Dennis Kennedy

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April 29, 2005

New Trend? The Electronic Discovery Special Counsel

Ron Friedmann has a great post on the nascent trend of law firms designating lawyers as "EDD special counsels" to help oversee and manage electronic discovery efforts.

He points to an article in Legal Technology News (free registration required)that discusses the idea in detail and talks about some examples of firms who are taking or considering the approach.

I wholeheartedly agree with Ron when he says, "In my view, this is a good trend. Firms would be well-served if the lawyers in these roles had not only EDD expertise, but also project management expertise. It’s not enough to know the rules of discovery and the technology - succeeding in large EDD matters also requires project management discipline."

I highlight the project management issue whenever I speak about electronic discovery. George Socha and I discuss the issue in some detail in our Electronic Discoverers column called "Looking into the Electronic Discovery Crystal Ball for 2005—Predictions, Observations and Opinions". You can also hear us talk about the topic in the archived version of our webcast called the EDD Grande Process at the DiscoveryResources.Org site.

By all means, however, if you are involved in electronic discovery, especially as a client, you will want to take the trouble of filling out the registration form for the Law Technology News article and reading the article. I guarantee it will be an eye-opener.

It may not be the money quote, but the most amazing quote in the LTN article is:

"Production goes much smoother after EDD, if not the review process," he says. "But I think [attorneys] can review faster on paper than online." (emphasis mine)

I simply don't know what to say about that last sentence.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 08:10 PM

April 28, 2005

A Few Good Electronic Discovery Articles

There are two good articles on Law.com today that present a good view of the current world of electronic discovery.

In Justices Skeptical of DOJ's Claims About Andersen Document Retention, Tony Mauro covers the arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case involving Arthur Andersen's "reminder" of Enron's document retention policy that it is argued came too close in time to an investigation targeting the company. As you read the excerpts from the arguments, you'll see that the case case raises difficult questions with potentially far-reaching practical implications. How clear is a standard like "reasonable possibility of an investigation" when you are implementing a document retention policy that involves deletion of documents?

The money quote:

O'Connor too fretted about the impact on small businesses and on lawyers who advise companies. "How is a person supposed to know what to do? How is a lawyer supposed to know?" she asked.

The second artice, E-Discovery and Inevitable Litigation, attempts to answer some of the questions posed by the Arthur Andersen case. For the most part, the authors resist the impulse to scare people with potential horror stories and stick to providing solid advice and recommendations. However, after you read the other article I mentioned, I'm sure that you will be jarred when you read the sentence that begins "The policy needn't be written . . . ."

My quibbles aside, this article is a handy outline of where we are in electronic discovery today that covers issues from the points of view of both lawyers and clients.

The money quote:

6. Just as inside counsel should learn the basics of information technology, the company's information technology personnel could benefit from learning the basics of discovery obligations and the consequences of spoliation. As Zubulake V demonstrates, the more that legal personnel and information technology personnel can speak one another's language, the less likely spoliation is to occur.

7. Educate your company's regular outside counsel about the company's document-retention policies and data-retention and storage architecture. It may be beneficial for outside counsel to talk to the company's information technology personnel directly.

I may want to substitute the word "will" for "may" in that last sentence.

If you deal in any way with electronic discovery or document retention issues, you'll find it well worth your while to spend a few minutes today reading both of these articles. If your interest in e-discovery is piqued, be sure to check out Merrill's on-demand seminars on specific e-discovery topics.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 07:06 AM

April 27, 2005

Why Lawyers and Legal Bloggers (Blawgers) Love Google

I couldn't help but notice how Ernie and Matt have been spending their time running Google searches about themselves and then applauding the wisdom of Google. I was a little surprised that they would resort to this type of posting, which was largely pioneered by me at times when I was desperate for material and seeking external validation for my efforts.

I really want to be impressed with Ernie's results and Matt's results, but, frankly, I'm not as impressed as they are (and who could be, really?). Here's why:

In the category that really matters to all legal bloggers, note that I, Dennis Kennedy, am the first result in a Google search today for "coolest legal blogger" and "coolest legal blog."

I'm also thrilled to have Google rank my blog as the #1 result for "best named legal blog."

Among other honors I now have in Google are being the first result for:

"best legal blogger"

"best legal blog"

"most famous legal blogger"

"legal blogger you most want to have a beer with"

"most important dennis kennedy in the world"

"leading legal thinker named dennis kennedy"

"legal blogger who should be paid a lot more money"

"best writer of the legal bloggers"

Oh, Google, you are making me blush.

My colleagues at Between Lawyers have also done well.

Congrats to Tom Mighell - "most admired blawger"

Denise Howell - "most respected blawger" and "best litigator of the legal bloggers." Denise is also the "happiest blawger."

Unfortunately, Google was not so kind to Marty Schwimmer who received only the "best marty schwimmer who authors the trademark blog" award, but I have no doubt he'll find a few others.

Other Google awards of note:

In a bit of a surprise, Jeff "LawTech Guru" Beard took the "most ironic blawger" award.

Evan Schaeffer walked away with the award for "best coffee mug given away by a legal blogger." I was shocked to defeat Evan in the category of "funniest legal blogger."

Of course, Google has a changing dynamic and can be, at times, a bit capricious in handing out favored search rankings. Your results may vary, depending upon (1) when you click any of the links in this post and (2) the efforts of others currently less favored by Google to optimize the favor with which Google treats them.

