Wanted to try my hand at liveblogging, which is really blogging your notes from a session: Let me know what you think.
My notes on session:
At the end of these economic difficulties, the legal landscape will not return to “normal,” instead it will be drastically changed.
KPMG mission statement – we exist to provide value from our knowledge to our clients. Lawyers must look for ways to find new ways to produce these values.
Clients want client dispute avoidance, not dispute resolution.
This means next wave for lawyers is legal risk management.
Understand the fundamental difference between automation and innovation. Not computerization what we already do but to making new things possible.
In other words, the best way to predict the future is to invent it.
The key is turning ideas into action. Some of these ideas have been around for a while.
“Fit for purpose” legal profession.
Inhouse legal counsel are under significant pressure – something has to give. I.e., clients want “more for less.” This is a fundamental premise.
Note the coming reality of external investment in law firms in the UK.
Two possible strategies:
1. Efficiency strategy – cut costs, move toward commoditization, multi-sourcing
2. Collaboration strategy – cost sharing, harnessing collaborative IT, online community
Disruption beyond imagination
Commoditisation:
Bespoke vs. Commoditised – Custom vs. commodity
A path:
Bespoke -> Standardized -> Systematized -> Packaged (packaging your knowledge) -> Commoditized
Legal expertise as product. Eversheds as a model
Many see packaged knowledge as anathema
Commodity in the sense of legal services is a metaphor. An online information service is his example of commodisation in legal services.
Another path:
Hourly fees -> flat fees -> free
Innovation seems to happen in the systematized and packaged areas for Susskind. Most firms see that they are and want to stay in the bespoke area. Has bespoke become just a romantic vision of what we think we are as lawyers?
Clients, on the other hand, generally want to move away from bespoke and toward commoditization.
In other words, client work needs to be rethought.
Clients – cut costs, make costs predictable, quality improves (via standardization and systemization)
Watch for this axis to largely flip (in terms of percentages in each category over the next 10 years)
Multi-sourcing – using the least costly of many potential sources of services and/or the bringing together of multi-sourced work into coherent single product.
Susskind has 12 ways of multi-sourcing (NOTE: this is a key section of his book) e.g., insourcing, outsourcing, home sourcing, open sourcing, co-sourcing, leasing, computerizing, no-sourcing (not devoting legal resources/effort to low risk areas)
Law as project management.
Tendency among lawyers (outside this presentation room) that Google and BlackBerry is their technology. And belief that legal profession is the one area that will not be impacted fundamentally by the Internet and technology.
The interesting point (at least to me) is are we starting to see early impacts/symptoms of Singularity effects (e.g., Vinge and Kurzweil).
As technology comes to heart of our lives and work, no reason to believe law will be exempt.
Change is accelerating.
Another set of examples – Social networking, online communications, mass collaboration
[NOTE: It’s fascinating how our collaboration book is a handbook for using the practical tools that will power these trends in the profession. Don’t know if we were especially prescient or lucky. Or both.]
The key is how to apply these techniques (online communication, collaboration, social networking) in the legal profession.
Ten disruptive (in the Clayton Christiansen sense) technology for legal profession (listed in his book).
Four examples:
1. Closed client communities (collaborative) – Network of solo practitioners or clients
2. Online dispute resolution
3. Embedded legal knowledge
4. Electronic legal marketplace
Traditional pyramid model and shape of law firms will change dramatically
“What parts of lawyers’ work can be done differently?” Answer truthfully.
If we see ways Internet can destroy our business, shouldn’t you be doing that? That’s the challenge.
For what will lawyers be needed? A more fundamental question.
Deep expertise (legal) and complex communication.
Note that complexity and expertise can be modeled. Modeling is a key concept.
Lawyers tend to exaggerate level of creativity (across the board).
Direct contact is diminishing in many areas
Future jobs for lawyers
Expert trusted adviser
Legal knowledge engineer
Project managers
He calls what is coming is an incremental revolution toward an IT-enabled legal profession and a fundamental change in the way legal services are delivered.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog; Follow me – @denniskennedy
Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools
Technorati tags:

