These days, the choices are infinite on where and how you can learn about legal tech. This month, we asked our panelists their preferences when it comes to learning and staying on top of all things legal tech.
Our Panelists
Dennis Kennedy (DK), Steve Embry (SE), Greg Siskind (GS), and Jonathon Israel (JI).
What is your favorite tool for learning about legal technology?
DK: Podcast. I’m biased, but I do like The Kennedy-Mighell Report and all the legal tech podcasts on the Legal Talk Network. I learn a lot about legal tech from podcasts that aren’t explicitly about legal tech. Currently, Too Embarrassed to Ask and Unchained are two favorite examples of those kinds of podcasts.
- Blog: Ron Friedmann’s Strategic Legal Technology and, of course, Law Technology Today.
- Book: The Inevitable, by Kevin Kelly. You have to be looking at the future.
- Magazine: Are there still magazines about technology?
- Email newsletter: Recomendo, from Cool Tools.
- Website: The Legal Technology Resource Center, of course.
SE: The ABA publications are always full of useful information. This includes the regular magazine, the ABA Journal Tech Monthly, and Law Practice Today. Since I’m an Apple guy, I look forward every week to Jeff Richardson’s post on his iPhone J.D. blog. I listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report pretty regularly and, of course, read Bob Ambrogi’s LawSites religiously.
GS: My list goes as follows:
JI: My list goes as follows:
Is there an annual publication (survey, book, compilation) you particularly look forward to?
DK: I like the annual legal tech surveys: ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, ILTA Inside Legal, AmLaw’s, and Clio’s.
SE: I review the ABA Legal Technology Survey Report and ILTA Inside Legal when they come out. I look forward to comparing the two to get a better feel for what’s going on. Recently, I have started to look forward to the Clio Legal Trends Report since it has a lot of very relevant information on the gap between technology and how well lawyers are using it.
GS: The Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide published by the ABA Law Practice Division.
JI: The updated Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide and the ABA Legal Technology Survey Report.
Do you use a news aggregator/feed reader? Which one(s)? What is the benefit?
DK: Feedly. Feed readers automatically brings news content from all the websites and blogs that I monitor directly to me in one place.
SE: I use Feedly and look at it every day. Well organized, easy to find things. Great source for content to curate. It’s the best way to keep up with what’s going on.
GS: Now rely on Twitter and Attorney at Work’s daily email.
JI: No, I rely mostly on Twitter.
What legal tech conferences do you attend?
DK: ABA TECHSHOW annually. Legal Tech NY and ILTA occasionally. The recent SOLID Summit was great.
SE: It varies. I always go to ABA TECHSHOW. Sometimes I also go to ILTA and the ALM conference.
GS: ABA TECHSHOW and COLPM Futures Conference.
JI: ABA TECHSHOW and Clio Cloud Conference.
Are there any online training courses you find effective? Which ones?
DK: Great Courses Plus. I’ve been wanting to explore Coursera and Udemy. Ad hoc searches for training on YouTube can produce great results.
SE: Other than webinars that various vendors will offer, I have used the LinkedIn product, Lynda. It’s not solely for legal tech but the courses are well done. I have heard the Traveling Coaches product, Legal Mind, is good but haven’t tried it yet.
GS: eHow videos.
JI: We use Lynda.com and it has been very effective and helpful.
What is the number one way you keep up with legal technology?
DK: Preparing new podcasts for The Kennedy-Mighell Report. Twitter has certainly become important in surfacing new articles and trends.
SE: Good question. While I’m hard pressed to pick a number one, if I was only able to access one, it would probably be LawSites. It’s the most comprehensive, consistent, and reliable.
GS: Podcasts.
JI: Twitter, podcasts, and blogs.
Any other thoughts on how to learn about legal technology?
DK: Tech conferences are a great way to jumpstart your learning, but putting together a list of blogs and podcasts to review on a regular basis is probably the best way to go.
SE: Stay hungry. If you want to be up to date you have to be diligent. And read and review tech news in general. Quite often a tech development unrelated to law will soon impact it.
GS: Believe it or not, Twitter is a great way to keep up in the field. Just need to follow thought leaders in the field who curate the best things to read online and keep their followers up with the latest developments.
JI: Making sure to stay up to date one the best sources for legal technology news and how to access their content. Twitter has been the most useful method for me.
