Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 30th annual ABA Techshow in Chicago. It’ll be my first time at the event, and I’m honored to have been asked to speak on two different panels. However, as much as I’m looking forward to those presentations, I’m really looking forward to everything the event has to offer, and I’m hoping to see you there.
I want to encourage anyone who will be in attendance to check out my two sessions. The first, Beyond Baby Steps: Technology Infrastructure, is part of the Shingles: Starting Up/Starting Over track, is at 11:00 on Thursday, March 17th (Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 
). Rochelle Washington of the D.C. Bar will join me to talk about the important technology questions facing startup solo and small law firms.
In the second session, on Saturday March 19 at 10:15, I’ll be joining Jeff Richardson of iPhone J.D. fame and Tom Mighell, noted author (iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, The Lawyers Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies, etc.) and co-host of the Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network, and we’ll be discussing some of the best mobile apps for lawyers. It will be a lot of fun.
However, there are a number of other things I’m really looking forward to, and would strongly recommend for anyone either on the fence about attending or who will be in the Chicago area:
ABA Techshow Keynote: Cindy Cohn
As the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Ms. Cohn is on the front lines of some of the most critical privacy and security battles of our time. I’ve heard Ms. Cohn before, and I can tell you, her presentation is an absolute must-see!
I’m particularly interested in hearing her take on the Apple-FBI debate.
ABA Techshow Plenary Session – Practicing Law in the Era of Surveillance
David Lat, founder of Above the Law, is moderating a panel discussion regarding the ethical and legal implications of the surveillance state. Another interesting topic – and timely given the current debate about encryption.
ABA Techshow Sessions and Panels:
While there are sessions for any type of lawyer available, here are some that interest me the most:
- Egregious Data Security Breaches, Hacks & Leaks (Thursday, 9:00am)
- Tech Terms and Conditions: To What Did I Just Agree (Thursday, 1:45pm)
- Social Media is Key to Effective Discovery (Friday, 9:00am)
- General Marketing – Websites, Blogs, Social Media (Friday, 10:30am)
- Five Easy Ways to Better Protect your Clients’ Data (Friday, 2:30pm)
- Encryption is Now Cheap and Simple and Ethically Required… Maybe (Friday, 2:30)
- Essential PDF Skills for Lawyers (Friday, 3:45)
ABA Techshow at Night!
Whether it’s the Clio sponsored cocktail event on Thursday, the “Taste of ABA Techshow” dinners (join me at The Gage for some discussion about great new apps for lawyers… and more than a little talk about college basketball – GO HEELS!), there will be a lot of great opportunities to network and talk tech.
ABA Techshow Live!
I’ll be covering ABA Techshow 2016 in a number of ways. Follow @NCCyberAdvocate on Periscope to see live coverage of events and interviews with some of my favorite people in legal tech. Check out the home page of The Cyber Advocate on a regular basis for live blogging of various sessions. You can also keep up on Twitter or on Facebook.
Looking forward to an amazing conference, hope to see you there!