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WelcometoReinvitingProfessionals,apodcasthostedbyindustryanalystAriKaplan,
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whichsharesideas,guidanceandperspectivesfrommarketleadersshapingthenextgeneration
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oflegalandprofessionalservices.
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ThisisAriKaplan,andI'mspeakingtodaywithStephanieGoudes,theleadpracticeinnovation
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attorneyfortheemploymentandlaborpracticeatGundersonDettmer,andPatrickD.Domenico,
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thefounderofInspireKMConsultingandtheknowledgemanagementandinnovationfor
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legalconference.
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Stephanie,Patrick,greattoseeyou.
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Thanksforhavingus.
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Thankyou.
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It'smyprivilege.
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I'mlookingforwardtohavingthisconversation.
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SoStephanie,tellusaboutyourbackgroundandyourroleatGundersonDettmer.
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SoIamtheleadpracticeinnovationattorneyforouremploymentandlaborgroup,andIoversee
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thestrategicinitiativesandknowledgemanagement,andIworkverycloselywithJoeGreen,our
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firm'schiefinnovationofficer,andNataliePierce,thechairofouremploymentgroup.
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MyjourneytowhereIamnowremindsmeofthatSteveJobsspeechthathegave.
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IthinkatStanfordgraduationwherehewassayinghehadaconnecttothedotslooking
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backwards,anditdoesn'tmakesenseatthetime.
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Istartedmycareerasaclassactionlitigator,andIdefendedcasesmainlyinNewYork,but
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alsoNewJersey,Connecticut,Maryland,etcetera.
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IcouldhaveneverpredictedatthetimewhereIwouldendup.
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IwasjustinthetrenchesthoughtIwouldlitigateforever.
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Andthenovertimethatexperienceledmetobethefirstknowledgemanagementattorney
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atJacksonLewis,andIplayedapivotalrolethere,reallyexpandingandbuildingout
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thefirm'sclassactionandcomplexlitigationgroupgottobeabout200attorneysnationwide.
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AndthatwasareallybigpartofhowIultimatelyendedupleadinginnovation,butIdidn't
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knowitatthetime.
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AndsothenthenextdotinmycareerpathwasleadingtheinnovationinKMatthesame
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firm.
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AndIactuallyworkedwithPatrick,whowe'realsospeakingwithtoday,andwedroveseveral
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interwise,whydeployments,reallycoolcuttingedgelegaltechnology,andweworktogether
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toimproveandstreamlinethefirmsKMdepartment.
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Nowlookingback,connectingallthesedots,Icanseehowmyjourneyfromlitigatorto
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KMattorneytoKMorinnovationleaderwasnotacoincidence.
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Ithinkeachsteponmycareerpathgavemeinsightsthathelpedinformmyworktoday.
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SoIthinkSteveJobssaidyoucan'tconnectthedotslookingforward.
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Youcanonlyconnectthemlookingbackwards.
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Soyeah,that'saverylong-windedanswer,butI'memphasizingthiscareerjourneybecause
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Ireallythinkthathandsonlegalexperienceisabsolutelycriticalforanyonethat'sgoing
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tobeultimatelyinaKMorinnovationrole.
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There'sjustnootherwaytogetinthetrenchesandexperiencewhattheattorneysareexperiencing
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everyday.
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Patrick,tellusaboutyourbackgroundandthegenesisoftheKMandIconference.
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MybackgroundissimilartoStephanie's.
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I'malsoaformerpracticinglawyerlikeyouareaswell.
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Practicelitigationaswellforabouteightornineyears,andit'sfunnybecausethe
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morepeopleItalkwithinthiscommunity,theKMandIcommunity,it'sverysimilar
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backgrounds,right?
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A lot of us practiced for a while.
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We didn't hate it, but we didn't really love it.
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We wanted something a little bit more fulfilling, and that was the case with me.
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I found myself frustrated with the practice of law.
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I think you and I are of similar age, Stephanie is a little bit younger, a lot of it younger.
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I stopped practicing in 2004, 2005.
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So the technology and processes and all these things were different back then, but
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I was very frustrated by the inefficiency of the practice of law.
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I came up with a lot of what I thought were interesting ways to help myself practice
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better, stronger, faster, as I say.
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I realized, hey, I can't be the only one at the firm or maybe beyond the firm who has
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these frustrations.
