LEX Connect Europe 2004

LEX Connect Europe followed close on the heels of LEX Connect UK, held in January 2004. With little time to gather resources for this second event in the legal Connect calendar, would Ark Group be able to follow up its success with this Amsterdam event of 1-2 March 2004? Caroline Poynton went along to find out.

Splitting last year's successful LEX Connect into two events, LEX Connect UK, held in January 2004, and LEX Connect Europe, held last month in Amsterdam, was a risky move for Ark Group. The forum had not yet become an established feature on the event circuit, and rather than enabling more delegates to attend either or both events, Ark Group may have found itself short on both resources and delegates.

Indeed, there were slightly fewer attendees at the more recent European event of 1-2 March than there were at the UK event of earlier in the year. However, over 40 high-quality attendees made a good number for effective networking and for the interactive workshops led by speakers, including: Robert Heslett (Beachcroft Wansbroughs); Philip van Hilton (Loyens & Loeff); and Jaap Bosman (Nauta Dutilh).

Solution providers, including Dictanet, eCopy, Infographics, Interwoven, Iron Mountain, Thomson Elite, Tikit, Timesoft and Solution 6 were also out in force, providing one-to-one consultative meetings with delegates during the breakout sessions between workshops. Florian Schwiecker, director at Dictanet, was particularly pleased with the format of the event. Currently offering speech recognition and transcription services in the German market, LEX Connect provided an ideal forum for extending Dictanet's services into the wider European market, with Schwiecker saying that he had enjoyed 'many good, productive meetings' at the event.

As for the workshops, it was good to see so many delegates getting involved in the discussions, sharing their problems and concerns with speakers and fellow attendees. E-mail management proved a topical subject, with Damian Griffiths of Addleshaw Goddard highlighting some of the major problems firms are now facing. While delegates generally agreed that e-mail has become an essential business tool that, as one delegate put it, we are 'stuck with', knowing how to manage it seems woefully lacking. Several suggestions were made to answer the challenges, from sensible file management and security solutions to more obscure ideas, including restricting the numbers of people that staff can 'cc' in on any one e-mail. One delegate also mentioned that his firm does not allow 'out of office' notices to be put on e-mail accounts, so ends up having to respond to endless e-mails just to say he's out at an external meeting '“ hardly a logical way of using a system that is meant to make business more efficient. Such examples demonstrate the extent to which e-mail has become a problem as well as a boon, with firms making a priority of tackling potential confidentiality leaks, viruses, volume and storage difficulties.

Charles Christian of the Legal Technology Insider also provided some useful tips on the technology market in 2004. While agreeing that firms are now facing challenges with e-mail spam and viruses, he also pointed to the ramifications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which means that law firms can no longer afford to have documents all over the place. In response, he argued that solution providers are battling it out for control of law firms' desktops and finding an all-in-one solution for the multiple document/e-mail/security problems facing firms remains the Holy Grail of many solution providers this year.

In particular, Christian predicted a good year for Elite, Solution 6 and Interwoven, with some new products also coming into the market, for example, Insight and MindServer, which are offering automatic taxonomies in the knowledge-management field.

While law firms still face challenges implementing truly efficient working practices, Christian's message was clear: work smarter, not harder.

Another highlight of the event was James Boyd, finance director at Cobbetts. He has worked at the firm for three years and during that time has worked closely with managing partner Michael Shaw to unlock the firm's working capital. This involved getting behavioural change in the firm's internal culture, working very closely with clients to improve transparency and implementing an electronic billing system. While dramatically improving turnover (from £13m to £40m in three years), he also feels that the firm is now meeting client expectations for better information sharing, clarity and service consistency, which should prove an important differentiator in today's competitive market. Boyd is writing an article on working capital for the next May issue of Managing Partner, which will provide further clarification on this challenging but essential area.

While it is still early days for Ark Group's LEX Connect, feedback from attendees at both the UK and European events was excellent, with several delegates praising the format for bringing together ideas and solutions under one roof. Watch this space for details of the next LEX Connect 2005...