Blockchain technology is a topic that interests me greatly. It also is a favorite topic of my occasional co-author, Gwynne Monahan (often better known as @econwriter5 on Twitter). We have talked off and on for a while about collaborating on an article about blockchain tech.
The timing was right a month or two ago when I was asked about writing an article for the January tech-themed article of the ABA’s Law Practice Today.
Continue Reading Lawyers Get Ready, There’s a Blockchain Coming
Blockchain technology is a topic that interests me greatly. It also is a favorite topic of my occasional co-author, Gwynne Monahan (often better known as @econwriter5 on Twitter). We have talked off and on for a while about collaborating on an article about blockchain tech.
The timing was right a month or two ago when I was asked about writing an article for the January tech-themed article of the ABA’s Law Practice Today.
Continue Reading Lawyers Get Ready, There’s a Blockchain Coming
Allison Shields and I were talking the other day about LinkedIn and whether it was time to write a new edition of our book, LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers. Whether or not it’s time for a new edition, it became clear that we (meaning especially me) were not ready to write it.
However, we did have some ideas for a new article about ways to improve how you add connections on LinkedIn. In it, we would share some new ideas and experiments we had been doing in that area. We decided to write that article and turn it into a bit of a science experiment as well.
Continue Reading Six Ways to Jump Start Your LinkedIn Network (New Article)
One of my favorite writing outlets these days is the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center’s Law Technology Today blog
. I’m a regular participant in a series of monthly roundtable discussions by LTRC board members on technology topics.
Today, the latest of these was posted and it’s called “Finding a Work Life Balance Through Technology.”
Continue Reading Tech/Life Balance and Other Law Technology Today Roundtables
I’m excited to point readers to the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center’s 2016 Women of Legal Tech list.
As the announcement says:
One of the American Bar Association’s core values is a commitment to diversity, which the Law Practice Division aims to reinforce in the legal tech sector. This year, approximately 30% of the ABA TECHSHOW faculty were women, and nearly half of the TECHSHOW Planning Board is comprised of women.
From tech founders and CEOs to small business owners, women are making a big impact on legal tech in every field.
In keeping with the spirit of progress, the Legal Technology Resource Center is proud to present its inaugural “Women of Legal Tech” for 2016. Our goal is to celebrate the women currently in the legal tech space, and to encourage more women to join the ranks.
The list grows out of a very influential post by Heidi Alexander last year that highlighted women in legal tech.
This year’s “Women of Legal Tech” includes a set of 50 talented and influential women, based upon an initial list of 40 created by Law Technology Today contributor and practice management advisor, Heidi Alexander, in 2015. The new ten women of this year’s list were selected by the LTRC Board.
I was so happy when Sofia Lingos, vice-chair of LTRC, brought me the news that Heidi had proposed that LTRC become the home for her list and a place where the list could become even more visible and influential. As chair of LTRC this year (and, I hope, at least next year too), I want to highlight the work done by Sofia, Heidi, Gwynne Monahan, Allison Shields, Wendy Werner and Rose Frommelt on this project. This project could not have been in better hands.
As post says:
In keeping with the spirit of progress, the Legal Technology Resource Center is proud to present its inaugural “Women of Legal Tech” for 2016. Our goal is to celebrate the women currently in the legal tech space, and to encourage more women to join the ranks.
To celebrate AND to encourage.
When Heidi’s original post appeared in 2015, I celebrated it as a place to point people who said to me that they “couldn’t find” women to speak on legal tech. This list gives them no excuses anymore. As some readers know, I actively avoid appearing on any men-only panels. This list will make it easier for me to accomplish that and help many conferences and events gain from adding excellent speakers from this Women of Legal Tech list.
As the post concludes:
LTRC congratulates the first “Women in Legal Tech” class and looks forward to highlighting even more talented women in 2017.
If you haven’t visited the Legal Technology Resource Center in a while, I encourage you to stop by and see what we are doing.
– Dennis
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy
LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers (Second Edition), the new book from Allison Shields and me, is now available (iBook version also available). Our previous book, Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers, is also available (iBook version here). Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.
I’m excited to point readers to the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center’s 2016 Women of Legal Tech list.
As the announcement says:
One of the American Bar Association’s core values is a commitment to diversity, which the Law Practice Division aims to reinforce in the legal tech sector. This year, approximately 30% of the ABA TECHSHOW faculty were women, and nearly half of the TECHSHOW Planning Board is comprised of women.
From tech founders and CEOs to small business owners, women are making a big impact on legal tech in every field.
