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April 12, 2006

Four Generations of Computer Malware

Donna's SecurityFlash is a must-read resource for anyone interested in computer security - especially if, like me, you are preparing for a presentation on computer security next week.

Today, she points to a great article by Peter Tippett called "The Fourth Generation of Malware." The article is mandatory reading for anyone who still thinks that anti-virus software is all the protection you need and for anyone who wants to gain a greater appreciation of what the threat environment for computers today.

Tippett describes four generations of "malware," while noting the 20th anniversary of the first computer virus:

1. DOS Viruses (1986 - 1995)
2. Macro Viruses (1995 - 2000)
3. Big Impact Worms (1999 - 2005)
4. Malcode for Profit (2004 - to present)

The money quote:

Over the last twenty years, worms have used all types of replication vectors, which of course increase with each advance in technology. Authors have worked diligently to have their worms and Trojans avoid detection and reach more victims with every iteration. For instance during this fourth generation, we’ve witnessed Backdoors, Trojans and root kits that enable the free reuse of the infected computer, and bots that create ‘zombies’ out of a network of computers that allow the malcode perpetrator to orchestrate responses among tens of thousands, or even millions, of victims at a time.
With each generation of malware growing more complex and devastating, it’s become increasingly important for CIOs to know not only who is on their network, but who is accessing their network.

While there isn’t an end-all-be-all solution to wiping malicious code authors off the face of the Earth, having the best security policies and procedures in place will help enterprises avoid a crippling network attack that not only puts information at risk, but impedes productivity and ultimately damages the bottom line.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology computer security malware

Posted by dmk at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2006

New Issue of Law Practice Today Webzine Focuses on Outsourcing

The newest issue of the ABA Law Practice Management Section's webzine Law Practice Today is out. The theme for this month is outsourcing and this issue serves up a good collection of outsourcing articles as well as the customary assortment of good articles on finance, management, marketing and technology for lawyers and law firms.

I played a role in a roundtable article on outsourcing called "Inside vs. Outside: When Does it Make Sense for Law Firms to Outsource?" It's a wide-ranging article that even discusses the topic of outsourcing legal services.

Highly recommended.

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

This post brought to you by LexThink!(R) - The Legal Unconference. Ask us about private LexThink retreats and conferences for your firm, business or organization. Coming soon - LexThink Lounge - April 19, 2006.

Technorati tags: legal technology outsourcing Law Practice Today

Posted by dmk at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2006

Webcast: Security in a Wired and Wireless World

Dan Pinnington and I will be presenting a TECHSHOW session called "The Weakest Link: Security in a Wired and Wireless World." I'm thrilled to finally get the chance to do a presentation with Dan, one of my favorite people in legal technology.

We've recently learned that the ABA will be doing a live webcast of our session.

While I definitely encourage you to attend TECHSHOW and our session, attending this webcast is the next best thing.

Here's the program description:

An unprotected computer running a non-updated version of Windows will be attacked and compromised within twenty minutes of connecting to the Internet, potentially risking violation of your clients’ privacy.
Computer threats have become increasingly malicious and damaging. Automated attacks and organized crime have changed the security picture drastically from the days of the fifteen-year-old hacker breaking into systems for fun.

As wireless connectivity becomes more common, you are at risk at home, in your office and on the road. The good news is that there are standard steps that you can take and procedures that you can follow to safeguard the vital client, business, and personal information on your computers. The bad news is that neglecting these steps and ongoing security procedures will put your sensitive data in peril. There are many potential weak links in the networks and software systems you use in the practice of law.

Our expert faculty will provide information on current threats, tested strategies, best practices and practical tips that you can use to strengthen your wired and wireless networks.

In this session, you will learn practical ways to:

+ secure your computers and networks using the standard steps security experts recommend
+ test whether your efforts are working
+ minimize your risk of exposing client confidences and your business and personal information
+ stay aware of current security threats

Registration information is here.

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

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy's legal technology consulting services, featuring RSS and blogging consulting, technology audit, strategic planning and technology committee coaching packages especially for medium-sized law firms (15 - 100 lawyers) and corporate legal departments. More information on the "Second Pair of Eyes" packages for legal technology audits and strategic planning may be found here (PDF).

Technorati tags: legal technology computer security webinar TECHSHOW

Posted by dmk at 08:50 AM | Comments (1)

April 09, 2006

My New White Paper: "Moving from Reaction to Risk Management"

RenewData has released a new white paper I wrote called "Moving From Reaction to Risk Management: Changing the Focus of Information Governance to Achieve Better Business Results."

From the synopsis:

The whitepaper highlights the fact that information governance is an important component of overall risk management and that considering it as a key part of risk management both improves business results and helps manage risks. In addition, applying business rules can help reduce the costs of compliance and improve the likelihood of compliance and the enforcement of policies and procedures, resulting in a reduction of actual risk and an improvement in risk management.

In the paper I argue that we need to focus on "the benefits of finding and using appropriate business rules to move information governance efforts away from the reactive and passive approaches commonly used today to approaches that can anticipate and even prevent problems."

A fundamental premise of my approach is that electronic discovery is just one part of an integrated records management and information governance effort.

I encourage you to read the white paper and let me know what you think. You may download the white paper (and another white paper I wrote earlier this year on information lifecycle management) here.

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

Learn more about electronic discovery at Dennis Kennedy's Electronic Discovery Resources page.

Technorati tags: legal technology electronic discovery records management information governance white paper

Posted by dmk at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)

Where are the Lawyers at Legal Tech Conferences? Take Two

I had a great time on Friday speaking at Pitney Bowes's National Client Advisory Board meeting in Scottsdale. I gave a presentation on top legal technology trends for 2006 (and I'll be giving a similar presentation next month at the Association of Legal Administrators Annual Meeting).

Once again, I found myself at a great conference where I learned a lot about electronic discovery and records management, and I was almost the only lawyer there.

I learned not just about Pitney Bowes's recent acquisition of Ibis Consulting (indicative of a trend I have mentioned this year of EDD vendors expanding into consulting services (including, especially, project management)), but much about records managmement and electronic discovery from the point of view of clients and vendors. I don't know of a single lawyer who would not have benefited from hearing the insights of clients on electronic discovery issues that I heard.

In addition, I got a new understanding of how daunting the records management issues that face both clients and law firms really are.

It was a great conference and I thoroughly enjoyed getting the opportunity to present to this group.

My recent question still remains: why am I not seeing any lawyers at electronic discovery and legal tech conferences, especially ones where they could get insights into their clients' thinking? Along these lines, I recommend that you read Jeff Carr's comment on my recent post about this topic.

A big thank you to Pitney Bowes for bringing me to this conference.

There's still time for lawyers to register for the ABA TECHSHOW.

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

Learn more about electronic discovery at Dennis Kennedy's Electronic Discovery Resources page.

Technorati tags: legal technology electronic discovery records management TECHSHOW client-driven technology

Posted by dmk at 07:05 PM | Comments (1)

Is The Time Right for Tablet PCs?

