IT Director, Osborne Clarke
Jennifer Lucas –  Finance Systems Applications Manager, Clyde & Co

• Cloud Native – full advantage of the cloud
• Interoperability & integration
• Zero Trust & Layered Security
• Change management.

Tech Innovation: Seeing the Wood From the Trees

Catherine Kidd –  Director, Inbound Product Marketing, Thomson Reuters
Mark Cullen – Senior Director, Product Management, Thomson Reuters

• How as a vendor do we address sudden momentum?
• What are we seeing & what are our customers asking us?
• How do we look to solve for real use cases & user challenges?

Using HighQ to Deliver Client Services

Ben Firth – Director of Sales and Customer Success, Thomson Reuters
James Silvester – Legal Tech Innovations Officer, MacFarlanes

• A client discussion with MacFarlanes about the tech challenges & plans of 2023
• A peak into MacFarlanes HighQ world
• An update on the Future plans for HighQ.

Stage Break

State of the UK Legal Market

Rachel Heathcote –  Senior Associate, Thomson Reuters Strategic Insights
Daniel Fox – Director, Growth and Commercial Strategy, Thomson Reuters Legal

• Challenges in the UK legal market—the impact of today’s economic environment & changing buyer behaviour
• How legal priorities are changing as the role of the General Counsel evolves
• Legal technology as a way to add value to the relationships between law departments & their service providers.

Closing Remarks - The 'Thomson Reuters' Insights Stage