What’s Happening at ABA TECHSHOW 2017

Episode Notes

Transcript

Law Technology Now

What’s Happening at ABA TECHSHOW 2017

03/08/2017

Intro: You are listening to the Legal Talk Network.

[Music]

Monica Bay: Hello. I am Monica Bay.

Bob Ambrogi: And I am Bob Ambrogi.

Monica Bay: We have been writing about law and technology for more than 30 years.

Bob Ambrogi: That’s right. During that time we have witnessed many changes and innovations.

Monica Bay: Technology is improving the practice of law, helping lawyers deliver their services faster and cheaper.

Bob Ambrogi: Which benefits not only lawyers and their clients, but everyone.

Monica Bay: And moves us closer to the goal of access to justice for all.

Bob Ambrogi: Tune in every month as we explore new legal technology and the people behind the tech.

Monica Bay: Here on Law Technology Now.

[Music]

Bob Ambrogi: Welcome to Law Technology Now on the Legal Talk Network. This is your host Bob Ambrogi and today we are going to be talking about the upcoming ABA TECHSHOW, which is going to be March 15 through 18 in Chicago, and to help us do that, we have the Chair of ABA TECHSHOW, Adriana Linares.

Adriana, welcome to Law Technology Now.

Adriana Linares: Thanks Bob. I wish sometimes we had video so you could see my eyes get big and my smile get huge as you introduce me.

Bob Ambrogi: That’s how I feel when I introduce you too.

Adriana Linares: Thanks. No, I am excited to be here, thanks

Bob Ambrogi: Good. Well, thanks for doing this. So first of all, I am going to just ask you, because not everybody in the world knows who you are, I think most people do, but just quickly, who are you and what do you do?

Adriana Linares: That’s good question because I would assume that most people have no idea who I am, so let’s definitely start there. So my name is Adriana Linares. I am based in Orlando, but I like to say that I live in New Orleans, because I spend a lot of time there, but I really spend probably most of my time on an airplane flying around the country helping law firms with their technology. So my day-to-day business is as a legal technology consultant helping law firms better use their technology and doing a lot of training with the technology that they have in place.

Bob Ambrogi: And as we are recording this, you have recovered from Mardi Gras or recovering?

Adriana Linares: I am glad you gave me an opportunity to say that I don’t normally sound this sexy, but after two weeks in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I think it finally caught up to me and I keep saying I have got to get the Mardi Gras out of my system, so I came home to Orlando for about a week, before going back to New Orleans, because it’s Saint Patrick’s Day, and yes, I am in Orlando today and it’s beautiful and I am recovering from Mardi Gras.

Bob Ambrogi: I am not going to comment on whether you normally sound sexy because my wife might be listening to this program.

So TECHSHOW is coming up in just a few days really, coming up very soon, and again, I can’t imagine there’s anybody listening to this show that doesn’t know what ABA TECHSHOW is, but give us the overview, what is ABA TECHSHOW?

Adriana Linares: Yeah. I am bummed out a little bit that it’s going to happen in a few days, because it’s been so fun planning it, and TECHSHOW has been something that I have volunteered hours of my life with for many, many years, and it’s in my opinion the best legal technology conference that lawyers and legal professionals can attend.

It’s a two-and-half day conference full of CLEs and a giant vendor hall with lots of vendors that sell services to legal professionals or products or tools and we have about eight or nine CLE tracks, and of course there’s lots of extra curricular activities, networking events and group dinners and stuff like that.

So in a nutshell, it’s a great technology conference for lawyers who are interested in learning more about how technology can help with their practices. And it’s not always just technology I should say that, we strive to include other parts of practice management that don’t necessarily mean strictly technology. So there is marketing, education, there is accounting and finance education and management sessions as well. So we try to really cover the full gamut of practice management.

Bob Ambrogi: Who is it for? What kind of lawyer should attend TECHSHOW?

Adriana Linares: Well, in my opinion, and I have been involved with TECHSHOW for probably 12 or 13 years, there is not a single lawyer you could put in front of me and the agenda for TECHSHOW that I couldn’t put them in at least 5, 6 or 7 useful CLE educational classes or sessions.