Craig Pringle has a great blog post called "Now is the Time for Tablets" that argues that the time is now right for moving to the Tablet PC. As a Tablet PC user and a long-time Tablet PC fan, I could not agree more.

Craig's post is well-reasoned and I highly recommend that you read the whole post. As long-time readers of this blog know, I think that Tablet PCs really make sense for lawyers.

The money quote is Craig's list of reasons why the timing is right for Tablet PCs:

These key influences are:
+ Mobile computing in general is taking off.

+ Connectivity is trending towards being universal.

+ The limitations of battery life are being reduced.

+ The range of devices available is increasing.

+ The range of software written to be tablet aware or tablet specific is increasing.

+ The marginal cost of a tablet over a laptop is decreasing.

+ Awareness of the Tablet PC as an option is increasing.

+ The distinction between "Laptop" and "Tablet" is going to be removed with Windows Vista.

If you are considering the purchase of a new computer soon, add Craig's post to list of articles to study.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology Tablet PC

Posted by dmk at 06:54 PM | Comments (1)

April 05, 2006

Tips on Getting More Life From Your Batteries

Batteries have been on my mind after our recent set of power outages.

Here's a good article I found today from PC Magazine that explains batteries and battery life and gives some good practical tips for getting the most out of your batteries.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology batteries

Posted by dmk at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

March 30, 2006

Where are the Lawyers at Legal Technology Seminars These Days?

The nice people at IKON put on a great legal technology seminar in St. Louis yesterday. I learned a lot and took a lot of notes. Among other things, there was great coverage of electronic discovery, records management and legal tech from the corporate law department point of view (something I call "client-driven technology").

It was well-attended (more than 70 people), but when they "qualified the audience," there were only a handful of lawyers in the room.

The rest were IT staff, paralegals and legal administrators. I've noticed this trend over the last several months as I've attended legal technology and electronic discovery seminar sessions that are increasingly made up of IT people rather than lawyers.

Maybe I'm off target, but I feel that lawyers should want to hear a representative from the legal department of a major corporation talk about where they would like to go with their technology and how their law firms could help them. They might also like to know where their clients feel that their law firms are not responsive enough.

If you want one "take-away" to consider carefully, it was this: corporate legal departments are increasingly being called on to be part of the business team in terms of budgeting and other standard business approaches. Law firms that do not help them do that should expect to find a growing impatience. Electronic billing is one way to help.

I learned a good deal about the current state of affairs in electronic discovery, compliance and records management, and other things as well, but, looking back on my notes, I can't help but notice this comment - "What is the mix of this audience and where are the lawyers?"

If you are one of those lawyers who seem to be staying away from good educational events on legal technology, let me encourage you to attend ABA TECHSHOW 2006. Hope to see you there. I guarantee that you'll get a competitive advantage over the lawyers who seem to be isolating themselves from learning about the leading technology issues of the day that are front-and-center for their clients.

My thank you goes out to IKON for inviting me to this seminar and I'm glad I had a gap in my schedule to attend it. Well worth it and, if this show comes to your town, I recommend it.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology client-driven technology electronic discovery TECHSHOW

Posted by dmk at 07:41 PM | Comments (3)

March 29, 2006

Keeping Your Mobile Phone or PDA with You For Always

Martin Geddes at the Telepocalypse blog reports on a "just when you thought you had heard of everything" story of people being buried with their cell phones at their sides in their caskets.

No reports yet of people being buried wearing those headsets with the bright blue LEDs. However, there are apparently stories of people being buried with extra batteries.

Hey, if you consider what ancient pharoahs and royalty have been buried with, maybe it's no so strange.

Well . . . yes, it is strange.

In my case (thank you Verizon), my reception six feet underground probably cannot be any worse than the reception I get on my cell phone at my house.

By the way, I like how Martin turns this weird story into a lesson that he draws about the telcom industry. I met and had dinner with Martin last year after the Chicago BlogWalk and was greatly impressed with his knowledge of the telcom industry and its trends and challenges. Be sure to read his whole post.

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

Posted by dmk at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2006

Congratulations to Evan Schaeffer on a Year of Podcasting Legally

I listened today to Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground Podcast #47, which is his un-anniversary podcast honoring his first anniversary of podcasting.

As always, it's well-produced, witty, insightful and very professional. If you wondered what podcasting is and how lawyers might use it, this is a great podcast to check out. It's just over 8 minutes long, so it's an easy one to get on your to-listen list.

Longtime readers of this blog, especially those with sharp memories, will recall that Evan's podcast won my 2005 Blawggie Award for Best Legal Podcast.

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

Technorati tags: legal technology podcast Blawggies legal underground

Posted by dmk at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)

BlawgWorld 2006 eBook Now Available for Public Download

TechnoLawyer's BlawgWorld 2006 is a great sampler of useful, thought-provoking and enjoyable blog posts from more than fifty of the many law-related blogs out there these days, including two posts from me - one from this blog and one from the Between Lawyers blog. Download it for free here.

BlawgWorld 2006 gives those new to the world of blogging a great sampling of the range and nature of the law-related blogs. It's not comprehensive, or even designed to be, but it's a very nice sampler, especially for those who have heard about blogs, but haven't really read any blogs yet.

Although it's easy for people these days to over-think and over-discuss the whole "blogging phenomenon," I will note that if you read through BlawgWorld 2006, you'll see why I've begun to describe blogs as "online newspaper or magazine columns without the newspaper or magazine." Don't think so much about the items in the eBook as part of "blogging," just view them as short, informative and enjoyable articles.

Download it for free here.

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

Technorati tags: blawgworld blawg legal technology LexThink! Lounge LexThink!

Posted by dmk at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)

March 26, 2006

SaaS: The Next Big Thing?

Eric Knorr's InfoWorld article called "Software as a Service: The Next Big Thing" is a great overview of the current state of affairs in the world of the "hot" Software as a Service ("SaaS") trend.

Although it's tempting to see SaaS as the old Application Service Provider model with a new name, those in the SaaS industry see some important differences, or at least some important evolutionary developments. This article helps you see those differences.

The article points to Salesforce.com as a leader in SaaS and, more specifically, its AppExchange as the key development to watch in this area.

Even though the following quote is pretty technical and jargon-laden, you will be well rewarded for unpacking this one, making it my money quote:

The ultimate disruptive effect of the “services wave” may well resemble that of the dot-com era, when companies that were smart about leveraging the Web exploited unforeseen growth opportunities. As the viral growth of Web 2.0 mash-ups and walled gardens like AppExchange make clear, every true SaaS application is potentially part of an XML-driven ecosystem.

As you probably know, I've long been a fan of the ASP, hosted services or SaaS model as a technology strategy and have written and spoken about it on many occasions over the years.

You can also read about my thoughts on the unique legal issues raised by SaaS approaches in Jennifer Jones's ComputerWorld article called "Data Diligence."

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology Software as a Service SaaS

Posted by dmk at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)

Replay of Law Firm Tech Committee Webinar Available

Aspen Conferencing has made the replay of my recent video webinar "Best Practices for Law Firm Technology Committees" available for free viewing. You can view it here (https://ase.on.raindance.com/confmgr/view_stored_doc.jsp? docId=91919523631781116747306485130&docType=recording).

