What Was the Second Line at ClioCloud9?

• Author: Nate Russell
• Date: October 09, 2018

It’s Thursday evening in New Orleans, Oct 4, halfway through the Clio Cloud Conference. Following Jack Newton’s opening keynote it’s easy to tell we’re on the front lines of legal tech. Some solid intel :

• Lexicata and Clio Grow: Los Angeles-based Lexicata — a client intake and CRM tool that’s optimized to work as an integration with Clio — has been acquired by the ambitious British Columbia-based legal tech company and conference host. The move effectively grows the practice management tool beyond its base fitness to deal with active client files and practice management (time keeping, document management, billing, calendaring, trust accounting), into the realm of what Sales Force can do. The newly minted Clio Grow is part of “a more comprehensive multi-product suite focused on the full client experience”. This is a coup for Lexicata, and a blow to other players like Client Sherpa and Lawmatics, whose products also emphasize intake and which also integrate with Clio.
• 2018 Legal Trends Report: Not to be confused with the ABA’s 700 page Legal Technology Survey Report, the (freely available for download) report from Clio uses actual usage data (aggregated and anonymized) from Clio’s US users in addition to lawyer and client surveys. This is the real hive-mind low down. What lawyers actually charge, why and when they discount bills, how clients want to communicate, why people avoid lawyers, and interestingly/sadly where lawyers sit on the Net Promoter Score scale in relation to other industries (hint: worse than banks and airlines, and a tad better than credit card companies).

The First Line

So yes, #ClioCloud9 is all about legal tech trends. Attendees tend to be lawyers solving real business problems with Clio. Numerous tracks relate to integrations, working efficiently with your mobile apps, automating processes and workflows, digital sales and marketing, legal accounting, security, future of law workshops, and what I like to call the ABCs of legaltech futurism (AI, blockchain, chatbots).

But there’s an undercurrent of something else at the Clio Conference. There are sessions on health and stress, social impact, inspiration and curiosity, and designing a more equitable profession. There are morning runs, yoga wellness meets, and a room with seven (yes, seven) human-actual massage therapists available for any and all attendees throughout the conference days. And that brings tom mind something else: the “second line” of the conference. That part that has...