And I really mean that because my experience in working with lawyers has been from, I have a husband and wife team in McCook, Nebraska, all the way to international law firms where I have been to Spain and Argentina to do training and work. So to me, I don’t care if you are an attorney, a solo practitioner sitting in a small town or a big time attorney in the corner office overlooking Central Park, any attorney or a secretary or a paralegal could attend TECHSHOW and without a doubt find value in the educational content there.

(00:05:14)

Bob Ambrogi: So what’s different this year, if anything, and maybe that’s not even a fair question, because maybe we don’t want anything to be different, it’s been a successful formula for years, but I know you, and I know you like to sometimes shake things up a little bit, so is there anything different this year about TECHSHOW?

Adriana Linares: Yeah, I think there are a couple of great additions to the already sort of template that’s been laid out. So this is the 31^st year for TECHSHOW, so for 30 years previous TECHSHOW has been very successful, one of the biggest technology conferences, one of the biggest conferences for lawyers altogether, and we added a few new and interesting things. And I could turn the microphone and ask you to tell us about one of my favorite things that we have added this year, which is the Startup Pitch and Startup Alley, where you helped us Bob, thank you so much for helping with this too, solicit RFPs or sort of pitches from new startups that are gearing their services or their tools toward legal, and we did a little competition. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about the competition?

Bob Ambrogi: Yeah. Well, I am glad you asked. We did sponsor a competition. We asked companies to submit pitches. We ran an online voting actually through the blog Above the Law. We put up all these pitches online, got people to vote on them.

Adriana Linares: Thousands of people too, right, we were all shocked at how much traffic, how much interest there was.

Bob Ambrogi: We had a lot of traffic.

Adriana Linares: We did. It was awesome.

Bob Ambrogi: Yeah. And out of that we selected the 12 companies that got the most votes and those 12 companies are going to be — well, were offered and will be exhibiting in a special Startup Alley in the Exhibit Hall. The special portion of the Exhibit Hall will be reserved for these startups.

And in addition to that, on the first night, on Wednesday, March 15, during the reception on the opening night in the exposition hall, we are going to have a little bit of a pitch competition among these 12 companies. We are calling it kind of a March Madness pitch competition. We are going to play off the March Madness theme and do a little bit of bracketed pitch competition and a couple of rounds. And the audience there will then pick the startup that they think is kind of the most innovative and most interesting of the lot and that winner will get a package of prizes that includes some free advertising and some other things. So I am excited about that.

Adriana Linares: Me too. I love the startups, but being a legal technologist I have to, right, because watching the technologies and the tools and the services that these companies are constantly developing, whether they actually fly or die, it doesn’t matter, just watching the ideas sort of develop and whether there is interest in them or not is very exciting to me. So I am very excited about Startup Alley and the Pitch and I want to make sure to thank you again and again for being so —

Bob Ambrogi: Yeah. I also want to give a shout out there to the people at Evolve Law, who have also been really helpful, and at Above the Law and Evolve Law, who have both been very helpful in doing that, and the Evolve Law people are going to help in the presentation of it at TECHSHOW.

Adriana Linares: Yeah, and I think that’s one of the things that’s a little different about TECHSHOW this year is, we try to invite a lot of outside and different collaborators and partners to help us bring some new and exciting things to TECHSHOW, so definitely having Evolve Law, Above the Law and then of course you, an entity of yourself, help us with Startup Alley and the Pitch was really, really exciting.

And then too, we have a Hackathon that will be happening all during TECHSHOW and for that we have gotten in touch with the Tech For Justice Group, who regularly organize legal Hackathons around the country and they helped us organize. And they are going to start a couple of days in advance. They are going to start with the virtual Hackathon to get the work going, but during TECHSHOW, and what is known as Salon B, anyone who is at TECHSHOW can enter that area and either contribute ideas or thoughts or help the coders and the developers and the advocates that are going to be there developing tools for veterans.

So every Hackathon tends to have a purpose that it’s serving domestic violence victims, landlord-tenant issues, but in this case they decided to go with veterans’ issues, because Linda Klein, who is the current President of the ABA, it’s one of her bighearted efforts. So that’s going to be another exciting and cool thing that lawyers will get to learn a little bit more about.

