ABA TechShow: The Video

Live from TechShow 2009 ...

 

Thought I’d share some choice video from TechShow 2009 featuring all 4 of the Best of Show winners that I wrote up in TechnoLawyer, plus interviews with some of my heroes such as Bob Ambrogi, Jay Funeberg, and Kevin O’Keefe, as well as sightings of legal blogging all-stars like Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighelle. I’m still excited.  

 

See related videos here and find me on YouTube as practicehacker. 

ABA TechShow 2009 – Short and SaaSy

We're the ABA Damnit! We own you!

This was my 10th year at ABA Technology Show in Chicago. This year was particularly cool.  Here’s why:

Meeting The Heavies: To me, seeing people like Dennis Kennedy, Tom Mighelle, Bob Ambrogi, Jim Calloway, Kevin O’Keefe, Brett Burney, Andy Atkins, Jay Foonberg (!) and the rest of my pretend blog friends … I mean pretend LinkedIn friends … is like reconnecting with long lost relatives. Exciting and a little intimidating. But all of them were really great and down to earth. Except that Kennedy. Such a prima donna. I kid, I kid.

Meeting Canadians: Who can forget meeting the Great Librarian of Upper Canada! Beat that. Then there was Phil of the Future (my name for him), Steve Matthews (nice guy), Brett Burney (I think he’s Canadian), Dominic Jaar (vive la Quebec libre!), the boys from Clio (or as I called them, the Booth Babes), and a host of other talent from the Great White North. It was great to meet you all: now go back where the ice doesn’t melt until July.

Technology Becoming Accepted: This year for the first time in memory I noticed a preponderance of grey hairs and the careful gait of partners scoping out potential buys for their offices.  This was not the brash, flash-in-the-pan TechShow of the late-90’s in which the Internet was decried as a fad.

SaaS, Saas, and more Saas: Software as a service was all over the place, and by next year it will be pervasive. This year I was knocked out by the number and variety of kick-ass SaaS providers at the show including Clio, RocketMatter, and VLO Tech. Clio was my hands-down favorite for a number of reasons – I intend to use it in my own practice. Whatever your cup of tea, the idea of throwing away the IT department in favor of the Cloud is gaining traction fast.

Less is … Less: One lamentable fact about this  year’s show – there was less of it than I’ve seen in a long time. Another casualty of the economy I’d say, but we shouldn’t overlook the fact that many legal technology vendors have been slaves to profit instead of boosters for innovation and the slow economy is making it painfully apparent what a royal screw job they’ve been giving lawyers all these years. Many players couldn’t make it ? Good riddance to bad company.

Other than that however, it was a great experience as always and one that I heartily recommend to one and all. If you haven’t been to TechShow, go there. If you have, come back. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

For more coverage see my SmallLaw Column in TechnoLawyer.

Check out Twitter coverage of TechShow.

As always, I’d love your thoughts. E-mail me at mhedayat[at]mha-law.com or tweet me @practichacker.

ttyl 🙂

Avvo v. The ARDC – Battle Royale

Ed. Note: Readers will remember my zealous defense of Avvo in its early going, as well as the controversy surrounding that position (what I call a “free market” stance). Here is a selection from those rebellious times. But it wasn’t until this year that Avvo’s rabble-rousing approach to the legal marketplace reached Illinois, that shining jewel set in the silver sea of the Midwest. The Paris of fly-over territory. And when Avvo arrived its new ideas were welcomed by our foreward-thinking judiciary with open arms (and clenched fists). But don’t take my word for it ..

Avvo

The Illinois ARDC Responds to Avvo’s Petition

July 8th, 2008 by Josh King, VP of Business Development and General Counsel

I received the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission’s response to Avvo’s Illinois Supreme Court petition yesterday. Although I had hoped that the ARDC would simply ask the court for guidance in dealing with the apparent disagreement between public records law and the ARDC’s 28-year-old guidelines for providing attorney records, the ARDC went to some lengths to defend its guidelines and take issue with what Avvo is doing. I’m not entirely sure why – the guidelines in question have survived both the advent of the internet and the explosion of openness in most state open records laws, so there surely would be no shame in inquiring whether the policy is still relevant, let alone whether it complies with the current state of Illinois law on public access to judicial records.

The guidelines in question, you see, generally prohibit the dissemination of the Attorney Roll to nn-Illinois entities or for most commercial uses (for-profit Illinois CLE providers are exempt). Putting aside the only-for-Illinois portion of the guidelines (a restriction that surely doesn’t meet the standards of the federal Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities clause), the ARDC has focused on Avvo’s status as a commercial entity and Avvo’s use of the attorney records. Along the way, the ARDC has attempted to understand how Avvo works. Unfortunately, it hasn’t done so via the lens of the consumer. So let’s clear up some misconceptions the folks in Springfield hold: [read the rest here]

When do we turn the page?

ZDNets – Between the lines post

ZDnet was a technology space? The two videos posted reflect items captured on camera that reflect a negative response of the people. Which is usually hammered at by other’s with social agenda’s that at-times itself is a distraction.

Apple is planning on streaming video with the support of CCTV (funny enough-China Central Television). This can prove to be a tremendous break-through. Broadcasting feeds generated from Surveillance cameras. Only in such a “closed” lab like environment can this possibly take place.

The behind the scenes knowledge obtained, used the right way in a “free” society, can open avenues of possibilities today only on paper.

Chicago – only second to London is developing an infrastructure of surveillance cameras that now looks to encourage businesses to join the network through its 911 center. Is it possible the surveillance build up in these cities is connected with the Olympics?  (Chicago is still in running to host 2016)

Not to overlook China’s other side, we have a strong tendency within our own media of “selective” messages.

