Dennis Kennedy

	Web DennisKennedy.com

« July 2006 | Main | September 2006 »

August 30, 2006

Document Assembly as Disruptive Legal Technology

Darryl Mountain pointed me to an online pdf version of his new article, "Disrupting conventional law firm models using document assembly," in the International Journal of Law and Information Technology.

From the abstract:

Document assembly software is a technology that is fundamental to disrupting law firms. This article uses the framework set out by Clayton Christensen in The Innovator’s Dilemma and subsequent books to examine the range of business models that use document assembly software, from those that are sustaining in relation to law firms to those that are disruptive in relation to law firms. It looks at three barriers that slow down the pace of disruption: a shortage of the right people, rules against unauthorised practice, and inadequate capitalisation of law firms. These barriers will be overcome on a piecemeal basis as disruptive forces advance and undercut the billable hour.

Darryl is one of the truly innovative thinkers in the legal profession and I highly recommend this article. The article is based on a presentation Darryl gave last year (I wrote about it here) and the lively discussion that followed.

The article reminded me about that conversation and some follow-up thoughts I had on the insurance aspect of what Darryl is discussing, something I may write about in the near future.

Another great article from Darryl that I hope reaches a big audience. It will give you much to think about.

[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 Law2.0 disruptive technologiesdocument assembly 4G legal technology

Posted by dmk at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2006

Philips READUS e-reader

Reading 2.0? I rarely write reviews anymore, but here's something that tempts me to offer to write one for the chance to get my hands on a product early. Philips can add me to the potential reviewer list for the READUS E-Reader. This looks like it will be cool, and something that I'd find useful (as would my audience). I've been intrigued by the idea of a portable electronic book reader for a long time.

Here's the intro from the post on the jkOntheRun blog that got my attention:

We’ve been hearing about ebook readers that will appear with e-ink screens that roll up into a very tiny form and then extend out to provide a nice decently sized screen for reading.

Check out the video of it here.

Combine this type of product with a wireless capability and the news river approach, and you have something that would be truly useful and not just a gadget for gadget's sake.

[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 readus ebook! reader

Posted by dmk at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2006

Remembering Katrina by Email

I checked my old email and saw that a year ago today, we got an email on our Between Lawyers back-channel email lst from Ernie Svensen that said:

"I'm on the road now. This storm will cause CATASTROPHIC damage!"

It was chilling then - still is.

Then I see a flurry of frantic messages between us for a few days as we lost touch with Ernie and didn't know what happened to him.

We finally heard from him, with his usual wry wit, a few days later in an email that said:

"Hey thanks! I'll be okay. Trying to set up moblogging. Gotta have the proper tech thing going. Right?"

But the message that struck me the most came from Ernie later that day:

"Thanks. I am safe and so are my friends and family. Now I sit back and watch how my city adjusts to radical change."

Except that we knew Ernie could not just sit back and watch.

Much of what I know about the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans comes from Ernie's reporting, as is true for many other bloggers.

It is true that we are learning what radical change for a city means, and, unfortunately, in some ways what radical "stays the same" means. There are lessons to learn and lessons we should not forget.

Take a moment and remember.

"[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).

Technorati tags: hurricane katrina

Posted by dmk at 09:23 PM | Comments (1)

Hey, It's Ross Kodner's Blog

It's official. Legal technology wizard Ross Kodner has debuted his new blog, Ross Ipsa Loquitur. I know that it will be a source of great info - already has some great posts. I've learned a lot from Ross over the years and had a lot of fun presenting with him on legal tech topics. Welcome to the blogosphere, Ross. I think that you're really going to like it here.

[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.

Technorati tags: legal technology blog

Posted by dmk at 09:14 PM

Web 2.0 and the Web Office

Lots of discussion today on announcements from Google and web-based alternatives to Microsoft Office, all of which bring us into the zone of Web 2.0.

I've written quite a bit about Web 2.0, but it remains a difficult concept to explain.

Two excellent blog posts I read today will help you develop a core understanding. Well, they certainly reflect my point of view and I found them especially insightful.

