Update: the LVNx 2023 Schedule has dropped! Explore the lineup and get ready for a transformative conference experience in Chicago this September 20-22! JUNE 25, 2023 Get an exclusive preview of LVNx 2023 sessions before the official schedule release next week! Immerse yourself in a dynamic mix of insights from law firms, in-house legal departments, and service providers.
A Look Under the Hood; A View into Strategic Planning Inside Law Firms and Legal Departments
Jared Applegate, Chief Legal Operations Officer, Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Alexandra Guajardo, Global Director of Commercial Strategy, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
An authentic discussion on how law firms and legal departments go through annual strategic planning across their footprints and how that impacts decision-making across the industry. A focus on what is of value in each specific instance for law firms and legal departments. A ‘look under the hood’ can provide a high-level understanding of the motivations and behaviors that come from these to better our overall relationships with counsel.
Beyond Fees for Services Rendered: Defining Partnership and Value Adds in Client Relationships
Alma Asay, Chief Innovation and Value Officer, Crowell
Talk of law firms “partnering” and adding “value” to client relationships is a constant theme throughout the legal industry, but what does this really mean? More and more clients are asking firms to demonstrate a wide variety of value adds or ways that they’ve invested in the client relationship beyond billable services, but these requests can be daunting for law firms who struggle to understand how the client defines “value.” How does a law firm (and a legal department) identify what constitutes a meaningful and measurable value add to an organization? Once identified and delivered, how does a law firm report on its investments? This session will explore concrete ways that law firms and clients can partner together to identify and recognize investments that align with a client’s definition of value, ascribe value to those investments, and report in ways that are effective for both.
Building a Data Science Team at a Law Firm
Andrew Sprogis, Chief Innovation Officer, Katten
Matthew Dunne, Data Science and Innovation Manager, Katten
Law firms and legal departments are starting to hire data professionals, but to what end? Some clarity is needed as we enter this brave new world of artificial intelligence and data science. Our seasoned panelists will cover several diverse use cases, including generative AI, internal operations, and combining legal analysis with data science to serve clients. They will then discuss which data professionals are best suited to those use cases from a technical perspective and the overall business model. This explanation will provide insight into what various job titles mean, what skills to look for when hiring, and how to convince “data people” to work in the legal industry. The goal is to help those in the legal industry start (or continue) their journey in data science by giving them a better understanding of where they are, where they want to go, and how to get there.
Coaching as a Leadership Skill to Improve Performance
Amy Wegener, Executive Coach
The purpose of this presentation is to present ideas on how legal professionals can use coaching to improve performance, strengthen communication skills and deepen relationships. Participants will learn several techniques, including building trust, active listening, and powerful questioning, enabling them to coach their teams, partners/attorneys, and colleagues to deliver results and achieve their goals.
Connecting the Data Dots. A Data-driven Journey.
Keli Whitnell, Director of Firm Intelligence, Troutman Pepper
Rachel Shields Williams, Director, Knowledge Management, Sidley Austin
At a given organization, the myriad, often diffuse outreach by partners, associates, marketing, or financial professionals yields important data points around which savvy law firms measure value and client impact. Thanks to third-party providers and in-house systems, tracking and consolidating business intelligence has never been easier. Yet are law firms truly harnessing their data capabilities? This master class addresses two core objectives: how to aggregate data points that determine client engagement and how to quantify the meaningful value at a matter or institutional level. Our facilitators will share essential guidance on how top organizations are mastering industry-leading, data-driven growth through scalable and collaborative means.
How Legal Operations Teams Can Increase Uncommon Sense, while Cutting Out the Nonsense
Anthony Widdop, Global Director, Shearman & Sterling
Meredith Williams-Range, Chief Knowledge and Client Value Officer, Shearman & Sterling
In this TED-style talk, our speakers will provide a practical framework to guide law firms, law companies, and legal department leaders looking to spearhead change and improve performance through legal operations. The session will include examples that will resonate with the audience. It will propose a scalable approach to help identify the common and uncommon nonsense that may be holding their teams back, freeing resources, time, and budgets to focus on the common and uncommon sense that will drive value.
Impactful Teams: KPIs for (Im)Proving Value
Andrew Woltman, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Statera Capital, LLC
Heather McCullough, Partner, Society 54, LLC
Was your team successful last year? How do you know? And what does success even mean to you and your firm? While we appreciate a good gut feeling, it's not the metric we recommend to determine success and ensure growth for your team and your firm. Successful teams need metrics in order to prepare budgets, make informed decisions, issue spot, improve productivity, provide up-to-date reports and more. Accurately evaluating your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and there are many KPIs to assess, is one the biggest challenges plaguing business professionals within law firms. Often, data is stored in spreadsheets, on document management systems and *gasp* in the brains of our team members. Each of these methods can present challenges for providing data that is meaningful for future success. Additionally, keep in mind that law firms are complex organizations, and the success of internal department may not be completely independent from one another. Therefore, it's important to evaluate how different departments are working together, and how they impact the overall success of the firm. During this workshop, we will talk through the metrics that your team should be tracking to gain support from management and ways to better streamline the reporting of this information.
Let’s Play Tag! Using Generative AI to Automagically Apply SALI Tags
Toby Brown, CEO, DV8 Legal Strategies
Jim Hannigan, Director of Legal Project Management, Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP
Kelly Harbour, Chief Business Development Officer, Goulston & Storrs
Damien Riehl, VP, Litigation Workflow and Analytics Content, vLex; Leadership Team, SALI Alliance
This session will take real-word examples, apply the Generative AI tools (LLM tools) that SALI has developed, and programmatically add SALI tags. We will do this live with actual examples: starting simple, then tagging more-complex text. This demonstration will show how LVN community members can move the ball WAY forward by leveraging the SALI codes. LVN people have been waiting for years for decent data to use for pricing, LPM, and other uses. Your day has arrived! Attend this session and learn how to jump on the Generative AI Rocketship.
Let's Talk Money: How Clients and Law Firms Can Have Better Conversations about Money
Tasneem Khoka, Managing Director, GrowthPlay
Clients and law firms have made significant strides in understanding and implementing pricing models that go beyond the billable hour. We have crunched the data, built the spreadsheets, and created a plethora of alternative fee arrangements to implement. And yet, clients and law firms alike continue to lament that they struggle to see eye-to-eye when it comes to fees and budgets. The missing link is often the ability of clients and outside counsel to have productive and forthright conversations about money. More often than not, both parties avoid these discussions, only engaging when there is a point of contention…at which point, it is usually too late. This program will explore how law firms and their clients can have more productive conversations about money before, during, and after engagements.
Mastering Client Policies to Achieve Compliance in the Work-to-Collect Cycle
Nicole DeCarlo Castiglia, Senior Director of Operations, Jackson Lewis P.C.
Jill Nelson, Senior Director of Operations and Finance, Intapp
Michael Guernon, Global Director of Intake, Risk and Compliance, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
James Edwards, Client Experience Director, Risk and Compliance, Intapp
Ensuring compliance across matter planning, time-entry, and pre-billing accelerates the work-to-collect cycle for law firms, but oftentimes law firms struggle with integrating outside counsel guidelines expectations. Join us as we discuss how firms gain visibility into the increasingly complex and demanding client terms of business to promote thorough business acceptance and enforcement with confidence. Our panel will discuss how they streamline storing, categorizing, and approving client terms to effectively deliver on the promises it makes at the time of engagement while managing law firm goals.
Mo Money, Mo Problems: Providing Innovative and Collaborative Solutions in High Stakes Situations
Purvi Sanghvi, Director of Strategic Pricing, Paul Hastings
Cassie Vertovec, Managing Director, Practice Management and Innovation, Paul Hastings LLP
Somehow, the legal industry always seems to be living through unprecedented times. In today's world, uncertainty is at an all-time high, demand is coming down, the talent market has completely tipped the other direction, and as always, we need to do more with less. Though some companies are increasing their legal spending, it is more critical now than ever to be strategic about how value is provided and conveyed within the law firm/client relationships. During this session, our expert panel will discuss innovative ways to approach the legal and business problems that are top of mind today. We will talk through real-life examples of how collaboration amongst pricing, project management, and knowledge management professionals combined with innovative technology and process improvement workflows is a true differentiator for the law firm/client relationship. We will also discuss opportunities to bring these skills back to your organization.
Mock Pitch: Be the Expert in the Room
Melissa Prince, Chief Client Value and Innovation Officer, Ballard Spahr LLP
James Boyer, Director of Practice Innovation, Ballard Spahr LLP
As clients start to ask for more value adds and competitive pricing that falls outside of the legal work provided by our lawyers, the need for business professionals to contribute to client pitches and RFPs increase. The goal of this session is to train and prepare LVN attendees to partner with their legal teams when given the opportunity to speak in front of the client. Volunteers will be placed on two teams, given a sample RFP focusing on clients learning more about value adds, pricing, and business solutions, and then sit in front of a "client" panel and respond to questions and clarifications.
Precision Pricing - Using Microdata to Create Dynamic Pricing Models
Scott Springer, Managing Director, HBR Consulting
Sean Monahan, Director, HBR Consulting
Good pricing requires good, quality data. Traditional data points like practice areas and industries are necessary but not always sufficient to make informed decisions. In this session, we’ll explore how to apply super specific, practice-focused “Microdata” to allow pricing teams and law departments to slice clients and matters and work more collaboratively with lawyers and clients. Topics will include:
Defining the difference between traditional matter data and “Microdata”
Describing how Micro Data can be used effectively by law firms and legal departments
Identifying new ways to collect detailed matter data using workflows and AI (where possible)
Providing practical applications for benefits and use cases for microdata
How to overcome challenges in data collection
Proven Strategies for LPM Adoption by Attorneys
Timothy Batdorf, CEO, NextGenLPM
Janelle Belling, Director of Legal Project Management, Perkins Coie LLP
Masako Hashimoto, Legal Project Manager, Frost Brown Todd LLC
In this session, an expert panel discusses various ways to influence and change lawyer behavior so that lawyers adopt LPM best practices. This session is essential for LPMs who want to learn how to: (1) establish a good working relationship with lawyers, (2) diagnose issues and recommend the appropriate LPM best practices, and (3) create a simple accountability framework to help lawyers maintain progress.
The Mature LPM Department: A London Perspective
Barry Mehew, Chief Pricing and Value Officer, Mayer Brown
David George, Global Director of Legal Project Management, Mayer Brown
Lorraine Bellinger, Head of Legal Project Delivery, Bird & Bird
Legal Project Management has flourished in London. Rapid growth has prompted a range of approaches to establishing and developing LPM departments and services, and the most successful models are beginning to emerge. Our superb panel of industry leaders from London share firm and client-side observations on the key issues for mature LPM functions, such as:
The dual nature of LPM: benefits to clients v benefits to firms
LPM as a profit centre
LPM sub-specialisations
developing and retaining talent, including certification and industry-wide standardisation of roles
LPM as a conduit for change
We will discuss these with US leader, Barry Mehew, to compare and contrast with approaches in the US."
Using Diversity Data to Drive Retention and Client Value
Rob Stote, Global Director of Financial Productivity Products, BigHand
We have traditionally approached Build/Buy assuming the value of our services is self-evident. In addition, building has typically been reserved for cash-rich firms. The advent of new technology is poised to shift this dynamic. Regardless of complexity, developing solutions can be daunting and filled with risk. Firms can mitigate that risk by bringing their customers, ‘internal’ and ‘external,’ along that journey. The decision to build a solution must have the customer experience at the heart of the process. A fully-informed customer is a fully-engaged customer. The more informed they are – the more likely they will be aligned with the outcomes and see value in the results. Join us for a TED-style talk covering the rationale for a customer experience-centered strategy, current practices, and practical guidance for using solution development as a customer experience strategy.
"You Might Want to Sit Down: I Have Bad News” – How to Maintain Relationships During Hard Times Jared Applegate, Chief Legal Operations Officer, Barnes & Thornburg LLP Timothy Haley, Partner, Latitude Legal
Christine Binotti, Lead Counsel, Motorola Solutions, Inc.
Professional Relationships are easy in good times. But the true test of any relationship is during the harder times. Communication skills, analytical skills, and the ability to build and maintain trust are challenged in those times - whether such hard times occur because of macroeconomic pressure or simply by getting bad news on a case or matter. This panel will assume you’re in a pickle. What are the challenges you face, and how do you overcome them? Not only that: what are the opportunities presented by those challenges, and how to take advantage? We will frame these challenges and opportunities in the contexts relevant to today's legal professionals, considering dynamics between internal and external clients and law firm-client-business partner relationships. What soft skills – the people skills – are needed to handle tougher times should be a priority for all legal professionals. Ultimately, innovation and growth start with necessity, and necessity becomes glaring in the tougher times.
Why Can't We Be Friends? How Legal Ops and Law Firms Can Work Together to Generate Value
Justin Ergler, Director, Alternative Fee Intelligence and Analytics, GSK
Hush Cott, Chief Strategic Pricing Officer, Covington
If the only thing law firm pricing and client legal ops discuss is the annual rate increase, then that dynamic is likely unpleasant and does not generate much value for either the law firm or the client. The reality is that law firm pricing and client legal ops could benefit greatly from partnering with one another. This session will focus on ways that the relationship can go beyond uncomfortable rate discussions to become a partnership that is far more interesting and mutually beneficial.
Check out the schedule at a glance and get your ticket today!
A Look At the First LVNx Conference Experience Last Year!
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