The Kennedy-Mighell Report

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Invisible Apps: Behind the Scenes of Mobile May 22, 2015

Show notes

“Invisible apps” are background programs that automatically trigger functions without being opened. Examples include automatic notification or emails based on a trigger, a personal concierge, or a password manager. In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss invisible apps, how they might impact or benefit lawyers, and whether they are the leading edge of a much more significant mobile technology wave.

Special thanks to our sponsor, ServeNow.

After A Decade of Legal Blogs or "Blawging"... May 08, 2015

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In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss recent commentary on the last decade of blawging, the current state of blawging, and the future of online interaction and marketing for lawyers. They discuss whether legal blogs are still popular, how the online landscape has changed for legal professionals, and what might be replacing the personal law blog. Tom notes that due to podcasts, social media, and general writing exhaustion, individual lawyers are updating less often or have stopped all together. Dennis talks about how there are more law firm and group blogs that are SEO optimized and targeted for marketing. They both agree that blawging is not dead, but has changed remarkably in the past ten years. Special thanks to our sponsor, ServeNow.

Dennis and Tom go to ABA TECHSHOW 2015 Apr 24, 2015

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In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell reflect on their experiences at TECHSHOW 2015, share notes on legal technology trends and products, and have the aftershow discussion that they didn’t have time to have at the show. In a general overview, Kennedy discussed spending time at the concierge desk and catching up with old connections. Mighell commented on how the conference is about building relationships, gaining outstanding technology education, and interacting personally with vendors. The hosts also discuss top highlights from TECHSHOW, new products that excited them (pay attention for Legal Earth, Zola, and others), and the Appathon hosted by the ABA Legal Technology Research Center (LTRC). Finally, Kennedy and Mighell analyze whether similar conferences are still relevant as and how TECHSHOW might be adapted to a global legal community in the future.

Adopting Legal Technology: A Human Problem? Apr 10, 2015

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In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss why legal technology projects fail, the human element of legal technology, and why Woldow and Richardson’s blog post should launch some important conversations. When addressing the fundamental problems lawyers have with technology (a common subject) Kennedy believes lawyers seek an unachievable standard; they want something impossibly intuitive and easy to use that fills all management and accounting needs. He also mentions that efficiency technologies are counter-intuitive to the billable hour. Mighell believes that lawyers will only adopt technology through client or management pressure and encouragement. In the end, they both agree that technology can be used to streamline or automate busywork, leaving more time for quality legal analysis. Special thanks to our sponsor, ServeNow.

Only the Shadow IT Knows Mar 27, 2015

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In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell explain why shadow IT happens, discuss implications to the company’s IT and legal departments, and suggest steps employers can take to resolve the prevalence of shadow IT in their own companies (hint: it doesn’t involve more regulations). Kennedy and Mighell describe the different forms of shadow IT that have been used over time, from personal instant messaging before companies introduced accepted ones, to current cloud-based softwares like Basecamp and Dropbox used for project management and collaboration. Mighell even suggests that backing up your email on a home computer can be considered shadow IT due to issues created in data preservation and discovery. Shadow IT causes issues for IT departments, because they can’t control the hardware and software being used, legal departments, because of regulatory issues in electronic discovery, and even human resources departments due to unseeable employee interactions. Tune in to hear what Kennedy and Mighell explain as a relatively simple solution to technology workarounds.

A Few of Our Favorite (Tech) Accessories Mar 13, 2015

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Lawyers often focus on the core elements of hardware technology: computers, tablets, and smartphones. However, the best experiences with hardware are driven by and dependent on the way we accessorize and personalize them. Most people choose their technology accessories based on word-of-mouth recommendations from friends, family, colleagues, or other connections. So what are lawyers using and buying today? In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell talk about accessorizing technology, discuss some of their favorite accessories, and recommend ways lawyers can accessorize their smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Kennedy and Mighell have some favorites that they want to share and they would like to hear about your favorites too!

Revisiting Technology: The Paperless Office Feb 27, 2015

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In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell reexamine the paperless office, survey the current process of going paperless, and speculate as to whether the era of the paperless office might have actually arrived. Kennedy muses the “if it comes to you in paper, it stays in paper” mentality of lawyers. While he points out that many of the themes around going paperless are processor powers, speed, bandwidth, the cloud, smartphones, and apps, his true hangup is with storage and organization. With an optimistic mentality, Mighell discusses getting more lawyers to use scanners, making sure they are never presented with paper copies, and how apps like Genius Scan and Evernote can facilitate the process of going completely paperless. Both Kennedy and Mighell agree that the only way to effectively go paperless is to start with a process and build good habits. Luckily, it’s tax season!

LegalTech New York Recap and the Current State of Smartwatches Feb 19, 2015

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In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Tom Mighell interviews Dennis Kennedy about LegalTech New York 2015, covering highlights from the show and what this year’s event might tell us about future trends in legal technology. As always, e-discovery was a big topic, with an estimated 54% of the vendors falling within the e-discovery category. Kennedy speculates that information governance will be a focus for 2015 as the legal community shifts toward records management, predictive coding, and TAR (Technology Assisted Review). This year boasted fewer new product announcements but many upgrades and new generations. Some interesting collaboration and matter management tools were announced, and Kennedy shares the coolest new thing he saw: an analytics tool that takes a dashboard approach with a user interface reminiscent of an app.

Revisiting Technology: Speech Recognition Jan 30, 2015

Show notes

In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell revisit speech recognition technology, look at the ways people are dictating text today, and discuss arguments for and against using it in your law practice. Mighell discusses how faster speeds and improvement in broadband for Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and other tools have made speech recognition a hot topic. He personally uses dictation most often when sending texts from his smartwatch, but he runs into connectivity issues. Kennedy has recently tried dictation again, yielding relatively successful results, but he would not use it to draft full documents. He discusses lawyers’ interest in full-time dictation, using an application like Dragon Dictation, and how younger lawyers come into the workplace with the ability to type faster and more efficiently than any speech recognition program. Both Kennedy and Mighell agree that the success of speech recognition technology depends mostly on social and cultural acceptability.

The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies Jan 16, 2015

Show notes

Lawyers, even solos, are constantly working with experts, opposing counsel, court officials, and colleagues. Dennis and Tom like to keep an eye on new developments and the current state of collaboration tools and technologies, which they consider one of the most important, yet under-appreciated, areas of legal technology. In 2008, they wrote a book together called The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies, which gives suggestions about the bigger collaboration platforms and smaller discrete tools that lawyers can use to work together. In the last seven years, many collaboration tools have changed but a lot of systems have stayed the same. What's happening in 2015 and what developments do you need to know about and incorporate into your work?

In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell survey the current landscape for collaboration tools, trends and best practices, and what lawyers should be doing to make better use of these tools. They begin by examining their book and the collaboration tools that have disappeared or morphed into different programs. Kennedy mentions that Sharepoint, Wikis, Instant Messaging, Adobe Acrobat, and Microsoft Office Suite can all be used by attorneys and staff to work together, although Mighell is skeptical that many law firms actually use any of these. Both hosts maintain that lawyers almost exclusively use email for collaboration, although they believe future generations of lawyers will introduce a new perspective on technology use. They finish the first section by mentioning social media and listing other underutilized tools for lawyers who work with others on many cases.

In the second portion of the show, Kennedy and Mighell discuss the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The CES revealed the latest consumer technologies to expect throughout the year. They discuss the best and worst of drones, wearables, or new selfie technologies. As always, stay tuned for Parting Shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends.

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