I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page. This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy's legal technology consulting services, featuring RSS and blogging consulting, technology audit, strategic planning and technology committee coaching packages especially for medium-sized law firms (15 - 100 lawyers) and corporate legal departments. More information on the "Second Pair of Eyes" packages for legal technology audits and strategic planning may be found here (PDF).

Technorati tags: legal technology technology committee webinar

Posted by dmk at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2006

Strategic Planning Tips for Mid-sized Law Firms (and Others)

I'm a fan of Tom Collins and his More Partner Income blog. Today, he features a guest post from John Remsen, Jr. called "Keys to Successful Strategic Planning."

It's a good list of sound, solid information with an eye toward the needs of mid-sized firms.

The money quote:

Many midsized firms seem to think that strategic planning is for larger firms. However, any firm with an eye toward the future can benefit from the process. Planning can help a firm develop a consensus on key big-picture issues, promote internal communication within the firm, inspire attorneys to get out and do things they wouldn’t otherwise do, and help the firm allocate its resources more effectively.

My favorite tip relates to measuring and rewarding desired behavior.

A good strategic plan makes your technology (and other) decisions so much easier. If you have a good strategic plan, you'll see the benefits of creating a strategic technology plan for your firm, something that really makes sense in the mid-sized law firm category.

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

Technorati tags: legal technology strategic plan strategic technology plan mid-sized law firm

Posted by dmk at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)

March 22, 2006

Trimming Your News Aggregator Subscriptions

Fred Faulkner's "Information Overload = Loss in Productivity: Trimming Down the News Aggregator Fat" offers some good practical tips for people who feel that they have subscribed to too many RSS feeds from blogs and other resources. How many is too many? Well, that can vary - see my post called "Heart of Blogness."

Here are a few techniques I use:

1. Saved Searches. Most newsreaders allow you to run searches over all of the posts in your newsreader. I have a set of saved searches on terms of interest to me (e.g., ABA TECHSHOW or LexThink). These "saved search" folders will locate any posts from all of the feeds to which you subscribe that contain those terms. In a certain sense, they make the total number of feeds to which you subscribe irrelevant. You can easily get to the posts that interest you. Long-term potential problem: too many saved searches.

2. The "River of News" approach. There's no requirement that you read every post in every feed in your aggregator. Think of a newspaper - you don't read every item in a newspaper. Your news aggregator will probably have a folder that collects all items that are from "today" or "unread." Simply scroll through, as if browsing a newspaper, and read what catches your attention without considering which blog or feed the item comes from. If you build up a backlog of unread posts, simply mark them "read" and move forward. Again, in this approach, there's no real need to limit your number of subscribed feeds.

3. "Page 1 / Page 2." I used to organized subscribed feeds in folders by category. However, the number of category folders can grow and your system can become unwieldy. I'm now trying an approach that is almost the reverse of Steve Nipper's "probation folder" approach. I have a "Page 1" folder and a "Page 2" folder. The Page 1 folder contains feeds I like to read on a daily basis. "Page 2" is everything else. I may move items from Page 1 to Page 2 and vice versa on a regular basis. As you might expect, I tend to read most of the items in Page 1. I tend not to read most of the items in Page 2 (but, remember that I'm catching the items that interest me in Page 2 with my saved searches or I may see them if I am reading in the "River of News" mode).

I haven't found it to be a good use of time to do a lot of trimming of feeds, although I will delete a good number of feeds from time to time. If I find a new feed, I'll subscribe to it and throw into Page 2 (or, rarely, right into Page 1). If something continues to catch my attention, I'll move it into Page 1.

I've found that this combination of approaches serves me well and offers me several techniques to use depending on the time I have available, what my mood is and other factors.

It also seems to scale pretty well as you move up in the number of feeds. I prefer to add a few more feeds that try to delete feeds that I basically like in order to get down to an arbitrary number of feed subscriptions.

By the way, if you don't use a news aggregator and this seems oh-so-arcane to you, remember that (assuming that you are reading this post on my blog) you can get each of my new blog posts delivered to you automatically via email by using the Feedblitz subscription form in the left column of the front page of my blog.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology river of news rss news aggregator

Posted by dmk at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2006

Top Ten Tips for Law Firm Technology Committees

I've written a new article on my top ten tips for law firm technology committees that distills and captures in one place a lot of my current thinking on legal technology. This article will only be available to attendees of the video webinar I'll be presenting on Tuesday, March 21.

Here are the details:

Last Call: 'll be presenting my first video webinar on Tuesday, March 21 (12:30 Central time), thanks to Anthony Reading and Aspen Conferencing.

The free webinar is called "Best Practices for Law Firm Technology Committees: Making Good Decisions in a Time of Too Many Choices." Registration details are at http://www.aspenconferencing.com/invite.html#.

If you are a member of a law firm technology committee, are appointing members to a tech committee or may join a tech committee in the near future, please join us for this informative, thought-provoking and action-oriented presentation.

There are a limited number of slots for the webinar, so I encourage you to register soon. It's free and you will get some great information not available elsewhere.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology technology committee webinar law firm videocast Aspen Conferencing

Posted by dmk at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2006

Reminder: Dennis Kennedy's Video Webinar on Law Firm Technology Committee Best Practices on March 21

As I posted recently, I'll be presenting my first video webinar on Tuesday, March 21 (12:30 Central time), thanks to Anthony Reading and Aspen Conferencing.

The webinar will provide ideas and information on law firm technology committees that is solid, practical and based on my experience and what I've learned from others.

I've written a new article on my ten tips for law firm technology committees that distills and captures in one place a lot of my current thinking on legal technology. This article will only be available to attendees of the webinar.

I spent some time with Anthony today learning the technology and I'm excited about not only the video aspect of this, but some of the tools for presenters that I'll have available.

The webinar will cover:

Building a Solid Foundation

1. The technology committee horror story that you don't want to have to tell.

2. Technology committee basics - answers to the questions: who? how? and what to do?

Moving Forward with Style, Support and Success

3. Getting things done - focus, strategy and what really works.

4. Setting your agenda - point A, point B and getting from point A to point B.

Making Your Best Plan for 2006 and Beyond

5. Dennis Kennedy's Top Ten Tips for Technology Committees in 2006 (available only to attendees of this seminar).

6. A sampling of Dennis Kennedy's favorite action steps to help you get to a great start at your firm.

There are a limited number of slots for the webinar, so I encourage you to register soon. It's free and you will get some great information not available elsewhere.

If you would like to receive information on other resources I may be providing in the future for law firm technology committees, please email me with your contact info at denniskennedyblog @ gmail.com.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology technology committee webinar law firm videocast Aspen Conferencing

Posted by dmk at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2006

TECHSHOW Early Bird Discount Deadline Extended, But Act Soon

Jim Calloway reports that the deadline for getting the early bird discount for the ABA TECHSHOW has been extended until March 17.

