Back
in
2016,
in
the
recesses
of
the
Radisson
Blu
in
Chicago,
I
joined
a
group
of
500
or
600
attendees
for
the
fourth
Clio
Cloud
Conference.
The
company
unveiled
the
Legal
Trends
Report,
the
Texas
Law
Hawk
talked
about
legal
marketing,
and
I
already
realized
that
this
conference
operated
on
a
different
level
than
the
rest.
That
show
had
already
nearly
tripled
in
size
from
the
200
or
so
that
made
it
to
the
first
installment.
Last
week,
that
same
conference
boasted
5,000
attendees
with
around
2,600
physically
in
the
convention
center.
That’s
quite
the
explosion
in
attendance.
The
theme
this
year
was
momentum.
“Momentum
is
the
driving
force
that
turns
short
bursts
of
energy
into
sustained
success,”
said
CEO
and
co-Founder
Jack
Newton,
in
an
appropriate
nod
to
Newtonian
physics.
And
while
he
was
talking
about
the
legal
industry
generally,
as
someone
attending
their
ninth
iteration
of
this
show,
Clio
seems
to
have
a
lot
of
momentum
itself.
Newton
remarked
that
Clio
—
even
as
a
$3B
business
—
still
gets
a
lot
of
its
business
from
word-of-mouth.
Its
army
of
existing
users
providing
a
strong
grassroots
referral
network.
And
while
Clio
has
devoted
customers
based
on
product
alone,
Clio
approaches
its
annual
conference
as
a
vehicle
for
strengthening
that
community.
“I
want
our
users
to
come
into
the
conference
as
users,
as
customers,
but
leave
as
evangelists.
And
evangelists
not
just
about
Clio,
the
word
of
mouth
about
Clio,
but
there’s
a
new
way
of
doing
things.”
Philosophically,
Clio
aims
to
build
that
evangelist
mindset
by
placing
the
technology
—
its
actual
product
—
as
one
piece
in
a
larger
conversation.
“Building
cool
technology
and
building
cool
products
was,
I
realized,
maybe
even
less
than
half
the
battle,”
Newton
said.
“What
we
were
trying
to
really
do
with
lawyers
is
catalyze
a
different
way
of
thinking
about
the
world.
Being
more
client-centered.
How
do
you
become
more
responsive
to
clients?
Thinking
about
how
you
use
technology,
not
to
just
get
10%
more
productive,
but
how
do
you
actually
transform
the
way
you’re
interacting
with
clients?”
But
first,
the
company
needs
to
get
clients
to
make
the
trip.
Ever
since
Newton
first
pitched
holding
a
conference
to
the
company’s
event
mastermind
Lauren
Sanders,
Clio’s
seen
the
role
of
its
show
a
little
differently
than
most.
“I’d
been
to
a
couple
of
dozen
different
legal
technology
conferences
that
were
pretty
grim
affairs.
like
in
the
basement
of
convention
centers,
windowless
rooms,
like
obviously
very
low
budgets,
and
an
energy
that
was
so
focused
around
CLE,
like
just
compliance,
as
opposed
to
real
education,
and
as
opposed
to
helping
lead
legal
professionals
into
what
the
next
part
of
the
journey
is
going
to
be
about.
I
thought
we
can
do
better.”
The
numbers
don’t
lie…
they
can
do
this
better.
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter or
Bluesky
if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
dose
of
college
sports
news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
RPN
Executive
Search.