And how even lawyers whether they aren’t very technically inclined or know much about technology can contribute to a Hackathon, because we need their knowledge, we need their ideas, we need them to say, well, if I was a lawyer helping a veteran and I was helping them with this issue, but I wanted to help them with that issue, is there a way I could use technology to somehow make these things easier.

(00:09:58)

So the Hackathon is another really cool and exciting thing that’s being sponsored by Thomson Reuters, which they were so generous with their sponsorship dollars, so excited about the Hackathon, that I definitely want to make sure and thank them out loud.

Bob Ambrogi: Now, they are a legal technology company, I haven’t heard of them. I am kidding Thomson Reuters.

And another thing that’s a little bit different this year is the way the keynote is being presented. Can you tell us about that?

Adriana Linares: Yes, I am happy to tell you about that. This was not necessarily the easiest thing to get sort of approved and passed. The elders of TECHSHOW, if you will — so generally what we have done every year at TECHSHOW is we bring in a big name or either a big name or a really important person and it’s usually one person who gives the keynote talk and they have all been amazing. I mean, there is no shortage, if you go back and look at the history of keynote speakers for TECHSHOW, they have all been really impressive, very good.

Bob Ambrogi: Cindy Cohn from EFF last year was fantastic.

Adriana Linares: She was amazing and I really felt we should have handed out diapers before that session even started, because I know everyone left there like, oh my God. So she talked about security issues.

And we also had in a keynote plenary last year Edward Snowden’s attorneys from the ACLU come on and talk about privacy issues in the modern era and the things that lawyers should know about.

So again, we get great speakers, and this year I really wanted to address sort of the big elephant in the room, which is these new and alternative legal service providers like Rocket Lawyer, Avvo and LegalZoom.

I work a lot with lawyers, all the time, and I constantly am being told by lawyers that they hate those companies, but they never actually know why they hate them. And they say things like they are taking our work, they are taking our jobs away, but if you actually learn how those companies are able to be successful, especially now that many of them are sort of creating networks for lawyers and referral services or match services, whatever you want to call them, there’s something to be said about a lawyer who may be is a new lawyer or a new solo and finding different resources for client development.

And I really wanted to give those companies a fair chance to talk out loud and freely about how they work with lawyers and actually need lawyers as part of the way they do business and the type of technology that they are developing and how they are actually in a weird way addressing the access issue. And they are doing a better job at addressing the access issue than many other groups and organizations, because they are uninhibited by rules and regulations and they have funding and I just think it’s all so interesting.

So we invited the three CEOs of those companies; John Suh from LegalZoom, Mark Britton from Avvo and Charley Moore from Rocket Lawyer to come and have a really frank and open discussion with two moderators, who are two incredible women in the legal profession; Paula Frederick is the Counsel at the State Bar of Georgia and very heavily involved with the ABA, and Judy Perry Martinez was the Chair of the Report on the Future of Legal Services.

Bob Ambrogi: The Commission on the Future of Legal Services. And Paula was on that; Paula Frederick was on that Commission as well.

Adriana Linares: Right. So I asked them if they would be interested in moderating this discussion. And what I don’t want it to be, and I am pretty sure it will not become, is just a sludge fest at these companies. I want lawyers to just leave the room going, oh, maybe these companies aren’t so bad, and maybe there’s an opportunity there.

So that’s what we are doing, instead of one single keynote, I am calling it a keynote plenary, and I really want everyone in the room to have an open mind. And maybe we still end up throwing rotten tomatoes at them up there, and that’s okay, but I have done my part, which is at least try to sway some minds in a different direction, and that’s really what I am hoping we can do.

I think it will be well received. I am getting a lot of, this is going to be great, it sounds so interesting and we will se what happens.

Bob Ambrogi: I think a lot of lawyers don’t realize that those three companies — they see those companies as providing direct to consumer legal advice and legal documents and legal services, they don’t realize that those three companies are driving huge amounts of business to lawyers, and it’s not just about self-help legal services or something like that.