As a former TECHSHOW Board member, I'll always have a fondness for TECHSHOW and encourage you to attend if you want to learn more about ways that technology is transforming the practice of law. This year is the 20th anniversary of TECHSHOW and it should be one of the best shows ever. I'll be speaking at a couple of sessions and hope to see you there.

TECHSHOW is being held this year in connection with the Spring Meeting of the ABA's Law Practice Management Section. Joining the Law Practice Management Section (especially getting involved in Section activities) has been one of the smartest moves I've made in my legal career. This year, you have an opportunity to attend TECHSHOW and also attend the regular LPM Section meeting to learn more and consider joining.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology techshow law practice management

Posted by dmk at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)

Flying Solo: Buy and Download the Chapters You Need

One of the essential resources for amy lawyer with a solo practice (or planning to start one) is the Fourth Edition of the book, Flying Solo, edited by Bill Gibson.

Some solos may want to learn about specific issues and not wish to buy the entire book. The good news is that if you are only interested in a few chapters, you can download about half of the chapters as individual downloads so you can get exactly the materials you need.

Along with Storm Evans, I edited the technology chapters in Flying Solo and it's good to see that they are well-represented in the available downloads.

I wrote three chapters for the book, all of which are available for download: Email Management; Computer Security for Solos; and Leaving a Firm: Guidelines for a Smoother Transition. The chapter on leaving a firm has surprised me with the amount of positive response it has gotten.

There are lots of other helpful chapters available for download and the book is hard to beat.

Other great resources for solo lawyers include the excellent MyShingle.com site and the new Oklahoma Bar Association Starting a Law Practice Web Directory.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology Flying Solo solo

Posted by dmk at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2006

Tracking the Way You Navigate Other Websites Will Help You Improve Your Website

This post is a follow-up to yesterday's post called "Current Standards in Law Firm Websites - Some Improvements for You to Consider."

I visited a website today because I wanted to find out more about the company (not a law firm) and its services, but really more about the company.

I went to the home page. Unlike too many pages these days, this site had general pricing information and service descriptions displayed prominently on the home page.

Then I looked for and found a navigation bar near the top of the page. I was looking for a tab that said "About Us." I found it, but also saw that there was a "What We Believe" tab.

I went to the "What We Believe" page. It was personal and created a good impression about the company.

Then I went to the "About Us" page to see what it said. It had a nice picture of the company founder and a well-written, friendly description of the company and its services.

I saw a link to "Testimonials" and went there to see what people had to say about the company. (Note that law firms are probably prohibited under the applicable ethical rules from using anything like standard testimonials, but notice how important they are in the thought process when we navigate other websites).

Next, I saw that the site had an "FAQ" or "Frequently Asked Questions" page and I took a look at that. Now I was ready for a "Demo" or "Tutorial" page, and I found one.

Finally, I looked in the top navigation bar and found the "Contact Us" tab and went to a page that gave me multiple ways to contact the company.

In terms of a user experience, this was a home run. The site was otherwise nothing special in terms of design or use of current gee-whiz tools.

How does your website stack up when you run it through the same thought process?

Given that law firm websites probably are prohibited from doing testimonial and demo pages, and FAQ pages are extremely rare on law firm websites, look at how you are short-circuiting the normal thought and navigation process, making it likely that a visitor will bail out before trying to contact you. If you then make it hard to contact you, it's difficult to see how your website is really helping you.

Think about it. Then give your site a test.

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

Technorati tags: legal technology law firm website usability

Posted by dmk at 05:35 PM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2006

Current Standards in Law Firm Websites - Some Improvements for You to Consider

I've spent some time recently doing some research that required me to look at a lot of law firm websites. I have a few observations.

I first wrote and spoke about law firm web pages in 1996. You can see a review of St. Louis law firm sites I did in 1998/1999 here, which might be interesting for nostalgia and other reasons. Most of my wrting on law firm web pages can be found in the collected columns called The Internet Roundtable I co-write with Jerry Lawson and Brenda Howard on LLRX.com.

However, I have written much, if anything, about websites in the blog/RSS era - that's how much blogs and RSS have changed the landscape.

It would be very instructive for firms without blogs to look at a few law-related blogs and then visit their own website. Traditional websites seem so, well, static in comparison.

I was looking for specific information, including contact information for individual lawyers, so I did not take an in-depth look at any of the sites I visited. In general, my sense is that many firms have websites that are working against them and not for them.

Here are a few problem areas:

1. Not Considering Likely Usage. Many times, I go to a law firm website simply to get contact information for a lawyer or the firm (phone number, mailing address , email address). I have to believe that this a common reason people go to websites. It surprises me how many websites do not have the office mailing addresss and main phone number on the front page. It shocks me, though, how difficult some sites make it to find that information. As an another example, it can take a trip to several pages and a search box or two to find lawyer bios, some of which still do not include phone numbers and email addresses. It's almost impossible to put standard contact info in too many places on a website.

2. Making the Biographies Hard to Find and Use. I do not mind finding a page that has a short bio (with contact info) and a link to PDF version of the full (long) bio. However, some firms force you to go directly to the long PDF bio (which sometimes does not have the firm's name or the lawyer's direct dial number or email address). Even worse, some of the long PDF bios have not been optimized for the web and take a long time to download. PDFs can be quite useful, especially if you expect someone to print them out, but what happens a few weeks or months later when I look at the printout of your bio and it doesn't include the firm name on it or other contact info?

3. Building a Fortress Around Your Email Addresses. Many times, I go to a law firm website just to get an email address for someone I've met or already know. At some law firm websites, it would be easier to get into the office safe than it is to get a lawyer's email address. While my guess is that this is done as a spam prevention technique, it sends a clear "do not email us" message. This is bad idea for at least three reasons. 1. Your clients and people who might be looking for your email address to ask you if you were interested in a referral might not bother to track you down by other routes. 2. In every case where there was a method to shield email addresses in some way, I could find the email address through Google or another route. 3. These techniques offer no protection against spammers, but they do work to discourage people from sending you work. By the way, many bloggers also are guilty of this.

4. Forgetting the Non-Lawyers in the Firm. From legal administrators to IT directors to librarians and others, many firms have employees who appear in public through speaking, writing and other channels. As many people have noted, very few law firm websites contain any mention whatsoever of these people. That's unfortunate because someone may have met one of these people and then try to contact them as an entry point for a potential new client or referral.

5. A Relentlessly Internal Focus. Law firm websites generally are organized in ways that make sense only to insiders of the firm. This makes them expecially hard to use and navigate.

Oh, you wouldn't be surprised to find that I had a bunch of other observations as well, but these struck me as being both very basic and very fixable.

It's probably a good time to look at your law firm's website with fresh eyes.

Here are three suggestions:

1. Visit 5 or 6 of the websites (non-law) that you use on a regular basis (Amazon, et al). Then visit your law firm's website.

2. Visit 5 or 6 of your clients' websites. Then visit your website.

3. Visit a few of the websites of your law firm competitors. Then visit your website.

I think that you'll have plenty of notes by the end of that process.