The first is from a blog I've spent a lot of time on in the last few days - Rod Boothy's Innovation Creators blog. It's called "Web Versions of MS Office is a Tiny Niche." For further study, check out his post on Excel Services.

The money quote #1:

Web Office or Enterprise 2.0 applications should not about "solving problems" - as in providing end solutions. Instead, at their best, Web Office should provide productivity tools that knowledge workers can use to build their own ad-hoc solutions.

The money quote #2:

This is the real vision of Enterprise 2.0 / Web Office / Office 2.0. It is the radical shift from IT developing full solutions to a new era, where IT provides productivity tools and knowledge workers use those tools to build end solutions.

The second post is from Ed Yourdon. It's called "Recurring themes from my Web 2.0 visits" and it's a great, succinct summary of the current Web 2.0 landscape. It's must-reading if you are interested at all in Web 2.0.

The money quote (excerpting the five common themes):

1. Email is broken;

2. Young adults use the Internet in a different way than do 30-something and 40-something professional workers;

3. People don’t like to “break context” to grab additional information to perform a work task;

4. Most vendors believe that mobile devices will play a large role in the evolution of their products and services, but they’re not sure what form it will take;

5. Web 2.0 may be over-hyped, and some of its vendors may not have a rational business model, but it’s nevertheless “real”.

Lots to think about in those posts.

[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 web 2.0

Posted by dmk at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2006

Arch 2.0

Shelley Powers makes a great case for getting O’Reilly to put on a scripting, Ajax, and web development conference here in St. Louis. Randy Holloway has also picked up the theme. How do we reach critical mass?

As Shelley says, "I don’t know about anyone else, but I for one am getting tired of conferences held only along the coasts. Arch 2.0. It works."

[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).

Technorati tag: arch 2.0

Posted by dmk at 10:20 PM | Comments (1)

What Technologies Are Law Firms Buying?

Another great post from Tom Collins covers the results of the recent ILTA 2006 Technology Purchasing Survey. It gives an interesting perspective from the CIOs and IT Directors of large firms.

Tom does a great job of summarizing the results, which, among other things, support my belief that Microsoft SharePoint may be the hottest technology in the legal space these days.

It was also nice to see that this blog was one of the most-read blogs by this group, even though, as Tom wryly notes, the survey responders don't seem to be big blog readers. It was also nice to see the Between Lawyers blog on the list.

[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).

Technorati tags: legal technology sharepoint

Posted by dmk at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2006

By Request Week: Are there any software tools specifically designed for commercial lawyers?

From Australia, where many cool things are happening in legal technology, comes this question:

Are there any software tools specifically designed for commercial lawyers?

It does seem that most legal software is designed for litigators, with commercial (or transactional) lawyers having fewer choices.

In part, the non-litigation practices are quite diverse and it's not as easy as it is in litigation to design tools that cut across the practice areas.

That said, there are a number of software tools for the transactional lawyer.Often there are specific tools for specific practice areas. When I did estate planning early in my career, for example, we used fiduciary accounting software, tax preparation and planning, actuarial software, and other estate planning software tools, often with several programs to choose from in each category.

However, it's surprisingly difficult to find those practice-specific programs without a lot of searching on the Internet.

Let's turn to some general software categories for commercial lawyers.

1. Document or case management software. Commercial lawyers often have to manage multiple documents for each deal, track workflow and do other administrative tasks. Using a general document or case management tool can make a big impact.

2. Document assembly. Commercial lawyers use a lot of forms and model documents. It's a short step to move to document assembly (e.g., HotDocs, Ghostfill, Ixio, DealBuilder and Exari). To me, document assembly is THE software to consider in a commercial practice.

3. Litera's IDS and ChangePro. I'm fascinated by these two suites of tools from Litera. Among other things, they give you ways to manage documents that are being negotiated and changed, to keep track of those changes and to do real-time collaboration. You can also handle metadata and other issues associated with exchanging documents.

4. Adobe Acrobat Professional 7. Exchanging Word documents is a tricky thing, with some metadata pitfalls. Acrobat 7 gives you ways to exchange, secure and electronic sign documents, and a ton of other useful features.