Wanted to try my hand at liveblogging, which is really blogging your notes from a session: Let me know what you think.
My notes on session:
At the end of these economic difficulties, the legal landscape will not return to “normal,” instead it will be drastically changed.
KPMG mission statement – we exist to provide value from our knowledge to our clients. Lawyers must look for ways to find new ways to produce these values.
Clients want client dispute avoidance, not dispute resolution.
This means next wave for lawyers is legal risk management.
Understand the fundamental difference between automation and innovation. Not computerization what we already do but to making new things possible.
In other words, the best way to predict the future is to invent it.
The key is turning ideas into action. Some of these ideas have been around for a while.
“Fit for purpose” legal profession.
Inhouse legal counsel are under significant pressure – something has to give. I.e., clients want “more for less.” This is a fundamental premise.
Note the coming reality of external investment in law firms in the UK.
Two possible strategies:
1. Efficiency strategy – cut costs, move toward commoditization, multi-sourcing
2. Collaboration strategy – cost sharing, harnessing collaborative IT, online community
Disruption beyond imagination
Commoditisation:
Bespoke vs. Commoditised – Custom vs. commodity
A path:
Bespoke -> Standardized -> Systematized -> Packaged (packaging your knowledge) -> Commoditized
Legal expertise as product. Eversheds as a model
Many see packaged knowledge as anathema
Commodity in the sense of legal services is a metaphor. An online information service is his example of commodisation in legal services.
Another path:
Hourly fees -> flat fees -> free
Innovation seems to happen in the systematized and packaged areas for Susskind. Most firms see that they are and want to stay in the bespoke area. Has bespoke become just a romantic vision of what we think we are as lawyers?
Clients, on the other hand, generally want to move away from bespoke and toward commoditization.
In other words, client work needs to be rethought.
Clients – cut costs, make costs predictable, quality improves (via standardization and systemization)
Watch for this axis to largely flip (in terms of percentages in each category over the next 10 years)
Multi-sourcing – using the least costly of many potential sources of services and/or the bringing together of multi-sourced work into coherent single product.
Susskind has 12 ways of multi-sourcing (NOTE: this is a key section of his book) e.g., insourcing, outsourcing, home sourcing, open sourcing, co-sourcing, leasing, computerizing, no-sourcing (not devoting legal resources/effort to low risk areas)
Law as project management.
Tendency among lawyers (outside this presentation room) that Google and BlackBerry is their technology. And belief that legal profession is the one area that will not be impacted fundamentally by the Internet and technology.
The interesting point (at least to me) is are we starting to see early impacts/symptoms of Singularity effects (e.g., Vinge and Kurzweil).
As technology comes to heart of our lives and work, no reason to believe law will be exempt.
Change is accelerating.
Another set of examples – Social networking, online communications, mass collaboration
[NOTE: It’s fascinating how our collaboration book is a handbook for using the practical tools that will power these trends in the profession. Don’t know if we were especially prescient or lucky. Or both.]
The key is how to apply these techniques (online communication, collaboration, social networking) in the legal profession.
Ten disruptive (in the Clayton Christiansen sense) technology for legal profession (listed in his book).
Four examples:
1. Closed client communities (collaborative) – Network of solo practitioners or clients
2. Online dispute resolution
3. Embedded legal knowledge
4. Electronic legal marketplace
Traditional pyramid model and shape of law firms will change dramatically
“What parts of lawyers’ work can be done differently?” Answer truthfully.
If we see ways Internet can destroy our business, shouldn’t you be doing that? That’s the challenge.
For what will lawyers be needed? A more fundamental question.
Deep expertise (legal) and complex communication.
Note that complexity and expertise can be modeled. Modeling is a key concept.
Lawyers tend to exaggerate level of creativity (across the board).
Direct contact is diminishing in many areas
Future jobs for lawyers
Expert trusted adviser
Legal knowledge engineer
Project managers
He calls what is coming is an incremental revolution toward an IT-enabled legal profession and a fundamental change in the way legal services are delivered.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog; Follow me – @denniskennedy
Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools
Technorati tags:

For quite a few years, I’ve enjoyed reading the posts of several bloggers who are trying to read 52 books in 52 weeks. I’ve also wanted to find a good way for me to keep track of the books I’ve read. And it gives me a good reading target to shoot for.

Last year, I read 115 books, exceeding my goal by quite a bit. Or, more accurately, I listed 115 books that I read. I don’t list books that might reveal certain things I might (or might not) be working on. You will also notice tat I’ve been attempting to read the entire catalog of books of certain authors of detective stories. If 2018, those were Marcia Muller (Sharon McCone) and Peter Robinson (Inspector Banks).

If you forced me to pick a top 10 for 2018 (or ten recommendations for books you might read), I’d probably list:


Autonomous, Annalee Newitz

The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz

Build an A Team, Whitney Johnson

Portfolio Life, David Corbett

The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber

For All the Tea in China, Sarah Rose

Gridiron Genius, Mike Lombardi

Creative Strategy, William Duggan

Building a Story Brand, Donald Miller

The Dan Sullivan Question, Dan Sullivan

Continue Reading 52 Books in 52 Weeks – 2019

I did a presentation called “The Freemium Practice of Law” at IgniteLaw 2011 last Sunday night, produced by my good friends Matt Homann and JoAnna Forshee.

IgniteLaw takes a unique approach to presentations – 12 presenters each presenting for 6 minutes using only 20 slides apiece. And the slides advance automatically every 18 seconds.

It’s a challenging format for any speaker, no matter how experienced, especially if it doesn’t fit your usual style. Perhaps I understate that. It’s the speaking equivalent of riding in a top fuel dragster.

I found the presentation fun – in a challenging sort of way – but quickly struggled with time management. I got my points made, but not quite in the way I had hoped. My main points seemed to get across and I hope I was able to contribute in a small way to what was a fun evening with lots of high-quality presentations.