Although many of the tools and feature of websites have changed in the last ten years, most of the core principles remain in place. First and foremost of the principles is to think like someone who is actually trying to use your website.

By the way, I did bail out on some websites before finding the contact information I wanted. I hope it wasn't your website, but can you be sure it wasn't?

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

Learn more about legal technology and law firm websites at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology law firm website usability

Posted by dmk at 12:20 PM | Comments (1)

A Just-In-Time Knowledge Base For Corporate Counsel For Innovative Companies

"A Just-In-Time Knowledge Base For Corporate Counsel For Innovative Companies" is a new article of mine that was just published in the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel magazine. I wrote this article on behalf of LawyerLinks and, as you will see from the article, I''m convinced that LawyerLinks is an attractive use of technology that lawyers will find exceptionally useful in the areas of corporate and securities law.

LawyerLinks is another example of a use of technology tool that helps a lawyer work the way that lawyers work rather than forcing a lawyer to work the way a technology tool works. Read the article and see what you think.

I've recently branched out into writing the occasional commissioned articles and white papers on topics, products and services that appeal to me. I'd be happy to discuss that further with you.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology LawyerLinks legal research corporate counsel

Posted by dmk at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2006

Best Practices for Law Firm Technology Committees Videocast

I've served on technology committees for the law firms I've worked at and regularly talk to lawyers on technology committees. I've noticed that there is a lack of solid information targeted directly to tech committees and tech committee members. In fact, it would be impossible for me not to notice because my friends on tech committees regularly ask me about this.

So, I've decided to see if I can help provide some information for this audience that is solid, practical and based on my experience and what I've learned from others.

My friend Anthony Reading at Aspen Conferencing is helping me take the first step down this path by producing a free video webinar on March 21 that will showcase the very cool videoconferencing technologies at Aspen. The webinar is called "Best Practices for Law Firm Technology Committees: Making Good Decisions in a Time of Too Many Choices." Registration details are at http://www.aspenconferencing.com/invite.html#.

Here's the program description:

In this first of its kind video seminar called "Best Practices for Law Firm Technology Committees," legal technology expert Dennis Kennedy will cover what you and your law firm must know about setting up or fine-tuning a technology committee and help your firm deal with the technology issues of today and tomorrow.
Every law firm has at least an informal technology committee and all firms with ten or more lawyers either have or should have a formal technology committee. However, it is rare to find lawyers, IT directors or law firm managers who feel that their firm's technology committee functions at an optimal level.

As a member of a technology committee, you want to learn more about the issues your firm faces, understand the legal technology landscape and determine how to make good decisions and set priorities.

Management committees want to know how to select the right people for technology committees. Both lawyers and IT people want to learn how to communicate better.

In this sixty-minute session, Dennis Kennedy will take you from "Tech Committee 101" to the best practices he recommends for law firm tech committees today. He believes that law firms have reached a crossroads on technology and that it is vital for firms to make good choices about what directions to take. Most firms delegate those choices to a technology committee that has too little guidance and lacks the tools to make the best decisions. The best firms are always looking for better ways to move forward.

The seminar will cover:

Building a Solid Foundation

1. The technology committee horror story that you don't want to have to tell.

2. Technology committee basics - answers to the questions: who? how? and what to do?

Moving Forward with Style, Support and Success

3. Getting things done - focus, strategy and what really works.

4. Setting your agenda - point A, point B and getting from point A to point B.

Making Your Best Plan for 2006 and Beyond

5. Dennis Kennedy's Top Ten Tips for Technology Committees in 2006 (available only to attendees of this seminar).

6. A sampling of Dennis Kennedy's favorite action steps to help you get to a great start at your firm.

The approach of the seminar will be highly practical, with a focus on how you can improve what you are already doing and make good choices for the future built on what you are doing well now. The seminar will feature observations drawn from Kennedy's own experience on technology committees at mid-sized and large law firms and his familiarity with what is happening in the industry.

Seminar attendees will also receive handout materials that include a specially-selected set of Kennedy's articles and other writings on technology committees and legal technology decision-making and his Top Ten Tips for Technology Committees in 2006 (available only to attendees of this seminar).

If you are a member of a law firm technology committee or may be so in the near future, please join us for this informative, thought-provoking and action-oriented presentation.

There are a limited number of slots for the webinar, so I encourage you to register soon. It's free and you will get some great information not available elsewhere.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology technology committee webinar law firm videocast Aspen Conferencing

Posted by dmk at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2006

Eighty Computer Security Tips (and an Alert for Mac Users)

Lots of discussion about Macintosh security lately because of this ZDnet article indicating that a Mac OS X system can be compromised in 30 minutes. The responses have, not unexpectedly, bordered on the religious, as you will see in this Slashdot discussion.

In fact, Apple recently released a patch to fix twenty security vulnerabilities after reports of worms and other security issues, only to be greeted by concerns about whether the patch fixed the problem.

Here's the important point to remember.

When it comes to computer security, the appropriate response is NEVER to say, "Oh, yeah, but Windows is much worse." You are on notice that there are security vulnerabilities - exploits are likely to follow. Get the patch and get it installed. Too many Mac users think that Macs are immune from security issues.

Running unpatched operating systems is one of the very worst moves you can make when it comes to security, even on a Mac.

Today, I found a great resource on the PC Magazine with 80 security tips all neatly collected for you.

Even better, you can attend the session on computer security that Dan Pinnington and I will be presenting at ABA TECHSHOW 2006 on April 20. Our focus will be on practical security tips and pointers with the needs of lawyers in mind.

This would also be a good day to check to see if you have installed all of the Windows critical updates.

UPDATE: PC Magazine has a new article on Mac security tips.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology computer security TECHSHOW Macintosh

Posted by dmk at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2006

Legal Knowledge Management: "Why Can't it Work Like Google?"

KM guru Jack Vinson has posted two sets of excellent notes from the recent knowledge management conference put on by the Ark Group. I thoroughly recommend Jack's posts (and Ron Friedmann's thoughts from the same conference) to you.

I wanted to discuss one common comment that Jack highlighted. He wrote: "'Why can't it work like Google?' in response to focus groups. This is a familiar refrain everywhere."

There are a couple of areas of legal technology where I feel like a real contrarian. For example, I not only do not think that WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS was the pinnacle of word processing, but, coming from a Mac environment to WP 5.1, I never did like it. Them's fightin' words to some lawyers, but I believe that it's best for everyone to use the tools that work best for them.

Another area where I am a contrarian is that, unlike most lawyers today, I'm not a huge Google fan. There, I've said it.

Over the last weekend, I was using Google to try to find quickly some articles on the ways law firms are using outsourcing. To put it mildly, I did not have a lot of success.

Since I've been using search engines since almost before search engine existed, I'm usually reluctant to blame my research skills for the problem. In fact, I knew that Google would have problems finding what I wanted, as it did a while back when I was searching for information on of counsel agreements.

It was shortly after I had my Google troubles that I read Jack's post.

It's easy to get all wrapped up in Google and treat it as the only tool in your toolbox. However, there are other tools that make much more sense, at least to me, in the KM context. Lawyers should remember the maxim about every problem looking like a nail when the only tool that you have is a hammer.