In keeping with the spirit of progress, the Legal Technology Resource Center is proud to present its inaugural “Women of Legal Tech” for 2016. Our goal is to celebrate the women currently in the legal tech space, and to encourage more women to join the ranks.
The list grows out of a very influential post by Heidi Alexander last year that highlighted women in legal tech.
This year’s “Women of Legal Tech” includes a set of 50 talented and influential women, based upon an initial list of 40 created by Law Technology Today contributor and practice management advisor, Heidi Alexander, in 2015. The new ten women of this year’s list were selected by the LTRC Board.
I was so happy when Sofia Lingos, vice-chair of LTRC, brought me the news that Heidi had proposed that LTRC become the home for her list and a place where the list could become even more visible and influential. As chair of LTRC this year (and, I hope, at least next year too), I want to highlight the work done by Sofia, Heidi, Gwynne Monahan, Allison Shields, Wendy Werner and Rose Frommelt on this project. This project could not have been in better hands.
As post says:
In keeping with the spirit of progress, the Legal Technology Resource Center is proud to present its inaugural “Women of Legal Tech” for 2016. Our goal is to celebrate the women currently in the legal tech space, and to encourage more women to join the ranks.
To celebrate AND to encourage.
When Heidi’s original post appeared in 2015, I celebrated it as a place to point people who said to me that they “couldn’t find” women to speak on legal tech. This list gives them no excuses anymore. As some readers know, I actively avoid appearing on any men-only panels. This list will make it easier for me to accomplish that and help many conferences and events gain from adding excellent speakers from this Women of Legal Tech list.
As the post concludes:
LTRC congratulates the first “Women in Legal Tech” class and looks forward to highlighting even more talented women in 2017.
If you haven’t visited the Legal Technology Resource Center in a while, I encourage you to stop by and see what we are doing.
– Dennis
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy
LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers (Second Edition), the new book from Allison Shields and me, is now available (iBook version also available). Our previous book, Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers, is also available (iBook version here). Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.
The 2015 ABA TECHREPORT is out. 
The TECHREPORT is a set of free articles where the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center has legal technology expert analyze and summarize data from the 2015 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report.
I chipped in with an article on cloud computing survey results. The highlights:
Law firm managing partners had the highest level of reported cloud usage (46%) and a noticeably more positive response to the cloud than partners or associates.
Confidentiality, security, data control and ownership, ethics, vendor reputation and longevity, and other concerns weigh heavily on the minds of lawyers. Yet the employment of precautionary measures is quite low, with no more than 40% of respondents actually taking any one of the standard cautionary measures listed in the 2015 Survey. A shocking 16% reported taking no precautions of the types listed.
The results indicate that lawyers are becoming more familiar with cloud technologies and are attracted by anytime, anywhere access, low cost of entry, and predictable monthly expenses. Interestingly, the top features of cloud services cited by those using the cloud is different from the features those not using the cloud consider most important.
Speaking of LTRC, the excellent Law Technology Today blog has a new roundtable article called “Don’t Be Afraid, It’s Just New Technology” featuring members of the LTRC Board discussing the best ways to learn about new technology. I’m one of the panelists and part of a stellar group.
Finally, Tom Mighell and I have been cranking out episodes of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on regular basis (usually every other Friday) on the Legal Talk Network. I encourage you to listen the some of the recent ones:
Please enjoy.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy
LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers (Second Edition), the new book from Allison Shields and me, is now available (iBook version also available). Our previous book, Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers, is also available (iBook version here). Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.
Last summer, I was asked the question “Are there really too many lawyers?” I wrote a reply and remembered the other day that I never posted it.
Unlike when you write something for a print publication and might have to wait months for an article to appear, the great benefit of having your own blog is that you can publish it to the world immediately – assuming that you remember to do so.
In the spirit of clearing out 2015 to get a fresh start in 2016, here’s my answer, at least last summer (because I haven’t edited it), to the question “Are there really too many lawyers?”
The science fiction writer William Gibson (@greatdismal) his the source of the well-known quote, “The future has arrived – it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” That’s a good framework to consider the “too many lawyers” question.
That question suggests that the primary issue is one of quantity and the Goldilocksian test of too much, too little or just right. However, that approach misses the most interesting and important facets of the question – distribution, allocation and, ultimately, adaptability of lawyers and the legal profession.
There are a lot of lawyers in the US – a whole lot of them – and many more enter the profession every year. Lawyers also have a tendency not to retire, at least not at an age like 65. The total number inexorably grows.