Not surprisingly, Google also found me as the first result on "most nonbillable hours today of legal bloggers." Back to work.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 10:56 AM

April 26, 2005

Might Adobe Acrobat 7 be the Tool of Choice for Small and Low Budget Electronic Discovery Cases?

Rick Borstein of Adobe was in St. Louis last week. Over lunch, we talked about Acrobat 7 and the ways lawyers use (and don't use) Acrobat in their work.

I've been thinking a lot about a couple of topics in that conversation. One topic that fascinates me relates to electronic discovery in small cases.

I'm still trying to think this through but I'm coming to the tentative conclusion that Acrobat 7 might be a single tool that can cover almost all of the bases for a litigator with a case that has a modest number of electronic files involved in electronic discovery. By that, I mean a few files, a few hundred files, a few thousand files, perhaps more, depending on your facility with Acrobat.

My hypothesis is this: Using Acrobat, you can collect, gather, scan, catalog, search, produce, manage and even display files in court. You will have to dig deeper into the feature set than most lawyers do, but the tools are definitely there. Of course, before people panic, I'm not suggesting that the use of Acrobat will or should take the place of needed computer forensics experts and tools where they are needed.

Think about it with me. It offers the attraction of using an existing (inexpensive program) in better ways, keeping your work in one program rather than in many programs, and keeps things simple when they can be kept simple. That has a lot of appeal.

DISCLOSURE: Rick did buy lunch last week and is sending me a copy of Acrobat 7 to experiment with. However, I own Acrobat 6 and bought it myself, and would have bought version 7 if Rick hadn't been so generous. I truly do not expect this to tempt me to call things in any other way than as I see them, and would be disappointed in you if you thought that it would.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 04:20 PM

My Electronic Discovery Presentations for Merrill - New URL

I've recorded a set of on-demand seminars on electronic discovery topics for Merrill that can be accessed for free at http://www.merrillcorp.com/law/ .

The following seminars (each approximately 12 - 15 minutes, with PowerPoint slides) are currently available:

Computers and Copies - Is Every Step Traceable?
The Mysterious World of Metadata
The Many Places to Discover Data

In May and June, Merrill will add sessions on:

Developing a Team Approach to Electronic Discovery

and

Determining When to Use Electronic Discovery

I really like the format and these sessions wil give you a good introduction to the approaches that I'll be taking in a new half-day seminar on electronic discovery that I'll be announcing in the next day or two.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 04:11 PM

New Issue of Law Practice Today Available

I might be a little biased because I'm an editor, but another great the ABA Law Practice Management Section's webzine Law Practice Today has hit the Internet.

This month's theme is malpractice prevention and you'll be able to do a ton of malpractice prevention with the generous collection of features, columns and other material in this issue. Check out the new issue and look for the RSS feed and email subscription to make sure that you get notice of each new issue as early as possible.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 04:05 PM

April 25, 2005

I Fought the Allergies and the Allergies Won

St. Louis is considered one of the allergy capitals of the United States.

I've been really suffering this spring. Frankly, it's demoralizing to get into my car and have to turn on the windshield wipers to clear enough pollen off to be able to see to drive. My maroon car looks green.

Until recently, the main effect was on my eyes. Last Friday, I decided that, come hell or high water, I was going for a bike ride. I put on a mask and packed an inhaler and went out for a ride.

The ride was good. The price I paid was pretty steep - sinuses and lungs. I've been pretty knocked down for the past few days. With luck, the allergy season will end soon, but this seems to be a brutal spring allergy season in many parts of the country. If you are suffering, you definitely have my sympathy and best wishes.

But, I really want to get out on my bike soon. Biking is like blogging - once you get into the rhythm, it's difficult to break the routine, especially when it's not your choice.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 08:33 PM

Guest Author - Sacagawea: Native American Explorer and Heroine

I've previously published some of my daughter's essays on this blog. My daughter, Grace, is a sixth grader at The College School in St. Louis. I am so impressed with their approach to teaching writing skills. If you are someone who has the ability to direct donations or funding to a school, then I strongly recommend that you consider The College School.

Earlier this year, she wrote the following research paper on Sacagawea. It's her very first research paper. Although (and I know some will find this ironic) I thought that this paper was a little long for a blog post, she said that she'd like me to post it on my blog. She was proud of the paper and she received high marks on it. Her mom and I are proud of her and the paper too.

I've taken out the footnotes and bibliography (for my convenience).

=========

Sacagawea: Native American Explorer and Heroine

Many people have probably heard of Sacagawea, one of the most well known and respected Native American women. She helped lead Lewis and Clark, and the US Corps of Discovery, on the historic journey to explore the Louisiana Territory and find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Not as many people know that Sacagawea was pregnant and had her baby on the expedition. Her path from the wilderness of Idaho to lasting fame was as difficult, filled with adventure, and as mysterious as the Lewis and Clark expedition was.

Sacagawea was born around 1789 in eastern Idaho, as a member of the Shoshone tribe. She did not remain with her Shoshone tribe for very long. When Sacagawea was around age ten, the Minnetarees, a rival tribe, captured her, and they took her to the North Dakota border region. Before her capture, she lived with her family, her parents, two brothers, and her sisters.

At around age 14, after about four years of living as a captive of the Minnetarees, Sacagawea was sold to Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-American fur trader. Charbonneau and Sacagawea were soon married, and a short time later, Sacagawea became pregnant.

Charbonneau was hired by the US Corps of Discovery around 1804, and was required to bring Sacagawea with him for two reasons. If she came, she would help the party make peace with the people they met on the expedition. They also needed her to be their Native American interpreter and guide because she knew both the languages of the tribes they might meet and she had lived in an area they would be exploring.

