Many students approached this new school year with anxiety regarding technology. Four OU Law students, however, tackled technology head on – attending the jam-packed, completely virtual, International Legal Technology Association (ILTA)>ON technology conference.

OU’s College of Law generously sponsored four third-year students’ registration to the ILTA>ON conference. Cole Reynolds, Rich Lubbers, Amanda Finch, and Anthony Kanalas break down all their favorite moments from the conference in a recent TALIcast podcast, but some key takeaways are included here.

Conference Format

ILTA>ON was virtual conferencing done right. The programming offered a plethora of concurrent tracks and sessions with novel and varied content. It was challenging for the students to choose just one session to attend.

The conference was attended and presented by practitioners from all over the world. As a result, there were sessions offered much earlier and later than a typical in-person conference. This made it easier for, not only the international professionals, but also busy students to work in conference sessions at their convenience. Many presentations were also available on demand afterwards. So, to the extent that there was a conflict and you missed a presentation you were really interested in, you could watch it on your own time.

Amanda was particularly impressed with the conference’s integrative technology, such as interactive polls, that encouraged attendees to actively engage in the presentations in real time. She was also pleased with the ease of giving feedback as surveys were provided as a simple poll, on the screen, right at the end of each session. This format was not only convenient for attendees, but conference organizers were able to—and did—improve the experience continuously based on the quick feedback they received.

For many participants, networking is the primary goal of conferences. This is especially true for law students and other young professionals. Cole appreciated that ILTA>ON took this into consideration when they designed the “Hallway Chatter” sessions, which facilitated networking conversations, allowing attendees to catch up with and meet other conference goers outside of the moderated chat in the more formal sessions.

Favorite Sessions

If each of the students who attended could tell you one thing about this technology conference, in particular, it would be that it is about “more than gadgets and gizmos, the focus is really on the people, both those we serve and those we work with.” The ILTA>ON conference was not just about technology; it was about how technology supports and influences people.

This support, especially when it involves process changes, is often met with resistance. Rich noted that ILTA>ON addressed this difficulty through numerous sessions discussing tools and strategies to help get teams on board with technology improvements. He found the practical advice for how to leverage technology and implement change especially refreshing.

Amanda’s refreshment, however, was found in the sessions regarding emotional intelligence, as well as diversity and inclusion. She enjoyed being given concrete steps to affect change in your firm; and the emphasis on measuring change on a spectrum. Improving diversity and inclusion is more than just checking a box; it’s about collecting data and implementing evidence-based practices that rehabilitate the culture of a firm, while protecting, and many times, boosting the bottom dollar.

Anthony enjoyed learning about evidence-based practices surrounding the service perspective of embracing legal solutions. He came away realizing that while some professional environments could benefit from a complete technology overall, that approach is not always practical based on the resources available. It is crucial, therefore, to evaluate the metrics of the current systems to determine where efficiencies can best be realized through the implementation of new systems. This data-driven approach focuses on prioritizing upgrades, while convincing the whole team to come along for the ride.

As new technology is integrated into legal practice, these solutions impact real people and that reality should influence implementation decisions. This is why the leadership-oriented sessions appealed most to Cole. He was introduced to different ways to approach technology-based solutions to people problems. And, at the end of the day, or week even, this technology conference was about just that: people.

As a whole, the students appreciated how well OU Law’s Digital Initiative programming prepared them to fully engage in some of the more tech-heavy sessions. The ILTA>ON conference introduced skills and strategies that built on strong foundation of technical competency OU Law works hard to instill in its students. This investment will go far in assisting students as they transition into the legal profession.

Check out the latest TALIcast podcast episode to hear more!

Sydney N. Forsander, P.E., 3L

Secretary, Technology and Legal Innovation Society at the OU College of Law

The past few weeks have been hectic. Ever since COVID-19 started spreading throughout the world, nothing has been the same. People are scared, angry, and sometimes both. Most of us have either had to start working from home or lost jobs as a result. In the coming months, we will all be forced to make changes. They will be uncomfortable, and they will be disruptive.

