Dennis Kennedy

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October 31, 2003

"Napster for Good Causes"

Another fascinating article today - the topic: "social software" or tech projects that help people.

From the BBC News article:

"Good ideas that use technology to improve life offline are being sought by a new non-profit organisation.

MySociety is looking to turn the ideas into working projects that help people get involved with their community or make a contribution to civil society."

"The basic criteria for ideas are that:

They must be internet based

They must have a real world impact

They must serve many people for the same cost as they serve a few"

Here's another cool example of using the Internet to help people, via the Junkyard Blog: Operation Hero Miles offers a way to donate unused frequent flyer miles to allow soldiers to use use them for flights home. If you're not using them any way, it seems like a pretty good use for them.

Posted by dmk at 09:49 AM

The End of Credit Hours in Academia?

Fascinating article today about the push to end the credit hour system in academia.

From the article:

"Having time- and space-bound measures that equate learning with a certain place and a certain time is clearly outmoded. And yet it is the DNA embedded in both the academic and funding system," said Jane Wellman, coeditor with Thomas Ehrlich of "How the Student Credit Hour Shapes Higher Education," a recently released collection of essays on the credit hour.

The many different types of educational opportunities available today, including online education, are making the time-based approach less and less relevant.

Posted by dmk at 09:19 AM

October 28, 2003

Why Tables for Layout is Stupid

I've been wanting to find a little time to experiment with CSS on my web pages. So, I've been collecting resources on the topic.

Today, I found a great set of presentation slides on the subject called "Tables for Layout is Stupid" that is an excellent introduction to the topic and points you toward the standard references. Highly recommended.

Posted by dmk at 10:24 AM

Calculating ROI on IT Security

I spoke at an excellent CIO Security Forum put on the the St. Louis Chapter of the Association of IT Professionals on Saturday and learned tons of great stuff from the other panelists and audience.

One of the big issues raised was how to calculate return on investment for security efforts in order to sell security projects to management.

CFO magazine has a comprehensive discussion of this issue in an article called "Gremlin in the Works," which is as good a starting point on this issue as I've seen.

Here's the abstract:

"It's almost impossible to figure ROI for information security investments. But as supply chains become more complex and business partners become more connected, IT security is increasingly the concern of the CFO."

Posted by dmk at 10:19 AM

October 24, 2003

How Safe is Law Firm Data?

An article in today's ABA Journal eReport addresses the shocking lack of attention a surprising number of law firms pay to security. As I've mentioned previously, the tech survey cited in the article is self-reporting and not scientific, but these numbers are astonishing because they reflect what law firms are willing to confess.

Are clients asking the right questions?

Posted by dmk at 12:02 PM

October 23, 2003

IT Portfolio Management - Move it to the Top of Your List

One of my favorite legal technology topics is portfolio management - how a firm can create and manage an IT strategy by using the notion of "portfolio management," a Nobel prize winning concept as applied to investments.

I have seen in the last few days several solid articles on IT portfolio management, each of which I would recommend to anyone involved in setting IT strategy and to anyone trying to make sense out of what their IT departments are now doing.

"Portfolio Management: Dos and Donts" in CIO Magazine gives six best practices for getting started on IT portfolio management.

"Which Projects are Worth Your Time? from Baseline magazine draws on some real world examples and tries to share some lessons learned from experience.

Finally, "Project management is not the center of the IT universe" critiques a narrow, project-centered approach to IT and advocates practices more attuned to business goals.

The combination of these three articles will give you a good introduction to the idea of IT portfolio management. It's a fascinating topic that I've thought about over the years (I wrote my first article on the subject in 1998) and I've had the chance to speak about it from time to time.

Posted by dmk at 04:01 PM

ABA TechShow 2004 Update

As many of you know, I'm on the board for the American Bar Association's TechShow 2004, one of the premier annual technology conferences for the legal industry. One of my goals as a board member is to help remove the qualifier "one of" from that description.

One piece to that puzzle is putting together a great slate of speakers and programs. We are well on the way to doing that and the final grid should be made public in another week or two.

Our speakers and attendees include some of the most tech-savvy lawyers in the world, many decision-makers and decision-influencers, and a large number of the leading writers, speakers and opinion leaders on legal technology.

If that appeals to you, you should consider attending. The registration info is at http://www.abanet.org/techshow/register.html. Check out the available discounts.

A second piece to the puzzle is to be sure that we have the exhibitors and sponsors necessary to give attendees access to both (1) the vendors they expect and want to see and (2) the vendors who are doing cool things that should be seen by our audience.

