We survived the first day!  🙂  The International Legal Technology Association’s (ILTA) annual conference ILTACON 2025 is being conducted this week. And we’ve already had several interesting sessions on Monday, including those profiled here!  Here are the ILTACON 2025 Tuesday sessions and happenings.

Each day at ILTACON 2025, eDiscovery Today will highlight notable sessions for the day – in most cases, those sessions will relate to eDiscovery, Information Governance, cybersecurity, data privacy, or artificial intelligence (as well as a few other happenings during the week). All times ET.

ILTACON 2025 Tuesday Sessions and Happenings:

10:30am-Noon:

Getting the Most from M365 Copilot: The Do’s & Don’ts (Woodrow Wilson BCD)

Now that Microsoft Copilot has been in the hands of professionals for over a year, it’s time to move past the introductions and explore how to truly unlock its potential. Join our expert panel to learn how firms have successfully rolled out Copilot and trained users to prompt for great results. We will cover real-world use cases, advanced capabilities, and practical tips to help you make the most of Copilot across Microsoft 365 applications.

Discover how organizations are leveraging Copilot to streamline routine tasks and enhance collaboration workflow saving time and reducing friction across departments. Avoid common pitfalls that slow adoption and frustrate users adapting to a new way of working. Walk away with a winning strategy for a robust Copilot initial rollout or enhance how your firm is using it today. This session will provide valuable insights to improve productivity, increase efficiency, and understand what’s possible with Copilot in your day-to-day operations.

Speakers: Betty Le – Cloud Solution Architect – Modern Work, Microsoft Corporation; Michael Luttenberger – Field CTO, Netrix Global; Jason McCullagh – Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships, Upland Software; Sarah Tanswell – Senior Customer Success Account Manager, Microsoft Corporation; Sanni Vanttinen – Director of Knowledge Operations, Baker McKenzie.

The Accidental Project Manager: Charting Uncharted Waters (Maryland C)

Join us for an adventure on becoming a project manager. Perfect for those without formal training, gain insights on common pitfalls & tools to overcome them. Learn best practices, communication strategies & actions to enhance your team’s performance.

Speakers: Stephanie Clerkin – Director of Litigation Support, Korein Tillery LLC; Jessica Frank – Project Manager – Access to Justice Initiative, Free Law Project; Ashley Gibbs – Senior Director, Product Value Engineers, Litera; Amanda Miller – Operations Manager – Digital, Nissenbaum Law Group, LLC; Stephen Reale – Manager of Program Management and Business Analysis, Ropes & Gray.

Becoming an Upstander: Fostering Safety, Belonging, and Meaningful Action (Maryland 2)

Operation Safe Spaces is proud to bring its mission to ILTACON with a dynamic, action-oriented session designed to inspire and empower. We’ll kick things off with a powerful fireside chat on what it means to be an upstander—someone who actively intervenes to prevent harm, whether it’s harassment, bullying, or microaggressions.

Following that, the DC Peace Team will conduct an interactive 75-minute training designed to provide you with practical, nonviolent tools to intervene and de-escalate situations in real-time to increase safety. This isn’t just another session; it’s a call to action.

Participants who attend the full session will receive a Certificate of Attendance from Operation Safe Spaces.

Join us as we work to build a legal tech community where everyone feels seen, safe, and supported.

Speakers: Blair Cohen – Director of Client Solutions; Eli McCarthy – Director of Programs; Maribel Rivera – ACEDS – VP, Strategy and Client Engagement.

2pm-3pm:

Legal Operations Elevated: Strategies for Streamlined Success (Maryland D)

In today’s legal landscape, operational efficiency is as vital as legal expertise. This session will delve into advanced strategies for streamlining legal operations within organizations.  Participants will gain insights into:  – Formulating a cohesive approach to legal operations that aligns with firm strategy  – Leveraging data analytics to assess performance and inform decision-making  – Integrating sophisticated tools such as legal project management software, AI-powered contract review systems, and automation for routine tasks  – Managing vendor relationships and procurement processes more effectively  – Overcoming common challenges in implementing legal operation changes, including change management and cultural resistance.

Speakers: Duska Frink – Global Director of Solutions Management, BigHand; Rachel Hull-Murphy – Director, Legal Operations, Relativity ODA LLC; Harriet Joubert-Vaklyes – Director of eDiscovery Operations, CBRE; Tracey Pardo – Business Contracts Senior Specialist, Cooley LLP.

