By the Draftwise team.
Ask anyone on the show floor, and you’ll hear the same thing: ILTACON feels bigger this year, which is no small feat for an event that is already one of the industry’s biggest. Filevine is running the most comprehensive campaign we’ve seen, pushing its new Legal Operating Intelligence System with ads starring Sarah Rafferty of Suits fame, and Thomson Reuters isn’t far behind with upgrades to CoCounsel Legal. Everyone’s talking about which sponsored concert they’re catching during the evenings: Sheryl Crow, Lady A, or Little Big Town. There are branded buses, cars, room keys, and even sponsored flyers slipped under hotel doors.
Underneath all that noise, Tuesday’s sessions were quieter. Yesterday was about getting the foundation right. Today’s conversation moved to something harder to fix with a purchase order: the people and the AI now doing real work inside the firm.
Some of the best-attended sessions weren’t about software at all. Brad Kaufman, Senior Chairman at Greenberg Traurig, spoke about building resilience in a career that never really slows down. Elaine Dick, Lead Practice Innovation Attorney at Baker Hostetler, brought in executive coaches Amy Wegener and Sandra Bang for a session on naming and working through fear. ILTA launched volume two of its Lessons in Leadership book with a morning signing, a reminder that the industry’s biggest shifts are still about the people living through them.
Every dollar has to work harder
Joannie Murray, Director of IT at Krieg DeVault, gave one of the day’s most honest talks on running technology at a mid-sized firm on a real budget. “Law firm users expect instant access from everywhere, seamless product integrations, mobile-first experiences, zero downtime, AI-assisted workflows, and the shiny new product no one knows anything about, but they want immediately,” she said. “The challenge is where we invest finite resources to create the greatest user impact.” She named the tension IT teams live with every day: “Users want fewer logins, easier sharing, faster access, and less friction. Unfortunately, security generally requires additional controls, additional authentications, and additional governance that users despise.”
Max Junestrand, CEO of Legora, framed the shift plainly: ‘As we increasingly rely on AI to do work for us, we have to manage how that work gets done for us.’
Tim Fox, Chief Data & AI Officer at Ogletree Deakins, put it just as bluntly: ‘There’s not a workflow I’m aware of that shouldn’t have a human in the loop when it comes to AI.’ He also described a shift in how firms are talking about value: ‘We’re switching from efficiency to enablement, talking more about what you can do with AI instead of just how much time is saved.’ The risk, he added, is that adding up time savings across an entire firm turns a useful signal into noise if it can’t be connected within the data accurately.
All in all, the campaigns and concerts make for good energy, but today’s sessions were about keeping people steady and AI accountable while everything else gets louder.
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Many thanks to the Draftwise team for this second reportage from the Gaylord in Nashville.
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Two Major Legal Innovators Conferences this November
Come and join us in New York and London this November at Legal Innovators!
Legal Innovators UK – London, Nov 4 and 5
And, then Legal Innovators New York – Nov 17 and 18.
After another fantastic Legal Innovators California, where we had speakers from OpenAI, Y Combinator, Google, Meta, and many more pioneering organisations; and our stellar inaugural event in Paris this June, we are now looking forward to the landmark conferences in London and New York, both in November, and both across two days: Law Firm Day, and Inhouse Day.
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