The videos will be posted soon, but I thought it might be fun to post the final version of the “rehearsal script” I had written. On that evening, the “script” turned out to be more ambitious than I’d hoped it would be (especially since I couldn’t refer to it), but I really liked the way this version of the script read. See what you think.

The Freemium Practice of Law – Rehearsal Script

1. Several years ago, when I was in the private practice of law, I had a meeting with a potential new client, a technology start-up. Things went well and they wanted to hire me. The initial project would be preparing terms of use and a privacy policy for their website.

2. I gave them an estimate and the president of the company joked that lawyers probably all used the same base documents and just changed the company names. Or at least we created documents with one push of a button. We laughed, although I felt the need to mention that even standard documents had nuances.

3. I thought a lot about that client’s view of legal work, especially documents, and the question kept coming back to me: “If clients assume we can use technology in this way and, technically, we can, why aren’t we”? I first implemented document assembly more than 20 years ago, so the issue is less technology than business model.

4. One of my favorite innovation techniques is to reverse my assumptions. I recently listened to a podcast with William Ury, co-author of a great book on negotiation. He said, “to change the game, you must change the frame.”

5. Here was my reversal. What if standard documents actually were provided to clients for free, perhaps as part of a service package? How would that work? I didn’t get very far myself, but Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson wrote a book in 2009 called “Free” that looked at the growing Internet phenomenon of successful businesses based on giving away what would traditionally be core products and services for free, and then making money in a variety of other ways.

6. Anderson’s book tells about Monty Python deciding not to sue the thousands of people who started to put video clips from their shows and movies on YouTube. Instead, Monty Python created its own YouTube channel and made high-quality video clips available for free. In exchange, they simply asked people to consider buying their products. The result: a 23,000% increase in DVD sales in 3 months, even though they were giving the same video content away.

7. That’s Freemium. Make something available for free, use that to extend your reach and audience, and then provide options for people to willingly pay for enhanced value. My definition of freemium tonight would be: Giving away “something” in order to create educated customers who better understand how to use your services and products in ways that better help themselves and for which they will happily pay to do so.

8. There’s been a lot of discussion about Richard Susskind’s custom vs. commoditized approach and you’ll be hearing more about that in the next few days at TECHSHOW. The most interesting thing about freemium, at least to me, is not so much that it will work in both contexts, but that I think it can work extremely well in the custom context.

9. Another example. Open Source software and Larry Lessig’s Creative Commons licenses. The free “something” is the software or the standardized license. The Open Source model, where the software itself is available for free, but a company like Red Hat can be quite successful selling maintenance, support, consulting services, and even T-shirts around the software, is perhaps the best example of the freemium approach.

10. Stewart Brand famously said, “Information wants to be free.” We clearly live in a world where we expect to get digital versions of music, video, books and information for free. How do lawyers fit into that world?

11. My favorite new band is Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They let people post recordings of their live shows on the Internet. I doubt that I would have bought any CDs or even known of them if not for this approach. Now, I buy albums and would attend a show in a heartbeat. Bands can now be thought of as music services providers, giving away what we once thought of as core content and value – the music – to create revenue from shows, merchandise and other channels.

12. Now think about a “legal services provider” model. Law is certainly an information business. Are we like music? Encyclopedias? Newspapers? Other fields challenged by Internet models, aging business approaches and innovative competitors? Change the frame, change the game.

13. Lawyers often will say that clients buy documents or hours – a lawyer-centric view. When I did estate planning, I concluded that, at heart, clients were really buying peace of mind – assurance that their family would be taken care of after they were gone. In other practice areas, they might also be buying things like judgment or risk management – something they’d happily pay more for than a document or a unit of time.

14. That is the big disconnect between lawyers and clients and where the opportunity for freemium law practice comes into play. Change the frame, change the game.

15. Some ideas. Start with Anderson’s book. It has plenty of ideas that might Anderson has a lot of freemium ideas in his book that could apply to the practice of law. Here’s one of mine to start you thinking – moving from highlights to insights to personalized. Highlights: a free annual summary of important cases prepared by an associate. Insights: an audio or video where partners explaining why the cases matter. Personalized: Half-day customized presentations where your best people show a client’s legal and executive team how to address those new cases.

16. Barriers. Oh, there are a few. Not done before. It’s change. How do we bill? Bar regulation still applying a 20th century framework to 21st century client needs. Don’t underestimate – these will be difficult frames to change, but freemium is for innovators who like challenges.

17. It strikes me that simple technology can drive this. Document assembly has been around for years. Second graders are making videos these days. So much can be delivered easily via the Internet for free.

18. Where do you get ideas other than buying Matt Homann a cup of coffee? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Bryan Cave’s Trade Zone extranet application as a model. Other professional services firms, authors and consultants have successful models. Talk to young people, see what’s going on outside the US, and get a diversity of opinions.

19. Let me emphasize that I’m not for a second advocating a wholesale freemium approach. However, I do think that economic survival for the long term depends on taking a diversified portfolio approach. Using free to create enhanced-value freemium revenue streams should be one part of your portfolio.

