Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Denise writes one of the first and most popular law-related blogs, Bag and Baggage, coined the term "blawg" and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law. "Sound Policy" is Denise's show at IT Conversations, and it's also what she hopes results from the briefs she submits to court. Email Denise at dhowell@gmail.com.
Dennis Kennedy is a computer lawyer and legal technology expert based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author, a frequent speaker and a widely-read blogger, he has more than 300 publications on legal, technology and Internet topics, many of which are collected in his e-books. Dennis has been described as someone who knows almost every rock song in existence and, more importantly, how they apply to technology and law. Email Dennis at his gmail address.
Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas. He has published the Internet Legal Research Weekly newsletter since 2000 and blogged about the Internet and legal technology at Inter Alia since August of 2002. With Tom's singing, Ernie on guitar and Dennis' encylopedic knowledge of rock music, we may have the beginnings of a good band, if this whole blog thing doesn't work out. Email Tom at tmighell@swbell.net.
Marty Schwimmer left a partnership in the largest trademark practice in the world and founded Schwimmer Mitchell, a full-service IP micro-boutique in Westchester County, New York, where he represents owners of famous and not yet famous trademarks. He founded The Trademark Blog, the first IP law blog and the one with the most pictures. He is the first to come in and the last to leave in his firm. Email Marty at marty@schwimmerlegal.com.
Ernest Svenson practices law with a mid-sized law firm in New Orleans, specializing in business-related lawsuits. Most of his practice takes place in federal court, especially the Eastern District. He is best known for his weblog Ernie the Attorney, which he started as an experiment. Like many experiments it got out of control. Nevertheless, he continues to practice law and, occasionally,
to seek enlightenment. Email Ernest at esvenson@gmail.com.
About this blog
Between Lawyers provides just-in-time group commentary on the issues
raised when technology, culture and the law intersect. We take you
behind the firewalls and conference room doors to show you how
experienced lawyers deal with these issues and help you prepare for
the new challenges we all face. For more, see our introductory post.
I'm planning to write an article about what I'm calling "MacGyver" technology tricks. I'm assuming that you are familiar with the MacGyver concept (or you can wikipedia it).
As an example, consider using a digital camera or cameraphone as a document scanner in a pinch (or sending a document as a fax to a nearby fax machine when you aren't able to print it any other way).
I'm looking for some good examples and wanted to get a little help from the readers of this blog.
Remember, the idea is not something like using the top of your laptop as a cutting board, but ways to use software and hardware in unexpected, but logical and useful ways, in a pinch when you don't have the normal tools available. Another example: using a video iPod to run your PowerPoint presentation when your laptop won't work with the projector. I'm also looking for something that the average lawyer would be able to do with gadgets, hardware and software (or Internet apps) readily at hand for most lawyers.
However, I'm not looking for examples like this one, because it requires that you have a specific device available.
You get the idea.
Let me know your best ideas by leaving a comment to this post or joining the Between Lawyers Facebook Group and leaving your recommendations as a response to the discussion thread there.
The other side of the professional blogging coin is looking at the business ramification of making money with your blogging. This session will cover the things to consider and that you may regret if you wait to long to address: copyright protection, tax ramifications, managing personal vs. paid-for blogging, your site policies, and blogging ethics.
Here are my top ten legal issues pertinent to this discussion; what are yours?
1. Communications policies (your own, or someone else's which may apply)
2. Intellectual property (your own and third parties')
3. Indirect liability for third party acts
4. Civility
5. Ethics
6. Privacy
7. E-commerce
8. Data ownership, responsibilities
9. Minors
10. Special considerations for regulated businesses/industries
Defining community and loosely-joined individuals and interest groups
Community goals and governance (or lack thereof)
External innovation communities such as Procter & Gamble's and ownership issues
Intellectual and liability concerns for company-owned or associated communities
Whether an initiative similar to the Creative Commons movement has or is in the process of emerging
Ownership issues and risk-minimization around products or services that emerge from external ideas
Variations on open source licenses
Individual rights and protections for community contributors and participants
Anonymity and accountability
Nefarious community exploitation: gaming, hacking, spamming
Trust and reputation management
The use of trademark law to use and manage community involvement; selective enforcement, the expansion of certification marks
Insurance industry mechanisms and models
Defamation
Company-sponsored (and owned) communities, and the actions taken by participants who find the terms and conditions of such initiatives too draconian
"Innovator's dilemma" management and patent strategy and the tension between old, successful products and those developed with help from outsourced customer communities
Our rescheduled conference call in anticipation of Community 2.0 (details here) takes place today at 1:00 p.m. PST/3:00 p.m. EST. Call-in details are here, please join us if you are interested.
