NoLa's Green Matters: Not Perfect, But Very Good.

New Orleans -- Consultant/attorney Theodore Banks (right), who spent the bulk of his career as a leader in Kraft Food's legal department, set the tone at the Green Matters conference as he reminded the audience that to successfully promote environment-friendly programs, everyone must remember that "the perfect is the enemy of the good."

Translation: take comfort in small steps, and don't get upset when big goals aren't (immediately) met. That advice probably sums up not just the ambitious Green Matters program, but the current temperature of "going green" within the legal profession. The conference drew high-level speakers, but not as many attendees (about 100) as the organizers would have liked, to discuss topics that most lawyers may nod their heads about but aren't (yet) taking serious steps to address.

The event was organized by Monty and Kathleen Lunn, he a long-time fixture in the legal technology world (formerly with Elite and Huron); she an effective veteran of politics. The couple recently moved back to New Orleans after living in California and Pennsylvania. (Tom O'Connor, another legal tech gray-beard, now director of the Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center, also was an organizer).

Originally named Green Legal Matters and scheduled for April, it was postponed until this week, with a much broader agenda. That was a wise decision, because what has made this event so terrific is the cross-section of participants from government and the legal profession. Like an excellent fusion restaurant that marries exotic flavors, the combination is fiery and inspiring, if slightly imperfect.

New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu kicked off the event Wednesday, one of several mayors who brought all the green talk down to earth, literally. At a compelling Thursday lunch presentation, four mayors discussed how they are implementing and coping with green initiatives, including   Mayor Bob Dixon of Greenburg, Kansas -- which was just about obliviated on May 4, 2007, when a tornado wiped out 95% of the city. Rather than abandon the georgraphy, the town decided to live up to its name, and recreate itself as a eco-strong city. (The process has been documented by a fascinating television series  on Planet Green.) New Jersey City's mayor Jerrammiah Healy told how he turned to litigation to reclaim soiled abandoned land in his small metropolis that is a gateway to New York City, and negotiated with the land's corporate owners to restore it to usable, income-producing venues that improved the city and provided jobs and residences to its citizens.

Despite the conference's moniker change, the event retained its strong legal undercurrent. Susan Dorn, (right) GC of the U.S. Green Building Council, gave the Thursday keynote, outlining the current status of the powerful NGO that created and maintains the popular LEEDs rating system. She discussed a hot-button issue among the legal and architecture crowd: challenges to LEED certifications, and the perishability of those credentials, as LEED certification requirements are  often now built into to development contracts.

Rather than do the usual top-executive fly-in/fly-out, Dorn stayed all day, and her presence at  an afternoon session generated some deliciously polite friction with the speakers during "When Green Goes Wrong: Liability and De-Certification Litigation," with Haynes Boone lawyers Bruce Merwin (left) and Bradley Carson (See twitter.com/lawtechnews or #lgmn).

Legal technology consultant (and ILTA leader) Jeff Brandt (left) lead off a pragmatic program on "The Greening of the CIO," describing how CIOs can make small but significant changes in their organizations that can reap significant energy savings, from virtualized servers to replacing equipment earlier rather than later to take advantage of technology improvements. The panel also featured IBM's Florence Hudson, who gets the energizer bunny award for appearing on three panels (so far), and is literally a rocket scientist. She is the energy/environment/cloud computing wizard at IBM talked about her company's global efforts.

Hudson was also a last minute addition to Banks' corporate panel, which also featured GC Elaine Reilly of DuPont, Gillian van Muyden, GC of redevelopment for  Glendale, Calif., and a mesmerizing presentation by Walmart's senior director of environmental compliance, Richard Dailey.

Just as in e-discovery, in the end, it probably will take corporate counsel's insistent to push law firms into green action, observed several audience members, who resonated to the message of the corporate leaders panel.

Ultimately, the GCs told their colleagues,  no one in the legal profession will buy into green if it costs money -- and that's the current perception. To succeed, to be accepted, green must actually be green, e.g, create money.

Dailey gave an example about how Walmart previously paid a lot of money to get rid of the cardboard boxes that housed incoming products for its shelves. Now, he said, Walmart gets more than $1 million in revenue by selling the cardboard to recyclers. Green efforts, he pronounced, "are not sustainable if they don't make business sense."

Walmart's green efforts, said Dailey, have helped dramatically turn around the company's reputation, (which was blemished in the past by bad press, especially about prior labor practices that adversely affected single parents and women). The company now invests in solar and wind options, efficient buildings, fleet improvements, and fuel cells, and even recycles oil and grease from fryers into fuel, he said.

Transparency is crucial, said Dailey.  "We articulate our goals publicly," he noted, and said  that posture drives business. Dailey said the company is not afraid to use its massive power (1.5 million employees) to influence vendors and customers to go green. As an example, he cites the company's campaign for CLF light bulbs, with 137 million sold so far, he notes.

