Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: . Published: 2011-10-07 10:51:40  I was lucky enough to attend the Law Tech Texas conference on Wednesday (October 5) in Dallas put on by Texas Lawyer (an ALM publication). For my Twitter friends, the feed is #lawtechtx.The keynote was led by John Ansbach, the Chief Legal Officer at M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) who focused on technology in the legal space. Mr. Ansbach set the tone for the day nicely and put together an enjoyable and engaging opening keynote.  He provided some real life experiences on social media issues and provided some stats on all the main social media sites.  I learned that the average age for FaceBook is 38…I guess I’m getting old.  The main point for the audience to take from the keynote was the practice of law isn’t changing; the practice of law as you know it changed with rise of social media.Joey Seeber from Level 2 Review presented a session on eDiscovery Challenges and Solutions for 2011.  He used Moneyball movie that was recently released as an analogy for using technology as a crutch in the legal technology space.  Mr. Seeber emphasized to the crowd that even with all the cool new eDiscovery tools out there that technology is not a panacea.  He suggested to the crowd to embrace the technology available, but you can’t replace talented people who can provide solid judgment.Rachel Ratcliff Womack from Stroz Friedberg did a very nice job providing a basic summary digital forensics for attorneys. It was very well put together slide show…as an Indiana Jones junkie I loved being compared as a digital archeologist. Ms. Womack certainly made a significant effort to bring complex concepts to the masses in her colorful presentation which also mentioned the Casey Anthony trial issues we discussed an eDJ post a few months ago.The lunchtime Judges panel was insightful to the crowd.  I particularly enjoyed hearing the perspective from the regional judges that aren’t typically on the regular eDiscovery circuit.   One of the key points the judges emphasized was that visuals are very important in the courtroom.  They all agreed that the visuals don’t have to be elaborate or complex to provide a context to jurors of the complex issues or timeline in the case.   I found it interesting that the judges now have to instruct jurors not to search on Google for the names of the parties or attorneys since most people don’t consider it “research” to do so.One of the day’s highlights for me was John Browning of Lewis Brisbois and his presentation on legal implications of social media.  Mr. Browning’s presentation was engaging, entertaining, interactive and very funny.  For those looking for a speaker on the legal aspects of social media, I encourage you to consider him.  He recently wrote a book, “A Lawyer’s Guide to Social Media: Understanding Social Media’s Impact on the Law”, which is available on Amazon in paper or Kindle.  I will hopefully get to read it in the coming months (especially if I pick up a Kindle Fire to play around).Several attendees remarked that they particularly enjoyed the session on search with John Tredennick of Catalyst and Jill Bindler of McKool Smith.  There was some excellent content on the complexities of search and some of the technologies out there to make it easier.  John kept the discussion easy to understand, but had some great background slides with the “science” to support his comments.  This was a great segue to the presentation about predictive coding with Ian Wilson of Servient.   The day wrapped up with Robert J. Witte of Strasburger providing the audience with the ethical concerns for lawyers when it comes to eDiscovery which always leaves the audience in a minor shock when they hear about if for the first time.I spoke with several event goers throughout the day and the feedback was very positive for the event.  The ALM team did a nice job putting together the programs, speakers, and nice venue.  I look forward to attending the Law Tech Texas conference in the future.  I would enjoy hearing comments for those that attended, so feel free to email or post below.

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