Sacagawea helped the crew and made important contributions. At one point, she even saved Lewis and Clark's journals, which would have sank if she had not rescued them. These journals are a national treasure, and without the help of Sacagawea, we would know much less about the expedition.

During the expedition, they actually returned to Sacagawea's homeland. When she returned to her tribe, she found her brother who was now the chief of the tribe. After much celebrating, the tribe wanted her to stay. However, Sacagawea chose to continue on the expedition, even though it was dangerous and she would leave her brother behind. Sacagawea’s choice is an important part of the story that made her famous.

People still greatly respect Sacagawea today. She is one of the most famous women in history and memorials to her can be found in many places. She has more statues of herself than any other woman in the United States. She is even on a coin. Originally, the one-dollar golden coin was going to have Susan B. Anthony on it, but the design of the coin was changed to Sacagawea carrying Pomp (her son), on her back.

Lewis and Clark thought very highly of Sacagawea. Clark wrote many journal entries about her, praising her for all the good work she did. Lewis and Clark named a river after Sacagawea, known as Bird Woman’s River, and an incredible sand feature after Pomp, known as Pompey’s Tower. Clark wrote a letter to Charbonneau; praising Sacagawea for all that she did. Charbonneau was paid $500.33 for his services on the expedition, but Sacagawea was paid nothing. Even though Sacagawea was unpaid, she was rewarded with lasting fame and has made an amazing impact on our American history today.

There is a mystery about Sacagawea's death. One theory says that she died of “putrid fever” on December 20, 1812. Another theory points to a Native American woman named Porvo. If Porvo was Sacagawea, then she was married several times, had more children, and was reunited with her son, Jean Baptiste. Those who knew Porvo said that she knew the inside facts on the expedition, spoke French, and talked about sun stories known to the Shoshone. Porvo died on April 9, 1884. Scholars today believe that Porvo was most likely Sacagawea).

Sacagawea was very important to both the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition and to our history. Sacagawea was captured and sold as a child, and then sold again to Charbonneau to be his wife. She became an important member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, saved the expedition journals, was reunited with some of her family, and was greatly praised by William Clark. Sacagawea had an incredible life, resulting in becoming very famous. She is a Native American hero, and should always be greatly respected. Nearing the end of the expedition, Sacagawea realized that both America and her native land would soon change. All the places they had explored would be open to the people who would follow Lewis and Clark west. As Sacagawea would say, "This was the end of my journey; this was the beginning of a Great Change."

- Grace Kennedy

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 07:58 PM

April 21, 2005

New Corporate Legal Department Technology

Alan Cohen does a great job of covering the current state of affairs for technology in corporate legal departments in his article called "The Killer App" in Law.com's Corporate Counsel magazine.

Alan's article is an excellent analysis of and companion piece to the release of Corporate Counsel's technology survey of corporate legal departments. I highly recommend the article and note that Alan was kind enough to include a few quotes from me on knowledge management and other trends in technology for corporate legal departments.

The key message for both corporate legal departments and their outside law firms - OPPORTUNITY.

Thanks both to Alan Cohen for yet another of his consistently excellent articles and to Genie Tyburski for pointing me to the article. Genie's site, newsletter and feed are great examples of the valuable, but too often under-rated and under-appreciated, work that law librarians are doing these days.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.con/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 07:17 AM

April 20, 2005

Just an Ernie Kind of Day

I played a Professor Longhair CD today and felt like I needed to pick up the phone and call my New Orleans pal Ernie the Attorney. However, even as cool as Ernie is, it's cooler to be listening to the Professor. So, I didn't make the call.

In fact, on the list of my great musical regrets is never getting to chance to see Professor Longhair do a show in New Orleans. I might write about some of the other regrets one of these days. It's interesting how my Professor Longhair regret now has expanded to include "and seeing the show with Ernest Svenson." Such is the impact of blogging.

It turns out that Ernest was busy doing more of the things that make him the coolest legal blogger.

First, Shel Israel's recent interview with Ernest has been posted and, as usual, Ernest's insights are worth reading and thinking about.

Not to reveal any secrets, but a significant number of people who do not blog have made comments to me that "all bloggers do is talk about is blogging." The funny thing is that when bloggers get together, they talk very little about blogging. You'll notice that in this interview Ernest is always moving toward something more interesting than blogging. After the recent BlawgConnect 2005, a number of legal bloggers commented to me about how little of the conversations actually dealt with blogging.

The other thing that people have told me is that I should not start another blog - that I'm doing too many.

People do way too much calculation about blogging. If you really like blogging, you end up wanting to do what fits you best and blogging for yourself, not for calculated marketing reasons. The Achilles heel in the current "you must have a blog for marketing purposes" fad is that the most long-lived blogs have such strong and clear individual voices. The jury is still out on how corporate-voiced blogs will work in the long run.

Ernest today also announced his new blog called Tech Feng Shui, which he calls "the blog I really want to write." That kind of talk gets my full attention. I got an early preview of the blog and will say that it's a blog that I really want to read.

Although only a few people actually believe me, I chose the name of my blog so I could go in many directions as different areas of interest and voices evolved. Even so, I've almost started two new blogs this year already (that's in addition to Between Lawyers). I really like the way that Ernest has used the new Tech Feng Shui blog to cover an important topic that doesn't fit the Ernie the Attorney blogger persona.

Need any guest posts on Tech Feng Shui?

