14th March 2024

7th December 2023

14th September 2023

15th June 2023

8th December 2022

26th September 2022 - Litig 20th Anniversary Event at Coombe Abby

20th June 2022

25th November 2021

5th December 2019

19th September 2019

28th March 2019

The global cyber threat activity and an update on the Dark Web - Dave Allan (CEO of Cysium) presents on what is happening in the world of Cyber crime and updates us on the dark web.

Digital transformation and digital ecosystems: The hidden barriers to digital transformation - Dr. Aneesh Banerjee from Bayes Business School returns for the 2nd in the 2 part series on digital transformation. This session builds on the 1st session but takes a more tactical view, building on the strategic imperatives such as growth, diversification, efficiencies, or competition and discusses the most common reasons why digital transformation projects may not deliver the expected value.

AI in Legal - Minesh Tanna, Partner and Global AI Lead at Simmons presents and then chairs a discussion about the EU AI Act, regulation, responsible use of AI and what it can mean for us and our clients.

Internal AI Workshop - A workshop “flipchart” session facilitated by Derek Southall in which we will all contribute our thoughts to the type of questions we need to be asking suppliers about the use of AI in their products with a view to producing a standard due diligence questionnaire for use in the market which all members can use.

The Application of AI without the Hype - Recovering lawyer Jack Shepherd, now specialist in legal tech and knowledge management at iManage, talks about his own personal views of how AI will become embedded in core technology used by lawyers.

What are members up to? - A round Robin of any AI initiatives and / or your top challenge at the moment

Carbon Removal - Mark Stevenson - Futurenaut, Advisor, TED speaker, entrepreneur and writer returns to give a presentation on another of his passions – that of saving the planet by carbon REMOVAL which, as his presentation will show is very different to carbon reduction.

Leading Digital Transformations - Dr. Aneesh Banerjee from Bayes Business School will lead a masterclass on leading digital transformations. This session will equip you with the knowledge and tools for navigating digital change, covering its impact on business, competitive advantage, business models, and challenges in managing both digital and traditional models. The masterclass also delves into digital strategy mechanisms and provides exposure to real cases.

The Power of Expert Leadership - Bayes Business School leadership professor Amanda Goodall outlines a vision to shake up a profession. Too much of what is held up as good leadership practice is based around personality traits and character. None of this has apparently made much difference. Amanda presents on this and then hosts a discussion with attendees.

Developing and delivering strategy in professional service firms in times of dramatic change - Derek Klyhn, Founding member of PFSI who help laws and professional service firms improve their business performance, presents and hosts a discussion on delivering strategy in a rapidly changing World. Hear what PFSI are telling your MPs and Boards!

Microsoft on What’s Hot - Paolo Colecchia, Senior Cloud Solutions Architect - Advanced Analytics & AI at Microsoft presents on Generative AI, The AI landscape and Azure Open AI including a demo and discussion on use cases in Legal.

What are Members doing on AI ? - Round Robin of what our attendees are doing re AI – Both tech and policy.

The Future and what to do about it - Mark Stevenson - Futurenaut, Advisor, TED speaker, entrepreneur and writer, takes a whistle stop tour of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of the next 20 years and why ‘business as usual’ is a recipe for disaster. Covid is really just the beginning of a ‘Long Emergency’ stretching over the next 30 years that will spell the death knell for organisations unable to get on with the business of playing their part in answering the grand questions the future is asking us. How is the landscape of society going to change in terms of technology, energy, governance, health and commerce? What questions should smart organisations be asking themselves? We’re in for a rocky ride, but future-literate organisations have a shot at greatness.

Cyber Essentials+ - Tim Charrot, CTO and CE Technical working group member of IASME Consortium presents on Cyber Essentials and the changes to the standard made in January, covering areas that are the most contentious and IASME’s approach to them. Tim will also respond to your questions in a Q&A including those issued in advance and new questions in the session.

