Eight Key Takeaways from the IMLA Mid-Year Seminar 2023

As always, the 2023 Mid-Year Seminar of the International Municipal Lawyers Association’s (IMLA) lived its mission to “serve local government lawyers and to advance the interests of local government law through education and advocacy. The conference was a smashing success, and our team was thankful for the opportunity to attend and connect (and reconnect!) with local government lawyers from across the United States and Canada.

The formal (Xakia-hosted WONK breakfast session, led by Xakia’s North American VP of Sales, Brandon Spencer) and informal discussions (see bike ride below!) provided an opportunity to hear directly from in-house legal teams about their legal operations and legal technology needs, the pain points many are experiencing and how they are addressing the demands of their government legal departments.

Xakia research and analysis outlined in the white paper, “Hard Work Made Harder” resonated with this group, and the pressure around reporting, visibility and legal budgets for government lawyers was supported by a wide range of anecdotes from the IMLA community.

This was Xakia’s fourth IMLA Mid-Year Seminar, and pleasingly we watched maturity around legal operations step forward meaningfully in that time. Whilst we do not yet see legal matter management adoption across the entirety of the group, this is growing rapidly and there is widespread acknowledgement that visibility, legal intake & triage and legal department reporting are all significant pain points that require a solution.

Key Takeaways from the 2023 IMLA Mid-Year:

1. Legal Department reporting for government teams is critical, but extremely time consuming.

2. MANY in-house legal teams are managing high profile legal projects with limited resources.

3. Reducing the administrative burden on time-crunched legal teams is essential.

4. Simple legal process and workflow improvement is a priority, particularly for self-help tools or collaboration with clients.

5. Skinny government legal department budgets are problematic to achieving efficiencies.

6. There is a vast misconception that legal technology implementation needs to be large and/or difficult.

7. Legacy matter management software solutions do not sufficiently address legal department needs.

8. The majority of government teams still do not use legal matter management tools – but that is changing quickly!

Plus — Xakia's very own (and D.C. native), Jillian Watkins (Customer Success Manager, North America) guided a bike tour through the city and along the Potomac River, with sights that included the White House, National Mall, George Washington University, and more!

We look forward to the Annual Conference in La Quinta, California in September!

In the meantime, contact us to schedule a demo or begin your free 14-day pilot (and enjoy this photo of Brandon devouring non-Kansas City BBQ)!

Show the value of your in-house legal team with Xakia's legal matter software

Xakia's legal analytics software allows local government Legal Departments to use data to make informed decisions on resourcing. It will also provide you with important legal data and metrics to show your value to the leadership team. If you would like to learn more about our legal matter management software, speak to the Xakia team today about a demo today or sign up for a 14-day pilot.