20. 3 action steps for you:

1. Read Chris Anderson’s book. Even better, go to iTunes and get the audio version for free, and see if you go ahead and buy the book.

2. Carve out 30 minutes with a piece of paper and brainstorm ways you might try free and freemium, starting with places where you already heavily discount or write-off fees.

3. Change your frame and see if it changes your game

IgniteLaw 2011 was fun, fast-paced and informative. I congratulate Matt, JoAnna, all the other presenters and everyone else involved for putting on such a great event. And it was especially great to meet some other Grace Potter and the Nocturnals fans.

I’m hoping to post some reflections on TECHSHOW 2011 soon.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

I was disappointed not to be able to attend the first IgniteLaw in 2010, although close observers will catch my very brief virtual appearance on the video from last year. I’m planning to make it to the recently-announced IgniteLaw 2011 that will happen on April in Chicago on the evening before the start of the 25th ABA TECHSHOW.

IgniteLaw (“The Future of Law Practice, in 6 minute increments”) is presented by my friends Matt Homann (LexThink) and JoAnna Forshee (InsideLegal). IgniteLaw uses the popular “Ignite” format with speakers getting 6 minutes to present with 20 automatically-advancing slides. The videos from last year will give you an idea of what to expect.

I thought it would be fun to come up with a possible presentation. While my first choice was to do a dramatic re-enactment of Doug Sorocco’s tremendous presentation from last year, I quickly realized that Doug’s presentation simply cannot be duplicated. We have to talk Doug into coming back this year.

The topic idea I submitted is called “The Freemium Practice of Law” and here is the description I wrote:

Richard Susskind meets Chris Anderson meets Larry Lessig on the road to new legal business models based on the notion of “Freemium.” How might lawyers give away traditional core services and products (think documents) to generate new flows of income, happy clients and personally-fulfilling work using technology readily-at-hand, Open Source principles, and new technology on the horizon?

I wanted to pull together some provocative ideas I’ve thought about off and on for the last couple of years, but haven’t written about or presented before. The talk would take me into some different areas than I’ll be presenting on at TECHSHOW (collaboration tools for transactional lawyers and Open Source software for law firms).

I’m excited about this topic and presentation. So much so that I’ve already sketched out the slides for the presentation. There’s a voting process for IgniteLaw, so I’m hopeful that my topic gets picked.

If you will be in Chicago on April 10 (for TECHSHOW or otherwise), I encourage you to attend IgniteLaw 2011. Tickets are free, seats are limited, and the information you need about tickets is here. Hope to see you there. I’ll be pestering you about going to TECHSHOW and talking a bit more about my presentations there in a future post.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter ñ @dkennedyblog. Follow me ñ @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

DennisKennedy.Microblog is a supplement to this blog that can be found on Twitter at @dkennedyblog. I invite you to become a follower. An explanation of the microblog can be found here.
Here are recent posts from the microblog. As an aside, it’s intriguing to me that any one or all of these would have turned into a blog post with some discussion of the topic several years ago.

Martha Sperry on Friendfeed for Lawyers – http://bit.ly/dNdqg – still more reasons for having Friendfeed on my to-learn list
Steve Rubel: Blogs are Out of Beta, But Bloggers Should Always Be in Beta” – http://bit.ly/WztTW
Meryl Evans on 8 ways to extend your presentations – http://bit.ly/bl0xN
Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle on “Web Squared” – http://bit.ly/vIzrS – the Web on its collision course with the physical world
The Economist on social networking on Internet vs. traditional business networking – http://bit.ly/lfk8t
For fans of Babylon 5, JMS interview on Babylon Podcast – http://bit.ly/g6FGk ‘Nuff said. Even better, there’s a second part coming.
My new blog post – “A Blogging Guide for St. Louis (and Other) Lawyers (and Others)” – http://bit.ly/ZHrMm
John Heckman on Richard Susskind – Commoditization – Part 1 http://bit.ly/WyX15
RT @GreatDismal: Twitter: Return of “telegraphese”. The headline writer’s art. The core art of semantic compression. Lose the trim.
Steve Rubel’s “Posterous is Changing How I Think About Blogging” is changing how I think about blogging – http://bit.ly/d9nTT
Is iPhone really a threat to domination of BlackBerry in legal profession? The new Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast – http://bit.ly/45TLG
RT @GreatDismal: RT @DougCoupland – a strange measure of technology’s acceleration – no cell-phone images of 9-11 attacks.
RT @collabtools: Dion Hinchcliffe on Twitter on your intranet: 17 microblogging tools for business – http://bit.ly/dL2Er
We’re looking for audience questions for tomorrow’s recording of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast – why not yours? [Note: Email me with questions for our podcast Q & A segment any time]
Kevin Kelly on the increasing ubiquity of technology – http://bit.ly/dqW3G – esp. pace of change and impact of a billion of any technology
Peter Bregman: Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning – http://bit.ly/XKdGY – your focus list & your ignore list – don’t ignore the 2nd
Wish I’d seen Bernard Hibbitts (of Jurist fame) present on “The Technology of Law” – great summary by Library Boy – http://bit.ly/U0TJC
The new episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast is out; it’s about ways lawyers can learn new technology – http://bit.ly/160RKh
Liked AppScout’s “TuneUp Cleans your Music Collection” – http://bit.ly/fgV3r
Note to estate planning lawyers: is Suze Orman on your list of competitors? http://bit.ly/15dNE8 – what can you learn from this?