If your company wants to reach that kind of audience, you should consider being an exhibitor or sponsor. Detailed exhibitor/sponsor information is available at http://www.abanet.org/techshow/sponsorsexhibitors.html.

If I can answer questions, help with follow-up or help with suggestions for sponsorship or exhibitor ideas, please contact me.

Posted by dmk at 03:31 PM

The New Killer App for Lawyers?

Take one Tablet PC. Add a copy of Microsoft's new OneNote. Put it in the hands of lawyers.

Maybe you get a revolution.

Fantastic potential.

A wise Tablet PC vendor or developer would get this combination into my hands and help me evangelize the heck out of it.

I could not be more serious.

Posted by dmk at 03:15 PM

A Few Reactions to Office 2003 Launch Event

I attended the Microsoft Office System Launch Event in St. Louis with my eyes open for the potential value to lawyers. I had read a number of articles suggesting that Office 2003 was an "unnecessary" upgrade and I wanted to see for myself.

I drew the opposite conclusion. There are aspects of Office 2003 that should be considered carefully by lawyers and law firms who either (1) wish to take advantage of some cool innovations or (2) want to improve productivity and business results. Those firms not interested in either category can go back to sleep now.

I'll probably write an article with more detail at a later point, but I will note that the combination of Small Business Server and Office 2003 could be a dynamite package for a new small firm, and here are five observations I'll share:

1. Microsoft has developed a standard edition of Small Business Server that provides most of the server software a small business needs (print and file sharing, remote access, et al) and some nice bonuses for $600 for 5 users (used to be $1,500). In addition, some hardware companies (I can't remember which) are bundling a simple server plus SBS for not much more than $1,000. Additional users are added by 5-pack licenses. SBS can also be supported remotely, alleviating the need for a full-time IS person or on-site consultant.

2. Office 2003 (Small Business and Pro) has two programs built in that will have great utility for small law firms - a business contact manger in Outlook 2003 and Small Business Manager, an accounting and financial package. Both packages probably give you a solid 90% of the best stuff of what you'd expect from standalone programs (Act!, QuickBooks) and might (emphasize might) be alternatives to dedicated case management and legal accounting software in certain circumstances. Small Business Manager will allow you to create useful business analysis reports very easily.

3. Office 2003 (Small Business and Pro) once again contains Publisher, which can be used to create a variety of marketing materials and standard print items.

4. I continue to believe that the newest versions of Office have more features that are geared to the working lawyer. As other articles have indicated, Outlook 2003 is clearly the star of the new version. The integration between the office programs is pretty amazing.

5. OneNote - Very, very interesting application for lawyers. You'll be hearing more from me about it.

Final Thought: I came out of the day-long session energized and seeing a lot of possibilities in the new versions. I think that's a good sign. I'll be curious to see what other legal tech experts think.

Posted by dmk at 03:07 PM

October 22, 2003

Presenting to Win - A Must Read

I've just finished the highly-praised Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, by presentation guru Jerry Weissman. Add me to the list of fans.

As a frequenter presenter, I am constantly looking for ways to improve my presentations. If you forced me right now to pick just one book to have, this book would be it.

I recently (but before I read this book) completely revamped a presentation I had done because, although it was good, it did not seem to be effective enough. I thought that the revamped presentation, when I gave it, was 100% better than the first version. Reading Weissman's book, I realized that I had improved the presentation by paying attention to and actually choosing one of the approaches he lists under the category of "Flow."

If you want to be a great presenter, study Weissman's book - he's been advising speakers for years and there are a lot of tips and techniques that I fully agree with based on my own experiences. Even if you only get what he is saying about "Point B" and include one, you'll stand out from the crowd of run of the mill speakers.

Finally, and this may be most important, Weissman's book is also the best resource on using PowerPoint that I've found. If you read what he has to say about the distinct roles of presenters and presentations, you'll have a solid understand about how to use PowerPoint.

There have been many articles about the "evils" of PowerPoint and the terrible effects that it has had on society. I don't agree with any of that. PowerPoint is a tool. What's the point of blaming a tool? I don't get it. The problems I see with the use of PowerPoint in presentations arise out of the way the tool is used, not because of the tool itself. As Weissman says, "The presenter is the focus of the presentation." Keep that in mind and you will do well with PowerPoint.

Posted by dmk at 12:00 PM

October 20, 2003

Experts Look at the Future of Legal Technology

A great twofer from Bob Ambrogi. His blog gives links to two great articles on legal technology and law firm web sites, all part of the 10th anniversary of Law Technology News (free registration required, and highly recommended).

