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The Day My Grandfather Photographed the Impossible There’s a special painting hanging in my home. It’s a painting that embodies perseverance and determination. A painting that, if you’d asked anyone at the turn of the 20th century, captured the impossible. Sometimes, late at night, I find myself staring at this special painting. It isn’t just any piece of artwork. It’s my grandfather's hand-colored photograph of what many consider North America's Holy Grail of birds: the ivory-billed woodpecker. The year was 1924. My grandparents, Arthur and Elsa Allen, had just made history by documenting a living pair of these legendary "Lord God Birds" in Florida—so named because that's what people would exclaim upon seeing one. The scientific community had already written them off as extinct. Little did those scientists know, the ivory-billed woodpeckers weren’t extinct at all. My grandfather’s photo was proof of that. But my grandfather didn’t stop there. In 1935, he led a Cornell University expedition deep into Louisiana's Singer Tract. There, his team captured the first (and last) motion pictures and sound recordings of these amazing creatures in the wild. The footage they brought back showed a bird that seemed almost too magnificent to be real: 20 inches long, with stark black-and-white plumage and a distinctive ivory bill that could strip bark from trees with incredible force. Then, like a phantom, the ivory-bill vanished. The last universally accepted sighting was in 1944. Since then, it's been a ghost, haunting the imaginations of scientists and bird enthusiasts who've dedicated their lives to finding it. Their dedication paid off—in 2023, there was enough evidence of the bird's continued existence to prevent these beautiful creatures from being declared extinct. But here's what moves me most: For nearly a century, people have never stopped searching. They've waded through snake-infested swamps, endured countless disappointments, and kept their hope alive against overwhelming odds. Why? Because they understand that the ivory-bill represents something bigger than itself. It's a symbol of what we stand to lose—and what we might still save. The ivory-bill has taught me this: Hope isn't just an emotion—it's a form of action. Every scientist who ventures into those swamps, every conservationist fighting to protect habitat, every person who refuses to accept that it's too late... they're all proving that as long as we maintain hope and back it with determination, positive change is possible. Today, when people ask me about the painting in our home, I tell them it's not just a portrait of a bird—it's a reminder that some things are worth never giving up on. Leave a comment on what keeps your hope alive in the face of seemingly impossible odds?

Here’s how a hard decision shaped my law firm’s future, but was it the right choice? Many years ago, my law firm had a business practice alongside a plaintiff’s contingency practice, including employment cases. We constantly debated whether to be fish or fowl. In the end, the plaintiff’s practice had to go—but was it the right choice? Has anyone found a way to balance both? Type yes or no in the comments. #LawFirmLeadership #PlaintiffsLaw #LegalBusiness

On Saturday morning, I stood on a streambank in the Diane Moore Nature Center near Boise under the Highway 21 bridge. I was part of a team of volunteers ready to plant riparian vegetation to shore up the bank. With anticipation, I thrust my shovel into the ground. “Clang!” 😶 As always, the Boise River plain offered a formidable rock pile. I moved several inches to the left. “Clang!” To the right. “Clang!” Eventually, I was able to find cracks and crevices between the rocks, dig in a bit, and lever several stones out of the ground. A few minutes later, I had completed a suitable hole, and my planting companion inserted and covered a plantlet. Fortunately, the Nature Conservancy and the Idaho Bird Observatory were only looking to plant 1000 saplings that day! 😮 And there was some sand and even a sprinkling of soil in places along the bank, to complement the rock collection. 😉 After a few hours and numerous holes, the stones prevailed and my wife and I headed home. Afterwards, it struck me how much digging holes in the rockpile is like building a software business or creating a best-in-class law firm. It often feels like you can never stick your shovel in the ground without hearing that despiriting “Clang!” Yet if you stick to it, you will look back and see you were part of planting 1000 trees that will shelter fish and birds and all manner of wildlife. ⚡ My lesson: Determination overcomes all obstacles. ⚡ ❓ What is your “Clang” story? ❓ #Resilience #LeadershipLessons #GrowthMindset #Entrepreneurship #BusinessChallenges #BuildingSuccess #legaltech

I had a wild idea in 2004—create the perfect virtual legal assistant. Fast forward 20 years, and now, it’s a possibility thanks to AI. When I started working to create LeanLaw in the early 2000s, I gave the project the code name “Gladys”, in honor of that perfect legal assistant who knew everything and could do anything. The vision was to create a virtual assistant a lawyer could talk to like a human being, and ask it to complete all manner of legal tasks. Gladys was impossible in 2004. 💡 AI makes Gladys possible in 2024. 💡 Comment Yes or No whether you think legal tech should go in the direction of a human-like UI/UX.

What if one moment completely changed your life? Life is full of turning points. Let me take you through a family story that illustrates just how powerful those moments can be. Backstory: My paternal grandmother’s family is from Norway. Until 1814, Norway was under Danish rule. After the Napoleonic wars, Sweden ruled Norway. The king of Sweden became the King of Sweden and Norway. The Norwegians briefly thought they could become an independent kingdom, and their parliament adopted a constitution. Sweden didn’t like this idea, and waged a brief war where the Norwegians lost and accepted Swedish rule. The Norwegians continued to celebrate Constitution Day on May 17, the day the 1814 Constitution was adopted. Over time, the Swedish king, Carl Johan, came to dislike the celebration, thinking it subverted his rule, so it was banned. In 1829, a crowd gathered near Oslo Cathedral in defiance of the ban, and the government ordered the crowd dispersed… This is where my family story begins. My third great grandfather, Ole Gjerdrum, was the chief of police, and he was ordered to break up the crowd. Literally, he read them the Riot Act, but his tiny police force had no effect on the much larger crowd. The army came in, and the crowd was dispersed. Many people were injured, but in civilized Scandinavian fashion, no one was killed. To this day, the Battle of the Square is celebrated as part of Norwegian Constitution Day every May 17. The real story is not about Ole, but about his son Jorgen, my great-great grandfather (pictured below), who was 10 years old during the Battle of the Square. This event had a profound effect on Jorgen that would change the course of his life. King Carl Johan appreciated Ole Gjerdrum’s role in restoring order during the Battle of the Square, and named him to the Order of St. Olav, the Norwegian equivalent of a knighthood. Ole’s other sons, Otto and Carl Ferdinand, later also received knighthoods and had important ceremonial duties for the king, and many other privileges. But Jorgen took a different path. Disgusted by the use of force on fellow Norwegians in the Battle of the Square, Jorgen adopted the then-radical political stance that Norway should become a republic and not have a monarch, Swedish or otherwise. This placed him at odds with his family and the royalty as well. While Jorgen enjoyed success in his life, his republican beliefs harmed his business, and no doubt made family get-togethers uncomfortable. Jorgen died of an illness he contracted on a trip to America in 1875, and so he did not live to see Norway become an independent state in 1905. His friend Bjernstjerne Bjornson, the Norwegian national poet, received the Nobel Prize for his work advancing Norway’s independence. Bjornson said Jorgen stood “straight as a pine”, so I expect he had no regrets for standing for his principles at the cost of his bank account. Is there a moment that changed your life? If so, say a few words in the comments.