The "official" launch of the book will be at the ABA TECHSHOW 2008, where Tom and Dennis will be speaking on the topic of collaboration tools, and will be happy to sign your copy of the book.

The book reflects the idea of collaboration that underlies the Between Lawyers blog.

Here's the book description from the ABA Web Store:

This first-of-its-kind guide for the legal profession shows you how to use standard technology you already have and the latest "Web 2.0" resources and other tech tools, like Google Docs, Microsoft Office and SharePoint, and Adobe Acrobat, to work more effectively on projects with colleagues, clients, co-counsel and even opposing counsel. In The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, well-known legal technology authorities Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell provide a wealth of information useful to lawyers who are just beginning to try these tools, as well as tips and techniques for those lawyers with intermediate and advanced collaboration experience.

Collaboration technologies and tools are the most important current developments in legal technology and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Explained with minimal technical jargon, the book focuses on highly practical and usable ideas that you can put to work straight away.

With practical advice on how to use specific tools and concrete action steps to take, lawyers and law firms at all levels will benefit from working together better.

You'll learn:

+ The basics of collaboration and collaboration tools

+ How to select and implement tools and strategies

+ The best ways to collaborate on documents, cases, transactions, and projects

+ How to collaborate inside and outside the office

+ How to collaborate using tools you already have or own

Technology now makes it easier than ever to work with others -- this is the first guide dedicated to the special requirements of the legal world with the practical steps it takes to do it right.

I encourage you to preorder now and take advantage of the 15% discount or to consider ordering the book here if you are reading this at a later date.

In this episode, Dennis and Tom discuss the use (or potential use) of Facebook by lawyers, giving some potential benefits and risks, practical tips, and observations about their experiments in using Facebook. They also talk about how they use the Google Reader for RSS feeds and Google Docs and Spreadsheets for simple collaborations. They also talk about the other podcasts they listen to and how they listen to them.

It's a good introduction for lawyers and other legal professionals to these topics.

You'll find the podcast episode here and there's an archive of earlier podcasts.

It's also a good time to remind you to check out Denise Howell's podcast - This Week in Law - on which you'll find some of the authors of the Between Lawyers blog appearing from time to time.

And, for Facebook members, we invite you to join the Between Lawyers Facebook group.

Without further adieu, you can now check out the Between Lawyers Facebook group.

Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy have posted the latest episode #5 of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, in which they cover the recent ABA TECHSHOW, legal technology trends for 2007, current developments in electronic discovery, and their upcoming book on collaboration tools for lawyers.

Denise Howell has posted the latest episode of This Week in Law, which includes fellow regular Ernie Svenson. An earlier episode feature Between Lawyers' Marty Schwimmer.

Technorati tags: legal technology podcast electronic discovery between lawyers

As Tom Mighell says, "knowing the right questions to ask in an electronic discovery deposition is crucial, and I'd wager most lawyers haven't had the opportunity to ask many questions along those lines."

A good practical article on an important topic.

Nearly every lawyer finds that colleagues, co-counsel, clients and even opposing counsel use the Internet and technology to collaborate and work together on documents, projects and cases. In the simplest scenario, lawyers and clients use the "track changes" feature in Microsoft Word to work together on a document. Technology today lets lawyers take collaboration to the next level. Many legal technology tools now include collaborative elements.

At the same time, lawyers increasingly use the Internet in many ways to work together. From document sharing to videoconferencing, there are more tools than most lawyers can imagine for working together, online.

Two key trends are at play here. First, for years lawyers have understood the clear benefits of collaboration and working together as a routine matter. Second, the availability of simple, inexpensive (even free) collaboration technology has created an environment where working together makes sense to nearly every lawyer in nearly every firm. The push forward on both trends is likely to continue.

Two other important factors also come into play. First, business clients are routinely using technology to collaborate and will expect their lawyers to follow. Therefore, collaboration tools illustrate a classic example of a client-driven technology. Second, events in the world from increased travel costs to possible pandemics make it even more likely that these tools will be adopted by necessity.

To the extent lawyers have experimented with these tools, they may have the nagging feeling that they are simply touching the tip of the iceberg of what might be available to them and how they might use these tools to their benefit. We believe that they are right to feel that way, because it is undoubtedly true.

The book will provide intensely practical advice for lawyers and law firms wanting to take better advantage of these tools and the benefits they bring. It will take a look at how to use these tools wells, focus on both categories of tools and specific individual tools, and provide concrete action steps and techniques so that even the least tech-savvy lawyer can catch up with the early adopters and successful innovators.

Collaboration Tools for Lawyers: Essential New Ways to Work Together with Colleagues, Clients and Even Opposing Counsel, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell (expected publication date: early 2008)

Subscribed!

*Perhaps I'm just tired.

[T]he line between what is public and what is private is increasingly fuzzy for young people comfortable with broadcasting nearly every aspect of their lives on the Web, posting pictures of their grandmother at graduation next to one of them eating whipped cream off a woman's belly. For them, shifting from a like-minded audience of peers to an intergenerational, hierarchical workplace can be jarring.

(Emphasis added.) While I appreciate the clever juxtaposition, and the point that there undeniably is a generation gap between the online mores of under-thirty-somethings and their elders, to suggest that boundary blurring of this sort is an issue unique to the young is to ignore at least the last six years of Web-enabled communications. And to note almost in passing that "some bloggers" say "[a] blog and a job don't necessarily have to clash," is to ignore at least three years worth (and counting) of seismic shift in corporate attitudes toward communications with the outside world. Yes, it's a slow change. But to suggest the change isn't happening — "No Bloggers Need Apply" — misses the boat, and here, I fear, resulted in an alarmist headline and a story that attempted to paint the varied picture of today's business attitudes and relationships with a two-color palette.

[Update:] Slashdotters weigh in.

I know that I'm only an honorary member of the Between Lawyers group, but I can no longer sit idly by waiting until the rest of them, including Ernie, get around to posting about Ernie's big announcement.

As the proverbial ""fly on the wall" to the Between Lawyers conversations, I can tell you that these bloggers definitely leave their best material on their back-channel email discussion list and this topic is no exception. On the other hand, they could be secret agents the way they kept Ernie's announcement secret from the public over the last few weeks.

Once again, I see them having a lot of conversations that just do not make it to the blog, but by the time they decide who is going to announce Ernie's move to solo practice and what that post should say, it will be 2007. Since I'm more the impatient and impulsive type, I finally decided that I had to jump in and make a post. Ernie's so darn modest that he'll never get around to posting this news.

Now that I have the podium again, though, I'll make a few remarks based on my observations as a mostly-slient member of the back-channel email list. It's fascinating what I see.

On the Between Lawyers back-channel list, someone will raise a topic in an email and ask whether it's something they "might" blog about. Then the following happens:

Denise seems to always reply: "Blog it!" Five minutes later, she'll send another email saying that she's already blogged about it, giving it some context, some appropriate links and one of her clever titles. It seems like she's saying "blog it!" as an assignment to herself.

Dennis seems to always say that he had already been thinking about blogging about the topic and expects to post something about it "soon." Then, any time between later that day and two weeks later, the topic will surface in paragraph twelve of a post that initially seems to be on a completely different topic, but you gradually realize puts the topic in a larger context and draws some practical lessons.

Ernie seems to always want to "mull over" what he might say about the topic. Like Dennis, he might or might not write about the topic, but, if he does, he ends up treating the topic in a thoughtful, philosophical way, making a larger point about the topic and its larger implications.

Marty seems to always fire back two or three responses that are either hilarious or perfect for posting to the blog. He also often seem to mention that there are already decided cases on the topic. He insists that he needs to polish his responses and find a suitable picture before he can turn his remarks into a blog post. He then finds something that the Bush administration has done that day that incenses him and he forgets to make the post.

Tom seems to always give the caveat that "he's just a litigator who is not as familiar with the topic as the rest of you." He then offers a concise, spot-on summary of the issue and may post about it and add several perfectly-chosen links to resources that will help people learn more about it.

It's a fascinating interplay to watch. I've often felt that a law school that cared about its students would be smart to swoop in and hire all five of these people, give them tenure and turn them loose to teach students. That's probably why I'm not in charge of hiring professors at a law school.

It's a pleasure to get to look in on what they do, but I do wish that they wouldn't leave so much good material on the cutting room floor.

On behalf of the whole group at Between Lawyers, including Lawyer X, congratulations and bon voyage to Ernie on his new adventure. And, you might want to update that bio in the left-hand column over there, Ernie.

Last night, Marshall and I did an interview session via Skype IM that he's published on the Netsquared site. I cover a wide-ranging list of topics and had a lot of fun doing the interview.

Netsquared has a cool upcoming conference that will bring nonprofit and tech people together. If my interview helps publicize what they are doing, that would be great. Please check out my interview, then spend some time on the Netsquared site and see if you might be able to help out.

Tom and I (Dennis) also participated in a roundtable article in the new issue of the ABA's Law Practice Today that a group of us created using the Web 2.0 tools at Writely.com. The article, "Looking Back and Looking Forward" looks at some of the technology tools we used and liked in 2005. The issue had a "Best of 2005" theme and Tom and I also polished up Tom's "Strongest Links: Ethics" column from earlier in the year, and added in some new, interesting ethics sites. The new column can be found here.

Also, in keeping with the Web 2.0 theme, Ernie has announced a wiki project to help New Orleans lawyers.

I'll note that there's been a lot of discussion about wikis and some new legal wiki projects announced in recent days. It's an area to keep your eyes on.

It's highly likely that we will be putting together a roundtable article about the potential uses of Web 2.0 tools in the legal profession for next month's issue of Law Practice Today. If you are interested in being a contributor to that article, please let me know.

Addition: Marty appears on a church signboard.