At the same time, we all see stats that perhaps 80% of people (and probably small businesses) can’t afford or find the lawyers to perform the legal services they need. There are areas like public defenders, judges and certain practice areas where there is a strong feeling that there simply aren’t enough lawyers. In my own world of information technology law, I would say that there is a severe shortage of lawyers knowledgeable in the practice area, which expands and grows more complex almost daily, or so it seems.
Perhaps paradoxically, we also live at a time where it is very difficult for lawyers to get tradition law firm jobs. Some would argue that we’ve had a few “lost years” where only a very small fraction of law school graduates got traditional law opportunities.
What I see is not a “quantity” issue, but an imbalance of supply and demand. In other words, the future of legal services might already be here, but it’s not evenly distributed yet. There is a mismatch of client need and lawyer availability, all aggravated by technology change (think Internet), geographic mobility (general population but not lawyer regulation) and, increasingly, globalization.
The “too many lawyers” question, to me, opens up the issues of legal service distribution and allocation of legal resources and alignment with the changing needs of an increasingly mobile, global and savvy client population with difficult and novel legal issues.
In so many ways, the practice of law has never been so interesting as it is today, with opportunities for creative approaches, futuristic technology tools, and ways to play a key role in the accelerating pace of change we see today.
However, too often today lawyers bemoan the “decline of the profession,” want to pull up the drawbridges and fill up the moats, and try to go back in time to some “mythical good times.”
We live in a world where commerce routes around “friction.” Lawyers have too often allowed themselves to be seen as part of the friction rather than the enablers of new approaches. The path of the Internet is littered with those who felt that what they did was so unique that the Internet would not be able to route around them.
The successful lawyers of the near future will be those who can better distribute and make available their services to the clients who need them. The successful firms will be the ones best able to identify, hire, retain and allocate lawyers to client needs. It’s not rocket science, but it requires a clear-eyed look at the present and the future and a willingness to look to new models rather than return to old structures. At least in my opinion.
The key is adaptability. Can lawyers adapt to changing times? It is reasonable to expect drastic changes on a regular basis within traditional practice areas. It is reasonable to expect clients to change, evolve and disappear. Lawyers must be adaptable to an accelerating pace of change.
Too many lawyers? I don’t know if there’s a magic number. I do know that the number of lawyers is not well distributed from the client perspective. Too many lawyers with adaptability? Not by a long shot. And, unfortunately for many lawyers who hesitate on adapting, the future is already here.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy
LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers (Second Edition), the new book from Allison Shields and me, is now available (iBook version also available). Our previous book, Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers, is also available (iBook version here). Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.
Welcome to the 2015 edition of Dennis Kennedy’s annual Best of Law-related Blogging Awards, affectionately known as the “Blawggies.”
The Blawggies, which honor the best law-related blogs as determined from my personal and highly-opinionated perspective, were first unleashed on an unsuspecting blogosphere in December 2004 and are an annual tradition here at DennisKennedy.Blog.
In perhaps the majority of those 12 years, there has been an end-of-the-year debate about whether blogging, especially law-related blogging is “dead” or no longer relevant. 2015 is no exception. I like what Kevin O’Keefe has to say on that topic.
I’ve started to wonder whether there might be some truth and substance at the foundation of those questions. It strikes me there are fewer memorably individual blogs than ever before even though there are plenty of firm and group blogs. And there are plenty of niche and practice-area blogs. However, there is definitely less of what Dave Winer drives at in his seminal definition of a blog – “the unedited voice of a person.” I have always liked that definition of blogging.
I also realize that the blogs I read are not the same blogs that many other lawyers read – for many different reasons. It has become difficult to appreciate what blogs are part of what the “general legal audience” reads. Perhaps selfishly (and tautologically), I ultimately care about only the blogs that I care about.
At the same time, longtime bloggers have turned to social media, podcasts and video as better media for them than blogging, even though their blogs still exist. I’m an example of that, with a posting frequency of about a post a month. I see the Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast as the primary outlet for what I was once writing on my blog. 
To a lesser extent, my ABA Journal column is also an outlet for material that would have gone into my blog in the past.
ANNOUNCING THE 2015 BLAWGGIE WINNERS. When I looked over the 2014 Blawggie awards in preparation for making the 2015 Blawggie awards, I decided that it really was a good list and I wasn’t sure how I’d change it for 2015.
After much thought and consultation, my blog and I have decided that for the 2015 Blawggie Awards, the winners are the 2014 Blawggie Award winners.
In a way, that feels a bit like cheating, so we needed to come up with something extra for you the reader.
Since I have have turned so much toward audio and podcasts for information and entertainment in the place of blogs, I thought it might be good to offer readers a glimpse into the podcasts I listen to and how I now use podcasts.
Podcast Listening App. Another iTunes update that broke the Podcast app, and I moved away from iTunes plus the Apple Podcast app to the dedicated podcast app, Overcast (now free). Although there are some differences that impact the way I used to organize podcasts for listening, I’m generally happy with the switch, especially Overcast’s approach to speeding up the playback of podcasts and squeezing dead air out of podcasts. You can also use Overcast as an online service at Overcast.FM.
Podcast Search. I found iTunes podcast search to be a great way to do research. If I wanted a good overview of a topic, an interview of a book author, or other information, either introductory or advanced, on a topic, searching for relevant podcast episodes on iTunes was a great way to do that. Overcast is not as good, but OK for now. I cannot recommend this approach to using podcasts episodes to find focused information enough. Another handy podcast search tool is Huffduffer.
Listen to Podcasts on a Trial Basis. When I find an interesting podcast, go ahead and subscribe to it. If it’s not that interesting to me, I unsubscribe fairly quickly. Not all podcasts or podcasts episodes are great or what you want. That’s why listening at a higher speed is a great approach. Listen and edit aggressively.
Law-related Podcasts. The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast is on the Legal Talk Network. LTN has a lot of great law-related podcasts and is always the best place to start for finding useful law-related podcasts in one place. For other law-related podcasts, you’ll have to do some searching and know what you are looking for. Using iTunes to search for and identify promising podcasts in your area of interest is a great way to start.
Podcasts Related to Your Practice. Ultimately, law-related podcasts may not be the tool that helps you the most. If you represent clients in certain industries, podcasts on the industries might be way more helpful to you than legal podcasts. In my world of digital payments, podcasts like the Consult Hyperion podcast and Payments of Fire are much more useful that any law-related podcasts I’ve found. Podcasts that keep you up on news, developments, trends, industry players and the like may well make your clients feel that you are much more helpful as a lawyer.
A Huge Sampling of Podcasts I Listen to These Days. I’m disappointed that there’s not a great way to collect, send out and share links to podcasts episodes that you like. Huffduffer is one example. Some people tweet about a great podcast episode. But it’s hard to make the move from seeing a link to listening to the episode. Here are some podcasts I’ve enjoyed at various time in 2015 to give you some ideas of what podcasts you might want to try. I’ve added links (a process that only reinforced for me how difficult it is to share links to podcasts – I suggest looking for any of these that interests you in iTunes our the podcast app you use).
A16z
Ari Meisel – Less Doing
Bill Simmons Podcast
Consult Hyperion podcast
Cool Tools
The Critical Path
The Current from CBC Radio
Cycling 360
Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast
Great Work Podcast
Happier with Gretchen Rubin
HBR Idealist
In Our Time
the Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast (of course)
Lawyerist Podcast
Legal Talk Network podcasts
Listen to Lucy (Financial Times)
Mac Power Users
The Needle and the Mouse
Pardon the Interruption
Payments of Fire
Rdella Training
Seminars about Long-term Thinking
The Slate Political Gabfest
Spark from CBC Radio
TechNation Radio Podcast
The Torch: The Great Courses Podcast
Wealthtrack’s Podcast
What’s the Point
Well, there you have it – the 2015 Blawggie Awards post. The winners can be found here. The Blawggies have always aimed to inform, educate and surprise. In 2015, the emphasis was on surprise.
Best wishes to all for 2016.
– DennisKennedy.Blog and Dennis
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy
LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers (Second Edition), the new book from Allison Shields and me, is now available (iBook version also available). Our previous book, Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers, is also available (iBook version here). Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.
I’m a big fan of the Law Technology Today blog. [Disclosure: I’m the chair of the board for the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center, which publishes the blog.
A new monthly feature of the blog is a roundtable discussion post featuring members of the LTRC Board and occasional guests. The series is a great way to hear the perspectives of some of the leading thinkers on legal technology issues in an accessible and fun way.
The format has been to serve up five questions on a topic to the roundtable participants and let the participants run with the questions.
The November roundtable on password management is probably the best one so far, in large part due to the large number of participants. While it was a little crowded around the table, I believe the the more the merrier.
The password management discussion is full of practical tips, key insights and informed perspectives. You can learn a lot from the discussion. I sure did.
Earlier roundtables covered artificial intelligence, automation and digital assistants.
I invite you to read the roundtable posts and to visit the Law Technology Today blog on a regular basis, or, even better, subscribe to it in your favorite newsreader. The LTRC board also welcomes your comments and suggestions for future roundtable topics.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy
LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers (Second Edition), the new book from Allison Shields and me, is now available (iBook version also available). Our previous book, Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers, is also available (iBook version here). Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.