Competition Law - Joanne Finn and Elaine Davis from the DAC Beachcroft competition team, present on Competition Law - what we can do, what we can’t do and avoiding pitfalls for you and your business!

How to Hack any Company - Highly regarded cyber security awareness trainer, ethical hacker and cyber security commentator, Rob Shapland presents on how organised criminals hack firms. Rob will take us through a combined physical and cyber attack that he planned against a company, showing them how criminals research and target employees, devise the method of attack, and then execute it.

Generative AI - Our very own Derek Southall hosts an interactive session and discussion on all things GenerativeAI, ChatGPT, Co-Pilot and the like. This is an open discussion by members attending covering the opportunities and the risks members perceive and what they are doing about this area of technology.

The Thousand Year Decade - Jason Bradbury (of Gadget Show fame) presents on the rapid changes in technology and how exponential technology change/growth may play out and then hosted an interactive Q&A session on the wide-ranging topics he has covered.

Microsoft Power Platform - Reuben Krippner, Microsoft’s Power Platform Director for EMEA will be talking about challenges and opportunities in low code/no code tools and discussing how Microsoft can help you unlock app dev capability in a safe and governed manner.

Digital Leadership Report (was Harvey Nash CIO Survey) - Robert Grimsey, Group Marketing Director of Nash Squared (nee Harvey Nash), presents the findings of the 2022 Digital Leader Report (formerly called the ‘CIO Survey’’ and reported to be the world’s largest and longest running study of technology leadership). This is followed by a ‘no holds barred’ discussion and debate about what the findings mean for technology leaders, and how there is a need to ‘make difficult decisions’ in a highly disrupted world.

The ‘O’ Shaped Lawyer - Dan Kayne, founder of O Shaped, will host an interactive session discussing how O Shaped’s ‘People First’ approach is at the heart of a modern legal profession and explore with members how this may impact those outside of the legal teams.

Microsoft’s 365 the Journey so far and the path ahead - In this session we will be looking at the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, it’s products evolution in the past 12 months and where the journey will be taking us in the coming months / year ahead. With so many cloud services and apps now provided by Microsoft it can be hard to align where your business fits into their ecosystem especially for those business transitioning from an on-premises model into a cloud collaboration and compliancy platform. Combined Knowledge will provide clarity in this session to what fits where and when to use what.

M365 Wider product family uptake by members - We all have Office 365 and Teams but what about the “wider family” of products. An internal session given what we have heard for members to discuss what they are doing with the wider M365 product set and what their plans and challenges are.

Litig Projects - Stuart Whittle updates us on the Cyber Essentials project and Winter Power cuts.

The Economy - Jeavon Lolay, Head of Economics, Lloyds Bank presents and the world economy and the impact on our firms and ourselves.

Litig Masterclass - Cloud and SaaS Contracts - Victoria Martin, Legal Consultant at CMS takes us through what we should be thinking about when it comes to cloud and SaaS contracts.

It’ll never happen to you! - Ex-Director of LITIG, Steve Whitwham, hosts a session and tells the story of an actual ransomware attack on a law firm, describing what happened and how impacting it was. Whilst the client name must remain anonymous, we have permission to tell this story as a reminder to all!

Performance Leadership - Jane Cool presents and gives an introduction to the eight leadership principles that help to establish credibility at board level: Set the Direction; Establish the Culture’; Lead Others to Feel Capable and Confident; Thrive on Change; Be a Learner; Foster Teamwork; Handle Adversity.

Design Thinking - James Grice presents on how Eversheds Sutherland is using design to better understand both customer (internal client) and clients needs and then hosts an internal discussion on the subject.

Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) - Abby Ewen leads a discussion on what our members and Litig should/could be doing about ESG.

The Power and responsibility of AI - Richard Potter, the CTO of Microsoft Services presents on the power and responsibility of AI and provides an editorial view on AI and delivering success through a responsible approach.

