Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock and who works in the legal technology business has heard of the Master’s Conference. It’s been going strong for over a decade and it only gets better every year. I spoke recently with Robert Childress about the conference and here are a few outtakes from our conversation.
Started in 2007, the Master’s used to be local to just Washington, D.C. It was a two-and-a-half-day event held at a fancy convention center that brought together the biggest thought-leaders in the industry.
In 2012, with the popularity and growth of other large conferences and events, the Master’s shifted to a one-day conference model and began traveling the country to host the conference in San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, New York, Dallas, Atlanta, and Orlando. Later, London was added. The Master’s partners with Sidley Austin, Seyfarth, Reed Smith, Jones Day, Thompson & Knight, Blank Rome, and others to host the conferences.
It’s typically not more than a few hundred people who gather in any given city, but thanks to Robert Childress and his team, this conference punches above its weight class with great speakers and content covering topics of interest to corporate legal operations, law firms, and service providers.
With the remaking of the conference several years ago, the Master’s moved away from pure eDiscovery topics and now also focuses on information governance, cyber, and blockchain. It’s not heavy on pushy vendor sales, either, which has always been a plus.
I had the pleasure of presenting at the recent Master’s Conference in NYC. Our Legal Update 2019 panel discussion was led by Ari Kaplan, from Ari Kaplan Advisors, and included input from lawyer and legal technologist Dera Nevin, and attorneys John Levonic from Pepper Hamilton and Jeffrey Rosenthal from Blank Rome. Blank Rome graciously hosted the day’s events. We covered everything from current social media trends in eDiscovery to IoT and biometrics.
The New York City event this year included topics ranging from strategizing eDiscovery operations, how cybersecurity and eDiscovery collide to present security issues, and my favorite, “eDiscovery is Not Just for Litigation Anymore.” There were panels on AI, on information governance, and on blockchain. It’s always relevant and always features the best and brightest speakers.
But it gets better.
The Master’s has always been big on philanthropy, too. And this year is not different. At the ILTA Conference in Orlando this year, the Master’s Conference is hosting the Lawyer’s Invitational, a charity golf tournament to benefit the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. The Lawyer Invitational takes place on Monday, August 19, at the Four Seasons within Walt Disney World. If you are interested in sponsoring, please reach out to Robert Childress at rchildress@themastersconference.com. You can register for the Lawyer’s Invitational here.
Robert told me during out little chat that one of his goals is “to help people develop their careers and to build a legacy through the Master’s Conference.” He has done that and brought together community, education, and products that build upon a lasting legacy in the legal technology space.
In the end, if the Master’s Conference is in your town, it will benefit legal operations professionals and you should consider attending. Check out the line-up of events here.
Mike Quartararo
Mike Quartararo is the managing director of eDPM Advisory Services, a consulting firm providing e-discovery, project management and legal technology advisory and training services to the legal industry. He is also the author of the 2016 book Project Management in Electronic Discovery. Mike has many years of experience delivering e-discovery, project management, and legal technology solutions to law firms and Fortune 500 corporations across the globe and is widely considered an expert on project management, e-discovery and legal matter management. You can reach him via email at mquartararo@edpmadvisory.com. Follow him on Twitter @edpmadvisory.