There are concept search tools like those from Recommind, pattern search tools like those from DolphinSearch, and visual search tools like those from Attenex that, to me, are infinitely more interesting in the KM context than something that works like Google. In fact, I'm intrigued these days by what you might be able to accomplish by turning some of the state-of-the-art electronic discovery tools to KM work.

If you are in the "why can't it work like Google?" group, I invite you to extend your search to some of these other search tools and see if you might change your mind.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology knowledge management electronic discovery

Posted by dmk at 09:01 PM | Comments (1)

February 27, 2006

Second Thoughts For Law Firms with One-Person IT Departments

I'll occasionally tell the story of the day the one-person IT department at one of my old law firms quit, leaving us with a manila envelope with his pager, keys and a memo with a few key notes for us.

I've talked with quite a few lawyers over the years who work at a firm with either a one-person IT department or an IT department that they feel is woefully understaffed.

That's why Mike McBride's great post "Some thoughts about one-man shops" struck a chord with me today. Mike writes the Out of the Frying Pan, and into the Cube blog, and works at a mid-sized law firm. He formerly wrote the Life of a One-Man IT Department Blog, which I read for several years.

The money quote:

Despite my best efforts to work on preventing break downs, to proactively deal with training issues and database maintenance, and to try and suggest ways to improve the state of the technology (which were mostly ignored anyway), most of the people I worked with saw my role as little more than sitting around waiting for something to break. A view that was obviously shared by my supervisor and other senior management, given their refusal, six months later, to actually hire another IT person because "we really wouldn't have enough for them to do".
Which would be fine, had they not allowed me to simply walk out the door and take most of my knowledge with me. They've gotten away with that, because in the interest of parting on good terms and not wanting to leave the handful of very good friends I made while working there left hanging, I agreed to be "on-call" for them in case of emergencies or to do some things that they would have had trouble doing on their own, for 6 months or until they found a replacement. One week from today, the 6 months will be over.

A highly recommended read for anyone in a small or mid-sized law firm. Does your disaster recovery plan take into account the possibility of essential people not being available?

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

echnorati tag: legal technology

Posted by dmk at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2006

Invitation to Participate in an Outsourcing Roundtable Article

They've turned over the editorial keys to the ABA's Law Practice Today webzine to me for April's issue. The theme is outsourcing - technology, people, off-shoring, homesourcing, and any other aspects we can cover.

One thing that I know I want to do is to create a big roundtable article in which a bunch of experts discuss various aspects of outsourcing, probably with a legal technology focus. The model is this roundtable article on electric discovery I put together in July 2004.

If you'd like to participate in this article, let me know. We'll use the Web 2.0 tool Writely to work on the roundtable article.

If you have an article or want to write an article on some aspect of outsourcing, let me know. Law Practice Today has a great audience for your articles.

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

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology Law Practice Today outsourcing

Posted by dmk at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2006

Would You Remind Us About the Details on the Email Management Teleseminar You Will Be Part of on Tuesday?

I've been looking over the script outline for the teleseminar on email management that I'll be one of the panelists for on Tuesday, Februrary 14, and it's going to be a good session for anyone who struggles with handling their email inbox. That probably is everyone who reads this post. Including me.

Here are the details:

Surviving the E-mail Avalanche - A 60-Minute TeleConference and Live Audio Webcast 0n Tuesday, February 14, 2005 at 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Eastern (12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Central; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Mountain; 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific)

Registration information at http://www.abanet.org/cle/programs/l06sem1.html

Description - "Are you tired of reading the same e-mail multiple times? Afraid to delete e-mails because you may need them later? Unable to find past e-mails effectively because of the volume of e-mail in your inbox or because you already deleted what you needed? Concerned about e-mail management and the potential legal implications of what you do or fail to do? Our experts offer practical tips on how to manage the everyday e-mail pileup. In particular, this program will include recommendations on topics from organizing and reviewing e-mails to finding management technology to guard against the crushing volume of messages, including how all of these issues and solutions affect case management."

Presenters:
Ted Banks, Chief Counsel for Global Compliance, Kraft Foods, Northfield, IL
Todd H. Flaming, Partner, Schopf & Weiss LLP, Chicago, IL
Nancy Flynn, Executive Director, e-Policy Institute, Columbus, OH
Dennis Kennedy, DennisKennedy.com, St. Louis, MO

Note that ABA Members can register for this program and receive complimentary enrollment in the Section of Litigation—a $75 value!

The teleseminar is brought to you by The American Bar Association Section of Litigation and the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education.

Learn more at http://www.abanet.org/cle/programs/l06sem1.html

Hope you can join us on Tuesday.

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

Technorati tags: legal technology email management

Posted by dmk at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2006

Have You Found Any Good New Legal Technology Blogs Lately?

New is a relative term, but I will highlight five legal tech blogs that have either started or become much more active recently.

1. The I Heart Tech blog is Adriana Linares' blog. Adriana focuses her work on tech training and her blog is a great source of helpful tips and techniques on technology issues for legal professionals.

2. The Information Governance Engagement Area is Rob Robinson's blog. Rob focuses on electronic discovery, compliance, records management and information governance issues. He also did a great job of covering the recent LegalTech conference.

3. David Munn's Legaltech.com Blog covers a variety of legal tech issues from the viewpoint of corporate legal departments.

4. Rick Borstein of Adobe writes the Acrobat for Legal Professionals blog, which posts detailed information about specific Acrobat techniques and issues found by lawyers. It's a great complementary blog to the PDF for Lawyers blog.

5. The TechnoLawyer Blog is not quite as new, but is another good one for your list. I especially enjoyed Neil Squillante's recent post on his notes from LegalTech.

For a list of some of the long-lived legal tech blogs, see my Strongest Links column on legal tech blogs from the April 2004 issue of Law Practice Today. It's also worth noting that a brand new (and excellent) issue Law Practice Today has just been published. Check it out.

Speaking of long-time legal tech bloggers, Jeff "Law Tech Guru" Beard has a helpful post today for those trying to decide what to do when the other shoe finally drops in the Blackberry patent saga.

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

Technorati tag: legal technology

Posted by dmk at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)

February 03, 2006

Are You in a New Podcast and Will You Be Doing More Podcasts?

My latest podcast appearance was posted earlier this week. If you want to hear some more of my thoughts on the future of legal technology and where technology is taking the practice of law, I'm interviewed as part of a new podcast from Thomson West, which can be found here and is identified as "Episode 2." I had a great time talking with Leonard Lee, who did the interview, before, during and after the actual interview.

Tom Mighell and I have been discussing and starting to work on a podcast series that we hope to launch by the first of March. And, yes, we would be interested in talking about sponsorship options. Tom and I will be presenting a session on podcasting at ABA TECHSHOW 2006 in April.

Also, I've been talking with the very knowledgeable Anthony Reading of Aspen Conferencing about doing videocasts on legal technology topics with tech trainer extraordinaire, Adriana Linares, and perhaps other videocasts with others as well.

