CLOC2018: 3 undeniable observations from the largest legal operations conference

Another fantastic CLOC Institute has come and gone! This year’s conference showcased the continued growth of the CLOC organization as well as the legal operations function; both of which show no signs of slowing down.

We’ll be sharing additional posts about some of our favorite sessions at CLOC in the coming weeks. Subscribe to our legal operations blog so you don’t miss any news! Until then, check out 3 undeniable observations from this year’s conference.

1. Legal operations professionals are EAGER to learn

There were more than 75 educational sessions covering a range of topics. While we didn’t have the chance to attend every session (though we wish we could have), those we did join were packed full. Attendees’ desire to learn and absorb as much new knowledge as possible was evident throughout the multi-day conference.

Here were some of the most talked about topics from CLOC 2018:

The need to create a more diverse and inclusive industry

The “real” role of Artificial Intelligence in legal operations

Legal operations is more than spend management

2. Legal ops resources are growing

We noticed an increase in the outsourced and alternative legal service providers who joined the CLOC Institute fun this year! Resources dedicated to legal operations are becoming more and more abundant, meaning legal departments have many opportunities to streamline and optimize processes, control spend, and access analytics for more informed, strategic decision making.

With the growing tech landscape, we wanted to share the importance of connecting and streamlining these systems to ensure maximum value from each solution leveraged by a legal department.

Our CEO, Nathan Wenzel, was joined by legal operations and finance professionals, Chris Manning at Google X, and Theresa Chang and Sean Keough at Splunk. They shared their personal legal operations experiences and how e-Billing and matter management solution should be the center of this ecosystem, acting as a system of record for the department.

If you weren’t able to make the session, you can watch the session here.

3. Collective growth is a top priority

Together we can do anything.

CLOC’s mission has always been to move the industry as a whole – to connect forward-thinking and creative legal operations professionals in an environment that facilitates collaboration and knowledge share about the growing industry. This year’s conference demonstrated that the once small group of like-minded professionals is not only tackling this mission head on, but doing it successfully.

Whether soaking up best practices in a session or networking on the expo floor, collaboration was in the air. Not just among attendees, but across companies and sponsors which created a unique atmosphere where the excitement was palpable. The strength of the legal operations role, combined with the desire to solve common legal ops challenges with the best solutions as a collective group is truly something special.

We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again. Legal operations is here to stay.

See you at #CLOC2019!

We were honored to be a platinum sponsor at this year’s event. Catching up with so many of our customers in person, meeting new legal operations professionals hungry to build out and optimize their teams, attending sessions led by the industry’s most influential thought leaders – it reaffirms our desire to support the legal operations role and the challenges they face with modern and intuitive legal technology.

For more content on this year’s CLOC institute and to stay on top of all things legal operations, subscribe to our blog!