5. DealProof. Now part of the Thomson family, DealProof offers, among other things, an automated way to proofread your documents and make them consistent.

Those are some starting points. It's a great question and legal software vendors in this category need to be aware of the difficulty commercial lawyers have in finding your products.

I welcome readers who have recommendations of good software tools for commercial lawyers to mention them in the comments to this post.

[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 commercial lawyers transactional lawyers litera

Posted by dmk at 09:15 PM | Comments (2)

August 22, 2006

By Request Week

I haven't answered requests on my blog for a while and thought I might open things up for requests for the rest of the week.

I do the "by request" feature as a bit of an homage to one of the bloggers who had a large influence on my blogging style, Sherry Fowler at Stay of Execution. Sherry has done "by requests' for a long time. For those who don't know, Sherry was one of the earliest lawyer bloggers and helped pave the way for the use of a more personal style among some long-time legal bloggers.

Here's the way my "by request" feature works. Send me your questions, preferably by email to denniskennedyblog @ gmail . com. You can also leave them as comments to this post. I'll see how many I can answer this week.

Let me start by answering a question I've gotten a lot in the last few days - "are you at the ILTA conference?"

Nope, not this year. ILTA is one of the major legal technology conferences in the US each year. Even though I used to be on the board for the ABA TECHSHOW, I now have to say that ILTA is my favorite legal tech event. I'm disappointed I had to miss it this year and I've been following blog posts from those attending the show. I'm sure that everyone there is having a great time.

[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 ILTA by request

Posted by dmk at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)

Email. Security and the Philosophy of Small

On the weekends, I find that I delete as much as 80 - 90% of the email I get (most of it grabbed by spam filtering) before I focus on the ones I read. It's astonishing how much of these involving phishing or have dubious atachments.

John Robb's post, "Getting Small," takes a thought-provoking perspective on email, security and related issues.

He points to another post that suggests that an entire generation of young people have abandoned email. Robb notes: "I hadn't thought of it, but my kids don't use e-mail. They are all on peer to peer chat/voice solutions in conjunction with blogs."

How has your use of email changed in the last few years? Are you using RSS feeds and instant messaging as alternatives to email?

Robb points to ways that he has made himself a smaller target. Given my current experiment with a MacBook Pro, I noted with interest that one method Robb discusses in "getting small" is moving to the Mac platform.

The ideas of making yourself a smaller target and living in a more diverse environment are great foundations in a security environment. I'm intrigued by Robb's philosophy on this.

The money quote:

The more commonly used (the more ubiquitous) the ecosystem, the less secure it is. These systems represent too big a target, and they are burdened by a complexity and connectivity that makes them impossible to defend. Getting small alleviates the problem.

How small should ecosystems get? Down to the minimal level of viability (viability being defined by the minimal level of activity necessary to provide it with robustness, innovation, diversity, etc.).

How many ecosystems? The greater the diversity of the ecosystems riding on the minimal rulesets of the global platform, the more secure all of us are.

Think about it. Read the whole post, and you'll see why Robb is one of my very favorite bloggers.

[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 security

Posted by dmk at 08:19 PM | Comments (1)

August 21, 2006

Your Innovation Style

What is your innovation style? One theory suggests that there are four styles of innovators.

The Innovation Tools blog has a post called "New tool for innovation team design: Innovation Styles Online" that discusses and points to a great website, InnovationStyles, with some tests and other tools, that will help you determine your innovation style and learn more about innovation styles, how to recognize them and the role of stylles in teams.

Near the bottom of the post on Innovation Tools, you'll find a link called "Discover your own innovation style (through October 31, 2006)" that will let you take an online test to determine your innovation style. Try it out.

Those who know me probably won't be too surprised that I fell under the Exploring style.

[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.

Technorati tags: innovation styles innovation LexThink!

Posted by dmk at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2006

Mickey Spillane, RIP; Mike Hammer in the 21st Century

I'm a fan of classic American film noir and the hard-boiled detective novel genre.

I decided to mark the recent passing of one of the masters of the genre, Mickey Spillane, by rereading two excellent collections of Mike Hammer novels: The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume 1 and The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume 2.