Garbage In, Garbage Out: How Bad Data Can Fool AI (National Harbor 10/11)

GenAI is revolutionizing industries, but the age-old principle of “garbage in, garbage out” remains critical and more nuanced than ever before. Unlike traditional technologies where the consequences of bad data are more evident, GenAI can obscure flawed data behind polished outputs making errors harder to detect, which takes on a new dimension of complexity and risk. This session dives into how bad data infiltrates AI models, the unique challenges posed by generative technologies, and strategies to identify, mitigate, and prevent these challenges.

Speakers: Iman Badri – Data Scientist, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP; Jaime Basilico – Principal Data & AI Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation; Vincent La – Head of Data Science, Laurel Inc.

Kids’ Meal eDiscovery: Shoestring Solutions for Small-Scale Projects (National Harbor 2/3)

Many eDiscovery projects are very small, and using the state-of-the-art cloud review platform would be overkill, would take too long or cost too much. What software is available right now, likely already on your workstation or a download away?  What simple individual tasks can be combined to create a powerful and defensible workflow to get small amounts of data reviewed and produced quickly and inexpensively?  Can GenAI help?  Let our panel teach you a few helpful tricks!

Speakers: Tameca Brooks – Director of eDiscovery, S2|Data; Brett Burney – Vice President eDiscovery, NextPoint Law Group; Jonathan Sabin – Partner, Kane Kessler, P.C.

3:30pm-4:30pm:

Masterclass: Empowering your AI Agents with Secure, Full Scale Access to your Data (Potomac A/B)

Legal AI is ready for your firm’s internal data.

When implementing Legal AI with access to the full scope of your firm’s data, numerous questions arise: How can I set it up to deal with multiple sources of documents and metadata? How do I ensure security and compliance? How can I customize the AI to use not just my firm’s documents, but my firm’s proprietary workflows?

This masterclass covers the answers to all these questions, step-by step. We’ll walk through the key components of AI agents and workflows, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), show how to design an AI system that fully honors ethical walls and fine-grained access controls, and we’ll share real examples of production-grade AI workflows.

In addition, we’ll cover practical advice on how to embark on this project at your firm, including setting clear objectives by understanding where AI workflows and agents add value for various practice groups, overcoming technical barriers when integrating with existing systems, and finally how to drive usage and adoption within your firm.

Takeaways:

• Understand how to build an AI platform that can access all your document and knowledge systems while still fully respecting ethical walls and granular access controls.
• Understand AI agents and workflows, including RAG and additional state-of-the-art techniques
• Learn how AI agents and workflows are built using your firm’s data by leveraging enterprise search
• Get inspired by how other firms have quickly built these platforms, by leveraging customizable solutions purpose-built for law firms.
• Leave with a concrete playbook for launching AI workflows at your firm—from aligning on goals to navigating system integration to roll out and adoption strategies

Speakers: Joe Green – Chief Innovation Officer, Gunderson Dettmer, L.L.P.; Yannic Kilcher – CTO, DeepJudge AG; Kate Simpson – Senior Consultant, Fireman, an Epiq Company.

Bill(AI)able Hours: The Debate Continues (Maryland B456)

Industry loaded with posts/blogs/webinars re the billable hour, particularly as it relates to AI.  Yet, after 30plus years since the dawn of success of the NON billable hour firm(s), we’re still talking about it as if it is enigma. Let’s discuss what it truly means to both models to engage AI tools. Which will succeed?  Where are the roadblocks and will they ever be overcome in a meaningful way?

Speakers: David Cohen – Practice Group Leader, Reed Smith LLP; Conan Hines – Director of Practice Innovation, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP; Hunter McMahon – Director of Data Analytics, iDiscovery Solutions, Inc.; Catherine McPherson – Consultant, This Might Help Consulting, LLC; Julio Sanchez – Sr. Pricing Manager, Perkins Coie; Zach Warren – Technology and Innovation Insights, Thomson Reuters Institute, Thomson Reuters.

Here’s a link to the page with the detailed agenda for the week. There’s also a few happy hours, receptions and other gatherings as this is probably the biggest day for those.

So, what do you think?  Are you attending any of the ILTACON 2025 Tuesday sessions?  If you’re here in person, look me up!  And please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.