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 09:02 PM

April 19, 2005

Surprised by Surprise over Lack of Awareness about RSS Uses

When Tom Mighell and I were working on BlawgConnect 2005, I was struck by how difficult it was to find the names of some legal bloggers on their blogs, let alone their contact info. I take some criticism for the name of my blog, but people at least whose blog it is.

I wanted to credit the author of the Legal Search Marketing Blog for the post called "Track Your Firm's Key Information via RSS Feeds," but I could not find the author's full name. So, chris at chicagoweb.com, I enjoyed your post, even though I started to get the feeling that "search marketing" had a different meaning for me than what you intended.

Be that as it may, Chris points to a post by Kevin O'Keefe (great new picture Kevin on his blog!) lamenting the total lack of awareness he found recently about the ways law firms (or anyone else for that matter) might make better use of readily-available RSS tools to track information.

I'm surprised by the surprise. Tom and I talked quite a bit about this topic in our session on RSS feeds and news aggregators at ABA TECHSHOW 2005 (and I felt like I was seeing lightbulbs going off over peoples' heads during that part of the session, but that might have been Bob Ambrogi snapping pictures). Anyone who is brave enough to ask me the question "Why are you so enthused about RSS?" is likely to get a few minutes on this very topic.

I thought the potential uses of RSS were much more obvious than they seem to be. The points mentioned in Chris's post reflect just the tip of the iceberg, as they say.

Look for announcement very soon about a new focus for me on a line of RSS-related and advanced blogging consulting services.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/]

Posted by dmk at 09:20 PM

Interesting Top 20 Legal Thinkers Research Project

As my long-time readers know, I tend to shy away from controversy on this blog.

I was struck today by the post “The Women of IP Law & Policy” on Copyfight.

I don’t have any free time to do this research project, but someone who does might compare the instances of overlap between the Copyfight list and the recent Top 20 Legal Thinkers list. I suspect that they might reach some interesting conclusions.

On what might be a related note, kudos to Lisa Stone, et al., for putting together the upcoming Blogher Conference.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 09:05 PM

April 17, 2005

Homann Not Named One of Top 20 Legal Thinkers

With considerably less fanfare than the original announcement of the poll, Legal Affairs, apparently an important magazine covering legal issues, has released its list of the top 20 U.S. legal thinkers, containing most of the usual suspects.

I'm disappointed to report that Matt Homann's valiant write-in candidacy was unsuccessful. You would think that his involvement in LexThink might have helped his candidacy.

As expected, the publication did not rectify the embarrassing omission of a category for practicing lawyers, presumably because they believe that practicing lawyers are not thinkers. Just kidding - I'm sure that they just forgot that we exist and no slight was intended. As the announcement says, "Our list lists to the right a bit, but it also interestingly betrays a presumably non-partisan bias among voters toward judges and academics over journalists and other commentators." Practicing lawyers must be included in "other commentators." I'm sure that's the case.

Congratulations to the winners - I'll let others run the stats on diversity, political leanings and the like.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 07:02 PM

April 15, 2005

Blogs: Can They Help Your Growing Business?

I've had the good fortune of having some excellent writers interview me about blogging and then use my quotes as part of the great articles they write. I'm grateful to them for including me in the articles and making me appear to be wiser than I am.

The most recent example is Ron Ameln's very useful introduction to blogging called "Blogs: Can They Help Your Growing Business?" The article appears in the always useful St. Louis Small Business Monthly, which includes a couple of high quality articles from Ron every month.

I'm in fast company in this article, which includes quotes from some of the business bloggers I admire most. In fact, I'd be happy to be able to carry the notebook computers of these bloggers around for them for a day, let alone be quoted in the same article with them.

How good a journalist is Ron Ameln? He wrote the story and it motivated him to start his own blog. It's called the Business Growth Weblog and his description is quite apt: "Helpful tips and strategies to take your small business to the next level. In this blog, Ron Ameln, small-business journalist, shares some of the secrets to business success." That makes him a darn good journalist in my book.

Read Ron's article - check out Ron's blog. I'll mention to Ron that he needs to get an RSS feed going.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 05:51 PM

Blogs: Can They Help Your Growing Business?

I've had the good fortune of having some excellent writers interview me about blogging and then use my quotes as part of the great articles they write. I'm grateful to them for including me in the articles and making me appear to be wiser than I am.

The most recent example is Ron Ameln's very useful introduction to blogging called "Blogs: Can They Help Your Growing Business?" The article appears in the always useful St. Louis Small Business Monthly, which includes a couple of high quality articles from Ron every month.

I'm in fast company in this article, which includes quotes from some of the business bloggers I admire most. In fact, I'd be happy to be able to carry the notebook computers of these bloggers around for them for a day, let alone be quoted in the same article with them.

How good a journalist is Ron Ameln? He wrote the story and it motivated him to start his own blog. It's called the Business Growth Weblog and his description is quite apt: "Helpful tips and strategies to take your small business to the next level. In this blog, Ron Ameln, small-business journalist, shares some of the secrets to business success." That makes him a darn good journalist in my book.

Read Ron's article - check out Ron's blog. Update: Here's the feed.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 05:51 PM

April 14, 2005

I'm Speaking on Transitioning to a Solo or Small Firm Practice Next Week

I'll be speaking at a seminar in St. Louis on April 19. The seminar is called "Transitioning to Solo & Small Firm Practice: How to Make It a Success." I'll be speaking at a session called "Technology for the Solo and Small Firm Practitioner - Lawyer’s Perspective" and participating in a panel discussion.

If you get the chance to go to the seminar, please say hello.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.dennisjkennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 11:36 PM

April 13, 2005

Something to Add to Your Electronic Discovery Requests?