Each volume has three novels. Each novel grabs you and compels you to read it from start to finish.

I like the spare and lean writing style, the relentless narrative pace and the twists and turns. It's tough and violent and a great read, although not for those with gentle sensibilities.

I'm intrigued at how the novels seem to bet set so concretely in and capture a specific era and place - New York City in the 1950s - and, yet, it in intriguing way, also capture something essential about our current times, if you suspend judgment and let the stories take you for the ride.

There are still a few more weeks left in summer and it's hard to find a better set of summer reads.

There's even a legal angle: the book "I, the Jury" may change how you think about juries.

Anyway, I found my re-reading of these collections a good and appropriate way to mark the passing of another American icon.

[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).

Technorati tags: Mickey Spillane

Posted by dmk at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2006

Innovation + Action = InnovAction

Here's a must-read PDF download for anyone interested in innovation in the legal profession:

The College of Law Practice Management has just released the Inaugural issue of its e-publication called InnovAction, which celebrates innovation in the legal profession.

I'm pleased to be part of a stellar cast of authors featured in this first issue.

In fact, I highly recommend that you read the wide-ranging Roundtable on innovation topics in which I participated with Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, Simon Chester, Matt Homann and Dan Pinnington. Some of the learning Matt and I have had over the past year or so in our LexThink venture made their way into this article.

You'll also find great articles from Gerry Riskin, Patrick McKenna, David Maister, Silvia Coulter, and Bruce MacEwen, and other great stuff. Kudos to Jordan Furlong for bringing this project to a successful launch.

Download the article here.

While you are downloading great e-publications, be sure to check out Patrick McKenna's highly-regarded new publication called First 100 Days: Transitioning a New Managing Partner.

[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.

Technorati tags: innovation innovaction LexThink!

Posted by dmk at 10:43 PM | Comments (2)

Checking in with Elvis

I never met or talked with Elvis Presley, but I once had a late night conversation with an Elvis impersonator that probably was even better than the real thing.

I was thinking about that and my recent "Shuffle Me This" post (note: when Evan Schaeffer writes about one of my posts, I know I've done a good job) this morning as I was driving. I knew today was the anniversary of the day Elvis Presley died.

I had the iPod on shuffle and it played a live version of Joe Grushecky's "Talking to the King," a song about Elvis. This evening, it popped out a song called "Harbor Lights" from Elvis's Sun Sessions.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

If you're thinking about Elvis today, you might enjoy my late night conversation post.

[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).

Technorati tags: elvis presley

Posted by dmk at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2006

Using PowerPoint Slides to Avoid or Enhance Communication

I really enjoy good PowerPoint presentations. Unfortunately, it's kinda rare to see them, especially in the world of lawyerdom.

On the other hand, the only thing more boring than bad PowerPoint slides is another round of broadly dismissive general pronouncements that PowerPoint is evil. It always seems like blaming the tool for the way it is used. There are times that slides work really well and other times when you want to use a different approach.

The issue is always communication and reaching your audience with a message that works for them. If you are doing that, you'll be surprised at how great people think your PowerPoint slides are.

With that in mind, I recommend that anyone who uses PowerPoint slides to present and anyone who spends time as part of an audience for a speaker who uses PowerPoint slides, read carefully a post on the Presentation Zen blog called "PowerPoint printouts used for communicating battle plans?"

This post, and the underlying post from that prompted the post from the Arms and Influence blog, will give you a great primer on the different ways PowerPoint slides can be used and the nuances you need to consider when you use slides in different ways.

The money quote:

In the end, I don't think PPT is the cause but rather the symptom of a very large and very complex communication problem here.

By way of comparison, I recently found a set of PowerPoint slides from Chet Richards a great way to learn about first through fourth generation warfare and elements of military strategy. I'm not sure that I would have found a long single-spaced paper on the topic nearly as accessible and useful to me.

[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 powerpoint

Posted by dmk at 09:17 PM | Comments (1)

August 14, 2006

Old Computer Security Lessons from New Electronic Discovery Stories

Bob Ambrogi does a nice job of summarizing the recent story about issues arising out of Microsoft Outlook, security patches, LexisNexis's Applied Discovery tools, and the ability to see or not see certain data in certain instances. It's an important story from a number of angles.