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Maybe there's a job in this idea of trying to help lawyers be better lawyers with technology,
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with process improvement, with what I later came to learn what's called knowledge management.
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So I went down that road, I proposed some ideas to the firm and switched over from practicing
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to knowledge management.
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And did that at the firm where I was practicing for a few years, went on to some other firms,
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like Gavuels and Plumpton, spent quite a few years at Ogletree Deacons, and then Stephanie
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said most recently at Jackson Lewis.
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And then about two and a half years ago, went out on my own and actually formed my own consultancy,
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InspireK and consulting.
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So I helped other firms and in-house legal departments and legal tech companies with all of these
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issues that we like to talk about.
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And then last year, as you guys both know, we launched the first knowledge management and
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innovation for legal conference, October of 2023.
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And that was a great success and we're excited to do it again this year.
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Stephanie, you serve on the KMNI for legal conference, Board of Advisors.
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What KM issues are leaders most concerned about?
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So for full transparency, I will step back and say one of my main motivations for joining
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the board was to get my hands on this legendary notebook that I've heard of that Patrick
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and Joshua have.
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And it's supposedly filled with insights from all the dozens of conferences that they've
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attended over the years.
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And the rumor has it's packed with what works, what doesn't work, how we can keep improving.
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And it certainly hasn't actually offered to share it with me yet, but I will consider
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making a formal request after this.
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But seriously, I knew that with Patrick's expertise and all of the conferences that he've
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been to and his experience at firms that any event that he would put together be a home
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run and I want to be a part of it.
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Yes, I joined the Board of Advisors.
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We could probably do a whole podcast on the issues that leaders are grappling with right
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now in KM.
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I'll start with the intersection of KM and what else AI.
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I think a lot of leaders are asking, how are we making sure we're using AI responsibly?
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How are we managing the risks, especially when it comes to maintaining client confidentiality,
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data privacy, legal ethics?
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There's a lot of issues involved in this and we still want to be leveraging AI to its full
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potential.
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So managing the data and the technology is definitely a huge challenge.
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I would also say another challenge is change management in of itself, right?
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It's usually the make or break factor for a lot of the KM initiatives.
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So you could have the best technology in the world, but if your lawyers don't want to use
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it, it's just going to be something expensive sitting on your shelf.
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And so I think the key for that is really getting the buy-in from all levels of the firm, the
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leaders, the attorneys actually using the technology and then there may also be support
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staff such as paralegals or docketing or IT who are going to be using it too.
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So just making sure that you're getting their feedback and buy-in.
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And then I would say lastly silos and fragmentation because I think a lot of firms are going
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to be able to do that.
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And so that can lead to fragmentation and a lot of efforts being duplicated.
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And so I think the focus has increasingly become more on how we can collaborate across our
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organization with different groups.
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Patrick, after the success of last year's inaugural event, what can 2024 attendees expect?
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It was interesting.
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From my perspective, because as Stephanie mentioned, Joshua Fireman, my co-conspirator, if you
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will, he and I had been co-sharing and co-hosting other KM events for many years.
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And we had a good handle on doing that, this sort of posting and on the stage introducing
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and coming up with sessions and coming up with great speakers.
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But to do all of it with the sponsors and the venue and this and everything, it was quite
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a, quite an endeavor.
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And I didn't know how I was going to go.
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I could have flipped the coin.
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It might be successful, maybe not.
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But to my surprise and great pleasure, it really went well.
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You obviously both were there.
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It was a sold out event, which was fantastic.
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We had, I think, 185 people who signed up for the event last year.
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We had a really great venue right in Midtown Manhattan with this, we're going to, the venue
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of providers called convene.
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And they have these really fantastic spaces.
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It was a great space, but because we sold out, this year we had to go bigger and better,
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right?
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It convenes various properties and we found a larger, 60% larger venue, which is great.
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The other thing about that venue and that company is, I don't know if you guys remember,
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but afterwards everyone raved about the food.
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They were like, this is really amazing food.
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That was great.
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So I was happy that we're sticking with convene, one of their larger properties, still great
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food, great networking spaces.
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The room that we're going to be in, again, is much larger.
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We can hold about 225 or so.
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That's going to be pushing the limits, but 215, 225 folks and we're approaching that already.
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We have a, we're approaching 200 already.
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So we're really excited about it.
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It's going to be, again, of course, we always have great speakers, great topics, great content.