Josh Rubin's Cool Hunting isn't just a great resource for learning about cool new products. Litigators can also use it to find new places to seek electronic information in their cases.

Here's a great example: what might you find in the chip embedded in the new adidas _1? I don't know, but it makes you wonder, doesn't it?

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 09:50 PM

Advice to Young Lawyers #28

Posts like “Advice to Young Lawyers #28” give Evan Schaeffer a lock on the title of funniest legal blogger. For those interested in discussing billable hours, this post is must reading. For those who ponder where “thinking like a lawyer” can take you, this post may give you a clue. For those who’d like to find time to read more blogs, Evan does the math. Highly recommended.

Hey, Evan, thanks for the coffee mug. But I really liked the post that prompted you to give me the mug. Would you autograph it for me so I can sell it for more money after you become a famous Hollywood screenwriter?

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 09:31 PM

April 12, 2005

By Request Tuesday - "What do you think about the law professor blogs getting LexisNexis sponsorship money?"

I wrote some of my thoughts on this sponsorship announcement on Between Lawyers today.

It's almost impossible for me to be opposed to anything that earns bloggers money, although I find some irony in this since I've taken some heat from professors (none of the law prof blog network profs) when I've written favorably about bloggers making money from ads and sponsorships.

I truly doubt that any blogger is getting anything close to the value of the exposure that his or her blog brings to advertisers or sponsors. I think people will look back on these early blog sponsorships as some of the greatest marketing bargains ever.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 11:34 PM

By Request Tuesday - "What Will Be the Impact of the Between Lawyers Blog on DennisKennedy.Blog?"

First of all, I'm already very proud of what we've done at Between Lawyers. It's a fantastic group to be part of.

I suspect that the main effect that you will see is that most of what I write on technology law issues will appear on Between Lawyers. I'll probably focus my writing on DennisKennedy.Blog on the legal technology and other musings categories. That's not set in stone, however.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 11:22 PM

By Request Tuesday - "Is it my imagination or are your posts getting even longer?"

Is this Marty Schwimmer? That's an inside joke.

I try to vary between long posts and extremely long posts. Seriously, though, I do try to mix short and long posts.

Ironically, it's often quicker and easier to write long posts than short posts. Short posts often take more time to edit and polish.

I also like to write long posts since the "experts" often pronounce that bloggers should never write long posts. I didn't get a copy of that rule book.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com//blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 11:13 PM

By Request Tuesday - "What newsletter(s) (law, tech, computers, etc.) should every geek attorney receive?"

I assume that you are using the term "geek attorney" in the most positive sense of the term. I also note that you used the word "receive" rather than "read" in your question. I'll have some thoughts on that, maybe more than you want, at the end of this post.

Blogs have greatly changed the dynamic and my answer. It's increasingly difficult for print publications to compete for "attention space" with blogs.

The questioner mentioned a post of mine last year that praised the PLI Lawyer's Toolbox Newsletter, which is one of several great newsletters from PLI. PLI has also moved to RSS feeds for some of its upcoming webinar listings and other resources.

It's an example of some of the great stuff out there. You need to keep your eyes open for stuff that might be useful to you.

I do have some standard recommendations that I'll give and then give you a few thoughts about what I think it takes to develop a level of knowledge about these topics. You might think it's a little harder than it looks.

For print publications, I like the big three of Law Office Computing, Law Practice Magazine and Law Technology News. They each take slightly different approaches. If you're serious, you'll want to read all three.

I'm on the board of the ABA's Law Practice Today webzine, so I may be biased, but it's an extremely good resource and it's free.

TechnoLawyer.com is mandatory, in my opinion.

I also recommend that you subscribe to one of the standard computer magazines. My current choice is Computer Shopper, but any of them would be a good choice: PC Magazine, PC World, and several others. Don't overdo it, but it's good to keep tabs on popular computing issues.

I also like the free trade publications. Again, you only need to read/skim one. The idea is to get a feel for larger trends and the industry. ComputerWorld, InfoWorld and eWeek are examples. You shuld be able to qualify for a free subscription. For bigger issues and enterprise issues, you can't beat CIO, CFO, CSO and that family of magazines. Baseline is one of this type of publications that I think is quite useful.

These give you a great base at almost no expense.

You might also explore some of the specialty trade publications. I really like KM World and eContent, for example. Presentations magazine is great for both presentation skills aricles and info on presentation technology. Many of these are free to qualified subscribers.

If you have areas of specific interest, you'll probably want to find something targeted to those interests. You might find magazines, trade pubs or newsletters. It just takes a little research.

There are also tons of great email newsletters on almost any tech topic you can think of. I like the Microsoft newsletters a lot these days. Tom Mighell's Internet research newsletter often has great practical tips and info.

Almost all of the trade publications have excellent email newsletters. Obviously, you can get inundated with all of these newsletters. I generally scan them and move them by rule into a special folder. That folder then becomes a great research database for me.

It should not surprise anyone that I have a real passion about technology and the Internet and my reading list will confirm that. I also realize that not everyone either reads as much or as quickly as I do, or has the same level of interest that I do, so you want to use good judgment in what you read. Choose some examples from the different categories. You might adopt my "research folder" approach to email newsletters.

However, subscribing to the RSS feeds of legal tech and tech blogs is clearly a great way to go to get selected information identified by bloggers who know what they are talking about.

I also recommend reading at least one or two magazines or newsletters on topics that do not relate to any of these topics. You will often see that they provide new perspectives and help you see tech issues in new ways.

