Inaugural John Lederer Solo and Small Firm Service award goes to Ross Kodner

Oct. 7, 2009 – The State Bar of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Bar Association will present the first annual John Lederer Solo and Small Firm Service Award to Ross Kodner of Milwaukee at the Wisconsin Solo and Small Firm (WSSF) Conference on Oct. 30. The conference will be held in the Wisconsin Dells from Oct. 29 - 31.

“The WSSF Conference leadership felt this award was needed to recognize those individuals, groups or organizations which have focused on improving the lives and practices of solo and small firm attorneys in Wisconsin,” says Nancy Trueblood, Wauwatosa, Solo and Small Firm Committee chair. The award will be presented annually to an individual, group, or organization exemplifying the leadership, spirit, and dedication of attorney John Lederer, who saw it as his mission to help solo and small firm lawyers master the skills and technology needed to build their practices. Lederer passed away in March of 2009.

“Ross deserves to be the first recipient of this award due to his numerous, tireless volunteer efforts over the years on behalf of solo and small firm attorneys,” says Trueblood. “Whether he is speaking at a conference or seminar, blogging or answering questions on State Bar electronic lists, his advice and guidance has been invaluable to Wisconsin solo and small firm practitioners.”

“I’m stunned, honored, and humbled by this recognition,” said Kodner. “John Lederer was a dear friend for many years. What I, and so many others, considered the ‘glory days’ of technology education for our State Bar in the 80s and 90s – it was a rough and tumble time with few standards, a great deal of newness and big issues to tackle like the Uniform Citations System. Thank you, not just for the award, which I sincerely appreciate, but for reminding me to think about John and our friendship, as well as the leadership role John and the Technology Resource Committee played not just here in Wisconsin but on the national stage . . . at a time when legal technology leadership was sorely needed.”

Kodner is internationally known and is one of the longest continually serving legal technology and law practice management consultants. He received his JD from Marquette in 1986. Kodner founded Wisconsin’s MicroLaw, an independent legal technology and law practice management consulting practice in 1985. A frequent speaker on a broad range of legal technology topics, he has conducted more than 1,400 CLE sessions. He also has authored more than 600 articles on legal technology, law practice management.

The recipient of six awards from the industry’s technolawyer community, in 1999 Kodner was honored as the “Technolawyer Consultant of the Year” – a lifetime achievement award and the industry’s highest honor. His blog, Ross Ipsa Loquitur, was recognized in 2007 as one of the world’s most influential legal blogs and was honored again in 2008 as one of the ABA’s 100 Most Important Legal Blogs in the Technology category.

Find out more about this year’s conference.