Bob rounded up some of the most interesting thought leaders in legal technology (hey, he included me) and their comments will give you plenty to ponder.

His list of the top 10 legal web sites over the last ten years also shows Bob's impeccable judgment on quality web sites - he's been reviewing them for nearly ten years.

Great job, Bob.

Posted by dmk at 10:15 PM

Boxes and Arrows - Analyzing Common Web Elements

Heidi Adkisson has written a fascinating article called "Examining the Role of De Facto Standards on the Web," which covers some research she has done on the plusses and minuses of following standard web page conventions.

As she says, "Will the web become more standardized? What are the usability risks of not following a de facto standard on the web?"

She also has put together a companion web site that delves further into her research and will cover this topic on an ongoing basis. I've also felt this subject is one of the more important web design / usability topics and one well worth taking some time to try to understand. Cool stuff.

Posted by dmk at 10:06 PM

October 14, 2003

LawTechGuru on Innovation

Jeff Beard discusses a fascinating article on the "innovator's challenge" and the role of CIOs on his excellent LawTechGuru Blog. As ever, Jeff makes some great points, especially when referring to the phrase "cultivation" in the context of aligning IT departments and business goals.

Posted by dmk at 08:35 PM

A Great Blawg Goes Silent

It's so sad to see that David Giacalone has decided to shut down the excellent ethicalEsq? blog due to health-related reasons. I've admired the growth and evolution of his blog and pointed to it on a number of occasions.

David was a needed voice who focused on critical issues for the profession and the delivery of legal services. I expected that he would grow into a sort of conscience for legal bloggers and through them the legal profession. His approach has affected the way that I look at some of today's issues and reminded me and others that we need to pay attention in a thoughtful way to these issues on a regular basis rather than simply scrambling to grab our required hours of ethics continuing legal education credit at the last minute.

David forced us to think about the ethical issues, which are complex and difficult, and, I believe, will also be considered to have played an important role in the early history of legal blogs.

I understand his decision, but hope that his voice will return again in some form. For me, it gives me a new impetus to cover these issues on a more regular basis and I'll probably do that from time to time on the eLawyer Blog.

David, my best wishes to you in all you do and a big thank you for a job well done.

Posted by dmk at 08:27 PM

Excuse me - is that a Ferrari on your laptop?

Here's an interesting trend that I expect to continue. Gizmodo points to an article in the Register announcing a new laptop from Acer with a Ferrari brand. The laptop sports a bright red cover and a Ferrari logo. Just a guess - walking into a business meeting with this one willl get you noticed.

Note to Acer - while I seldom write reviews of hardware, I will make an exception for this one if you get one to me.

Posted by dmk at 08:14 PM

October 10, 2003

Missouri Bar Alternative Billing Methods Committee Final Report

Kudos to the Missouri Bar for its 2003 Alternative Billing Methods Committee Final Report, which sums up the results of a survey of Missouri lawyers on a variety of issues related to hourly billing and other options. This report was undertaking in response to recent ABA efforts to determine the "corrosive" impact of hourly billing on the profession.

The report provides a lot of good data for people interested in these issues and I recommend the report highly. Great work by the committee.

By the way, it's no secret that I believe that billable hours practices, especially minimum billable requirements, are slowly, but surely, destroying the legal profession.

Posted by dmk at 02:02 PM

October 09, 2003

An Angry Edge Sounds Like Good News to Me

I saw this headline: New U2 album driven by Edge's anger at Bono.

My critique of the last few U2 albums - where is Edge and why is the guitar mixed down so far?

I've been known to say that one album I'd buy in a heartbeat, if it existed, would be "Edge: The Practice Sessions." But the idea of a new guitar-driven U2 album seems like good news to me.

Posted by dmk at 10:50 PM

October 08, 2003

TechShow 2004 - Speaker Suggestions

This is a blogging experiment.

As you may know, I'm on the Board for the ABA's TechShow 2004, one of the premiere annual legal tech conferences.

As you may or may not know, I'm pretty aware of my many limitations. One of them is that I know that I'm not smart enough or well-traveled enough to know all the really good speakers on legal technology topics.

So, on a totally unofficial basis, I wanted to ask the readers of this blog for a little help.

Who have you seen or heard who either (a) is a great speaker on legal tech topics, (b) is a pretty good speaker but has compelling content, or (c) is good and would be a draw for you or others to attend TechShow? By the way, I'd be happy to learn that the answer is you. Lawyers or nonlawyers are OK.