By the way, I can point you in some good directions, but there's no easy way to develop a level of expertise - it takes hard work. And, like all things, the more you know, the more you realize how little you know. I've long had the gift of being able to read very quickly, so that's a help.

Where do I find the time? It's just part of what I do, like how others find time to learn what they need to learn to be good at what they do. It's comparable to the time anyone needs to put into training and practice to be good at anything. I always laugh when someone wonders how I can find things on the Internet or do other things and then wants me to teach it to them in a few minutes. It only took me more than ten years and countless hours to reach that point. You have to be willing to put in some time and effort.

And, my best trick - I don't even try to read everything in all of these resources. Take a look at the table of contents and rip out the articles you want to read. Throw the rest out and then concentrate your reading on what you have ripped out. It's OK to tear up and throw away magazines.

I attribute a lot of what I can do to the speed I can read. You might want to invest in a speed-reading course. In a way, RSS feeds offer you a great way to improve the selection and quality of what you read, effectively making you a faster reader than you might be now.

I also have the gift of being able to read documents upside-down, a great skill for a lawyer - but that's a story for another day.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 10:07 PM

April 11, 2005

It's Time for Another By Request Tuesday

It's been a couple of weeks since I did a "By Request Tuesday." I have a few questions in the ol' email inbox to get things started. Fire away with other questions you have and I'll see what I can do with them tomorrow. Email me your questions at denniskennedyblog @ gmail.com.

Posted by dmk at 08:43 PM

The Steve Gadd Tour Stopped in St. Louis

We took our daughter to the St. Louis stop on the Steve Gadd drum clinic tour last night. She’s been taking drum lessons for three years and clearly has both strong interest and talent.

Grace had to tolerate me telling her that Steve Gadd really was a drum legend when I first saw a poster for the show and then me occupying her teacher’s time talking about Steve Gadd. In spite of the embarrassment I may have caused, she still wanted to go to the drum clinic.

It was fun, it was educational, and it was amazing. I realized that I haven’t taken enough advantage lately of the chances to see any great artist or expert in any field when you have the chance. If you have the chance to catch a stop on this tour, even if you think you have no interest in drums or drummers, you will want to catch this show. There are still a few dates left.

Gadd had just celebrated his 60th birthday and there was such a great vibe in the room. The show was sold out and I’ve never been in a place with so many drummers in my life. It’s clear that they revere Gadd and, as he patiently answered questions, and showed techniques and played some of his signature drum tracks, it became clear why that is the case. I was as impressed with his generosity as much as his tremendous skill and ability.

I enjoyed all of his talk about finding the groove and his effort to find an ego-less approach. I don’t pretend to know much about drumming, but I was in awe of some of the things he did. I also loved the way he played with a fluidity where the sticks and gravity clearly were doing most of the work.

Great stuff. Inspiring. A view into a different way of seeing and thinking. We all had a great time. For some reason, though, every song I heard on the radio today sounded like the drumming needed a lot more work.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 08:31 PM

April 10, 2005

The Debut of the rethink(IP) Blog

As you may know, I have a general policy not to routinely mention new legal blogs.

Today, I gladly break that policy to announce the new rethink(ip) blog. The people behind rethink(ip) have impressed the heck out of me and it's well worth your while to pay attention to whatever they are doing. They didn't even ask me to mention their new blog, which shows that the best way to get mentions on other blogs is not to ask for reciprocal links, but to do cool stuff and post great content.

The other excellent new blog that I want to highlight is Between Lawyers, but I think you'll understand the reason for that.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 02:32 PM

LexThink Meets Metallica - Some Kind of Monster?

I wanted to take some time to process my thinking after LexThink - or more accurately, after BlawgConnect 2005, ABA TECHSHOW 2005 and LexThink, and I haven't yet started to write about it. I've also needed to tend to a few other projects and work on the launch of Between Lawyers.

From my email, I know that I'm taking a little more time than some people would like. I point you to Jack Vinson, Yvonne Divita and Matt Buchanon, among others who have very good posts about LexThink.

I finished another of Jack's reflections on LexThink this morning. He reflects on the way that "passion" emerged as a theme for the day. I've also been thinking a lot about that, and I've been thinking about some notes on a big sheet of paper that hung on the wall at LexThink that talked about "passion" and "trust." A companion sheet has the phrase "authentic voice."

Last night, VH1 showed the recent documentary film called Some Kind of Monster. The film follows Metallica through the period in which they recorded their last album, St. Anger, and sometimes labeled as the film in which "Metallica hires a therapist."

[By way of background: Many of my friends are surprised both by how few movies I watch or like these days and by the fact that there were years when I saw more than 300 movies. My glib, but more accurate than you might expect, answer is usually that after Kurosawa's Ran, there wasn't much else left to be said through film. I love great movies, and I can't stand to be in the same room with mediocre or bad movies.

The other answer is that because of Babylon 5, La Femme Nikita, 24 and other serial television shows, I've grown to like the extended story-telling form of "movies" better than the 2-hour format. Not to name drop, but seeing Fassbinder's "Berlin Alexanderplatz" over several days many years ago probably set off my interest in that extended format.

So, to my surprise, and probably the shock of people who know me, I've now seen two movies in 2005 that I really liked. One was "Some Kind of Monster." The other caught me totally off-guard and was "3," a made for TV ESPN movie on Dale Earnhart.

But, let me get back to Metallica, er, LexThink.]