Adriana Linares: And you know why I think it is that most lawyers don’t realize this, and again, remember, I do a lot of fieldwork, so I am always talking to lawyers and associations and bar associations, and I have decided there’s two reasons why I think most lawyers don’t realize that those companies partner with other lawyers. And the first one is, I think the lawyers who are actually part of the system, that get the work and the clients from these companies don’t want to wave a big giant flag to their bar associations, because a lot of the bar associations don’t like what these companies do and you get in this whole fee-sharing thing and it becomes a big issue.

(00:15:03)

So because it continues to happen many of them just sit there quietly, taken the work, making the money and they are happy about it, they don’t tell anybody, and then I think the other thing is too that those lawyers are actually making a lot of money, and I think they also don’t want people to know. So I think it’s really interesting and I just hope to open some minds and get some answers and make people think a little bit differently if we can.

Bob Ambrogi: Yeah, I think it sounds great, I think it will be a really interesting program and the moderators are perfect, I think; I think they’ll challenge those panelists and I think the panelists will respondent in suit than in common.

Adriana Linares: I agree, yeah.

Bob Ambrogi: I think it’s a great group and I don’t think I have ever seen those three on stage together. I am quite sure, I have never seen those three on stage together, so that will be an interesting panel.

Adriana Linares: Yeah, and they are all, they are all friends of mine on top of just being someone we invited and I know them all personally and they are really great smart people. So I think the conversation will be lively and fun. I asked them, I said, “You know, this isn’t — I don’t want this to be dry and boring, you know, let’s make fun, let’s have some fun, let’s take some questions and really make this a fun conversation to be a part of.

Bob Ambrogi: So something else that you are doing for the first time this year I think if I understand it right, it’s an academic trap.

Adriana Linares: Yes, I was hoping you would ask about that one next. So last year at TECHSHOW –

Bob Ambrogi: Well, okay, here it is, I am asking.

Adriana Linares: — here it is, it’s like we planned it, but we didn’t, that’s what so funny.

Bob Ambrogi: But we didn’t.

Adriana Linares: Last year at TECHSHOW when I was the Vice Chair under Steve Best who did such a great job, it was so fun to work with, a couple of the professors that regularly come to TECHSHOW approached me and said, “Hey, why don’t you do something with the Academy next year?” I said, “Okay.” I am a “yes woman”. Anybody who comes to me with something that’s even a half-way decent idea that I think would make something like TECHSHOW better. “Yes, okay, that sounds great.” So we work very hard with Michael Roback from UMKC Law and Faye Jones from Illinois and Urbana Law, uh, it’s complicated, but Faye and Michael outdoes, actually they have done all the work, to be honest, organize an academic track.

And the goal here was to bring law school faculty into a workshop-like environment where we are going to start the conference on Thursday morning so the academic track runs Thursday and Friday of TECHSHOW with the goal at the and of Friday being if we were going to have a template to start with for what a practice management curriculum would look like in the law school, what could it look like?

So, they have individual sessions themselves in the academic track but then part of what they baked into the programming was actually going out and attending sessions that are relevant to law schools and faculty, and talking to vendors in the hall and really getting a better feel for what practice management means and why it’s so important to start teaching in law school because as we all know they don’t, and as a whole, I mean, there is obviously a few schools that do, but as a whole it’s not part of a standard curriculum and they are very excited about that and they even have one co-session that they are doing with the incubator consortium that’s being held at the exact same time. I think that the University of Texas in Austin – no, not in Austin, may be it’s in Austin.

So we are even doing a webcast with that group to get more ideas and for them to work on that curriculum of what it might look like, so it will be a work in progress but I am really excited about it.

Bob Ambrogi: And is that something that’s open to anybody who is at TECHSHOW or do you have to be an academic or something like that to go?

Adriana Linares: No, I think it’s a lot like the Hackathon, right?

Bob Ambrogi: Yeah.

Adriana Linares: If you just have a bunch of academics sitting in there they are not going to think outside the box very far, they are not going to get very far, so again, encouraging anyone who has an interest in what the law schools are doing to go in there and listen in, pitch some ideas, I think, what more and more law schools need to hear is their alumni saying, “Well, you gave me a law degree, I earned a law degree.” I should say, “I earned a law degree but you didn’t really prepare me for what real life lawyering was going to be like because I have no idea how to run my business, and I think that’s important.” So any one can pop in at anytime during the Hackathon or the academic track and learn or contribute.