I've become intrigued lately by the development of Internet media tools and ways they can be used as information channels for materials that are better seen or heard than read.

I've done some earlier podcasts with Randy Holloway and Zane Safrit. I also have done a series of short webinars on electronic discovery as part of Merrill's On-demand Seminars and will have some audio seminars appearing soon on the DigiLearn Online site.

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

This post brought to you by LexThink!(TM) - The Conference, Re-imagined. LexThink! - Think big thoughts, do cool things, change the world. Ask us about private LexThink retreats and conferences for your firm, business or organization. Coming soon - LexThink Lounge - April 19, 2006.

Posted by dmk at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2006

Can You Tell Us More About the "Surviving the Email Avalanche" Webinar You're Speaking at on February 14?

Surviving the Email Avalanche is a "must-hear" teleconference and webinar presented by the Section of Litigation of the American Bar Association on February 14, 2006. The details are available at http://www.abanet.org/litigation/cle/02_14_06.html.

Todd Flaming, Ted Banks, Nancy Flynn and I will be your faculty presenters. To be honest, with this group even the preliminary brainstorming conference we had was highly educational - I learned quite a few new things.

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen wrote in 1999 that, when surveyed, everyone said that they were overwhelmed by the amount of email they received - whether it was 10 or 100 emails a day. Nielesen said, "No matter how much email you get, it is too much and too stressful - and you are behind in dealing with it." Isn't it quaint to think back to 1999 when 100 emails seemed like a lot?

In the session, we are going to take a highly practical approach and offer you ideas for dealing with your overflowing inbox at the personal, organizational and policy levels. You will get some great ideas and nothing will help you more with your personal productivity than getting your email under control.

So, get on over the registration site and see if you can attend. We'd definitely enjoy having you be part of the audience.

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

Posted by dmk at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2006

Did You Write a New White Paper about Lawyers and Time-keeping?

Sharp eyes. Thanks for noticing. Yes, if you go to the AIRTIME-Manager website, you can get a free download of a white paper I wrote on the idea of "time capture" and ways time-keeping and time sheets can be handled in ways that work the ways lawyers work.

Interestingly, this was the first white paper I've done. I've recently had several companies approach me about whether I'd write white papers for them. I've really enjoyed my experience doing this and I definitely welcome inquiries about doing more of this type of writing.

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

Technorati tag: legal technology

Posted by dmk at 08:03 PM | Comments (0)

How is the Relationship between Lawyers and IT Departments Changing Because of Web 2.0 and Other Developments?

I've really been enjoying the SLAW blog lately and recommend that you check it out.

Here's a great example why. Patrick Cormier writes a post called "The Uneasy Lawyer and IT Dialogue" that gives us much to think about in the dynamic of the lawyer-IT relationship and how Web 2.0 (or Law 2.0) concepts affect that relationship. Highly recommended.

The money quote:

Web 2.0 matters for the legal profession, because it promotes an information environment in which lawyers can simplify access to material of precedential value. The difficulty consists in selecting and optimizing the right mix of these technologies; finding how to leverage them and especially how to carefully deploy them within an integrated information management (IM) framework.

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

Technorati tags: law2.0 web 2.0

Posted by dmk at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2006

Can You Recommend a Good Introduction to Web 2.0 Tools for Lawyers?

Jim Calloway has a great new article called The "Next Generation" of the Internet? - Web 2.0, that gently introduces lawyers to the ideas and potential of Web 2.0 tools and concepts. Highly recommended.

Jim also recommends two introductory articles that I had a hand in - Does Web 2.0 Point Us Toward Law 2.0? and The Strongest Links: Web 2.0.

I learned that Jim is finally going to fulfill his longtime wish to attend LegalTech New York. I'm definitely looking forward to spending some time with Jim there.

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

Technorati tags: law2.0 legal technology

Posted by dmk at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2006

What Are Some Good Ideas for Updating a Law Firm Website?

I just read some great ideas on updating law firm websites from Fred Faulkner, one of my favorite people to work with (especially after the two years or so we worked together on Law Practice Today). Fred knows his stuff - he's now the webmaster for the American Bar Association.

I recently got the chance to co-present with Fred (and Kevin O'Keefe - anyone else think that Kevin looks like Jack Bauer on 24 in his picture on his blog?) at BlawgThink, which was a lot of fun for me - and I learned a lot.

Fred has started a new column called "Faulkner's Practical Web Strategies for Attorneys" on LLRX.com.

This month's column is called "New Year's Resolution: Update Your Website." It takes you through some great ideas for updating your website in the easy, moderate and difficult categories. Read the article and pass along a copy to your web designer. Great job, Fred.

I'm the process of putting together a couple of simple flat-fee website and blog consulting packages that will focus on improving content and the overall success of law firm websites and blogs. Let me know if you might be interested in learning more about the packages.

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

Posted by dmk at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2006

How Can I Learn More About Using Adobe Acrobat in the Legal Profession?

Rick Borstein at Adobe, who writes the very informative and useful Acrobat for Legal Professionals blog, let me know about the Adobe Acrobat Legal Forum - St. Louis hosted by ILTA and Adobe Systems on January 25.

The agenda includes:

Leverage Acrobat and PDF for eFiling, Archiving, eBriefs, Accessibility and Security. Create PDF Files from Office Applications such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Internet Explorer. Assemble an eBrief in Acrobat including Citings and Hyperlinks. Convert Microsoft Outlook eMail Folders to PDF. Roundtrip Comments from Acrobat to MS Word. Discover New Acrobat and Adobe PDF Trends in Legal Services.

To get more information and register online, go to http://www.regonline.com/87961. Registered!

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

Posted by dmk at 09:28 PM | Comments (1)

January 18, 2006

Will I See You at Legal Tech NY?

Well, I certainly hope so.

Thanks to my friends at Caselogistix, who bringing me out to speak about trends and predictions in electronic discovery, I'll be attending the big Legal Tech NY legal technology conference/show in just over a week from now.

I'm so enthused about getting the chance to attend the show and see what's new in legal technology and meet tons of people I don't get to see often enough.

I'll be speaking on Tuesday, January 31 in the afternoon and would enjoy getting a nice audience for the session.

Otherwise, I'll be around the exhibit floor, probably walking around with Tom Mighell. You might hear Tom and I mention the new podcast series we are planning.

You are also likely to hear some more details about a new LexThink event that Matt has been hinting about.

Tom, Marty "The Trademark Blog" Schwimmer and I (all of us are at the Between Lawyers blog) are also looking to pull together a lightly-coordinated blogger meet-up while we are there. If you are interested in joining us, let us know (it's probably best, and safest, to let Tom know - he's the best organizer of this group - by far).

If you are a reader of my blog, then I'd love to meet you. We can try to set something up in advance, if you'd like, but I hate to get too much on the calendar. If you see me, even if I seem to be busy, please tap me on the shoulder and say hello.

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

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy's half-day electronic discovery seminar - "Preparing for the New World of Electronic Discovery: Easing Your Transition from Paper to Electronic Discovery." Contact Dennis today for more information and to schedule a seminar for your firm or legal department.