In connection with our session at the the upcoming Community 2.0 conference, law professor Mike Madison and I will be hosting a public conference call on Monday, February 26 beginning at 1:00 p.m. PST, and we'd love your participation to help us hone in on the ownership considerations (IP; attention; identity), and issues of governance and liability, most critical to the creation, maintenance, and long-term health of business communities. The call will be recorded and made available as a podcast from The Future of Communities blog. You can join us as follows:
From Skype: +990008275785861
From a regular phone (long distance costs apply): US: 1-605-475-8590
In Europe, call: Germany 01805 00 7620 UK 0870 738 0763
[Update, Monday 2/26 @ 1:15 p.m.:] Unfortunately, we had problems with the conferencing service lined up to support this, so are having to reschedule. I'll post the new date, time, and call-in details once they're available, sorry for the delay.
There's nothing more fun than when a couple of us here at the Between Lawyers blog actually get the chance to get together in person.
Tom Mighell and I (Dennis Kennedy) just returned home from a presentation on electronic discovery (From Basics to Beyond) we did in Washington, DC for a law department.
It reminded me to mention the obvious. All of us at Between Lawyers are available, individually and in combinations, to speak on a variety of topics for your events, groups or organizations. We'll be posting more information about that soon, but, if interested, be sure to contact us to see if there are ways we might work together to present topics of interest.
Must-read (and Must-Think-About) Blogging from Denise Howell
"Have Aeron Will Travel" is a must-read blog post from Between Lawyers' own Denise Howell. I don't think you'll find a better-written and more savvy post on the practice of law this year, making its subject especially ironic. Let me say simply and clearly that there is no one more respected in the world of law-related blogging than Denise Howell (see lifetime achievement award comments here).
I'll have more to say on this subject later after I give it some more thought, but I'm simply flummoxed by the decision Denise discusses in the post. Jeaneane Sessum has some comments that represent a good starting point to think about the issues raised in Denise's post.
A firm cannot prosper without keeping its best people and the best people will always have choices which they will exercise based on their drive for self actualization. The Managing Partners who understand this and manage accordingly will be judged as our profession's greatest heroes.
I'll simply echo Steve Nipper's question about the consequences, especially the unintended ones, of continuing to apply Law 1.0 concepts in an evolving Law 2.0 world, especially when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. How many law students interviewing with Reed Smith this fall will ask a question about Denise? How many of them will be satisfied with the answers they get?
As I said, I'm flummoxed by Reed Smith's decision-making process. After 20+ years of practicing law, however, I do have my own ways to read the tea leaves in this decision and it definitely raises some interesting questions and speculation that will probably be discussed at the firm in the coming days. I'll probably talk about those on my own blog at some point soon.
It will be our pleasure to hold down the fort at the Between Lawyers blog while Denise takes a well-earned break. Buon viaggio, Denise.
Tom and Dennis have posted Episode 3 of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast, in which they talk about their recent trip to the ABA TECHSHOW and developments in legal technoloogy and the implications for lawyers, law firms and clients of lawyers.
Dennis Kennedy will be one of the presenters for the May 18 teleseminar "Technology Primer for Solos and Small Firms." Attendee who register on or before May 12 have the chance to win a copy of the Fourth Edition of the excellent book, Flying Solo.
This teleseminar may be of special interest to big firm lawyers thinking about a solo career because you won't have the risk of running into one of your colleagues in the seminar room. ;-)
Whilst Denise is blogging about blogging (and talking about it as well), 60% of the Between Lawyers gang gathered in Chicago for ABA TECHSHOW. We'll be looking for Marty here next year.
Dennis has also written a new article on his top ten tips for law firm technology committees that will only be available to attendees of the video webinar. This seminar is geared toward members of a law firm technology committees, managing partners and IT directors. Register here.
We at Between Lawyers are fans of Sabrina Pacifici (BeSpacific.com; LLRX.com) and we are not the only ones. The new article on Sabrina in the Library Journal shows why she is one the most-respected of all law-related bloggers and one of the most-repected law librarians in the world. Congratulations to Sabrina on the well-deserved recognition.
Sabrina will be speaking with Tom Mighell of Betwen Lawyers in a session called "Advanced Searching: Beyond Google and Yahoo!" at the ABA TECHSHOW on April 21.
[From Professor Sameulson:] Rather than impose a set of rules, [the CEO] should start a conversation within the firm about the risks and opportunities that blogging poses. [The company] should establish norms, tailored to its own market and culture, that respond to the challenges posed by blogging and other Web phenomena.
[From Ray Ozzie, regarding Groove Networks' pioneering blogging policy:] The policy was designed to address four areas of concern: that the public would consider an employee's postings to be official company communications, rather than expressions of personal opinion; that confidential information—our own or a third party's—would be inadvertently or intentionally disclosed; that the company, its employees, partners, or customers would be disparaged; and that quiet periods imposed by securities laws or other regulations would be violated.
I purchased a license for "A Blogger In Their Midst" that will let me distribute copies. I should have some extras after the conference, so if you're interested let me know and I'll be happy to forward one.
If you want to hear some more of my thoughts on where technology is taking the practice of law, I'm interviewed as part of a new podcast from Thomson West and locatable here as episode 2.
Tom and I have been discussing and starting to work on a podcast series that we hope to launch by the first of March.
Tom and I have put together the details for the Sunday evening blogger meetup we're putting together while we are in New York for the LegalTech conference.
This is going out to everyone who expressed interest in meeting up (bloggers or otherwise) on Sunday night in NYC. Rather than try to find a restaurant that would fit all of us, we decided that you're on your own for dinner. Let's meet for drinks at 8:00 p.m. at the Hilton New York's Bridge Bar. The address is 1335 Avenue of the Americas. It's just off the lobby. The Hilton is where LegalTech will be held, so hopefully you'll all be somewhere in the neighborhood.
See you Sunday night!
Tom, Dennis and Marty(?) (we're still not sure whether Marty will be able to make it there)
Mining the Value of Metadata in Electronic Discovery
"Mining the Value of Metadata" is the new Thinking E-Discovery column from Dennis Kennedy, Tom Mighell and Evan Schaeffer over at DiscoveryResources.org. It's a wide-ranging discussion with quite a few practical pointers that may save you some future embarrassment.
We've returned from the largest gathering of the Between Lawyers group to date, topping the previous record of three in one place. At the recent BlawgThink conference, Tom, Marty, Ernie and I got together as speakers, attendees and friends. Denise had another commitment. We sure missed her and the rest of us vowed to find a way to get the five of us together. We're thinking that any number of conferences might benefit from getting the five of us to speak at a panel session. Conference planners take note.
Evan Schaeffer and Between Lawyers' own Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy have written a new column where we take on one of the most interesting questions in the practice of law in 2005: if everyone thinks that electronic discovery is the next big thing in the practice of law and is so important, why are lawyers staying away from electronic discovery in droves?
I was thinking after we had our discussion of metadata in Word documents the other day on Between Lawyers that electronic discovery could actually be fun - checking for metadata and using all the new electronic discovery tools. Most lawyers, it seems, prefer to stay squarely in the world of paper. I've even heard that some judges make it all but impossible for lawyers who want to get electronic files to obtain them.
Is your lawyer asking you to print out documents for a hoard of high-paid associates to review or more comfortable pawing through a banker's box of papers than mousing through computer files? Maybe it's time for clients to become a lot more concerned about what their legal fees buy them in the world of practice-as-usual. In any event, you'll want to read the column to see how Evan, Tom and I grapple with the question. It's a thorough, well-rounded conversation that will make you think.
The three of us write a regular, more or less monthly column called Thinking E-Discovery on the DiscoveryResources.org site.
A few notes on upcoming appearances by members of the Between Lawyers group:
Tom and I (Dennis) will be at the ABA Law Practice Management Section's Fall Meeting in Philadelphia. There will be some other bloggers there as well. We're planning to do some kind of blogger meet-up (very informal and very lightly organized) in Philadelphia, probably on the evening of October 20. We'll post details, but let us know if you are interested in meeting up with us.
We're still waiting for the first combined appearance of the entire Between Lawyers group (other than Lawyer X, of course). However, you can see a number of us at the BlawgThink 2005 conference on November 11 & 12. If you are interested in blogging, especially blawgs and blogging by and for lawyers, BlawgThink is the place you'll want to be. More information here or contact me directly.
We'd greatly enjoy getting the chance to meet readers of Between Lawyers in person at events like these.
Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy of Between Lawyers will be featured with Raza Hasan (FindLaw's Manager of Product Development) in a free one-hour webinar called "Blogs for Lawyers: Building an Audience to Build Your Practice," brought to you by the nice people at Thomson FindLaw.
We'll cover the world of lawyer blogs in general and talk about how lawyers are using blogs and where legal blogs are headed. Our focus will be on practical, useful information. The webinar is designed to be at the introductory level, but even long-time bloggers will benefit from the material covered in the webinar.
The webinar will be produced live twice on Tuesday, August 9 and here are the links:
Hope to see you there. Please pass the word along to anyone you think might be interested in this webinar. And keep your eyes and ears open for future appearances by members of the Between Lawyers group. Maybe we'll be coming to your town.
Denise Howell
Dennis M. Kennedy
Tom Mighell
Marty Schwimmer
Ernest Svenson