One main role technology plays is finding alternate uses for ideas once there created. At times we leave this up to the “free” market to bring forward. If we spend to much time with the Orwellian theory, we risk the opportunity of missing something that may prove more important to society.

Communities across this great nation are embracing surveillance with the honorable objective of securing the land for the people. The camera was never in question, it is those behind the camera.

It is sad individuals don’t see this opportunity an trumpet in a new concept in using surveillance cameras. Maybe “hits/visitors” are more important the true content.

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Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites

gives a review of AVVO’s new updates

Merry Christmas Mr. Britton: Brown v. Avvo Dismissed

SEATTLE, WA–(Marketwire – December 18, 2007) – In this opinion the U.S. District Court in Seattle, WA dismissed the class action complaint filed in June 2007 against nascent attorney-portal and rating site Avvo with prejudice. This blog has been following Avvo, and the Brown lawsuit, since its inception. Ironically, the suit probably drew more attention to Avvo than the site would have otherwise attracted. Take that Counselor.

In its motion to dismiss Avvo argued that its publication of attorney disciplinary information and the opinions of clients and colleagues, as well as its own numerical rating, constituted protected speech. The Court agreed, stating that all of the foregoing “are absolutely protected by the First Amendment and cannot serve as the basis for liability under state law.” In short, lawyers now have to take it as well as they give it out.

Avvo CEO Mark Britton, a lawyer himself, says Attorneys in the jurisdictions in which Avvo operates (currently Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington) had “better not pout, better not cry, better not shout I’m telling you why – Avvo-Clause is coming to  town … to eat your lunch if you don’t come clean with clients.” Ed. Note. That quote may not have actually been from Mark Britton.

See other Avvo articles on the pm blog

Avvo Update – Answers and Track Record

 

On December 11 attorney aggregator Avvo launched Avvo Answers, a Q&A forum similar to the popular Q&A section on LinkedIn (the business person’s MySpace). Avvo Answers brings questions from the public to lawyers for free. Simple. Effective. Just the way it should be. I’ve tried Avvo Answers, and it works as advertised. No new clients to report yet, but the possibility is there, and I believe in Avvo’s ability to deliver … eventually.

 

The same day it launched it’s Answers feature Avvo also launched Track Record, another free service – this one is an enhancement to your profile (the page that features you as an attorney). Track Record is an easy way to showcase your work by pointing to actual cases and the outcomes they achieved for clients. Again, I’ve tried it and I’m satisfied. Like all of the features on Avvo the Track Record is easy to work with and intuitive.

 

According to founder and CEO Mark Britton, both of the new features were meant to create and foster a greater sense of community among attorneys and prospective clients (or, as Avvo refers to them over and over again – consumers). We get it already, Mark. But remember, not all attorneys are involved with personal injury or med-mal. Some of us do business with the growing SMB (small business) market too. Sure they’re consumers, but not “consumers” if you know what I mean. But I digress …

 

So the question is, do these features actually foster community by connecting clients in search of answers with eager lawyers? Will Avvo be eHarmony for lawyers, making matches even a mother could love? Well, maybe. That is, if the attorneys in the audience managed to stop whining about potential liability from people they’ve never met long enough to read their questions and give an honest answer. Or maybe, if the people who needed help were willing to step out of the cyber-shadows. Or better yet, if both contingents were willing to stop distrusting one another long enough to form some relationships … not necessarily “Attorney-Client” relationships, but relationships nonetheless.

 

Hey, what a good idea. Let’s try interacting with people. That could work. Thanks, Avvo.

 

See these other posts about Avvo on the PM Blog

 

Technorati tags: Avvo, blog, blogging, LinkedIn, Mark Britton, MySpace, lawyer, marketplace, legal services

 

Avvo steps in it … again

“I’ve always supported Avvo”

 

 

 

In one of her most recent posts, Bar Association Enters the 21st Century, Carolyn ‘I supported Avvo all along’ Elefant takes a breathtaking intuitive leap, proclaiming that (hold onto your hats) lawyers may be slightly behind the curve when it comes to technology. No, it’s true. She’s out there. Here’s how Carolyn put it
Lawyers have been using the Internet for a decade, and even the most unsophisticated consumers have had Internet access at home for at least five years. … a directory that would enable consumers to find lawyers online should have seemed like a logical project for bar associations — which purport to serve the public by helping increase access to law. The bars did little to provide lawyers with ways to list themselves online and, consequently Avvo stepped in to fill this void

Powerful stuff. Sadly however Carolyn has it all wrong.

By not putting together a decent referral system on the web (ed. note: Carolyn’s post says that the first such bar association system may be online now) Bar Associations have not dropped the ball or missed an opportunity to serve, any more than Avvo has stepped into their inadvertent breach. On the contrary, what we are watching right now is the unraveling of one of the last monopolies baked into American law — the Bar Association. Let there be no doubt then: Bar Associations do indeed exist to serve … themselves. And like every bureaucracy since the invention of bureaucracy (thank you Emile Durkheim) bar associations large and small perpetuate themselves by keeping information about, and communication between, members to a minimum. It’s that simple. If lawyers can’t find each other they can’t get together and cause trouble. Divide and conquer – as far as strategies go, it’s an oldie but a goodie.

Remember, ego administer proinde ego sum. I administrate, therefore I am. Take away the Bar Association’s power to control information and regulate free assembly, and you take away its power … period. No bureaucracy ever let that happen voluntarily. No, what we are seeing is that the nation’s Bar Associations held on to their role as the sole arbiters of right and wrong, keepers of the sacred flame, for as long as they could.

And now that their monopoly is looking shoddy and dated, will this old, tired, dog learn new tricks? Come on … what do you think?