As one of my professors told us when we began transitioning to an online class, nobody asked for this. And she’s right. None of us asked for our classes to be converted to an online format halfway through the semester. We didn’t ask to be legally mandated to stay home. We didn’t ask for our jobs to be lost or lessened as a result. But it doesn’t matter what we asked for. This is our reality. We will have to adapt in order to thrive in it. And that is exactly what we should plan to do.

Lawyers are not generally thought of as “innovative,” but we are. Our profession is built around solving problems and creating systems that endure. By taking this time to innovate, we can adapt to our current situation while preparing ourselves for the future.

As a law student, I have had to adapt along with my classmates. But I have one advantage: I have been working remotely since May. My classes are definitely different, but I have been communicating virtually for almost a year now. I have had to make my own schedules and avoid distractions at home. I have had to face unique challenges that are just part of life when working remotely.

Another advantage I have is that OU Law offers one of the best technology and innovation programs in the country through its Digital Initiative. Between online training and certifications such as the LTC4 program, several hours of lunch and learns, and a top of the line collaborative learning lab, OU Law gives me the tools and training I have needed to succeed.

Seeing as how we are all facing these challenges together, I wanted to share some of the things I have learned. My hope is that there is at least one thing that can help you, whether you are a student, professor, or practicing attorney, as you adjust to this new reality.

Scheduling

As I said before, working from home means that you will have to deal with distractions. Kids will want attention. Pets will want attention. Your phone will want attention. And it is easy to give in to those temptations. After all, you’re at home, you’re comfortable, and you’ve been working hard (even if you’ve only worked a few minutes).

What I do is write my schedule out. Actually, I write it out several times. For instance, I add priority events, meetings, or deadlines on my iCal. This way I can set alerts and reminders to ensure I stay on task throughout the week. Next, I roughly outline times of each day for certain tasks. Based on my productivity habits, studying and hard work is usually scheduled for mornings. Afternoons are reserved for work. Evenings are reserved for relaxation or preparation for the next day. Finally, I have a journal that allows me to schedule every hour of my day from 6 am to 9 pm from Best Self Co. Not only does my journal allow me to freely plan each day, but it is also structured for me to practice my affirmations and reflections at the beginning and end of the day.

You may not need to schedule everything as I do. You might be used to having onecalendar and being accountable to it. But, if you are like me, the more you repeat that promise to yourself that you will work on one thing at a specific time the more likely you are to follow through with it. And that makes all those little distractions just a little less tempting.

Communication

Obviously, we are almost all going to be keeping our distance from other people for a while. That means that emails, phone calls, and video calls just got a whole lot more important.

Emails should be reserved for formal and non-urgent matters. When you need to communicate something in detail, write an email. If you need to write something that the recipient needs to see soon, send a text. This way, your emails will not needlessly interrupt someone while they work and you won’t be sitting at your computer waiting on an urgent email response. If you are interested, here is an interesting article about how disruptive email can be and some suggestions on how to curb the impact.

I have found that it is helpful to have a reliable set of headphones or earbuds that you can conduct phone calls with. You don’t need AirPods, but even regular apple headphones have worked better for me than holding the phone to my ear. The biggest difference I have found is that it is easier for me to understand people when they speak. Even I get tired of me saying “what did you say?” so it is very important that I be able to hear and understand who I am talking to.

Finally, I think it is about time we all become familiar and comfortable with video calls. I’m not talking the ‘dressed from the waist up’ kind of comfortable though. No, what I mean is that we need to practice being on screen. For students, a lot of our classes are being held in these environments. For attorneys, video calls can be used to give clients a better way to communicate. While video calls are not the same as in-person meetings, they do allow us to interact more holistically while still preserving freedom and flexibility with our schedules.

Conclusion

Most of the challenges that you will face when working or studying remotely will be focus driven. A lot of things are going to pull your attention away from things you should be doing. Your children, spouses, pets, and thinking about our current situation will distract you. I don’t think it is possible to get rid of those distractions. But I do believe that we can structure our environments and routines to limit the impact of distractions.

