“I think legal technology is on everyone’s mind. It’s coming in different ways, and new players are driving it forward,” said Dr. Roland Vogl of Stanford Law School and executive director of the school’s CodeX initiative. “But to some degree, the legal profession is quite resilient to change, and a lot of people still in many cases practice as they did 60 years ago.”

But innovative lawyers are truly looking forward, and Vogl and Stanford Law School are looking to provide a telescope to see what’s on the horizon. On May 20, the school will host the fourth annual CodeX FutureLaw conference, bringing together academics, entrepreneurs, lawyers, investors, policy makers, and engineers to discuss the changing landscape of the legal profession.

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“There is ever more talk about legal technology, and we break through from the usual suspects to new communities,” Vogl said. “The more traditional bar is starting to pay attention, and some of the things that seem a bit more out there on the future horizon, like Big Data law, Moneyball for the law and machine learning, starts to become a little bit more within reach for even the average practicing lawyer.”

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“In the last couple of years, we were able to get the word out and bring in some practicing lawyers who want to learn about what’s going on. They feel that the world around them is changing, and they feel that the folks at CodeX and the FutureLaw Conference, they might not all succeed in their ventures, but they are providing a glimpse of a possible future,” Vogl explained.

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“It’s an experiment; we haven’t done it before. But we thought it might be fun to listen to the arguments,” Vogl said.

But ultimately, the conference is as an opportunity to both hear from prominent names in the field, as well as from those newcomers looking to institute even greater changes. Vogl explained that diversity in both speakers and attendees was key for the organizers.

“That’s one of the lessons from the past. I want FutureLaw to be a place where the people that we know in this community, the evergreen people, can meet the newcomers and the new kids in town and exchange ideas,” he added.