Legal IT 3.0 recap: Dominic Jaar, conference chair and founder
To finish off the week, we reached out to Legal IT founder and conference chair Dominic Jaar for his reflections on the event. Dominic is also legal counsel at Ledjit Consulting Inc.
Though economic concerns took a small toll on attendance, overall the attendees showed how Legal IT has grown since its inception.
"More than 45% of the people were from out of Quebec, which clearly shows the international recognition that LegalIT has achieved," Dominic said.
Read the rest of our email exchange with Dominic after the jump.
Lisa Kennelly: Overall, what were your expectations for the conference, and how did you feel it went?
Dominic Jaar: Year after year, our objective is to educate jurists about the benefits and risk of technologies. We want lawyers, judges, notaries, IT support staff, etc. to know how they could be more effective and improve access to justice by using different technologies and tips. In terms of attendance, given the current economic crisis and the fact that many law firms and organizations have cut CLE budgets, our expectation for this third edition was to get as many people as last year, i.e. 300 attendees. I must admit we failed by less than 20 people. However, we had a greater reach outside of Quebec. More than 45% of the people were from out of Quebec, which clearly shows the international recognition that Legal IT has achieved. We also proud ourselves of bringing world renowned speakers in Montreal for what is now Canada’s premier legal technology conference.
Lisa Kennelly: How did it compare to the two previous years?
Dominic Jaar: As I mentioned, I think that content-wise this edition substantially surpassed previous years in terms of speakers and topics. It was the first year that Legal IT lasted for 2 days and we have had many positive comments regarding the fact that people had time to network and meet with the speakers and sponsors over the two days as opposed to previous years where people did not have as much time to mingle around.
Lisa Kennelly: What sort of feedback have you received from presenters and attendees?
Dominic Jaar: We are now compiling the answers to our annual survey but we have already received many comments, via email and viva voce, from attendees who were thrilled at the content and organization. One must understand that everyone that work on the organizing committee do it for free on top of their demanding full-time job. This partially explains the low price of attending Legal IT. We were told numerous time by attendees and speakers that this is THE conference where you get the most bang for your buck.
From what I have heard and read, speakers have thoroughly enjoyed their trip to Montreal. They felt that the attendees were engaging, organizers were friendly and the food was fantastic! I know you already read about that...
Lisa Kennelly: Did you perceive anything at the conference regarding advances in or attitudes toward legal technology that particularly struck you?
Dominic Jaar: I am always shocked at the questions speakers are getting. As a speaker, I am always surprised to hear people ask about metadata, e-discovery 101, OCR, blogs, etc. I feel this topics are so 1999! However, it must be the time that I spend with many experts across the world that makes me a tough crowd!
On the other hand, I am always glad to see attendees leave the conference after learning new tricks. We had a judges panel over lunch about technologies in the courtroom and must say that I have been pleased to hear that judges are waiting for and expecting lawyers to use technologies in a more sophisticated and savvy fashion. I think this is amongst the most powerful statement we have heard at LegalIT this year. Let’s hope the judges will be heard!