Technorati tags: legal technology electronic discovery

Posted by dmk at 07:55 PM | Comments (1)

January 11, 2006

What's New in the World of Wikis and Law?

I just read a fascinating post about Wiki-Law.org, a open approach to create a collection of legal resources, on the Virtual Handshake blog. In the post, David Teten interviews Dan Savitt, who is Pangea3's Vice President of Litigation & Research, about Wiki-Law.org.

The interview is wide-ranging and it turns into a great discussion of a variety of new tools, services, projects and companies that are taking some innovative approaches to the delivery of legal services, and gives a real-world, realistic assessment of the pros and cons of a "wiki law" approach.

The interview is a great addition to the discussion of what is beginning to be called Law 2.0. Highly recommended.

The money quote:

Where I do see a tremendous opportunity is for attorneys to take advantage of the resource. I know that there are already dozens of web-based communities where practitioners of similar ilk compare notes and exchange ideas. In other words, the value I see in the site is as a legal resource, whose value will rise or fall depending on the reliability of the contributors, their content, and the strength of the site's editorial guidelines. It may even work itself into legal opinions once it gains acceptance. I could see wiki-law as the ultimate living legal constitution that aggregates legal discussion, commentary and knowledge.

Technorati tag: law2.0

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

Posted by dmk at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2006

What New Gadget Would You Most Like to Get?

Generally, I usually see what Jeff Beard recommends as cool when it comes to gadgets.

Most gadgets these days seem to be phones and, as my friends know, phones and I don't mix well.

However, I found a really cool gadget that I want (and I do have both my birthday and my blog birthday coming up soon if you are looking for gift ideas) on one of my favorite blogs - Cool Tools.

It's the Chef'n Switchit Dual-Ended Long Spatula - read Wendy Ju's post on Cool Tools and you'll see why it's made the top of my list - it's a cool tool.

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

Like what you are reading? Check out the other blogs where I post - Between Lawyers (feed) and the LexThink Blog (feed).

Posted by dmk at 09:08 PM | Comments (1)

January 09, 2006

Why Might it Be a Good Idea to Use Tags on a Blog?

I've recently been experimenting with Technorati tags on some of my blog posts and Del.icio.us tags for some of my bookmarks.

Marshall Kirpatrick has an excellent explanation (or, more accurately, 13 reasons) why you might want to use tags.

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

Posted by dmk at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2006

What's the Best Recent Development in Law Blogging?

I'm so pleased to see that legal Internet pioneer and guru Jerry Lawson has returned to active blogging at Netlawblog. I've learned countless things from Jerry over the years, he is certainly one of my favorite writing partners, and we all benefit from his wise insights. It's good to have you back on a regular basis, Jerry.

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

Posted by dmk at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2006

What Will You Learn About Improving Your Law Practice in 2006 in January's Issue of Law Practice Today?

The new issue of the ABA's webzine Law Practice Today is now online (Disclosure: I am an editor and member of the webzine's board, so I may be proudly enthusiastic about this issue.)

This issue's theme looks toward the near future and what lawyers can do to enhance their practices in 2006. You'll find stories about coaching, goals, networking and many other useful topics.

I have a part in two articles. The first is called "Does Web 2.0 Point Us Toward Law 2.0?," which is an informal roundtable discussion on Web 2.0 concepts that was accomplished in a short time by using a Web 2.0 collaboration tool called Writely. As John Tredennick says, "In the Web 2.0 world, the Internet becomes a platform for connecting people in social networks. And, about empowering them with software to work together in ways never contemplated by traditional organizational manuals."

In a second article, Tom Mighell and I also used Writely to write our monthly column, The Strongest Links: Web 2.0. The column turned out to be a comprehensive set of links to resources, articles and tools to help you explore and experiment with Web 2.0 tools and concepts.

Highly recommended.

Technorati tags: law2.0 legal technology

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

Posted by dmk at 06:44 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2006

Should You Make Your Name and Contact Information Easily Findable on Your Blog?

Believe it or not, I get teased a lot about the name of my blog.

However, I've regularly found myself in situations where people will be talking to me and I'll introduce them to another blogger. I'll notice that they ignore the other blogger until I say that, for example, Matt writes the Nonbillable Hour blog and then they fall all over themselves saying what huge fans they are of Matt's blog, but they didn't associate the name with the blog.

However, the name of your blog is not the issue I want to talk about. The bigger issue is how many bloggers, including those who seem to have blogs designed to market their businesses, make it so difficult or even impossible to find the name of the blogger or any way to contact the blogger.

James Robertson at the Column Two blog has a great post called Your Blog, Your Name that spells out some of the best reasons for making this information readily available.

I can't even count the number of times last year I wanted to send a blogger an email about how much I liked what he or she wrote, only to find no way to get in touch.

I also like to give the name of the person who writes a post when I link to a post. There have been many times when it took me more time to find a blogger's name than it did to write my post that linked to them. In several cases, I ended up not writing a post because I could not find out who wrote it.

My running joke is that legal blogs cannot be marketing tools because so many legal blogs make it so hard to contact the bloggers. The hardest job we had in organizing BlawgThink was finding the names and email addresses of legal bloggers. You'd be surprised at how difficult that is.

I'm not sure why bloggers hide this information. I'd rather risk a few extra spam messages than discourage someone who likes what I've written from telling me about that or starting a conversation with me. What if an editor wants to reprint your post as an article or a journalist wants to interview you for a story?

In my case, I'll deal with the occasional ribbing or charge of egomania because I have a definite purpose to making my name clear on my posts and my contact info available. By the way, once you consistently find your posts appearing without your permission on splogs, you'll be much more understanding of the reason my blog name and URL appears on each of my posts these days.

Think about it this way - if people like what you write on your blog, do they want to meet and talk to your blog . . . or to you?

By the way, I easily passed James Roberton's 60-second test that you will want to take - but you probably already guessed that.

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

Like what you are reading? Check out the other blogs where I post - Between Lawyers (feed) and the LexThink Blog (feed).

Posted by dmk at 06:22 PM | Comments (4)

What is Contract Life Cycle Management and How Does it Fit into Legal Technology and Law 2.0 in 2006?

Michael Kraft and Robert Enholm, in their excellent "GC Tech Wish List for 2006," talk about contract life cycle management (CLCM) in terms of "applying technology to the contract process from letter of intent through negotiation and execution to performance, amendment and contract renewal." They also say, "The emergence of enterprise resource planning software over the past decade has helped businesses with "workflow" processes, and GCs are exploring how to apply these principles to the activities of corporate law departments." And CLCM is one good example.

In short, CLCM is about finding ways to look at the contracting process as a business workflow process that can be tuned in ways that benefit businesses rather than as a series of independent, unrelated legal projects.

It's a difference that, as they say, makes all the difference.

I've been thinking, off and on, about CLCM over the past few years, including most recently in some discussions I had involving a large company that wanted to get some control over a very ad hoc approach they had to generating first drafts of standard documents. The business case for CLCM is pretty easy to make.

When I think about contracts