Banks shared the story of an unsuccessful effort to switch Kraft's salad dressing containers to recyclable plastic, which cost five cents more than glass. "Good intentions are not enough. It has to work."

The conference continues today with more sessions ranging from practical ways to green a law office; to greenwashing; to more panels on LEED litigation. This morning, I will be joined by consultants George Socha, Tom O'Connor, and Andrew Adkins, to discuss "Green E-Discovery." Our message will reiterate that "the perfect is the enemy of the good," hopefully reduce some of the fear and anxiety about EDD, and show how using technology can indeed help lawyers produce better, faster, cheaper legal services -- that are also green.

Greensburg picture courtesy of wikipedia.

Green Matters Conference: Susan Dorn

New Orleans -- Susan Dorn, general counsel of the U.S. Green Building Council and its affiliated Green Building Certification Institute, was this morning's keynote speaker at the Green Matters Conference in New Orleans.

The conference (which previously was Green Legal Matters) is taking place through Friday in New Orleans, rescheduled (and with an expanded agenda, to address government, legal, and architecture issues) from its original April calendar slot. 

Dorn outlined USGBC's current status and agendas, noting that about 25% of all U.S. new construction projects are going "green," with 35,000 registered for LEED certification evaluation, and 17,000 organizations are participating in USGBC.  

The agency expects 30,000 attendees at its November Greenbuild conference in Chicago, which will also draw 1,400 exhibitors, she said. The conference will include a three-hour session addressing "all things green legal," said Dorn. 

On the legal agenda, Dorn said there is an effort underway to revamp LEED indemnity clauses, and create a new "Appointment of Agent" form to identify project owners and improve indemnity for contractors and others. USGBC, she said, is making "one last push" to simplify agreements and "put them in plain English." 

They are also evaluting the certification challenge process to make sure submittals and documentation is truthful and accurate -- but notes that the challenge process is not designed to be a dispute resolution service.

A related issue is the perishability of certification. They are considering a two-year limit to challenges. "LEED certification is date-stamped," she explained, and does not extend indefinitely into the future, she notes, due to the continually changing and improving technologies and protocols.  

Interest in LEED certification is expanding internationally, she reported. A new program to address international is expected to launch this year.  An initial roundtable is in the works, with 14 nations already pledged to participate. 

Another key project is green schools, says Dorn, who told the audience about a successful pilot project held here in New Orleans. Green schools address not just health and learning issues, but also cut costs, she said. A new Center for Green Schools has been established at the USGC. 

The agency is also considering requiring conformity with Energy Star protocols, which currently are requested on a voluntary basis. 

HERE COME THE LAWYERS

Interesting post by Anna Maria Virzi on ClickZ, "BP Oil Spill Fuels Legal Marketing Machines," about how enterprising lawyers are using web tools to market their services to businesses and individuals affected by the Gulf Coast mess. And how BP itself is using the same tactics to try to salvage its image.

Searches on Google, Yahoo, and Bing for "oil spill" this week show that law firms dominate the sponsored listings in search engine results, she notes.

BP is also using paid search for reputation management, "directing people to www.bp.com/gulfofmexicoresponse to learn about the company's response to the oil spill,"  writes Virzi, who analyzes and compares some of the web advertising that various firms are using to establish their expertise and   rustworthiness, and dodge any "carpetbagger" labels.

Hat tip: Bill Pollak.

GREENING GREENE ESPEL

Eco-activist Kim Carlson helps Minnesota's Greene Espel assess, and then improve, its energy conservation programs and reduce its carbon footprint. Among the changes, the firm scrapped $12,700 off the annual budget by eliminating bottled water and switching to a filter system, reports Jon Bream. And they increased productivity by giving everyone dual Dell UltraSharp 200 FP monitors to increase workspace, and Ergotron stands that allow users to position the monitors for maximum comfort, andd switch quickly between "landscape" and "portrait" modes.

>Another program that won big morale points: everybody gets a Metropass so they can ride public transportation, a $15,500 cost that generates a 30% transit tax credit.

Read more in the November issue of Law Technology News.

FOUR YEARS

After Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, photographer Russ Curtis and I traveled to New Orleans to report on how our legal technology community was coping.

 One of our first stops was Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann to meet with IT director Janine Sylvas, (right) who won the 2005 IT Director of the Year award for her inventive and flat-out heroic efforts to keep both her firm and family afloat.

Sylvas has subsequently joined Law Technology News' board and is a frequent contributor.

In "Four Years Later"  Sylvas is interviewed by fellow board member and New Orleans resident Tom O'Connor and discusses how the firm has adopted new disaster recovery/business continuity protocols and policies based on the lessons learned from the storm.

Photo albums: here  and here and here. 

More stories from LTN April 06 here and here and here and here and here

and here and here and here.

SUNSHINE STATES OF MIND

First stop, Tampa/St. Pete on a three-city sprint to visit some vendors, consultants, and board members -- and head to our final Group Game of the 2008 season next week in Anaheim.