First of all, the response letter of Scott Nagel of Applied Discovery is required reading to provide a context for the story and deserves to be as publicized as the original article. There is a big difference between email that is erased and email that is unseen, but still exists and is easily recoverable. The devil is always in the details.

It's important to get the full story and all the facts out. Too often, I hear stories about flaws in software programs and it turns out that the real issue is "operator error." In other cases, there may be problems in the software. In other cases, problems arise because of odd configurations, outdated programs and computers infected with viruses and malware.

I have no basis to form any opinion on this story involving Appllied Discovery and will wait until the investigation concludes before making any judgments. My point in this post lies in a completely different direction than the substance of the Applied Discovery issue.

I do, however, want to make one very important point. As both Nagel and Craig Ball point out, Microsoft released patches for what seems to have caused the glitch or problem perhaps as long ago as in 2004.

With zero day exploits becoming more common, it is just plain crazy for law firms (or anyone else) to be running versions of Windows and Offices that are not current on security patches. As a quick example, read this article I found today called "Hackers hunting for unpatched Microsoft computers."

In the last week alone, there have been a good number of critical security patches for both Windows and the Mac OS.

If you or your firm is not installing critical security updates, you are not only inviting and begging for attacks, you have also highly increased the odds that your computer has been compromised with malware. Having some apparently readily-resolvable e-discovery problems may be the least of your concerns.

The cavalier approach to security updates referred to in these stories causes me much more concern than the e-discovery angle of the story.

I wrote the concluding chapter to a book on information security from the ABA called "Information Security for Lawyers and Law Firms." I closed the chapter and the book with this quote from computer expert Fred Langa:

"Just as drivers who share the road must also share responsibility for safety, we all now share the same global network, and thus must regard computer security as a necessary social responsibility. To me, anyone unwilling to take simple security precautions is a major, active part of the problem."

I'm not sure how much longer we can tolerate having share the Internet with law firms who are years behind in installing security patches. I'm also finding it difficult to muster much sympathy for them when they run into problems that appear to stem from these lax practices.

Rather than over-focusing on the Applied Discovery story, you might better spend your time with a trip here, after a stop 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 security patches applied discovery

Posted by dmk at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2006

Shuffle Me This

I've been wanting to post about the excellent Soulard Idea Market event the other night, but haven't have the chance to write about it in a way that will do it justice.

Like other Open Space events I've been involved in, there were some great conversations, all happening at the idea layer, not the social chit-chat layer.

Matt Homann put up the traditional LexThink big post-it where people could write down stupid ideas. That's always fun and gets you thinking. I didn't get the chance to write anything then, but this morning I was reminded while driving behind yet another SUV where I can't see anything, that the idea of tinted rear windows in cars, SUVs and vans is a stupid idea and probably a dangerous one. I still can't figure out want problem it was designed to solve.

That aside, I've been thinking about another idea - the idea of shuffle.

Here I'm thinking about the "shuffle songs" feature of iTunes and the iPod. I originally thought that the coolest thing about an iPod was that you really could carry your whole music collection with you. I also liked that I could decided exactly what I wanted to here in the order I wanted to hear it.

However, planning and control of what you play has a price. It takes time and, at a certain point, you run out of imagination or want to stop making decisions.

On a plane trip, I simply put the iPod on shuffle and listened to what came to me, surrendering to the element of randomness and letting myself see if I could either simply relax and give up the need for control or whether the randomness would let me see / hear new patterns.

In truth, I still needed to be able to advance past a song if it didn't fit my mood. That element of control is hard to give up.

But lately, though not all the time, I go with what the shuffle plays, without jumping forward. It's a different mindset - kind of an interesting one. After all, it's playing songs that I actually chose to put on my iPod.

And I've found that the unexpected patterns and connections are a treat, making it an enjoyable exercise.

It's not exactly Open Space, but it's a fascinating thinking and creativity exercise. And it reflects the rapidity and randomness of the events that come at us every day lately.

