The Kennedy-Mighell Report

AI assistants can be incredibly helpful to attorneys, but what exactly can and should these tools be doing for your law firm? Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell welcome Maddy Martin of Smith.ai for a roundtable discussion on the current landscape of AI assistant tools and their value for lawyers. They examine these tools through the scope of jobs to be done, looking at real-life attorney pain points and explaining ways to identify which tasks can effectively and ethically be handed off to AI assistants to improve both attorney and client experience. As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends. Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for the answers to your most burning tech questions. Show Notes: Copilot for task tracking. Wispr Flow for easy voice dictation.

Adriana has trained lawyers through legal tech developments for decades, so she’s pretty much seen it all! Dennis and Tom pick her brain on the trajectory of AI tools, technology competence, collaboration, and much more. Adriana offers deep insights into lawyers’ commonly underutilized tools in Microsoft and Adobe, pointing out that they may already be paying for the solutions they need. Later, they also discuss Adriana’s career path and dig into the advantages of using practice management platforms in today’s midsize and small firms.  As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends. Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for the answers to your most burning tech questions. Show Notes: UPS Devices

Lawyers are a unique group often characterized as being hyper-resistant to change, but is that really true? As technology changes, lawyers must adapt, but it is important to appreciate their tendency toward skepticism and caution to be able to effectively help them adopt new tools. To discuss this topic, Dennis and Tom welcome Julia Montgomery to learn about her processes for change management in law firms. Julia talks about the unique traits of attorneys, what real change management should look like in legal businesses, and how her love for legal led her to a career helping lawyers organize their work with effective, measurable strategies powered by  technology and good practices. As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation you can use the second the podcast ends. Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for answers to your most burning tech questions.

Good lawyers are good delegators—and those lawyers shouldn’t be afraid to start delegating to their AI tools! This time on the Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis and Tom welcome Christian Puzder to talk about AI and good governance. Christian explains the importance of proper and effective AI use in the practice of law, emphasizing the ethical need to embrace new technology, train your firm well, and serve your clients better.  Later, Chris discusses his career journey from attorney to legal technologist and offers his take on how to acquire trustworthy technology for your law firm that truly serves your needs.  As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends. Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for answers to your most burning tech questions.

Today’s law students are entering a profession being reshaped by AI, making technology literacy more important than ever. What does it mean to build a legal career and professional identity in this rapidly evolving landscape? Dennis Kennedy’s students have been exploring that very question in one of his most recent classes, and he joins Tom to share what they’ve learned. Together, they examine the realities facing today’s law students and new associates, discuss why technological fluency is becoming an essential legal skill, and highlight the opportunities young lawyers have to emerge as technology leaders within their firms and the broader profession. As always, stay tuned for the parting shots—that one tip, website, or observation you can use the second the podcast ends. Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for answers to your most burning tech questions. Show Notes: AI Ethics Rules are hitting the books. Florida: Rule of General Practice and Administration 2.515, New York: Part 161 Red Team Prompts – Using AI as an adversary to check your legal work.

When lawyers understand the value technology brings to their lives, it becomes exponentially easier to help them adopt new tools, and the best leaders in legal will help their firms thrive with thoughtful, prudent technology on their side. Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell welcome Debbie Foster to discuss technology, leadership, and the future of the profession. Debbie shares insights from her upcoming book, Be a Next Level Leader, a legal industry playbook for leadership in modern law firms. They discuss the most pressing needs in the profession, and Debbie explains how well-trained leaders are critical to the future success of the legal world, particularly with the rapid advances of AI technologies in mind.   Show Notes: Debbie's Post on Conflict and Kindness  Claude A Cautionary Tale for AI Memory Saving

Some of the lesser-known problems in our AI tools may actually pose the greatest dangers to legal professionals. Dennis and Tom take a hard look at AI shortcomings like semantic flattening, drift, marketing claims, and more to suss out the realities of these tools and the increasingly apparent need for greater human wisdom and oversight. Later, are AI-written materials already polluting future AI source data? The guys discuss.  As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends. Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for the answers to your most burning tech questions. Show Notes:  Claude Cowork Edge Workspaces in Microsoft Edge

As a longtime innovator in legal business ecosystems, Anastasia Boyko has deep insights on operations, technology, and helping law firms make smart decisions that drive growth. Dennis and Tom chat with Anastasia about her strategies for assessing law firm needs, selecting tech tool solutions that truly fit, and successfully deploying technology—even for tech-averse legal professionals. In a world with thousands of legal tech options, Anastasia explains practical methods for gaining a broader understanding of technology in realistic doses. She later outlines her path from lawyer to legal innovator, discusses current AI evolutions, shares tips for law students, and much more!  As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation you can use the second the podcast ends. Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for answers to your most burning tech questions.

CLE sessions featuring “60 Tips in 60 Minutes” have long been a conference staple, but has this format outlived its usefulness? Sometimes they’re great fun, sometimes too-slow presenters cheat you out of the full 60, sometimes you get some info gems, and sometimes you get nebulous snippets. So, is there still enough value there? Well, as you lawyers love to say—it depends. Dennis and Tom debate the pros and cons of these rapid-fire presentations and talk through what could bring new and greater worth to these sessions.  Later, the guys answer a listener question on agentic AI. They hash out the ethics, security, and risk factors associated with these AI tools to take a hard look at both their helpful and potentially harmful elements. As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends. Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for the answers to your most burning tech questions. Show Notes: Orb - Speed Test Logitech Lift Mouse

In this rebroadcast episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell consider the increased popularity of artificial intelligence, the usefulness of chatbots, and how both innovations can impact the practice of law. Tom speculates that the current data age and the large volumes of information available for analysis have helped to enable the advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Dennis explores exactly what machine learning means and explains the three current learning types: unsupervised, supervised, and reinforced. Tom finds the technology perplexing and uses the definition of Tenser Flow to illustrate how grasping these advanced concepts requires more education and technology knowledge than the average lawyer possesses. They both discuss the AI lawyer Ross and if legal professionals should gain technical knowledge in order to influence future ethical regulations with emergent technology. They end the first segment with a list of possible ways that these advancements in tech can aid lawyers in their everyday lives. In the second segment of the podcast, Dennis and Tom talk about chatbots and how they can help lawyers with their daily tasks. Dennis proposes that they get a chatbot for the show and Tom strongly disagrees. Tom emphasizes that there are two ways to create a chatbot: programming one manually or allowing one to learn via data analysis and that he is fine observing what innovations programmers create. They both discuss how chatbots can help lawyers automate their scheduling needs and how utilizing this technology can save law practitioners valuable time. As always, stay tuned for Parting Shots, that one tip, website, or observation you can use the second the podcast ends. Special thanks to our sponsor, ServeNow.