Dennis Kennedy

I've spent a little time recently on the Altman Weil site, largely in response to their excellent AW Direct email newsletter, which I definitely recommend.

I'm fascinated with these summary comments on the 2002 survey of corporate legal officers:

"55% of Chief Legal Officers surveyed indicated they have fired or were considering firing outside counsel in 2002, compared with 62% in 2001 and 63% in 2000. Each year ‘lack of responsiveness’ has been the number one reason for dissatisfaction. When asked about the most innovative practice proposed or instituted by outside counsel in the last year, the greatest number of respondents said that there were ‘none.’"

I suggest that the last sentence of those comments is the greatest argument for client-driven technology initiatives ever put in print, and the seond greatest might be that it follows a sentence that talks about "lack of responsiveness." I'll definitely be using this quote in my presentations on client-driven technologies at the ABA TechShow.

A wake up call? Definitely. But which firms will hear it?