By becoming familiar with the technology we have to embrace, we will be less frustrated with it when it eventually does mess something up. We will be able to troubleshoot more effectively and get back on track with our day. By having a detailed schedule and affirming our tasks to ourselves we can be more accountable even when nobody else is around. And by embracing our use of technology to communicate we can reduce the amount of confusion created by misunderstanding one another.

This adjustment will take time and collaboration. None of us will be able to adapt on our own. I wanted to share some of the tips or tricks that I have used over the past year for exactly that reason. I hope that there is even one thing in this post that you can implement and improve your study or work habits.

If you are an OU Law student (or any law student) and would like to share how you have adjusted to working and studying remotely, please reach out to us in the comments or contact us here. We want to hear from as many readers as we can so that we can tailor any future content to your requests and what you want to be covered.

Introduction 

If you’re anything like me, your first experiences in law school—whether it is a “summer start” program like the one in which I began or the more traditional 16-week semester—may well turn out to be a wakeup call of the worst kind, like a slept-through-your-flight kind of call from a hotel’s front desk. In short, the first months in law school have the power to make you feel not only like you’ve been left behind but that you’re all alone. It’s like Home Alone; only this time, you’re playing Kevin. 

Perhaps that seems dramatic. And in one sense, I suppose it is. After all, plenty of students adjust to the rites and rigors of law school without so much as breaking a sweat. But for the rest of us, there’s an adjustment period, and a significant one at that. But now that I’m nearly halfway through my 3L year, I wanted to take some time to pass on what I’ve learned. In particular, let me simply say “I wish I’d known that” about these “Three Rs and a T” earlier than I did. 

Consult Resources. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, the first thing to which I wish I had been privy during my first few months of law school were the school’s vast network of resources, of both the professional and personal variety. They are there, waiting to be consulted. But you’ve got to know who and what and where they are. 

By professional resources, I mean both awareness of and access to the vast array of supplementary materials that line your library’s dusty shelves as well as your school’s version of the University of Oklahoma the College of Law’s 1L “Study Resources” splash page. Not to be dramatic, but my school’s supplementary materials were the sine qua non of my vast improvement between my first and subsequent semesters.  

That said, the truth is that there are far more resources to peruse than there is time to peruse them. But don’t let the sheer volume of supplementary sources scare you away. Instead, find a few you like, and then apprentice yourself to them early on. It’ll make a world of difference come exam time. (Personally, I like to spend most of my time with conceptual outlines and digital recordings of famous law school lecturers. Others prefer multiple-choice compilations or flash cards.) 

By personal resources, on the other hand, I mean the plethora of personnel who are at your service. Although my school’s director of academic support had yet to take the metaphorical field when I arrived, I have since had the pleasure of working with her while she called the tutorial plays. I don’t know about you, but I find that talking through concepts in one-on-one conversation is one of the best ways in which I learn. Whether those conversations are for you or not, get to know the administrators, the advisors, and the tutors. They’re there for you, and they want to see you succeed. And if you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned professors in this section, it’s that my own experience has taught me that profs generally make for better conversation partners than tutors. So get your directed academic guidance elsewhere. 

Prioritize Relationships. 

For most of you, this one’s probably a no-brainer. Like most things in life, law school is both easier and more enjoyable when you do it with others. No, don’t do others’ work or sign up for classes just because someone else does. But don’t forget to build relationships. And don’t start thinking about relationships exclusively through the lens of networking just because you’re in law school. People aren’t projects; they don’t want to be treated like means to ends. So “Yes,” get to know your classmates, mentors, and other friends of your school . . . but not because of what they can do for you but because of who they are. 

More specifically, within the first few months of school make it a personal goal to deal with your own myopia by seeking out relationships with a few good men and women, especially men and women with different interests, skills, and backgrounds. You won’t believe how much of the “law” you miss simply because of your own background and biases. Plus, a few good men and women make for excellent study buddies come exam time. And everyone needs a few study buddies.  

Even Lebron can’t win titles on his own. Of course, if those study buddies totally fail you, just get new ones. If you’re wondering how to do that, just call the Los Angeles Lakers’ front office. I’m sure team executives would be happy to tell you how they managed to trade away all Lebron’s teammates to places stretching from New Orleans to Timbuktu.  

But, on a more serious note, other people often make all the difference in who we are and what we become. See generally John MacMurray, Persons in Relation (Humanity Books 1961). Most of your success in law school, as in life, in other words, will likely be byproduct of those around you. See id. This is categorically true—even for the “highest ranked” among us. So get out there and make a few friends. But remember to treat them like people, not projects. 

Read Effectively. 

This one’s probably a no-brainer too. But get ready to read, read, and then read some more. But be sure to learn how to read first. So you know, I wrestled with whether to make “Reading” the first ‘R’ in my list, primarily because it seems to be the foundational element of every (legal) education program in the world. But I’ve chosen to put it here because even though it is arguably the most important item in this list, chances are it’ll be easiest to “fix.” 

If you don’t already know, the “best” readers among us read different genres differently. See, e.g., Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading 190-308 (Touchstone Books 1972). For example, the best readers approach academic journal articles on sub-atomic particles one way and New York Times opinion pieces another. To become a good reader, in other words, is to learn to take stock not only of what you’re reading but why you’re reading. Only then will you be able to understand how you ought to be reading. This is even more important when it comes to reading the law. 

One quick illustration: I came to law school after spending three years working as a middle division American history teacher. My paramount objective was to introduce students to the “past” as well as the people, places, and events therein. One of the many ways I did that was by giving lectures. To prepare, I would often have to conduct research and hunt for facts. The most important facts were usually buried somewhere within hundreds or thousands of pages of journal entries, newspaper articles, or monographs. Sometimes the hunt was exhausting. But it was always worth it because it wasn’t until I had a decent grasp of the facts that I was able to present a story of the past through which students were prepared to identify and explain, or analyze and interpret, historical events. 

Understanding the facts is an equally important part of the study and practice of law. But to treat cases only—or even primarily—as a hunt for hidden facts is to miss the point of reading case law. Yes, we must have a basic grasp of the facts in order to analyze cases intelligently, but the goal of reading case law is to learn to identify the relationships between the facts and the rules, not just to memorize facts. In some sense, that is the essence of the practice and interpretation of the law: What is the relationship between fact(s) X and rule(s) Y at time(s) Z, and what does that relationship permit, encourage, or bind the court to do? 

It Just Takes Time. 

The last thing about which I want to say “I wish I’d known that” is that, for most of us, adjusting to the rites and rigors of law school just takes time. I find it ironic that I didn’t see this coming. As an “older” student (I was 29 when I started), I suppose I should have expected that any measure of success in law school—like most good things in life—wasn’t going to come overnight. As convenient as they are, everyone knows microwave ovens ain’t got nothin’ on slow cookers. Wherever you are in the process, remember this. It’ll probably take some time to adjust.  

Just exactly how much time it’ll take to adjust is different for everybody. It took me a semester. In fact, by the time I figured out what was going to be asked of me on my first set of exams, it seemed like I had less than a couple weeks to prepare properly. Others probably could’ve taken—and passed—their exams without preparing and all. Not me. And likely not you either. So take some time to reflect on how quickly (or slowly) you typically adjust to new environments, and then do the things I’ve recommended above. 

Conclusion 

Ultimately, the key to achieving a measure of success in law school is not about how quickly you adjust or how effectively you read; instead, achieving a measure of success in law school comes as you get to know who you are and what you need to do in order to accomplish your goals. If you’re 22 or 23, be willing to admit that you don’t know much about who you are or where you’re headed. And if you’re a little older, like I was, just remember that graduate school and mid-life career changes are never easy. In a word, don’t worry about whether you’re going to be a “success.” Success does not, after all, always look like graduating “number one” or landing a federal appellate clerkship. It might, but it might also look like cranking out public interest briefs for next to nothing.  