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I'm very picky about who gets to go on stage.
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I either want to know them or I want someone like Stephanie to know them.
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I want to know them.
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I want someone who you have to bounce for someone because I think it's really important
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to, there's a combination of education and entertainment, I think, keeping people interested
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and engaged at the conference.
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I think we've got some great sessions, some fantastic speakers.
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We also have some other great features at the conference this year that I'm sure we'll
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get into.
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So I'm really excited about it.
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Stephanie, you practiced for several years before pursuing a career in knowledge management
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and innovation.
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How have you seen the practice of law change over the past decade or so?
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Back to your original question, the practice of law has changed dramatically over the past
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decade or so.
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I think it really has to do with client expectations, technology, and then just the sheer
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pace of change.
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I think everything is just faster.
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We expect information instantly now and it's a very different world than it was 10 or 15
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years ago.
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So when I first started practicing, I didn't have half of as many of the tools that there
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is now.
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I would have loved to have some of these legal tech tools for drafting my briefs or for researching.
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There were a few tools for document management, you discovery, but just nothing like the
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AI and the automation and the options that we have today.
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So I think now we have this whole ecosystem of legal tech that we can choose from.
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And so we're a little spoiled in that regard.
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Clients are also driving a lot of this change.
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They expect more for less and I don't blame them.
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I would too as a client.
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I think that means law firms have to get really creative and practical about how they're
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delivering the legal services.
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And so it's not just about calling up and getting a subject matter expert in something.
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So it's about being efficient, cost effective, solving their problem practically.
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And so that's really a shift that we didn't see 10, 15 years ago.
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And then I'll just add that in terms of knowledge management and innovation, I think the rise
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of the data driven decision making has been huge and that's going to continue as AI is used
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more and more.
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We have this immense amount of data and we can look at case law trends.
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We could look at client behavior choices, strategic decisions, how do judges rule on cases,
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how does certain courts rule?
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And I think all of this is leading to this and rightly so emphasis on how are we capturing
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this data?
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How are we managing it?
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How are we analyzing it so that we can improve the legal outcomes and the business operations?
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Patrick, you followed a similar path from practice to KM.
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How does the KM and I for legal conference focus on empowering professionals with practical
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skills that they can apply immediately?
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Yeah, I think folks like us who have followed a certain path who understand the potential
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of improving the practice of law, we love the practicality, right?
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We, I'm allergic to anything that is too much naval gazing, too much speculation, et cetera,
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et cetera.
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I turn right off when I hear presentations that go too far down that path.
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Some of them are okay, but at the end of the day, I think most people go to conferences
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to get ideas about what they can do when they get home from that conference, right?
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They want to be inspired, they want to understand that, hey, we can do this.
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And that's what this conference is all about, right?
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The KM and I community is here driven, right?
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It's your peers on that stage.
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And they're telling you what they have actually been doing.
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I love Stephanie's point from last year, even if that's a failure, you, you're going to hear
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about that because that's helpful.
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I think it's helpful to everybody.
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And I think most of the people in this community, they live by the concepts of knowledge
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management, knowledge sharing, which is really fantastic.
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One good example of this and it's something I'm super excited about.
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And in fact, I'm not sure when this will be released, but just today we announced the
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finalists in the KM and I Lex Prize competition.
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The Lex Prize Innovation Award is what it's called.
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And the idea here is to show organizations, law firms, other organizations that are truly
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innovating, right?
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Not just checking the box innovation.
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When you go to the conference, I think it's the third session on the first day.
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It's in the morning.
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It's the Lex Prize showcase.
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So what you're going to get are the free finalists presenting their project, their innovative
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project to the audience.
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You're going to see what they did.
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You're going to see, so you're not going to get them talking about concepts and ideas.
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You're going to see what they have done at their firms or organizations.
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And it's going to be very practical.
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And then super excited about this.
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And the audience in people's choice spirit will vote and select the winner of the Lex Prize
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Award.
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So super, super practical, really important.
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Some of the other practical things, first of all of the sessions, they're very practical,
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but one of the other things that people really love from last year and we're doing more
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of it this year are the breakout sessions.
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So on either side of lunch, we're going to have part one and part two of four different
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breakout sessions.
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And these cover all of the folks in our community, right?
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You've got the C-suite roundtable for the leaders of the KMNI departments.
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You've got KM101, KMNI 101 for Newbies.