Check out the new The Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast on the Legal Talk Network.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog; Follow me – @denniskennedy
Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools
Technorati tags:

DennisKennedy.Microblog is a supplement to this blog that can be found on Twitter at @dkennedyblog. I invite you to become a follower. An explanation of the microblog can be found here.
Here are posts from the microblog for the last week or so:

Ed Poll: Lawyers will still be needed in the “new economy” – http://www.lawbizblog.com/2009/05/articles/management/lawyers-will-still-be-needed-in-the-new-economy/ – why I say Susskind’s new book will start conversations
Scott Ginsberg: 14 Obligations of All Creative Professionals – http://hellomynameisscott.blogspot.com/2009/05/14-obligations-of-all-creative.html
Adam Singer on the latent cultural function of technology – http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/05/05/latent-cultural-function-of-technologies/ – we understand function of tech after no longer necessary
100 Tweets: Thinking About Law Practice in 140 Characters or Less – @matthomann’s ebook on lawyers, Twitter and more http://thenonbillablehour.typepad.com/nonbillable_hour/2009/05/100-tweets-thinking-about-law-practice-in-140-characters-or-less.html
Allison Shields on BlackBerry Behavior: Is it hurting your reputation? http://legalease.blogs.com/legal_ease_blog/2009/05/dos-and-donts-of-blackberry-use.html
Steve Rubel on the end of the “Destination Web Era” – http://www.micropersuasion.com/2009/05/the-end-of-the-destination-web-era.html – Stats are compelling
Three screens and a cloud – Ray Ozzie on Microsoft’s web strategy – http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-microsofts-chief-software-architect/ – online version of Office, netbooks, and more
New blog post – Nine Legal Technology Trends for 2009: The Year of Hunkering Down – https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/2009/04/nine_legal_technology_trends_for_2009_the_yea.html – welcome your feedback
From Knowledge@wharton: “Legal Strategy 101: It’s Time for Law Firms to Re-think Their Business Model” – http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2231
Steve Barth lists 14 koans of knowledge management – http://reflexions.typepad.com/reflexions/2009/04/14-koans-of-km.html
Had enough of Web 2.0 already? Is it time to move on to Web 3.0? http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_30_conference_real-world_value_from_semantics_analytics.php
New episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast is out – “Has PowerPoint Killed the Presentation?” – https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/2009/04/has_powerpoint_killed_the_presentation_new_ep.html
Sarah Perez sums up LexisNexis survey suggesting “really wide” tech generation gap in legal profession – http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_technology_generation_gap_at_work_is_oh_so_wide.php #techshow
Great story about Ron Staudt, legal tech pioneer and one of my legal tech heroes, and using tech for access to justice – http://www.chicagolawyermagazine.com/2009/04/01/technology-evangelist-keeps-faith-in-legal-aid/

Check out the new The Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast on the Legal Talk Network.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog; Follow me – @denniskennedy
Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools
Technorati tags:

