David Cowen at ILTACON 2012. Credit: Monica Bay/Legaltech News.

 

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from the Reinventing Professionals podcast, hosted by legal tech speaker and consultant Ari Kaplan, provided to Legaltech News.

Ari Kaplan speaks with David Cowen, the president and managing director of the Cowen Group, a staffing and recruiting firm focusing exclusively on the e-discovery, litigation support, privacy, security, and information governance sectors. His firm also produces the summit on legal innovation and disruption in various cities across the U.S.

Ari Kaplan: Tell us about your background and the genesis of the SOLID Summit.

David Cowen: I started the Cowen Group in 2004, focused exclusively on staffing and recruiting in litigation support, e-discovery, Big Law, Mid Law, and corporate legal. Over the last 14 years, we've placed over 600 executives in the legal ecosystem. Years ago, I started to produce workshops, breakfasts, and dinners—about 50 live events a year—to get to know the candidates and the market. From that, we've trampolined into a series of summits on legal innovation and disruption. We ran one in New York and are hosting another in San Francisco on March 15, 2018. These events give us an opportunity to create hubs of conversation on evolving trends to help people move their careers from now to next.

How can individuals give themselves an advantage in this competitive market?

To give yourself a competitive advantage, you have to be aware of the five drivers of change, which are: (1) next-generation legal technology and artificial intelligence; (2) competition; (3) consolidation; (4) corporate control; and (5) the war for talent. If you don't make a conscious decision to embrace them, you're going to get left behind.

Going to events like the SOLID summit or any one of a variety of boot camps that are popping up in the marketplace are one thing you can do, and the other is to read as many blogs or listen to as many podcasts as you can. Now, more than ever, you need to be an active participant in your own career development. There are so many new roles and opportunities that haven't even been created yet.

Why is the legal industry so focused on innovation and disruption this year?

Although there are a lot of super gurus, data scientists, and very sophisticated professionals that are working in the space, you don't have to be one to leverage the advanced technology that we're seeing today. There are hundreds of legal professionals in the United States and Europe today that are sandboxing technology and working with their clients to come up with client-first initiatives, new business models, different ways of doing business, all in response to client expectations. The expectations are there and the technology is there so all of a sudden, we find ourselves in this incubator, this mash up of people and technology trying new things.

What are three takeaways that you're planning to emphasize at SOLID West in San Francisco?

SOLID West is not a big box conference. It's a series of TED talks, table talks, and town halls, so I'm hoping that the attendees will really get a sense of the rate of change in the marketplace right now. It is much faster than most of the media is reporting. The TED talks will showcase practical stories of what people are doing, how they're doing it, why they're doing it that way, and lessons they've learned. Attendees will also walk away with a 90-day action plan. Everyone walks away with a 90-day action plan and is invited to join a working group, where they work on a common challenge with peers and colleagues they met at the event.

How are you building on the momentum of the SOLID initiative?

We are creating a series of boot camps that will start almost immediately after SOLID in 10 cities around the United States through the spring, summer, and fall of 2018. They are meant to coach legal entrepreneurs and will discuss the roles that are going to be most in demand in the legal ecosystem, as well as how to network to advance your career in this new and evolving legal market.

How do events like these capture the evolution of the legal profession?

When you put people that cross-functional into a room and you create opportunities for them to think out loud, that's where advancement comes from.

Are you seeing crossover between the disciplines?

Absolutely. I think Connie Brenton and her team at CLOC have done a tremendous job of raising the profile of legal operations professionals, but I'm also seeing an enormous amount of cross-functional working collaboration happening in corporate legal departments and within major law firms.

The rising prominence of the chief innovation officer role throughout the United States and Europe is a great example. Besides moving the needle and coming up with new business plans, developing business models, and sandboxing technology, they're responsible for cross-pollinating practice groups and professionals within the law department or firm. It's their job to break down barriers to get teams working together in ways they hadn't before, and most importantly, working with clients in a way that firms hadn't before.

 

Ari Kaplan regularly interviews leaders in the legal industry and in the broader professional services community to share perspective, highlight transformative change, and introduce new technology at ReinventingProfessionals.com.