Bob Ambrogi: Great, one of the things I always look forward to at TECHSHOW are the ‘Taste of TECHSHOW Dinners’ and —

Adriana Linares: Oh, yeah.

Bob Ambrogi: — I can even put in a plug here because I am actually co-hosting one with the Legal Talk Network, the host of this show, Adam Camras, CEO of the Legal Talk Network and I are going to be co-hosting one of these ‘Taste of TECHSHOW Dinners’ on Friday night where we are going to be talking about, guess what?

Adriana Linares: Podcasts?

Bob Ambrogi: Podcasting, you got it. So anybody who is interested in finding out about that should come to that, but do you want to tell the listeners little bit more about what the ‘Taste of TECHSHOW Dinners’ are all about?

(00:20:05)

Adriana Linares: Yes, I would love to, because those were my babies when I was on the TECHSHOW Board many years ago. So what happens TECHSHOW attendees is, they either come in a group so they always have somebody to hangout with, or they often come alone and they are either sent by their law firm, law firm will have one budget, they’ll send one person or they are solo or they are just coming to a conference, I think they are coming to a boring old technology conference because they need either CLE or they need the information that the conference is giving, and so what TECHSHOW used to have was these signups for these dine-outs.

So if you were there by yourself you could sign up and TECHSHOW would make a reservation for 10 or 12 people at a restaurant and you’d say, “Okay, well, I’ll — you know, I’m here by myself, I’ve never been to Chicago, I’ll go to this restaurant with these strangers”, and they were great, I mean, it was fine, but a few years ago I added a little element to that and I said, why don’t we ask our speakers if any of them would be interested in being sort of the host and picking a topic that they are passionate about like you guys are doing with podcasting and adding a layer of why you would go to dinner with this group; so before it was just either the restaurant that you would see on the list or maybe a couple names that you recognized.

So now when you walk up we actually have it all signed up via the web through some Eventbrite pages, now you have the choice of, do I want to go to dinner with Bob Ambrogi because I love his podcast and he’s amazing? Do I want to learn more about podcasts or I have always wanted to eat at this restaurant in Chicago. So that’s essentially all it is, it’s a Dutch treat dinner, everybody does end up paying in their own way but it just adds this cool element of, there’s a speaker I’d like to get to know better, there’s a speaker whose brain I want to pick, I mean, it’s a lot of free consulting, by the way that’s something I should mention. It’s a lot of free consulting you can get at the ABA TECHSHOW because there are so many experts who are there absolutely willing to give all this information.

So the dinners can be a good way to do that, but generally after the first 20 minutes or so conversations just become regular dinner conversation, and people who were strangers at the start of TECHSHOW become friends and it’s one of my favorite things that we’ve developed over the years at TECHSHOW and it’s really popular and we sell out those dinners, so there’s never spaces left. So I think those are great, really fun.

Bob Ambrogi: And maybe this isn’t true this year, but it is insider’s tip in past years and I hope this is still true that some of these dinners end up getting sponsored, right?

Adriana Linares: Yes.

Bob Ambrogi: So sometimes although they are Dutch treat, if you pick them right, sometimes you get a free meal out of it as well as —

Adriana Linares: Yeah, that’s true so we get sponsors for some of the dinners and they’ll either put in a big chunk toward the overall bill or sometimes they do cover the whole thing, and that’s not all of them, but definitely, you’re right, little secret there, if you pick the right one, especially if it’s a smaller group or something. And then sometimes you just get someone who joins the group and decides they are just going to buy dinner because it was so worth it. So it’s pretty cool, they’re very organic and really fun and I know, I enjoy them every year.

Bob Ambrogi: Yeah, so for any listeners wanting to sign up, as Adriana said, you’ve got to sign up for those things in advance. They fill up fast and you can just go to  HYPERLINK “http://www.techshow.com” techshow.com and there’s a sign-up. There’s a list of all the dinners and all the topics and sign up right there, and the restaurants and everything else that they’re going to be at.