[In addition to my annual tradition of publishing an article on legal technology trends for the year, I’ve also experimented with posting drafts of the article on my blog before I’ve completely finished it and it’s actually published as an article. This year’s edition is running a little late and it feels done enough tonight to go ahead and post it as a first draft and get some reactions and comments (and some editing suggestions – there’s no doubt there are still typos and other problems in this draft). Let me know what you think.]
Nine Legal Technology Trends for 2009: The Year of Hunkering Down
It’s my annual tradition to take a look at trends in legal technology for the coming year and make some predictions about where we are headed. I’m running late this year because the current economic turmoil has made it difficult to assess what is likely to happen.
I decided to observe what transpired in the first few months of the year, gather some information at ABA TECHSHOW 2009 and then see if my crystal ball became a little clearer. I also felt that simply to say that the 2009 trends would be the same as my 2008 trends, but even more so, would be emotionally unsatisfying, even if it seemed accurate.
Unfortunately, it really hasn’t, but it is April already and I thought I’d jump into this year’s article with the idea that it will be a conversation-starter more so than a roadmap.
I’m actually quite pessimistic about what we’ll see in legal technology, but I’ve taken a more positive outlook on these trends. Keep in mind that the economy could dramatically and negatively affect these trends. Let’s face it, when firms are laying off lawyers and staff and fighting to keep the doors open, technology is going to be less of a priority that it might be in a normal year.
There’s no doubt that there are pockets of enormous opportunity using technology in 2009 (think collaboration tools and client-focused technology), but it will be the rare firms or organizations that will be able to decide to make those investments. As a result, it’s what happens OUTSIDE the legal profession with technology that will ultimately be the most important trends inside the legal profession over the long haul. With that in mind, the best legal technology investment to make this year is to buy (and read) – Richard Susskind’s book – The End of Lawyers? – which is a great all-in-one resource on the big trends changing the profession and the outside pressures that will change the way lawyers practice.
With that said, I now launch into my 2009 trends.
1. Technology Budgets Get Decimated. At many firms, technology spending has crept up to be a substantial line-item on the firm’s budget. If it comes to cutting the tech budget or laying off people, most of us would like to be at a place that puts people first.
I originally was going say that technology budgets stay flat, but I’ve changed my mind. And I use the word “decimate” deliberately. The word originally meant the killing of one of ten soldiers. It later had the sense of drastic losses. In many firms, a large portion of the tech budget is set in stone and can’t realistically be cut during the year. That’s why my initial thought was that we’d see freezes rather than cuts. Now I believe that we’ll see cost—cutting as the year progresses. For the average lawyer, don’t expect to see a new laptop this year. In fact, don’t expect to see much of anything new this year.
What to do: Technology audits to determine what you are doing and where you can make cuts. Reduce duplication and increase standardization. Look for volume discounts, renegotiate large contracts, and consider outsourcing as an option in many more instances. Require IT department to explain and justify budgets.
2. Making Do with What You Have or Doing More with Less. Sensing a theme here yet? We’ll be hunkering down as a profession in 2009. That new Mac laptop you wanted will become a netbook. I wouldn’t be surprised to see law firms go to low-priced netbooks rather than laptops for the average lawyer. Cost is an issue. Moving to a new software version? Not likely. You better learn how to do more with the features in the version you already have. Perhaps most interesting, we could see the majority of the legal profession essentially miss a whole generation of Microsoft software (Windows Vista and Office 2007).
I’m not completely negative on this point. Constraints often help lawyers be creative. I expect to see more use of Web 2.0 tools and Open Source software and making better use of what they already own. Remember those WestKM licenses you already own but haven’t used – maybe it’s time to take a closer look.
What to Do: Learn more about what you have. Talk to vendors about features you don’t use and training opportunities. Look for better pricing and Internet deals when you do buy something.
3. The Mobile Phone as Platform. This trend actually relates to the previous one. The love affair between lawyers and the BlackBerry is well-known. Lawyers are also using the iPhone and other smartphones. If you aren’t likely to get a new laptop and your smartphone can do more and more, what is likely to happen? Yes, the phone is likely to become a mobile working platform that gives you access to data, documents, people and other things you need when you need them. The Apple Apps store for the iPhone and iPod Touch is looking to be a game-changer, and Blackberry and others are opening similar stores. These applications make smartphones even more useful than they already are. Don’t overlook the growing role that texting and instant messaging will play for lawyers, which work very well on a mobile phone..
What to Do: Umm, haven’t I just given you the business reason you were looking for to justify getting an iPhone? Look for ways other than email to use your phone to access your office and data. Experiment with applications for your phone. Drop your request for that new laptop and ask for an upgraded phone instead. For firms, consider ways to enable access through phones as a way to delay or avoid hardware purchases.
4. Get Your head into the Cloud. You will hear even more talk about “cloud computing” and “software as a service” (SaaS) in 2009. In simplest terms, I’m referring to ways both programs and data can be hosted and managed on the Internet through a third-party provider. Google Apps and other online SaaS options have gotten a lot of attention in the past year or so. SaaS options for existing legal software and new legal-specific SaaS services have become increasingly available to lawyers.
The benefits: manageable monthly costs, lack of need for infrastructure and personnel investments, access from anywhere, provider handles patches, upgrades, security and the like. The concerns: data hosted elsewhere, business prospects of providers, unique legal concerns like ethics and confidentiality.
Law firms, especially start-up firms, have been testing this water. Budget constraints will also make this a more compelling option in many cases. There will definitely be more attention to this area, and probably increased usage.
What to Do: Please, please, please do your homework and due diligence on this option, especially in this economic. Take a hard-headed realistic approach and make sure you compare SaaS options with what you are currently doing now rather than against some ideal of perfection that you aren’t close to achieving. Pick some areas to experiment with this approach rather than jumping all the way into the water at once.
5. Using Tech to Get the Word Out and the Money In. My approach to technology planning is really quite simple: does it save money or does it make money? I’m shocked when firms launch new tech initiatives without having a clear, quantifiable answer to this question.
In 2009, firms will be focused on bringing in new work, retaining existing clients and getting paid for the work they do. If your technology initiatives don’t directly address these concerns, you are missing the boat. It’s definitely not the most exciting area of legal tech, but investment in back office technology to get better bills out faster, improve collections and evaluate the profitability of clients and projects would be something I’d recommend for every lawyer and every practice. Boring is good in 2009.
On the exciting end of this trend is using technology to get the word out to market yourself, your practice and your firm. There is so much happening in this area that it is difficult to keep up with it all. The one thing I can guarantee is that by the end of 2009 lawyers will be using an Internet marketing vehicle that no one expected today (actually, my guess would be something in the SMS/instant messaging family).
Had you even heard of Twitter a year ago? Now you can’t turn around without seeing something about using Twitter, Facebook and social media tools for marketing. You can put video up on YouTube, publish PowerPoint slides on Slideshare, create your profile and groups on LinkedIn, have a blog, create a podcast and do many, many more things to get your message out and create a brand. The financial cost of most of these tools is next to nothing. Think about how your clients (and potential clients) get their information today. Create a channel to reach them that way.
What to Do: Look at the ways to use back office tools to streamline and standardize billings, improve collections and truly analyze the financial aspects of your business. Take better advantage of reporting functionality to give you reports that help you cut costs and improve profits. Evaluate your current Internet presence (hint: Google your name). Pick one or two of the Internet and social media channels to try. Don’t be over-influenced by what “everybody else” is doing – one or more of these approaches will suit you best – go with that one.
