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“What I think is happening right now—which

is fascinating to me—is that you have a group

of lawyers who have been blogging for two,

three, four years, who sometimes write

about law and sometimes they don’t. And

then you have sort of a newer group of law

blogs that are very focused on marketing.

They’re really geared toward new clients and

building business and stuff like that. So, it’s

fascinating to me to see how that evolution

is going to occur and how that approach will

work over time. That, to me, is just one more

of the really fun parts of the Internet.”

Kennedy, who has been a lawyer for almost

23 years, wanted to go into the legal field

from the time he was in high school. After

a number of his teachers and professors in

high school and college told him they thought

he’d enjoy working with the law, he decided

there just may be something to their advice.

Since graduating from law school, he has

worked in firms of all sizes; and he thinks

there are good things and bad things about

each. Currently, he is a solo practitioner.

“There are a lot of things I like about what

I’m doing now,” Kennedy said. “In another

sense, when you’re a solo, you’re a solo.

You’re working by yourself most days. So,

there are some aspects to being around

really great people—really good lawyers,

really smart people—that I miss. And then,

as a solo, you don’t get as many chances

to do really big projects that you can really

sink your teeth into that you get a chance to

do at a larger firm. So, there are pluses and

minuses to each approach, and I’ve sort of

been fortunate that I’ve had good results?in

all the different things I’ve done.”

Kennedy said he has always been eager

to embrace new technology. A member of

the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Law

Practice Management Section and the ABA’s

TechShow board, Kennedy said he’s always

been involved in the latest happenings in

regard to technology.

“I was one of the first group of lawyers with

a website back in �995. I was one of the

first group of lawyers with a blog here a few

years ago,” he said. “So, technology and the

Internet have always been key to what I’m

doing, and I left the area of estate planning

because I wanted to do some things I felt

brought me closer to what was happening

with the Internet.”

Kennedy first got into blogging while writing

a column on Internet marketing. So, when

he began to think about experimenting

with his writing, he decided to leap into the

blogosphere.

“I decided I had to have a blog, and I gave it

to myself as a birthday present three years

ago,” Kennedy said. “I would say for me, my

blog is about my writing, but it touches on a

lot of issues. So I, by choice, named my blog

DennisKennedy.blog because I wanted to be

able to write about anything that interested

me; and I felt like if I did the technology

law blog or the legal technology blog or

something like that, then it would be very

limiting. And I didn’t want to do that.”

The Bloggie Awards, Kennedy’s very own

creation, were launched so that he would

have a way to honor bloggers that he felt

were doing a great job. He said, in the

beginning, he thought someone else would

certainly start their own blog awards; but

when they didn’t, he decided to turn them

into an annual event.

“With blogging, you have your own printing

press or radio station,” he said. “So, I wanted

to do this thing where I recognized some of

the people I just thought were doing a great

job with blogging. In the day to day of trying

to think of something to post, you sometimes

don’t mention the people who do a great job

on a daily basis; and you just kind of take that

for granted.”

Kennedy, who speaks to law firms about

integrating technology into their practice

fields, has a lot of advice to give to lawyers

who are resistant to new technological

trends.

“Sometimes I like to say lawyers are at the

awkward age, where both their children and

their parents know more about technology

than they do and are more comfortable

with technology; but I think that there is a

certain fear that lawyers seem to have about

technology, and I realize it’s difficult for

people to get over,” he said. “I always say

you need to find some area of technology—

whether it’s the Internet or something

else—where you can do some things that are

practical that will give you some experience

and give you enough practice so that you can

become a lot more comfortable.”

However, Kennedy thinks that it’s the clients

who will finally succeed in pushing attorneys

toward technology. He feels that the Internet

has made for a more educated client—a

client who expects the use of technology

from his or her attorney.

continued on back

Dennis Kennedy: Author, DennisKennedy.blog [By Charisse Dengler]

In a legal field bursting with blogs, Dennis Kennedy is probably most well known for his annual Bloggie Awards. A true

technology buff, Kennedy is excited to find out what the future of blogging holds.

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“Between clients pushing and electronic

discovery and other things happening, I don’t

think that lawyers are as able to hide from

technology as they used to be in the past

�0 years. You can’t hide from it anymore,”

Kennedy said. “You really have to step up

to the issues. The good news is that the

computers and the software now are great.

They’re so much better than they were in the

past. It’s a great time to learn, because you

can do all this cool stuff now.”

ON THE NET

DennisKennedy.com

www.denniskennedy.com

Dennis Kennedy’s blog

www.denniskennedy.com/blog/index.html

American Bar Association

www.abanet.org