Richard Susskind's Keynote Speech at ABA Techshow is a Huge Hit

As many of you know, I recently read Richard Susskind's book "The End of Lawyers?" and thoroughly enjoyed it. Susskind delivered the keynote speech today at ABA Techshow in Chicago and the room was completely packed. Thankfully, I arrived early enough to get a seat, although others were not so lucky. I've commented on Susskind's book here and in the Lawyer Meltdown Newsletter, and heard many of the same themes repeated in today's keynote. But there was an added dimension to today's speech for me, as I tried to keep up with the speech and provide live updates on Twitter at the same time.

Here's a peek into what I 'tweeted' during the program:

Lawyers: what do you REALLY sell? Susskind: "What's the hole in the wall of legal services?"
Susskind: What's exciting about technology is not automating what you were doing before, but allowing you to do things you couldn't do before
If clients want more for less, 2 strategies are possible: efficiency or collaboration
Are lawyers ready to package their knowledge/ legal services to serve clients better?
Susskind: "Bespoke" [customized] legal work dominates 'romantically' in minds of lawyers, but doesn't align with reality
Clients: certainty & predictability as important - if not more - than overall cost of legal services (according to Susskind)
So lawyers..if clients want predictability and certainty in billing, should you continue billing hourly??
Susskind: No reason to think legal world will be unaffected by changes, esp. accelerated technology changes
Susskind talking about communication - IM, blogs, mass collaboration -- will he mention Twitter??
Susskind: Social networking = next generation of email; great project management tool
He did it! Susskind talking about Twitter... "cannot see why lawyers don't think Twitter applies to them"
Susskind: If you can see ways your work can be undertaken differently & you don't do it, someone else will. How can lawyers innovate?

Although I certainly wouldn't do it for every presentation, posting tweets during the presentation, seeing which were "re-tweeted" immediately, reading others' live comments (and responding privately at times) provided a different level of excitement and engagement for me. It was amazing to see the real-time reactions of attendees and virtual attendees through Twitter. It showed what was resonating with people, what stirred up immediate controversy or commentary and provided an (unintended?) live demonstration of some of Susskind's points.

I encourage all lawyers to pick up Susskind's book and read it - especially since there seems to have been a lot of 'buzz' and conversation about the book among lawyers who have failed to read it.

Want to know more about what Susskind talked about in his keynote? Jim Calloway blogged his thoughts about Susskind's presentation after it was over. Dennis Kennedy 'live-blogged' his comments.