AI in Legal - Our resident AI expert Richard Tromans brings us up to date on what’s actually happening in AI in legal AI since he last reported. (and whether we are doing it responsibly!)

Innovation – The good, the bad and the ugly! - Stuart Whittle presents a tongue-in-cheek session on innovation in law firms and then chairs an open discussion on the subject.

Amy Brann - Neuroscience and behavioural science – How it can improve your department and your firm. Founder and Owner of Synaptic Potential and expert in this field has worked with many companies and proven the benefits of applying these sciences to the workplace. Amy discussed what it is, what it can do and spoke about real life examples of where it has improved a firm’s performance.

Robert Grimsey - Global CIO Survey Results- Robert of Harvey Nash presented the results of the Harvey Nash CIO Survey the largest Global CIO Survey of its kind.

Stuart Whittle - Innovation- Stuart presented the latest view of innovation in legal and recounted some practical examples of attempting innovation.

Steve Smith, Managing Director of Combined Knowledge Ltd - Microsoft 365 – What is really means to us - Steve gave a CIO level view of the growing and evolving Microsoft 265 platform. Steve demystified Microsoft 365 and explained where it is now, where it is going and what you need to be doing to leverage it and prepare for what is ahead. Steve also talked about what Microsoft calls the “modern workplace today” and the shift from technical training to user and business-focused training,

Professor Ileana Stigliani, Associate Professor at Imperial College - Design Thinking - A different way to approach problems - Ileana presented on design thinking and how we can use this approach to better structure our projects and engagements. Ileana discussed how design centred firms are outperforming others, the effect on perception amongst staff, resulting in more engagement and satisfied clients. The key take away was that design thinking is a different way of looking at problems to get solution's.

Cloud Adoption in Legal - Andrew Powell presented on cloud adoption, joined by Neil Davison and Jo Owen. They discussed the impact of cloud adoption and pitfalls to watch out for. With a review of a survey conducted with 65 law firms regarding cloud adoption, Andrew analysed the results and highlighted the main barriers and other factors involved in cloud adoption.

6th December 2018

Professor Anu Wadhwa, Professor at Imperial College – Innovation & Corporate Entrepreneurial behaviour – Anu talked to LITIG about processes, people and structure which are the same things that product centric firms struggle with. There are lots of parallels between professional services firms and product-centred businesses.

Caroline Hill, Legal Technology - Legal Innovation – A Reporter and Publisher’s Viewpoint - Caroline Hill of Legal Technology Insider presented her views of what is happening in the legal market and where it may go and then hosted a round table discussion on the subject. Caroline discussed how progressive firms are sorting out data and talking less about innovation. Also placing importance on getting on top of processes and looking to automate.

Christina Blacklaws, President of the Law Society in England and Wales - Innovation in legal - Christina talked about the ethical, moral and legal usage of AI and machine learning in our industry, saying that AI is a great tool but it presents challenges. In relation to algorithms Christina discussed the ethical framework around the development of algorithms and the need to build a shared approach to adopt them in to the design of algorithms to optimise the opportunities that they are built for the good of society.

Richard Tromans - AI in Legal - Richard presented on the recent trends in Legal AI and what law firms are actually doing with AI that are delivering productivity and financial returns. Richard also discussed the challenges of implementation, business model barriers, resources and talent and more. Richard concluded that Legal AI has made great inroads although we are still early in the journey.

6th September 2018

Professor Maria Farkas, Professor at Imperial College – Diversity: The Science behind the subject – Maria presented on the underlying science on diversity. Covering the benefits of a diverse workforce and the role of biases. Summarising that diverse teams and organisations are more creative, innovative and productive than homogenous teams.

Rose St Louis, Strategic Partnerships at Zurich – Diversity: The Personal impact and business approaches – Rose covered the impact of diversity within enterprise and Zurich’s approach to the topic which involved initiatives within Recruitment, Retention and Benchmarking which were all based on behavioural science.