I don't pretend to be a Metallica fan - I'm not all that familiar with their music and I didn't understand their story very well until last night. I especially didn't realize that as they started to hit big, they lost a band member in a tour bus crash that could have killed them all.

It becomes clear that this documentary shows, in part, the three core members of the group trying to come to terms with that event in a way they never had before. It's also the story of a fight for their art, their identity and whether they can stay together as a group.

It's riveting stuff, especially as what is happening reveals itself in the music. It's also clear that the group could have split apart at several points during the filming.

Interestingly, at the lowest point, in the turning point of the film, there is a funny scene that has them all laughing and realizing that by knowing what they aren't, they realize what they are and why it makes sense to go forward from that.

The music changes after that point, culminating in the video of the song St. Anger that they shot at San Quentin playing to a group of prisoners. The first time I saw that video, I put it into my top 10 of music videos before the video even finished. Now I understand why the video has the power and realness that it does for me.

Heck, I don't mind if you make fun of me for liking this movie, for making Metallica references on my blog, or whatever. I do mind if you aren't willing to set aside a couple of hours sometime and watch this movie with an open mind.

The movie (or at least my reading of it) focuses on three themes I took from Lexthink - Passion, Trust and Authentic Voice. That's stuff that matters.

You will see in Some Kind of Monster that the Metallica guys are very wealthy and can spend their money on anything they want. They chose to spend $40,000 a month (not always willingly) to bring in a coach/therapist to help them determine what Metallica was, where it was going and if they wanted it to go on.

In other words, they cared about what they had created and where it might go. They wanted to know whether they still had the trust, the passion and an authentic voice and whether they were willing to fight for it.

You might dismiss Metallica as just a heavy metal band, but they showed me more about commitment and caring about what they are doing, their audience and their art than I've seen at any law firm. Would you spend that kind of money or, more important, invest the amount of time and emotion, that they did? Why not? Why don't you care as much about what you are doing as they do?

When I encounter a lack of trust, I have to leave. When I find a lack of passion, like most of us, I tend to be willing to make compromises. Until blogging, I didn't place much emphasis on the authentic voice piece of the puzzle. Now, I think a lot about that.

So, here are my first action steps for you that grow out of LexThink.

1. Watch "Some Kind of Monster."

2. Ask yourself if you are willing to make the same kind of effort to work on your firm, business or orgaization.

3. If so, write down at least three reasons why you aren't making that kind of effort now.

4. If not, write down at least three reasons why you plan to stay there.

5. Rewrite your lists as questions and spend a few minutes every day thinking about your answers to those questions, until it becomes impossible for you not to take some action.

Passion. Trust. Authentic voice. Stuff that matters. Even if we can't get all the way there, the paths to get closer to them are ones to give serious thought to taking.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 01:01 PM

April 07, 2005

My Tablet PC Article Now Publicly Available as Part of TechnoLawyer Blog Launch

I got a nice note today from my friend Neil Squillante at TechnoLawyer.com. He's officially launching the TechnoLawyer Blog, which will be a great legal technology resource that will supplement the TechnoLawyer website and great collection of email newsletters.

I mentioned the other day that Neil had published my recent article on Tablet PCs as a TechnoFeature on the site. Neil liked the article so much that he's making it publicly available as part of the launch of the new blog as a little thank you to me.

I seem to have hit a nerve with the Tablet PC article. I've gotten much more email responses and blog mentions on this article than any other article that I've written in a while. No wonder I prefer publishing new articles on the Internet rather than in print.

So, check out the article, check out the TechnoLawyer Blog and check out the TechnoLawyer family of newsletters, discussion lists and other features. TechnoLawyer is an essential resource for anyone involved in any way with the use of technology in the practice of law.

Posted by dmk at 10:20 PM

April 06, 2005

Multiple Takes on the Billable Hour Issue

Bruce MacEwen has posted Savvy Blawgers Query #2: The Future of the Billable Hour. It's thought-provoking reading on the much-debated value billing topic. This topic was the subject at one of the sessions at LexThink.

I gave what I thought was a short, pithy statement that argued, I thought, that inertial forces would keep lawyers from making the change to value billing on their own. Unfortunately, Bruce interpreted what I said almost in almost exactly the opposite way from what I meant.

I said:

"Answer: The future of the billable hours is in the hands of clients. Without client pressure, there is little reason to expect many lawyers or firms to change the current system on their own. Ultimately, however, there will be practical limits for how high rates can go and the number of hours lawyers can work. Until then, I expect alternative billing to remain in the realm of experiment, primarily used by innovative lawyers who will be criticized by some of their peers and praised by their clients. Here's a great experiment: ask lawyers whether they like to have repair, construction or any other services done on an hourly billing basis, without an estimate or cap. If lawyers don't like that approach for their services (and, believe me, they do not), what makes them think that their clients like it any better? Forces for change are building, but the pressure has to come from clients and, even then, change will be slow."

It was sentence #3 that caused the problem. What I meant was that, as a practical matter, there are practical limits to how high hourly rates and the number of hours can go. The market will set a cap on high hourly rates can go. Physical and mental exhaustion will set the limit on the number of hours you can work. When a lawyer's hourly rate hits the market cap, the lawyer (assuming the simplest scenario) will only be able to make more money in succeeding years by billing more hours.

The result of a focus on hourly billing is then a consistent push to raise hourly rates, to maximize the number of working hours and to have incentives to spend more hours on projects.

If, and I know that this is a radical proposition, we assume that lawyers would like to make a lot of money, then, as many critics of the billable hour have argued, they've chosen the worst way to do so.

Unfortunately, at the same time, they've also chosen a way that puts their incentives at odds with those of their clients.