6. Focus on Client-focused Technology. OK. I pick this every year, but it’s a trend that’s clearly happening and it’s one that Susskind’s book also highlights. If you are looking for a simple approach to technology, this is what I recommend. Are your technology plans driven by what your clients want or by their needs?
Technology in this category includes simple extranets, collaboration tools, 24×7 access to documents, providing documents in preferred formats, and electronic billing. I’ve written extensively on this topic and posted some slides on SlideShare. so I won’t add a lot here, other than to say that this economy dictates that you find better ways to work with your best clients. The best way to start: just ask them.
What to Do: Simple client technology surveys. Identify pain points clients have with your technology, such as document compatibility or preferred formats. Focus on simple, practical extranet functionality (e.g., access to copies of documents) rather than gold-plated, all-inclusive extranet platforms. In general, keep it simple. And find ways to make it easy for clients to stay with you.
7. E-Discovery in Still Waters. No area of legal technology receives more attention than e-discovery, and deservedly so. 2009 will be a deceptive year in e-discovery. At the surface, it will appear that not much is happening. Some contradictory decisions, some industry consolidation, some talk of reform and a concern about costs. There will definitely be discussion of cooperation and collaboration. But you won’t see game-changing new technologies, magic bullets or tectonic movements.
As I’ve said before, lawyers have won the first round of EDD battles and successfully resisted wide-scale changes to business as usual litigation.
But that’s just the surface view. Still waters run deep and, like the Internet, we overestimate the impact of EDD in the short term and we underestimate the impact of EDD over the long term. Under the surface, the changes are huge and will transform the practice of law. Those involved in this area need to keep their eyes and ears open and monitor developments.
There are a few trends I’ll highlight. First, the growing emphasis on cooperation and collaboration, just one aspect of the growing role judges have been forced to play because of slow-moving lawyers. Second, technologies and techniques to produce usable and workable datasets out of enormous amounts of data. Third, an increasing amount of focus on high costs of EDD, with the parallel trend of treating some EDD procedures as commodities, with commodity types of pricing.
The main trend you will want to take notice of is one that started a few years ago and has continued to grow. It’s the movement of the lawyers who know the most and who are the best at EDD out of law firms and into the employ of EDD service providers. This really is a tectonic shift with the probable long-term result of EDD service providers largely taking this work away from law firms and EDD, perhaps, no longer even considered part of the ordinary practice of law, leaving litigation lawyers to redefine what they actually do as clients route around them to the EDD service providers who have all of the talent. I invite you to give that some serious thought.
What to Do: Watch the developments. Keep up with industry developments by reading some of the excellent EDD blogs. Watch the flow of talent out of law firms. There are still plenty of opportunities for lawyers in EDD, but I suggest looking for niche areas of EDD that you can do well or new roles, like project management. If I were a litigator involved in EDD, I’d look for one EDD niche to become very good at in 2009.
8. The Perfect Storm for Collaboration Tools. Tom Mighell and I recently released a 2009 CD update of our book, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together. One of the features on the CD is our take on top trends in collaboration tools. Among the trends we note include cultural issues caused by mergers, layoffs and other economic turmoil, reduced travel budgets driving adoption of conferencing tools, the ability to find their own collaboration tools when you don’t provide them, the growth of instant messaging and Web 2.0 tools, and the growing role service level agreements play in collaboration tools.
If you go back and look at articles making predictions about legal technology at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, you’ll notice that most, if not all, of them made one or more references to collaboration technologies. Since the beginning of 2009, the changes brought about by our economic situation have accelerated the move to collaboration technologies. The most obvious example at most organizations is the reduction in travel budgets and how that has renewed interest in all forms of conferencing. As I write this, we wonder about swine flu and pandemics. There is no question that this, too, will place more emphasis on online collaboration. New features added to programs almost invariably involve collaboration and interest in Microsoft SharePoint among both large and small firms continues to be high. Perhaps most important, however, is the growing sense that email may be broken as a tool or platform to use when working together.
What to Do: I always recommend starting with a simple “audit” of how you are collaborating now and determine how you might better collaborate with others by using collaboration features of programs you already have or free collaboration tools. Look at alternatives to email, especially for simple tasks like sending large files. Experiment with some of the web 2.0 tools – Google Apps is an easy place to start. And, of course, ask your clients how you can make it easier for them to work together with you.
9. A Potpourri of Predictions. In “down” technology years, I have always argued that innovative lawyers and firms can greatly widen the gap between themselves and those who stand still. Similarly, firms feeling that they have fallen behind can catch up to or even leapfrog today’s leaders by making a concerted effort in down years. In 2009, the retrenchment will be so great that I don’t expect to see a lot of innovation or investment. But the opportunity is there.
Here are a few predictions/trends that don’t really fall into specific categories, but I didn’t want to leave out of this article.
I’m intrigued by interaction of encryption and confidentiality, the way encryption might offer a technological solution to confidentiality obligations.
I’m quite concerned that a lack of understanding of, or an unwillingness to understand, how technology works by ethics regulators, especially in the area of web 2.0, social media, Twitter, cloud computing and metadata could result in rulings and regulation that negatively affects legal innovation at exactly the time innovation should be encouraged. I expect to see several important examples of that by year-end.
For innovation, I’m looking to the newest generation of lawyers and, equally important, those involved in provided services to lawyers. You’ll find them out there in blogs, on Twitter and Facebook, and other places on the Internet. I’m impressed by their energy and creativity. I learn a lot about new uses of technology from them and, as a profession, we’ll find them a source of innovation.
At ABA TECHSHOW 2009, I had a great conversation with Marc Lauritsen, Jordan Furlong and Ariel Jatib about where the next game-changing development in legal technology would appear. It arose out of a discussion about Twitter, which, interestingly, we all seemed to think was a bridge technology that was taking us to something else.
My contention was that audio and video was the easiest and most obvious answer. I had also just listened to a fascinating podcast of a presentation by Rajesh Jain in which he discussed innovative uses of SMS (simply put, instant messaging) in India. This also relates to the idea of mobile phones as a platform. We actually spent quite a bit of time on this possibility, which I believe holds a lot of promise. Finally, we talked about one of Marc’s favorite ideas of combining artificial intelligence concepts, decision trees and related technologies into tools that assist lawyers or take the place of routine aspects of the practice. The conversation we had around that topic and related topics like crowd-sourcing and recommendation engines was quite energizing and, as Jordan noted later, what makes a visit to a conference like TECHSHOW so worth the trip. My conclusion: while others hunker down, this is the year to take some time and think some bigger thoughts.
Concluding Thoughts. My best recommendation for 2009 is to read Richard Susskind’s new book “The End of Lawyers?” and familiarize yourself with the two biggest influences on the legal profession he mentions – commoditisation and information technology – and the way they will disrupt and change the profession, probably faster than we expect. Then engage in the conversation about where technology is taking us. It might not seem like much will be happening in 2009, but big changes will be taking place under the surface. Hunker down, but keep your eyes and ears, and your mind, open.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog; Follow me – @denniskennedy
Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools
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DennisKennedy.Microblog is a supplement to this blog that can be found on Twitter at @dkennedyblog. I invite you to become a follower. An explanation of the microblog can be found here.
Here are posts from the microblog for the last week or so:

Very wise words from Penelope Trunk: “Reality check: You’re not going to make money from your blog” – http://bit.ly/2Mteq – a must-read
2009 update CD for The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies available for pre-order at http://bit.ly/RcspY
Audio of Richard Susskind’s #techshow keynote available for download at http://www.techshow.com – see my live notes at http://bit.ly/jd6wN
Patrick Lamb reports on Futurefirm 1.0 and the future of law – http://bit.ly/qgfm8; another report by Aric Press at http://bit.ly/yZSrQ
Dave Snowden – “Think anew, Act anew: Scenario Planning” – http://bit.ly/Wb3H4 – from planning for scenarios to true scenario planning.
Benjamin Sutherland notes another step in continuing evolution of iPod Touch as a computing platform – http://bit.ly/j9D7Z
Lifehacker covers five best screen capture tools – http://bit.ly/SftLU – very useful tools for presenters
Gary Marshall asks what if our tech is “good enough”? http://bit.ly/2S6wuh – “Now, though, the weakest link isn’t your PC: it’s you.”
Carolyn Elefant shows us another good way for lawyers to experiment with Wordle – http://bit.ly/YqiEX
Matthew Apsokardu on what PowerPoint teaches about martial arts and vice versa – http://bit.ly/DXI9G
A new blog post: Looking Back at (and Looking Forward from) ABA TECHSHOW 2009 – http://bit.ly/3gAzGm #techshow
Trent Hamm reviews Bert Decker’s You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard – http://bit.ly/RddGv – Want to be a better presenter? Read this book

Check out the new The Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast on the Legal Talk Network.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog; Follow me – @denniskennedy
Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools
Technorati tags: