Dennis Kennedy

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February 24, 2004

Judge Paula Bryant

I love it when my friends get the recognition and rewards that they deserve. Missouri governor Bob Holden has appointed Paula Bryant as a new associate circuit judge in the 22nd Judicial Circuit in St. Louis City.

Paula and I spent some time early in our careers as law clerks for the 22nd Circuit and have been good friends for more years than our youthful appearances might suggest. We got to work with some great judges who were very influential on our later careers.

Paula has always wanted to be a judge and it is so cool that she has attained that goal. I have no doubt that she will be an excellent judge.

Posted by dmk at 10:45 PM

February 19, 2004

Jurist's Free Legal News Feed

Bernard Hibbitt's is one of the pioneers of legal websites. I wanted to help get the word out on Jurist's Paper Chase, a legal news service edited at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law by Professor Bernard Hibbitts and a volunteer staff of law students. You or your firm can add this news feed to your website by following these instructions. Be sure to check out the other great features of the Jurist site.

Posted by dmk at 12:01 AM

February 18, 2004

Six Little Rules on WiFi Security

From Wi-Fi Networking News: A short, to-the-point article on About.com sets out a handy list of the basic rules for making a solid effort to secure a wireless home network.

To summarize:

1. Change the System ID

2. Disable Identifier Broadcasting

3. Enable Encryption

4. Restrict Unnecessary Traffic

5. Change the Default Administrator Password

6. Patch and Protect Your PCs

If you want to play wireless networking, consider these six steps to be the minimum price of admission. Anything less is irresponsible.

Posted by dmk at 11:50 PM

February 17, 2004

Happy Birthday to Me and My Blog

What do I share with sports legends Michael Jordan and Jim Brown? A February 17 birthday.

Well, today's my birthday and also a time to celebrate the first anniversary of DennisKennedy.Blog. My blog was my birthday present to myself last year and what a great gift it was - a gift that keeps on giving.

I've greatly enjoyed the new vistas the blog has opened for me and thank all all the fellow bloggers and blog readers around the world I got the chance to meet or communicate with over the past year.

For those who wish to celebrate my birthday in a more traditional way:

1. Send me something on my Amazon WishList.

2. Make a donation to one of the charities on my GiveList.

3. I have a growing collection of cool tech giveaway items (you know, like the logoed giveaway items you get in exhibit halls). If you are doing some cool new giveaway items for 2004, you can add me to your recipient list - T-shirt size = Large.

For the upcoming year, expect the announcement of a few changes, some new approaches, more information and links, and, as some have already noticed, sponsors for the blog, starting with Fios, Inc. and CaseSoft.

Posted by dmk at 11:59 AM

February 13, 2004

Abraham Lincoln on the Practice of Law

David Giacalone's post "A Lincolnesque Law Practice?" collects a number of excerpts from Abraham Lincoln's writings about the practice of law. Giacalone weaves the excerpts together in a way that makes for a pleasantly educational read for a Friday.

Posted by dmk at 11:35 AM

February 09, 2004

David Giacalone on "Virtual Law Firms"

David Giacalone has had a couple of very interesting posts recently. The first was called Can We Talk About "Virtual" English? and addressed the important issue of how "early adopters" need to take care with using acronyms and terms that are unnecessarily confusing to the general public.

David used a recent article of mine on "virtual law firms" as an example. Fortunately, I cleverly defined the term in my article, in no small part to avoid the issues David raises. I use the term "virtual law firm" almost exclusively when my main audience will be the lawyers and technologists who have a familiarity with both the concept and the use of the term as short-hand. I don't think that it makes any sense to use the term when the audience is the public at large. Even in other contexts, I tend to define the term because I use the term in the sense of non-formalized collaborations, almost in the sense of food co-ops in rural areas, but also in the sense of project teams as Tom Peters might describe them.

The use of technology jargon, especially when combined with legal jargon, is both an occupational hazard and a practice to be avoided.

I was also interested in another post by David called Disappeared from eBlawg Cyberspace, which discussed the disappearance of comments and other items from blogs. I must admit that my first reaction was "Hey, it wasn't me," but I've followed these types of issues with interest for a while.

I have always taken a Reaganesque "I paid for this microphone" approach to allowing comments on this blog. I prefer that people simply email me or comment on their own blogs about my posts. It's hard enough for me to keep up with email - adding the burden of reading and commenting on comments sounds like no fun whatsoever. And, I'm an email person at heart - I always email bloggers about their posts even when comments are enabled.

With another type of blog, I might well allow comments, but they don't really fit with what I want to do and, frankly, I would have shut them down after getting the first spam comment in any event. The Megnut 3 question approach is an excellent guide to thinking about comments from my point of view, but question #2 will knock me out of the box every time.

Posted by dmk at 10:23 PM

New IP Memes for 2004

TechnoLawyer.com has launched the 2004 volume of the IP Memes Newsletter, which "consists of technology-related intellectual property 'memes' — IP issues that have just begun to surface and may soon become important legal issues."

In 2003, Gail Standish, Kevin Grierson and I (along with a lot of behind the scenes helps from the TechnoLawyer staff) co-wrote each week's issue.

In 2004, we are adding two new stellar contributors, Kurt Calia and world famous legal blogger, Denise "Bag & Baggage" Howell, and taking a different approach where each of us will write entire issues on a rotating basis. I drew the short straw and led off 2004 with the issue that came out today.

This issue covers the Eolas patent issue, the current debate over software patents in the European Union, the recent Japanese court decision that awarded the inventor of the blue LED 20 billion yen, the useful resources at the US Department of Justice Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, new digital rights management developments in wireless, and intellectual property issues in the virtual gaming world.

Here's the good news - you can subscribe to the IP Memes newsletter for free simply by joining the TechnoLawyer Community (a reasonably convenient registration process is required). Even better news - a good number of other features and newsletters related to the use of technology in the practice of law are also available to members of the TechnoLawyer Community. Check it out.

Posted by dmk at 09:28 PM

February 06, 2004

Virus Lessons - Asleep at the Wheel

Will we learn any lessons from the latest round of viruses?

The recent round was discouraging for at least two reasons. First, the viruses once again exploited well-publicized security holes for which patches and protection were widely available. Second, the combination of the automatic actions of anti-virus notifications and spam filtering systems greatly amplified the impact of the problem, turning the intended cure into at least as much a problem as the virus itself.

What might be worse is that the virus may well have signaled the quickening of the death spiral of the utility of email. In my case, because of intermittent bouncing of messages to me and instances of spam filters blocking some messages from me, I have no confidence that I received all of the messages I should have or that recipients got the messages I sent. for the last week or so. I spoke with LawTech Guru Jeff Beard today and he mentioned that it feels like we are back in the early days of email when you had to call people up and check to make sure they got your emails.

One piece of good news is that Dann Sheridan has posted an article called "Asleep at the Wheel," that nicely summarizes the issues and, more important, points to some very useful resources.

A quote from the article well worth your consideraqtion: "These things only get bigger each time they hit. What’s it going to take?"

Posted by dmk at 09:34 PM

February 03, 2004

Paperless Home - Brad Templeton

Brad Templeton proposes a simple approach to making your home more paperless.

It's a simple variation on the "scan everything" approach that incorporates a flash memory card. What's intriguing is that this addition may well give the approach the necessary little push to make it work. It's an idea that I want to take a serious look at.

Note to scanner manfacturers: you might want to give some serious consideration to this approach too.

Posted by dmk at 09:50 AM

CIO.com: Software License Disputes: You Sue, You Lose

Scott Berinato's CIO.com article, You Sue, You Lose: The High Cost of Litigation is such a direct and to-the-point discussion of the no-win world of litigating software and IT project disputes and the necessity for negotiating good contract language that I wish that I had written it as a marketing piece for my legal practice.

Here's the summary:

"The rise in lawsuits over failed software projects demonstrates a truism — everyone loses in court. CIOs can avoid a legal morass by doing up-front contract work to protect their companies' interests.

The money quote: "What shocks lawyers about software project disputes is the utter avoidability of the complaints. These suits are about the failure of CIOs and other executives to legally prepare for failed projects."

Amen. This article is an excellent primer for anyone working on, reviewing or negotiating an IT project agreement of any kind. Focusing on some key issues at the front end of the process may well save you heartache down the road. It will give you some solid, practical information of the kind that I try to provide on a regular basis in my Practical Technology Contract Review News.

Posted by dmk at 09:39 AM

How Appealing Will Big Firm Life Remain for Blawgers

I send my best wishes to pioneering legal blogger Howard Bashman on his recent decision to leave his old firm and start a new practice.

Close readers of my recent article on legal technology trends for 2004 will note that one of the key trends I identified was a movement of prominent big firm lawyers to solo and small firm practices. Bashman's move is an example of exactly what I expected to see when I made these comments.

This trend raises a number of intriguing questions and opportunities.

Look at the legal talent now involved in blogging. Now think about the notion of "virtual law firms" and elawyering. Is the idea of the "Blawger Law Firm," with the innovation that term implies, all that far-fetched? Just a thought.

Posted by dmk at 12:00 AM