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You've got KMNI attorneys for those who have that particular role.
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And then last year, we didn't do this, but Rachel Shields Williams came to me and said, hey,
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there's a real gap in what you did last year.
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We didn't have anything for the middle.
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We didn't have anything for the directors, managers, analysts, coordinators, et cetera.
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We need a session for them.
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And I said, that's a great idea.
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What do we call it?
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She said, we'll call it the middle.
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And I said, okay, who's going to run this thing?
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I don't know.
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I said, how about you?
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So Rachel is going to facilitate that breakout.
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So I'm super excited to break about the breakout sessions.
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And then just one more thing.
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It's definitely point about the sponsor spotlights, the five-minute commercials, something I'm
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very passionate about.
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I really love to put peers on the stage, right?
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I don't have anything particularly against putting sponsors on the stage, but every once
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in a while that can turn into a veiled pitch, it gets awkward and gets off the rails.
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So we developed these sponsor spotlights five minutes where sponsors can get up and
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say, this is what we do.
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This is what you should talk to us at a break, et cetera.
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And I knew the sponsors would love that, but I didn't realize how much the attendees would
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love it.
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And they loved it because it's a filter, as Stephanie said.
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It shows you what they're about and then you can make a decision, oh, I didn't realize
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what info dash does.
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I'm not going to go see them because I saw Ted get up on stage and describe what they
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do.
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I'm going to go talk to Ted during one of the breaks.
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So super practical stuff, super exciting.
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A lot of different new things, I think.
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I'm really excited.
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Stephanie, you're such a great ambassador for the KM community.
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How does the board of advisors help elevate the visibility of this event?
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Yeah, so first I'll just add that the breakout sessions were incredible.
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I was in the KM attorney one and when we walked in, they said, we're not doing any PowerPoint
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slides.
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We're actually just going to talk to you and you're going to throw out questions on what
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we can answer.
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And so we had these really practical, how do I get leadership by in?
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How do I deal with messy data?
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How do I pitch my ideas?
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And it was almost like a consulting session versus having people stand and present to
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a group of us.
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And so they were real solutions, not just theory, and that made a big difference.
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The board of advisors, we have a very great experience in diverse group of advisors and
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they all have tremendous amount of value to add.
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In terms of what we do on the board, we provide feedback, strategic recommendations to help
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shape the direction and the quality of the conference.
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And we also look at the format and the content and the quality of the content.
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We want all the sessions to have that right balance between educational and engaging.
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So we try to help evaluate what is actually going to resonate with the audience.
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Candidly, I would probably rather watch paint dry or maybe read the US tax code then sit
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through another theoretical presentation that has zero real world application.
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As lawyers, we deal with hypotheticals all the time.
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And so our goal is to make sure that the attendees are leaving there and they have practical
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solutions and things that they can actually apply in their day to day work.
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Lastly, I will give a shout out to Hunter Jackson from McDermott for having one of my favorite
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quotes at the conference, which I wrote down.
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So I wouldn't mess it up.
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He gave the metaphor about Gen AI hallucinating like a hippie at Burning Man.
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And he also equated choosing AI vendors to picking tech stocks in the late 90s.
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You could either pick Amazon or pets.com like he did.
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And so it's not easy making a presentation about AI really fun and engaging, but he did
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a great job of that.
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Patrick, how can people learn more about the conference and sign up?
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The website is KMI4Legal.com.
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KMI4Legal.com.
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And yeah, everything's there.
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The agenda, the sign up form, all the rest of that.
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And as a thank you, Ari, for having us today.
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We're going to offer your listeners a discount on registration.
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I will say that you should do it pretty quickly because as I mentioned, we're getting
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very close to our limit.
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But the discount I mentioned for 15% off is Ari Kaplan.
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So just enter Ari Kaplan at checkout and you'll get 15% off your registration.
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But thank you for having us, Ari.
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This is Ari Kaplan speaking with Stephanie Goudes, the lead practice innovation attorney for
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the employment and labor practice at Gunderson, DETMA.
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And Patrick D. Dementico, the founder of Inspire KM Consulting and the Knowledge Management
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and Innovation for legal conference.
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Stephanie, Patrick, thanks so very much.
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Thank you for having us.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you for listening to the re-inventing professionals podcast.
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Visit re-inventingprofessionals.com or Ari Kaplan Advisors.com to learn more.
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♪ ♪
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WelcometoReinvitingProfessionals,apodcasthostedbyindustryanalystAriKaplan,
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whichsharesideas,guidanceandperspectivesfrommarketleadersshapingthenextgeneration
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oflegalandprofessionalservices.
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ThisisAriKaplan,andI'mspeakingtodaywithStephanieGoudes,theleadpracticeinnovation
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attorneyfortheemploymentandlaborpracticeatGundersonDettmer,andPatrickD.Domenico,
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thefounderofInspireKMConsultingandtheknowledgemanagementandinnovationfor
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legalconference.
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Stephanie,Patrick,greattoseeyou.
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Thanksforhavingus.
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Thankyou.
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It'smyprivilege.
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I'mlookingforwardtohavingthisconversation.
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SoStephanie,tellusaboutyourbackgroundandyourroleatGundersonDettmer.
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SoIamtheleadpracticeinnovationattorneyforouremploymentandlaborgroup,andIoversee
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thestrategicinitiativesandknowledgemanagement,andIworkverycloselywithJoeGreen,our
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firm'schiefinnovationofficer,andNataliePierce,thechairofouremploymentgroup.
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MyjourneytowhereIamnowremindsmeofthatSteveJobsspeechthathegave.
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IthinkatStanfordgraduationwherehewassayinghehadaconnecttothedotslooking
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backwards,anditdoesn'tmakesenseatthetime.
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Istartedmycareerasaclassactionlitigator,andIdefendedcasesmainlyinNewYork,but
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alsoNewJersey,Connecticut,Maryland,etcetera.
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IcouldhaveneverpredictedatthetimewhereIwouldendup.
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IwasjustinthetrenchesthoughtIwouldlitigateforever.
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Andthenovertimethatexperienceledmetobethefirstknowledgemanagementattorney
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atJacksonLewis,andIplayedapivotalrolethere,reallyexpandingandbuildingout
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thefirm'sclassactionandcomplexlitigationgroupgottobeabout200attorneysnationwide.
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AndthatwasareallybigpartofhowIultimatelyendedupleadinginnovation,butIdidn't
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knowitatthetime.
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AndsothenthenextdotinmycareerpathwasleadingtheinnovationinKMatthesame
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firm.
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AndIactuallyworkedwithPatrick,whowe'realsospeakingwithtoday,andwedroveseveral
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interwise,whydeployments,reallycoolcuttingedgelegaltechnology,andweworktogether
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toimproveandstreamlinethefirmsKMdepartment.
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Nowlookingback,connectingallthesedots,Icanseehowmyjourneyfromlitigatorto
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KMattorneytoKMorinnovationleaderwasnotacoincidence.
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Ithinkeachsteponmycareerpathgavemeinsightsthathelpedinformmyworktoday.
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SoIthinkSteveJobssaidyoucan'tconnectthedotslookingforward.
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Youcanonlyconnectthemlookingbackwards.
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Soyeah,that'saverylong-windedanswer,butI'memphasizingthiscareerjourneybecause
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Ireallythinkthathandsonlegalexperienceisabsolutelycriticalforanyonethat'sgoing
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tobeultimatelyinaKMorinnovationrole.
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There'sjustnootherwaytogetinthetrenchesandexperiencewhattheattorneysareexperiencing
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everyday.
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Patrick,tellusaboutyourbackgroundandthegenesisoftheKMandIconference.
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MybackgroundissimilartoStephanie's.
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I'malsoaformerpracticinglawyerlikeyouareaswell.
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Practicelitigationaswellforabouteightornineyears,andit'sfunnybecausethe
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morepeopleItalkwithinthiscommunity,theKMandIcommunity,it'sverysimilar
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backgrounds,right?
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A lot of us practiced for a while.
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We didn't hate it, but we didn't really love it.
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We wanted something a little bit more fulfilling, and that was the case with me.
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I found myself frustrated with the practice of law.
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I think you and I are of similar age, Stephanie is a little bit younger, a lot of it younger.
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I stopped practicing in 2004, 2005.
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So the technology and processes and all these things were different back then, but
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I was very frustrated by the inefficiency of the practice of law.
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I came up with a lot of what I thought were interesting ways to help myself practice
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better, stronger, faster, as I say.
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I realized, hey, I can't be the only one at the firm or maybe beyond the firm who has
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these frustrations.
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Maybe there's a job in this idea of trying to help lawyers be better lawyers with technology,
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with process improvement, with what I later came to learn what's called knowledge management.
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So I went down that road, I proposed some ideas to the firm and switched over from practicing
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to knowledge management.
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And did that at the firm where I was practicing for a few years, went on to some other firms,
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like Gavuels and Plumpton, spent quite a few years at Ogletree Deacons, and then Stephanie
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said most recently at Jackson Lewis.
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And then about two and a half years ago, went out on my own and actually formed my own consultancy,
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InspireK and consulting.
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So I helped other firms and in-house legal departments and legal tech companies with all of these
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issues that we like to talk about.
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And then last year, as you guys both know, we launched the first knowledge management and
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innovation for legal conference, October of 2023.
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And that was a great success and we're excited to do it again this year.
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Stephanie, you serve on the KMNI for legal conference, Board of Advisors.
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What KM issues are leaders most concerned about?
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So for full transparency, I will step back and say one of my main motivations for joining
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the board was to get my hands on this legendary notebook that I've heard of that Patrick
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and Joshua have.
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And it's supposedly filled with insights from all the dozens of conferences that they've
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attended over the years.
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And the rumor has it's packed with what works, what doesn't work, how we can keep improving.
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And it certainly hasn't actually offered to share it with me yet, but I will consider
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making a formal request after this.
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But seriously, I knew that with Patrick's expertise and all of the conferences that he've
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been to and his experience at firms that any event that he would put together be a home
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run and I want to be a part of it.
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Yes, I joined the Board of Advisors.
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We could probably do a whole podcast on the issues that leaders are grappling with right
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now in KM.
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I'll start with the intersection of KM and what else AI.
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I think a lot of leaders are asking, how are we making sure we're using AI responsibly?
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How are we managing the risks, especially when it comes to maintaining client confidentiality,
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data privacy, legal ethics?
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There's a lot of issues involved in this and we still want to be leveraging AI to its full
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potential.
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So managing the data and the technology is definitely a huge challenge.
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I would also say another challenge is change management in of itself, right?
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It's usually the make or break factor for a lot of the KM initiatives.
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So you could have the best technology in the world, but if your lawyers don't want to use
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it, it's just going to be something expensive sitting on your shelf.
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And so I think the key for that is really getting the buy-in from all levels of the firm, the
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leaders, the attorneys actually using the technology and then there may also be support
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staff such as paralegals or docketing or IT who are going to be using it too.
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So just making sure that you're getting their feedback and buy-in.
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And then I would say lastly silos and fragmentation because I think a lot of firms are going
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to be able to do that.
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And so that can lead to fragmentation and a lot of efforts being duplicated.
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And so I think the focus has increasingly become more on how we can collaborate across our
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organization with different groups.
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Patrick, after the success of last year's inaugural event, what can 2024 attendees expect?
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It was interesting.
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From my perspective, because as Stephanie mentioned, Joshua Fireman, my co-conspirator, if you
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will, he and I had been co-sharing and co-hosting other KM events for many years.
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And we had a good handle on doing that, this sort of posting and on the stage introducing
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and coming up with sessions and coming up with great speakers.
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But to do all of it with the sponsors and the venue and this and everything, it was quite
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a, quite an endeavor.
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And I didn't know how I was going to go.
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I could have flipped the coin.
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It might be successful, maybe not.
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But to my surprise and great pleasure, it really went well.
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You obviously both were there.
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It was a sold out event, which was fantastic.
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We had, I think, 185 people who signed up for the event last year.
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We had a really great venue right in Midtown Manhattan with this, we're going to, the venue
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of providers called convene.
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And they have these really fantastic spaces.
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It was a great space, but because we sold out, this year we had to go bigger and better,
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right?
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It convenes various properties and we found a larger, 60% larger venue, which is great.
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The other thing about that venue and that company is, I don't know if you guys remember,
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but afterwards everyone raved about the food.
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They were like, this is really amazing food.
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That was great.
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So I was happy that we're sticking with convene, one of their larger properties, still great
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food, great networking spaces.
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The room that we're going to be in, again, is much larger.
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We can hold about 225 or so.
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That's going to be pushing the limits, but 215, 225 folks and we're approaching that already.
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We have a, we're approaching 200 already.
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So we're really excited about it.
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It's going to be, again, of course, we always have great speakers, great topics, great content.
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I'm very picky about who gets to go on stage.
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I either want to know them or I want someone like Stephanie to know them.
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I want to know them.
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I want someone who you have to bounce for someone because I think it's really important
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to, there's a combination of education and entertainment, I think, keeping people interested
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and engaged at the conference.
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I think we've got some great sessions, some fantastic speakers.
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We also have some other great features at the conference this year that I'm sure we'll
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get into.
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So I'm really excited about it.
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Stephanie, you practiced for several years before pursuing a career in knowledge management
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and innovation.
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How have you seen the practice of law change over the past decade or so?
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Back to your original question, the practice of law has changed dramatically over the past
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decade or so.
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I think it really has to do with client expectations, technology, and then just the sheer
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pace of change.
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I think everything is just faster.
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We expect information instantly now and it's a very different world than it was 10 or 15
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years ago.
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So when I first started practicing, I didn't have half of as many of the tools that there
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is now.
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I would have loved to have some of these legal tech tools for drafting my briefs or for researching.
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There were a few tools for document management, you discovery, but just nothing like the
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AI and the automation and the options that we have today.
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So I think now we have this whole ecosystem of legal tech that we can choose from.
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And so we're a little spoiled in that regard.
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Clients are also driving a lot of this change.
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They expect more for less and I don't blame them.
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I would too as a client.
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I think that means law firms have to get really creative and practical about how they're
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delivering the legal services.
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And so it's not just about calling up and getting a subject matter expert in something.
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So it's about being efficient, cost effective, solving their problem practically.
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And so that's really a shift that we didn't see 10, 15 years ago.
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And then I'll just add that in terms of knowledge management and innovation, I think the rise
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of the data driven decision making has been huge and that's going to continue as AI is used
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more and more.
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We have this immense amount of data and we can look at case law trends.
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We could look at client behavior choices, strategic decisions, how do judges rule on cases,
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how does certain courts rule?
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And I think all of this is leading to this and rightly so emphasis on how are we capturing
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this data?
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How are we managing it?
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How are we analyzing it so that we can improve the legal outcomes and the business operations?
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Patrick, you followed a similar path from practice to KM.
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How does the KM and I for legal conference focus on empowering professionals with practical
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skills that they can apply immediately?
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Yeah, I think folks like us who have followed a certain path who understand the potential
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of improving the practice of law, we love the practicality, right?
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We, I'm allergic to anything that is too much naval gazing, too much speculation, et cetera,
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et cetera.
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I turn right off when I hear presentations that go too far down that path.
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Some of them are okay, but at the end of the day, I think most people go to conferences
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to get ideas about what they can do when they get home from that conference, right?
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They want to be inspired, they want to understand that, hey, we can do this.
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And that's what this conference is all about, right?
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The KM and I community is here driven, right?
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It's your peers on that stage.
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And they're telling you what they have actually been doing.
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I love Stephanie's point from last year, even if that's a failure, you, you're going to hear
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about that because that's helpful.
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I think it's helpful to everybody.
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And I think most of the people in this community, they live by the concepts of knowledge
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management, knowledge sharing, which is really fantastic.
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One good example of this and it's something I'm super excited about.
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And in fact, I'm not sure when this will be released, but just today we announced the
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finalists in the KM and I Lex Prize competition.
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The Lex Prize Innovation Award is what it's called.
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And the idea here is to show organizations, law firms, other organizations that are truly
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innovating, right?
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Not just checking the box innovation.
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When you go to the conference, I think it's the third session on the first day.
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It's in the morning.
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It's the Lex Prize showcase.
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So what you're going to get are the free finalists presenting their project, their innovative
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project to the audience.
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You're going to see what they did.
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You're going to see, so you're not going to get them talking about concepts and ideas.
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You're going to see what they have done at their firms or organizations.
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And it's going to be very practical.
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And then super excited about this.
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And the audience in people's choice spirit will vote and select the winner of the Lex Prize
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Award.
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So super, super practical, really important.
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Some of the other practical things, first of all of the sessions, they're very practical,
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but one of the other things that people really love from last year and we're doing more
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of it this year are the breakout sessions.
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So on either side of lunch, we're going to have part one and part two of four different
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breakout sessions.
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And these cover all of the folks in our community, right?
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You've got the C-suite roundtable for the leaders of the KMNI departments.
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You've got KM101, KMNI 101 for Newbies.
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You've got KMNI attorneys for those who have that particular role.
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And then last year, we didn't do this, but Rachel Shields Williams came to me and said, hey,
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there's a real gap in what you did last year.
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We didn't have anything for the middle.
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We didn't have anything for the directors, managers, analysts, coordinators, et cetera.
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We need a session for them.
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And I said, that's a great idea.
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What do we call it?
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She said, we'll call it the middle.
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And I said, okay, who's going to run this thing?
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I don't know.
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I said, how about you?
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So Rachel is going to facilitate that breakout.
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So I'm super excited to break about the breakout sessions.
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And then just one more thing.
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It's definitely point about the sponsor spotlights, the five-minute commercials, something I'm
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very passionate about.
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I really love to put peers on the stage, right?
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I don't have anything particularly against putting sponsors on the stage, but every once
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in a while that can turn into a veiled pitch, it gets awkward and gets off the rails.
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So we developed these sponsor spotlights five minutes where sponsors can get up and
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say, this is what we do.
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This is what you should talk to us at a break, et cetera.
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And I knew the sponsors would love that, but I didn't realize how much the attendees would
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love it.
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And they loved it because it's a filter, as Stephanie said.
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It shows you what they're about and then you can make a decision, oh, I didn't realize
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what info dash does.
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I'm not going to go see them because I saw Ted get up on stage and describe what they
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do.
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I'm going to go talk to Ted during one of the breaks.
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So super practical stuff, super exciting.
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A lot of different new things, I think.
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I'm really excited.
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Stephanie, you're such a great ambassador for the KM community.
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How does the board of advisors help elevate the visibility of this event?
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Yeah, so first I'll just add that the breakout sessions were incredible.
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I was in the KM attorney one and when we walked in, they said, we're not doing any PowerPoint
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slides.
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We're actually just going to talk to you and you're going to throw out questions on what
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we can answer.
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And so we had these really practical, how do I get leadership by in?
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How do I deal with messy data?
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How do I pitch my ideas?
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And it was almost like a consulting session versus having people stand and present to
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a group of us.
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And so they were real solutions, not just theory, and that made a big difference.
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The board of advisors, we have a very great experience in diverse group of advisors and
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they all have tremendous amount of value to add.
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In terms of what we do on the board, we provide feedback, strategic recommendations to help
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shape the direction and the quality of the conference.
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And we also look at the format and the content and the quality of the content.
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We want all the sessions to have that right balance between educational and engaging.
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So we try to help evaluate what is actually going to resonate with the audience.
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Candidly, I would probably rather watch paint dry or maybe read the US tax code then sit
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through another theoretical presentation that has zero real world application.
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As lawyers, we deal with hypotheticals all the time.
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And so our goal is to make sure that the attendees are leaving there and they have practical
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solutions and things that they can actually apply in their day to day work.
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Lastly, I will give a shout out to Hunter Jackson from McDermott for having one of my favorite
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quotes at the conference, which I wrote down.
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So I wouldn't mess it up.
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He gave the metaphor about Gen AI hallucinating like a hippie at Burning Man.
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And he also equated choosing AI vendors to picking tech stocks in the late 90s.
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You could either pick Amazon or pets.com like he did.
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And so it's not easy making a presentation about AI really fun and engaging, but he did
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a great job of that.
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Patrick, how can people learn more about the conference and sign up?
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The website is KMI4Legal.com.
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KMI4Legal.com.
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And yeah, everything's there.
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The agenda, the sign up form, all the rest of that.
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And as a thank you, Ari, for having us today.
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We're going to offer your listeners a discount on registration.
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I will say that you should do it pretty quickly because as I mentioned, we're getting
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very close to our limit.
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But the discount I mentioned for 15% off is Ari Kaplan.
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So just enter Ari Kaplan at checkout and you'll get 15% off your registration.
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But thank you for having us, Ari.
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This is Ari Kaplan speaking with Stephanie Goudes, the lead practice innovation attorney for
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the employment and labor practice at Gunderson, DETMA.
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And Patrick D. Dementico, the founder of Inspire KM Consulting and the Knowledge Management
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and Innovation for legal conference.
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Stephanie, Patrick, thanks so very much.
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Thank you for having us.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you for listening to the re-inventing professionals podcast.
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Visit re-inventingprofessionals.com or Ari Kaplan Advisors.com to learn more.
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♪ ♪