Andy Dawson, Curium – Change Management – Andy discussed change management and the best tools, processes, models and frameworks which can help make change happen. Effective change management needs delivery and performance learning combined with strong leadership, direction, culture and involvement from the team. A high performing team does what they say they are going to do.

30 June 2016

Joanne Humber of Legal Technology Core Competencies Certification Coalition - LTC4 - Reducing risk and increasing productivity with tech savvy lawyers - presented and discussed how LTC4 can help your firm increase user efficiency, address security risks and gain competitive advantage and discussed the momentum this initiative has and the impact it may have on the members’ firms.

John Brunning, Field Fisher - Legal Masterclass on Cloud Services - presented on the contractual and legal elements of using cloud services. John has worked in house for a cloud supplier before working for FF as a technology lawyer.

Simon Crumplin, CEO Sectrutiny - Cyber Attack – Protect and Control or Find and Respond - Simon claimed the traditional (and current) approach doesn’t work.

18th February 2016

Alan McMillen, CEO and Sheila Gormley, Exec Director of Repstor - Cloud DMS - Speed Date Number 1 - Repstor Affinity - Look at who has been making investments – in the main it is Microsoft.

Mike Sanders, Senior Solutions Expert - Cloud DMS - Speed Date Number 2 - NetDocuments - On premise is dying and more companies are moving to the cloud. Cloud is more accepted now and is viewed as innovative.

Daniel Dickinson, Head of Business Productivity, ClearPeople - Cloud DMS - Speed Date Number 3 – Microsoft Matter Center - The system could not be demonstrated due to late arrival and technical difficulty.

Geoff Hornsby, General Manager EMEA for iManage, Neil Araujo, Frank White, Paul Walker - Cloud DMS - Speed Date Number 4 – iManage - This latest version is not a reinvention of iManage, but claimed to be a real deep understanding of how lawyers work.

Table Discussion (all vendor presentations and pre-meeting vendor information will be posted on the HighQ site) - It was agreed that there had been a very different approach from each vendor. Every firm has its own virtual instance. What is really a cloud solution? Is it really a cloud solution where software companies have migrated traditional software into a hosted environment? If they then sell the software on a licensed consumption model, does it really matter?

3rd December 2015

Adam Shutkever, CEO, Riverview Law - The "nons" strike back! – hosted an interactive session that presented a view and approach to the future of the legal market and how the "nons" play an essential part (non-lawyers, non-partners, non-fee earners).

James McCullagh, BA Insight - Developments in the Enterprise Search Space - Perspective 1 – presented on BA Insight's view of the enterprise search market space and related technologies.

Simon Price, MD of Recommind - Developments in the Enterprise Search Space - Perspective 2 – presented a discussion and debate on the evolution of enterprise search and the innovation of search based applications.

Peter Wallqvist, MD of RAVN Systems - Developments in the Enterprise Search Space - Perspective 3 – presented RAVN's view of the current state of enterprise search within the legal space.

2nd July 2015

Matt and Paul from Xenubis - The Dark Web – presented a slightly terrifying presentation on the Dark Web (or dark net) and intelligence operations.  Xenubis are ex MI6, MI5, GCHQ special services type people.

7th May 2015

Tony Williams, Jomati - Civilisation 2030 – presented on a report published in the last year on the three trends that will affect law firms over the next 15 years.

Ollie Whitehouse and James Pierce, NCC Group - NCC Group's view on cyber resilience and response in the legal industry

George Quigley, KPMG - KPMG's view on cyber-crime and why law firms should worry - Start thinking about what I can actually do about this stuff rather than worrying about what we can't do.

5th February 2015

Dr Monica Seeley of Mesmo Consultancy - Email Efficiency – presented on both personal and corporate email efficiency.

Mike Fieldhouse, Managing Director, Realityhouse - Social Media in Law Firms – A Marketing Professional's View – presented his views on social media.