Notwithstanding the fact that everyone’s personalities and professional goals are different, I have a sneaking suspicion that the sooner you learn how to consult resources, prioritize relationships, read effectively, and acknowledge that it takes time to adjust to the rites and rigors of law school, the less likely you’ll find yourself saying—like I did—“I wish I’d known that.” 

I am a big fan of podcasts. I am also a law student. Naturally, this means that I listen to podcasts about practicing law quite a bit. One of my favorite podcasts is The Lawyerist.

For anyone that is not familiar with Lawyerist, it is a platform that provides insight and resources to law firms to become better in practicing law. While all of the episodes I have listened to have struck me in unique ways, their episode with Fastcase CEO Ed Walters was particularly intriguing to me. In this episode, the focus was on leveraging data to make better lawyers and law firms. The discussion is driven by the publication of the book “Data-Driven Law.”

For some, the idea of using data in a law firm may sound foreign. However, as this episode pointed out, all firms rely on data. Lawyers rely on knowing judges and cases to anticipate how likely they are to win a case. Some lawyers rely on experience to determine how much certain litigation might cost. Practicing law is already driven by data. But what if that data was more accurate? What if it allowed you to standardize the likelihood of success? What if it made clients more confident in your services? The possibilities could drastically improve your practice if used correctly in several ways.

There were three uses for data that I found especially powerful while listening to this episode;

Increasing Firm Efficiency

Law firms need to be nurtured and grown. That means that there is more work in running a firm than just practicing law. You have to bill clients, bring in new clients, cover overhead costs, and pay employees. All of this takes time away from handling cases and actually practicing law no matter how you handle them. Most likely, the firm is going to spend money on advertisement campaigns and tools to improve client experiences to increase referrals.

By analyzing data, a firm could be able to identify where they are getting higher or lower returns on investments. Online campaigns could cost more than what the firm is making by intake from those services. Maybe a partner spends time chasing leads or managing payroll that limits the revenue that they could be bringing in with their billable hours. That partner could save time by using a more efficient tool, and, even if it costs money to use, could actually be saving money by freeing up their time to handle cases.

Data could explain how much money and time is being sunk into these tasks that firms may not realize are actually costing them money. This would allow you to readily access the analysis of how well your firm is using its resources.

More Accurate Predictions

Law firms provide unique services in relation to other markets. Lawyers rarely know, down to a statistical level, how likely cases are to play out one way or another. A layer’s experience and personal analysis already serve as data that informs decisions. However, when clients bring potentially life-changing issues to a lawyer, it is easy to see why they are afraid to move forward. Additionally, if a potential client is shopping for a lawyer, they may take the case to more than one firm to make their decision. It would stand to reason that the client would move forward with the firm that is able to calculate an exact higher-percentage of success, rather than the one that thinks it has “a good chance” of being a winner.

This ability shows that you take the time to consider their particular facts and apply your previous success in similar cases. Clients will feel far more confident in a firm that calculates their confidence instead of just making an educated guess. For a lot of clients, they are bringing life-changing problems to lawyers. When you consider that, it is easy to see why they would prefer to see a firm put in the effort to calculate probabilities.

Potential to Unbundle Services

Not all clients need or require a lawyer to handle their entire case. Some clients simply cannot afford a lawyer. So what if you could offer some services at a low flat rate? This has been a trend in law since the introduction of LegalZoom and other platforms that offer assistance with certain documents. However, law firms in many states would be capable of offering these “unbundled” services with a more personal touch as well.

As some states move towards allowing lawyers to assist pro se litigants, unbundled services could become the basis for several firms. With data analytics, firms could calculate flat rate services. These services could satisfy the client’s need for value and the firm’s need for profit. The system would be able to track how much time it takes to draft certain documents. The firm could then determine precisely how much each document would cost to draft.

Law firms need to focus on improving their operations. To do that, they need to understand their current operations. by leveraging their data, firms can increase efficiency and lower costs. They could even offer affordable flat-rate services. In order to reach more clients and improve existing client relationships, data should serve as an important tool for any law firm.