[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).

Technorati tags: open space shuffle LexThink! soulard idea market unconference

Posted by dmk at 10:52 PM

August 07, 2006

New Online Audio CLE Programs Available from Dennis Kennedy at DigiLearn

I'm pleased to announce that DigiLearn is hosting two new audio continuing legal education courses that I've put together and making them available over the Internet.

First, there is my popular "Legal Technology Trends and Predictions" presentation. Here's the description:

Legal technology can be a complicated and difficult topic. How do you learn about trends in legal technology and make good decisions about where you want to take your firm? In this session, legal technology expert Dennis Kennedy discusses ten of the most important trends in legal technology today and gives you some practical recommendations of how best to address technology issues in your law firm or legal practice.

Second, there is my presentation called "Disaster Recovery Planning for Lawyers." Here's the description:

Natural and man-made calamities in recent years have emphasized the vital importance of good disater recovery and business continuity planning. Don't let your inadequate disaster plan make a bad situation worse. In this session, legal technology expert Dennis Kennedy discussess the key elements of preparation, technology and people involved in good disaster recovery planning and highlights many of the practial issues you must consider when putting together your firm's disaster recovery plan.

I'm a big fan of the ways we can now use the Internet to deliver education and I've alway liked the work that DigiLearn has done in this area. I'm very pleased to be working with them on these new programs.

[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 disaster recovery CLE audio DigiLearn

Posted by dmk at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2006

Updating My Disclaimers

DISCLAIMER: The posts and opinions expressed on this blog and this website are solely the personal opinions of Dennis Kennedy. They do not represent or reflect (nor are they intended to represent or reflect) the positions, opinions, viewpoints, policies and/or statements of any entity in which I have any ownership interest, with which I have any contractual or other legal relationship, or which is, was or might be my client or customer.

REQUIRED STATEMENTS UNDER MISSOURI SUPREME COURT RULES IF THIS WEBSITE OR ANY PORTION OF IT IS DEEMED TO BE AN ADVERTISEMENT OR SOLICITATION. This website is not intended to be an advertisement or solicitation for my legal services. However, under recent changes in Missouri Rules, it may be deemed to be so, despite my intention. Therefore, the following statements may be required on this website and I have included them in order to be in full compliance with these rules. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. Disregard this solicitation if you have already engaged a lawyer in connection with the legal matter referred to in this solicitation. You may wish to consult your lawyer or another lawyer instead of me. The exact nature of your legal situation will depend on many facts not known to me at this time. You should understand that the advice and information in this solicitation is general and that your own situation may vary. This statement is required by rule of the Supreme Court of Missouri.

Posted by dmk at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2006

Soulard Idea Market Next Week

Matt Homann reminds me that the first Soulard Idea Market will debut on August 8 in St. Louis. I hope to see you there.

If you would like an invitation, please contact Matt.

[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.

Technorati tags: soulard idea market LexThink! innovation unconference

Posted by dmk at 07:05 AM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2006

My Encryption Research Project

I've recently become very interested in the practical aspects of encryption, especially of drives and data.

With notebook computers full of data disappearing every day, or so it seems, the practical need for encryption all but speaks for itself.

However, encryption remains an overly-complex and opaque topic.

I want to find out whether there is any consensus yet on what tools and practices make sense. Is there anything like a "standard" approach? Are there tools and practices that we might or should standardize on. What are the "best" tools? For me, this means: what are the most usable tools?

What are the common pitfalls? Are there free or Open Source approaches? Is there a "gold standard" approach?

How can I keep this as simple as possible and still have reasonable protection?

You get the idea.

I'm interested in pointers to good resources, solid, real world practical advice, and stories about what people are doing successfully today.

What are law firm CIOs doing as they address these issues?

If you want to leave a public comment, then, by all means, feel free to leave a comment on this blog. However, I'd prefer that you email me directly (denniskennedyblog @ gmail . com).

Yes, I'll probably write an article when I finish my research.

I look forward to hearing from you about what seems to be working these days.

[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 encryption

Posted by dmk at 08:44 PM | Comments (3)