My colleague Jai Wallace and I had the pleasure of spending time with LTN board member Cathy Paunov, and the First Couple of EDD (Shawnna and Robert Childress, she of Navigant Consulting and Women in E-Discovery, he of Wave Software). I was looking forward to hanging with Tim Nissen  from DocuLex but we had to settle for a nice long phone call when he had a last minute work emergency and couldn't join us at Tropicana Field.

The Childresses are two of the most enthusiastic people you could possibly meet. High school sweethearts, they now live outside of Orlando. Robert brought me up to speed on the latest adventures at Wave Software, and Shawnna gave me an update on the activites at Navigant and WIE, where she is is one of the leaders of the organization. We got into quite a spirited discussion of some of the issues that still face women -- and men -- who are trying to advance their careers in the e-discovery arena. One typical mistake that folks make is going to an interview without first Googling the company and doing due diligence in order to ace an interview.

Paunov still does her legal technology consulting and stays active within the ABA, but like an increasing number of Baby Boomers, she has started teaching. In her case, (and it's a fascinating but convoluted story), she now teaches social studies at Gaither High School -- which she obviously loves. She enthralled us with tails of her adventures in the school, which is located on the same highway as the Yankees' Legends Field (actually, now George Steinbrenner Field). She's a great storyteller -- no doubt the hallmark of a good teacher.

Last night, Rick Georges, St. Pete solo, blogger, and #1 Rays fan invited me up to his incredible seats in the upper deck just above the "L" in the Tropicana Field sign -- behind home plate. It was an enclave of season ticket holders, who tolerated my clothing (and occasional outbursts when A-Rod actually hit the ball). Rick has bought every baseball-related tech device known to man/womankind and faithfully scored the game on his PDA with amazing software. (See update below for the 411 about his tech). (He took the photo above.)

He is a hoot, and full of energy and a walking baseball encyclopedia. We stopped by the Trop's Ted Williams museum, which was fascinating, and walked around the very family-friendly facility. Call me crazy, but just like Minnesota's dome, and despite the lousy "grass" -- there is a certain charm to the two domes. I love all the illustrations on the wall, and the big blow-up cow (but I sure could live without the cowbells... they are truly migraine inducing).

It's fun to spend time with the Floridians -- they just exude the proverbial joy de vivre (am I spelling that right?) -- And what better way to catch up on their latest tech developments than at a ballgame, right? Oh yeah, the 3rd place Yanks won both games. :)

Next stop, SF Bay Area, then da Halos!

Update: Here's Rick's info about the Scorepad software:

Scorepad helps you score the game on a Palm smart phone. Later, the data syncs to the computer, and automatically prints out a complete score sheet, including box scores, pitch by pitch, spray charts, and score sheet. The best software, however, is MLBstats, also available at Scorepad, which automatically downloads the day's current stats on every player in the bigs. Technology, it can do anything. Of course, it is only available on the Palm OS. You can't do this on an iPhone.

BLACKBERRYS RULE

The National Law Journal reports that our Gulf Coast colleagues are making great use of their BlackBerries.

Here's an excerpt of the story on today's NLJ website, by staff reporter Vesna Jaksic:

A number of law firms and law schools in Louisiana said all their employees were safe after Hurricane Gustav, but didn't expect offices to reopen until later this week or next week.

Gustav ripped through Louisiana on Monday as a Category 2 hurricane, leading to an evacuation of about 2 million people and to hundreds of thousands of residences without power. But without the strength of 2005's Hurricane Katrina and with lessons learned from that storm, the legal system seemed to be functioning better this time around.

Courts, law firms and law schools in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the vicinity implemented their emergency procedures before the storm and have been regularly posting updates on their Web sites. Backup computer servers were used to ensure that e-mail could still be used, lawyers relied on their BlackBerrys to continue communicating with clients, and law students could access their school's Web site for regular updates from their dean.

"Everyone is safe, everyone is sound, everyone is well and that's really the most important," Howard Shapiro, who heads the New Orleans office of New York's Proskauer Rose, said of his staff.

Shapiro, who was in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday, said he was able to use the contact information his firm prepared ahead of the storm to ensure that all of the 23 employees in New Orleans were accounted for. The office, which relocated to a new downtown location in August, was still in lockdown mode Tuesday afternoon, but many lawyers worked from remote locations, he said.

"Nobody stopped working because our e-mail system and e-communication server never went down," Shapiro said. "All our client communications remained intact."

The  site of New Orleans' Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann said on Tuesday afternoon that its New Orleans and Baton Rouge offices were not damaged but will remain closed on Wednesday.

Stone Pigman's Nancy Claypool and Janine Sylvas' shop -- they are both AOK. James Zeller at Chaffee sez his firm's e-mail system is working like a charm. (See post below for other NoLa legal tech folks).

    Rest of the above story is here.