Here's the example I like to give. When we moved to our house, we used a moving firm that estimated that the job would take 3.5 hours and quoted us a flat fee of $350. In fact, the movers were great and got the job done in about two hours. We were so pleased that I think we even tipped the guys. For our $350, we had a great, FAST, no-hassle move and felt we got our money's worth in value.

We recommended the movers to someone else. In a similar experience, they had a great experience and the move was done around an hour faster than the time estimate. They were livid that they had been cheated out of $100, even though they were completely pleased with the work the movers did.

Now the careful reader will have realized that almost everything in this post is a non sequitur. However, I have come this far and have vowed to pull all of this together and make a solid point.

My observation is that billing is largely based on inertia. Once you start down one path, it's difficult to change. As long as lawyers feel that there is still room for either rates or number of hours to increase, inertia will keep them in the hourly billing model. The force that will push them out of hourly billing must, therefore, be external, which means from clients, or perhaps from other innovative lawyers or other professional services providers.

Unfortunately, I wrote my comment in a way that Bruce interpreted: "as soon as it's not an optimal deal for firms, they'll turn to something else."

That's not what I meant. Value billing will almost invariably be an optimal deal for both lawyers and clients, so long as there is trust and agreement on value. Value billing requires more thought and a change in approach. Inertia will almost always win.

Ah, hell, it's easier to write about technology than this stuff. I'll leave this subject to Matt Homann.

I'll only note that the most telling evidence on this issue can be found by watching how hard lawyers will fight to avoid getting into an open-ended hourly billing arrangement with any other service provider.

I've always found Alan Weiss's "Ten Ways to Convince A Buyer That Value-Based Fees Are Best" to be a very useful way to think about these issues.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 08:57 PM

April 05, 2005

Jack Vinson on Collaboration

One of my favorite people I've met through blogging is Jack Vinson. I'll always be grateful to Jack for inviting me to BlogWalk 6.

Jack was at LexThink on Sunday and has a great little essay summarizing a session on collaboration (I actually participated in that session) that raised some fundamental questions in some new ways. Jack brought to the discussion his great insights, his experience in KM and the benefit of his preparation for the class in KM he is now teaching at Northwestern.

Jack summarizes the session well. I have the giant post-it notes from that session and have thought a bit more about the ideas that were raised in that session. In a way, we flipped some of the standard assumptions about the negatives of online or "virtual" interactions on their heads and considered whether they might be positives rather than negatives. In part, we looked at some examples of successful voluntary collaborations where people had never met in person and compared them to unsuccessful collaboration efforts in the employment context.

It might have had nothing to do with the day's topic of "creating the perfect professional services firm," or it might have had everything to do with it.

In any event, if you are considering a KM project, Jack is definitely someone you want to have on your short list of people to help you.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 11:44 PM

Evan Schaeffer on LexThink

Until I get the chance to do some posts on LexThink, you won't find a better post about LexThink than Evan Schaeffer's gentle and wistful essay about his inability to attend.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 11:29 PM

My TechnoFeature Article on Tablet PCs is Now Available

My article "A Field Report on the Tablet PC" has been published as a TechnoFeature on TechnoLawyer.com. A free subscription to TechnoLawyer.com is required, but if you are interested in legal technology, you really should subscribe to TechnoLawyer.

Here's the summary of the article:

"In this article, legal technology expert Dennis Kennedy reports on his move to the world of the Tablet PC. He gives the Tablet PC high marks, highlights ten key observations, and comments on how the Tablet PC has changed his approach to computers in some fundamental ways. He then wonders aloud what it will take for law firm IT departments to equip lawyers with these tools. This article contains 2,172 words."

This article is now available for reprinting in other publications.

[Originally published on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 09:51 PM

April 04, 2005

The College Basketball Equivalent of the Prevent Defense

It's so agonizing when you watch a football game when your team plays a "prevent defense." As they say, the only thing it prevents is your team from winning.

I enjoy college basketball much less these days than I used to because the coaches have become the stars instead of the players. I saw that Coach K American Express commercial so many times during the NCAA tournament that I could recite it word for word.

The attention-getting move of any star coach is to pull out the clipboard and design the perfect play, especially at the end of a game. If the winning shot is made, the coach is a genius. If the shot is missed, well, someone must not have executed.

Lately, I've come to the conclusion that calling timeout with little time remaining in a college game and pulling out the clipboard is the equivalent of the prevent defense. I've seen games where I can't even believe what happens after a play is "drawn up."

So, I felt sorry for my friend Matt "Mr. Illinois" Homann as his beloved Illini made up the big deficit tonight and then used a series of timeouts and clipboarded plays to remove every once of momentum they had. I would have rather seen them win or lose by pushing the action on the floor.

One other note on this game: what's the difference between a "moving pick" and a "solid screen"?

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 10:23 PM

Many Thank Yous

From BlawgConnect to TECHSHOW to LexThink, it's been a heckuva great few days for me, if a little exhausting. Thanks to everyone who attended or was involved.

And, for those of you who might be thinking that I exaggerated a bit in telling you and others how great you were - I meant every word. What a great group of people I've now found myself in. I'm grateful for the chance to know you all.

[Originally posted in DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Posted by dmk at 10:12 PM

April 02, 2005

I've Been Busy Having Fun

Report from TECHSHOW:

When it comes to making a choice between blogging and taking advantage of the opportunity to actually talk with with bloggers, I find that the talking with bloggers always wins.

Having a great time!

Posted by dmk at 10:04 AM