Adriana Linares: Yeah, definitely.

Bob Ambrogi: All right, so is there going to be any programming at this conference or –

Adriana Linares: Oh, those boring CLE sessions, no, I always say that at the core of what makes TECHSHOW so amazing is the fact that there’s two and-a-half days of – I think this year we have something like 70 sessions, so we have nine tracks and I can rattle them off real quick so people get a good feel for. There’s a whole check on cybersecurity, The Business of Law, Do It Yourself: Check Your Technology, Marketing and the Media, Project/Process Management, Advanced IT, Innovative Lawyers, Modern E-Discovery, Money Matters, so there’s a range there. Again, going back to what I said when we first started which is — is not strictly about technology. This conference is really a huge push to helping lawyers figure out how to run their businesses better encompassing all the aspects of a law practice. Lots of good programming and we have great speakers. We have a lot of new speakers.

One of the things that I did, which was not very popular with everyone, but I’m never out to do something to win a popularity contest, for sure. What we tend to do and I think any organization in conference tends to do this is, we always pick from the same tree. So for many years there are speakers that have been invited to speak in part of TECHSHOW for 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, sometimes 12 years in a row, so I looked at the Board this year, and by the way, I have a great Board and I should mention how hard everyone worked, it’s not just me, there’s nine other members of the Board, they are all listed on  HYPERLINK “http://www.techshow.com” techshow.com and said, you know, I think it would be fair if anyone who has spoken for five years in a row or more at that point we just gave them a rest this year.

(00:25:06)

Let’s find some new faces and really try to sort of stir up the mix on the faculty, and we did that successfully, and I’m also pretty sure I haven’t done account lately, but last I looked we have more female speakers than male speakers, and then I’d have to go back and do account to make sure, but I worked very hard.

Bob Ambrogi: I heard a rumor that you’re pushing for all female speakers, isn’t that good?

Adriana Linares: I really wanted all females, wouldn’t that have been awesome? And the reason behind that is I’m regularly hearing and not just with TECHSHOW, but I attend and get involved with a lot of other conferences when people talk about diversity issues, they say, well, that’s just the demographics of the profession and I call bullshit on that, because I go to all these conferences and I see amazing speakers of every walk of life.

And I think, again, what happens when people are planning conferences whether it’s something as big as TECHSHOW or a local Bar Association doing a conference is you stick with what’s familiar and what you hear about. So I really challenged the Board this year to do a lot of research and find some new people especially if we can include diverse people whatever — however, you’d like to define diverse I think we’ve done a good job of that, and all women would have been awesome and we could have done it. I’ll tell you right now, we really could have; but then bunch of guys started getting mad, said, all right, fine.

Bob Ambrogi: Guys can be that way, you know?

Adriana Linares: I know, it’s all right, we’ll let a couple guys in, and I wasn’t doing it because I’m some sort of a super-feminist or anything, I was just — again just trying to change things up and invite some new people under the faculty and into the family and give other really qualified people an opportunity to shine.

Bob Ambrogi: It was great, yeah, I’m actually looking forward to the programming, I have gone through and looked at the list of programs and the speakers and it really looks like an interesting lineup this year; so I know I’m looking forward to it.

Adriana Linares: Great.

Bob Ambrogi: Anything else that we haven’t talked about that we should be talking about?

Adriana Linares: Let’s see, we’ve got some of the regular stuff, so of course, the Law Practice Division has a great publishing division or part of the division, so we’ll have lots of books available and if you go to  HYPERLINK “http://www.techshow.com” techshow.com everywhere that there was a session where we’ve in the past published a book or recently published a book that’s relevant to this session, we have a book recommendation link there, so I know a lot of us still like books, so the books are a big part of texture.

We have a bookstore there where we try to really encourage people to continue their educational exercises long after leaving TECHSHOW, so lots of books. We’ve got plenty of social events. There is a reception on Wednesday, an opening reception in the EXPO Hall. There’s Thomson Reuters is throwing a big party for us on Thursday night like they do every year and the theme is going to be New Orleans. I said, “Can we have a Mardi Gras theme?” And they said, “Mardi Gras is going to be over.” I said, “But Mardi Gras is actually never over in New Orleans”, and they said, “Okay, we’ll do.” I think they calling it a Ragin’ Cajun, so that’ll be really fun, the food will be geared sort of Cajun and Mardi Gras style or New Orleans style, so that’s great.

And then, Friday, we’re going to have Linda Klein, the President of the ABA give a talk about women in law and in legal technology, so that’ll be cool, and Rocket Lawyer every year does this comedy and cocktails event which is always well-received and funny. So, if nothing else, TECHSHOW, there’s lots of free spirits if you will, and of course, lot of great people to meet.

Oh, we’ve got communities, that’s another new thing we’re doing this year. We really wanted to make it easy for attendees to identify their peers. So if you are solo, if you are a litigator, if you are a Mac lawyer, we are making it easier to identify each other by giving out little badges for your name tags and then some of our sponsors going to be giving away sort of spirit scarves.

So I encourage you that if you are at TECHSHOW and you are a Mac lawyer and you see someone else with the Mac lawyer badge, you just say, “Hey, I’m a Mac lawyer too”, and immediately there is a connection there and I hope conversation start flowing about the different ways that people are using technology to enhance their practices and sharing those ideas and tips and tools.

Bob Ambrogi: Anyone who mentions this podcast can get in for half off, right?

Adriana Linares: Oh, that would be so awesome. The Chair can’t even really calm people; that’s one of the funniest things.

Bob Ambrogi: I tried — I tried. Okay.

Adriana Linares: I know.

Bob Ambrogi: Just that I can slip that in, just that I can slip that in.

Adriana Linares: You should come and the EXPO Hall is free. So even if you’re in the Chicago area and I realize that TECHSHOW might be a little expensive for some people which it’s really not that bad if I — I’ve got the pricing here somewhere, so let’s see, at this point standard price after early bird is a $1050, but the EXPO Hall is free. So if you’re in the Greater Chicago area and you really just kind of want to come and mingle and meet people and get into the EXPO Hall where we have events happening, that’s free, you just register for a free EXPO Hall and check things out and you sort of get swept into the energy of TECHSHOW, and it’s worth it.

(00:30:06)

Bob Ambrogi: And you get a single-day pass, right, for less money, and if you’re an ABA Law Practice Division member you can get in for less money.

Adriana Linares: That’s right, so LP Division members are $850 and then a standard ABA member is $950 and then a standard, you’re not a member of anything you’re paying a $1050, but the day passes are about $395; totally worth it, every penny.

Bob Ambrogi: Yeah. All right, well, Adriana, I really appreciate your taking the time to come on ‘Law Technology Now’ today and tell us all about ABA TECHSHOW.

Adriana Linares: I appreciate you having me on here, Bob, it’s always so fun chatting with you, and I’ll see you there at TECHSHOW Startup.

Bob Ambrogi: You’ll see me there and you’ll see — the Legal Talk Network people will be there as well as they —

Adriana Linares: Yes, they will.

Bob Ambrogi: — as they often are, I think. So they’ll probably be set up recording there as well, so.

Adriana Linares: Yes, they will, for sure.

Bob Ambrogi: People who are fans of Legal Talk Network or enjoy podcasting at all be sure to be there if nobody else.

Adriana Linares: Absolutely.

Bob Ambrogi: All right. We will see you very soon.

Adriana Linares: Sounds great, Bob. Thanks so much.

Bob Ambrogi: Thanks a lot and to all of our listeners thanks a lot. This is ‘Law Technology Now.’ This is Bob Ambrogi. Thanks for listening on behalf of everybody at the Legal Talk Network.

[Music]

Outro: If you would like more information about what you’ve heard today, please visit  HYPERLINK “http://www.legaltalknetwork.com” legaltalknetwork.com. Subscribe via iTunes and RSS. Find us on Twitter and Facebook or download our free Legal Talk Network app in Google Play and iTunes.

The views expressed by the participants of this program are their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by Legal Talk Network, its officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, shareholders, and subsidiaries. None of the content should be considered legal advice. As always, consult a lawyer.