There is expense reimbursement for speakers, but not honorarium. As a general matter, vendor representatives are not selected as speakers.

Let me know your ideas by emailing me.

I'm just looking for ideas and for ways to open up the field, so, to me, there are no wrong answers. Think of this as a way to help me brainstorm.

The standard disclaimer: the full board will make final decisions as they deem appropriate.

Posted by dmk at 08:15 PM

Technology's Impact on Everything

CIO Magazine has a great special issue called "Technology's Impact on Everything."

They have assembled a cast of stars to discuss a wide range of current and future tech issues. The bite-sized articles are uniformly excellent and will give you much to chew on.

Posted by dmk at 07:57 PM

First Thing . . . Let's Quell All the Lawyers

David Giacalone continues his great work over at the ethicalEsq? blog with a piece called "First Thing . . . Let's Quell All the Liars."

Among other things, the piece discusses the various interpretations and misinterpretations of the famous Shakespeare quote. Can you believe that lawyers have twisted the meaning of the quote to the point where they argue that the quote actually represents the highest degree of praise of lawyers??!!

David points out a growing perception that increasingly affects lawyers in a subtle but negative way. This perception is one that lawyers must learn to understand and appreciate.

He says, "Like it or not, to the average person, lawyers seem to be in the business of lying, their degree being a license to lie (and steal)."

This point of view is really the default perception that people have of all lawyers. It's a little unnerving to me, after 20 years of practice, to run into this attitude on a regular basis. Fortunately, it's usually manifested by people telling me that "you're not like most lawyers - you're honest." I interpret that as a compliment, but, sheeesh, what kind of a state of affairs have we gotten into here?

There are a number of implications of this presumption, but it helps you understand why so many clients will say that the reason that they fired a lawyer was because the lawyer did not return phone calls.

Here's the way I see it. Client starts with the assumption that lawyers lie. You tell them that you are available to them, will return calls or promise work by a certain date. If you don't return a call, are late for a scheduled appointment, or are late on a promised deadline, you have not committed a small impoliteness, you have confirmed the "liar" stereotype.

Paying attention to every detail that reinforces the "liar" stereotype has become a necessity these days, especially in the first period of representing a client.

A similar phenomenon also takes place when dealing with other attorneys.

The bottom line: excellent, responsive client service is not just an optional behavior these days.

Posted by dmk at 07:52 PM

October 07, 2003

October Issue of Law Practice Today

OK, I'm a little biased, but the October issue of Law Practice Today is great. It features a marketing theme and has some excellent practical articles from Larry Bodine, Ellen Ostrow, Felice Wagner and others, including my list of favorite marketing books and my column on ten great legal marketing resources.

Visit, enjoy, subscribe. LPT also has an RSS feed.

Posted by dmk at 07:38 PM

October 06, 2003

Law Firms Open Up

From Computerworld comes "Law Firms Open Up," a short piece focusing on the use (and non-use) of extranets by law firms.

I addressed the benefits of extranets in my article "Extranet Basics: Taking A Step Toward a Client-Focused Practice," which made the points covered in the Computerworld article, plus a few more, over three-and-a-half years ago. It's interesting to compare the two articles. The time from idea to implementation in legal technology can be shocking.

The Computerworld article also raises an important idea that I can guarantee has not received enough attention - what are the ownership issues involved in creating and maintaining extranets for clients?

Posted by dmk at 04:23 PM

October 01, 2003

1000 Years for Revenge

I just finished Peter Lance's 1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI--the Untold Story and recommend it highly.

I've gradually been trying to get a number of different perspectives on the terrorism issue. This book told the story to me in a lucid, understandable and compelling way. I finally began to understand the cast of characters and the timeline.

One of the blurbs for the book suggests that it reads like a thriller. It does, but, unlike the thrillers of Ludlum and others, the heroes don't avert catastrophe at the last minute. The bad events do occur.

I think we all need to face up to the question of whether we are less vulnerable now than we were on 9/11 and what should be done. Readers of this book, and others, will have some definite concerns about what the answer to that question is today. Is there still a plan that is not yet finished?

Posted by dmk at 03:41 PM

New Issue of My Newsletter - Wise Warranty Choices

The October issue of Dennis Kennedy's Practical Technology Contract Review News is out.

This month's feature is called "Wise Representation and Warranty Choices" and deals with a number of standard warranty provisions for IT and IP licenses and agreements, with some tips on how to improve the language you are likely to see. There are also other tips, links and resources.

Posted by dmk at 03:27 PM