I recently wanted to brainstorm some ideas for new tech/innovation courses in law schools (primarily, but not just, for Michigan State University College of Law). It got a little out of hand. In addition to my own list, the list of past MSU courses, and course ideas I gathered from the Syllabi Commons, I reached out to people on LinkedIn and Twitter. The list now tallies 191 ideas. That’s not a few courses. That’s not just a potential curriculum. It’s like the basis for founding a whole law school. I’ve released the very first iteration as PDF under the Creative…

I was doing some research on lawyering for ecosystems and platforms and found the video of a presentation called “Agile Lawyering inthe Platform Era” I did several years ago. It’s on The Law Lab Channel (along with many other great videos) – definitely worth a visit. This presentation was a first pass at a topic I’ve thought a lot about and it contains many key ideas I’ve developed since, especially in my book, Successful Innovation Outcomes in Law: A Practical Guide for Law Firms, Law Departments and Other Legal Organizations (available on Amazon). Would love to learn what you think…

In connection with the launch of the new Kennedy Idea Propulsion Laboratory Community, I’m excited to announce a new online course that should appeal to most, if not all of the readers of this blog. It’s called “Productive Personal Quarterly Offsites for Busy Legal Professionals.” The price is $39.99 for members of the Kennedy Idea Propulsion Laboratory Premium Group and $99.99 for member of the limited-feature free KIPL network. To get more details and purchase the course, go here. I’m often asked how I find the time to do everything that I do and get…

I’m so excited to announce my new Kennedy Idea Propulsion Laboratory Community on the Mighty Networks platform. The KIPL Community is something I’ve wanted to build for many years and I believe I’ve found the best way to do that. I invite you to join in on a transformational journey for innovators in law. Why am I launching this now? Here’s the Big Purpose: I bring together innovators, thinkers and doers in law to share our experiences and access innovation resources, courses and projects, so that we can create a collaborative space that provides independence from organizational inertia, freedom to…

I’m not surprised to see some significant stories recently about aggressive efforts by law departments to trim bloated lists of outside law firms and end up with leaner and more aligned panels. There are many reasons: corporate directives, economic stress, cost-cutting initiatives, reports of NYC associate billing rates topping $1,000 an hour, partners hoarding billable hours and doing and charging for associate-level work, to name but a few. However, two reasons stand out for me. First, “digital transformation,” in all forms, has become a top two or three strategy at many companies. Second, “innovation,” in demonstrable and concrete forms, is…

I’ve written extensively about what law departments can do to innovate their panel convergence efforts in recent years, including in my book, Successful Innovation Outcomes in Law: A Practical Guide for Law Firms, Law Departments and Other Legal Organizations. I’ve also made the book chapter on panel convergence available for free here. There are two key reasons that the panel convergence trend with continue to gather steam in corporate law departments. First, “digital transformation,” in all forms, has become a top two or three strategy at many companies. Second, “innovation,” in demonstrable and concrete forms, is now (and…

From the press release: MSU Law’s Center for Law, Technology & Innovation Under New Interim Leadership Dennis Kennedy will lead MSU College of Law’s Center for Law, Technology & Innovation (CLTI) as its interim director. Professor Kennedy has been a member of the faculty at MSU Law since 2018, serving as an adjunct professor of law covering topics such as entrepreneurial law, technology, and legal service delivery. His appointment follows the departure of the previous director, Carla Reyes, in 2020 who led the Center during her time as a professor of law at MSU. The Center’s mission is to develop…

Corporate legal departments and law firms have reached the point in the pandemic where they must start to move beyond triage to the first steps to moving forward. The path from where we are to where we want to go starts with a solid understanding of where we actually are. And there is no time like the present. The path from where we are to where we want to go starts with a solid understanding of where we actually are. For forward-looking legal innovation leaders and top-level executives (especially in corporate law departments) who must evaluate existing and planned innovation…

The Biggest Disconnect in the Legal Industry? (COVID-19 Version) We seem to be living in a time when what is most important today already seems like old news tomorrow. It’s difficult, on so many levels. The seeming comfort of a “return to normal” appeals more than the discomfort of change and innovation. However, either/or is a false choice, and we all know that. Like you, I’ve spent many hours on online videoconferences in the last few months. Since I retired from Mastercard, my Zoom calls have not been so much about specific work issues, but with groups of legal innovators—in-house…

Joanna Goodman recently asked me for some tips on how firms can go about balancing the need to control costs and manage the expectations of their partners and staff with investing in innovation to retain and win business and maintain competitive advantage as lockdown is lifted. What should firms’ (especially mid-sized firms) priorities be for driving and leveraging innovation? A few of my tips appeared in her great new article, “The Great Leap Forward,” in the Law Society Gazette. I wanted to share all of the tips I came up with in this blog post. It’s part of…

One of my new collaboration efforts is the Exponential Law Community. I invite you to learn more about it and join here. In one of first big experiments, Mike Cappucci, Dean Khialani, Shellie Reid, and I did livestream Zoom session in which we applied the FoundationLab / Exponential Law Community idea validation framework to the Community’s first Challenge of the Month. It will give you a great (live and unrehearsed) illustration of how the methodology and process works. A big thank you for Shellie for joining in and representing the “voice of the customer” and also bringing her…