My life is filled with books. I am drawn to book collecting, fine press printing, book binding, book repair and conservation, writing books, reading, and other explorations of the printed word and the book as an object of art and as a container of human knowledge and imagination.
Why do physical books matter in an age of consuming information digitally?
I spent over 10 years working in legal technology. I had a research fellowship at Stanford Law School where I wrote about the application of gamification and technology on the legal profession. I live in Silicon Valley where I’m surrounded by the latest innovations in digital technology. However, the printed word on paper still holds more allure for me than the newest digital gadget.
There is a tangible, almost sensual kind of magic to a book – the touch, the smell, the sound and feel of pages turning, the weight of it in your hand, the feel of the binding and cover, the letters on the page. As we live more of our lives online and out of touch from reality and each other, I find that the book can pull us back to the present, even as the stories inside carry us away.
I want to reintroduce the power and the pleasure of books and the printed word to a world of people who are over-saturated with online consumption and a dependence on screens for experience.
I have spent more than twenty years thinking about the value of the printed book and incorporating working with books into my life.
Book Experience
Member of the Board of Directors of The Grabhorn Institute, San Francisco, supporting The Arion Press and M&H Type Foundry, January 2022 – present
Member of the Grolier Club, July 2022 – present
Member of the Book Club of California and the Hand Bookbinders of California
Working towards a Professional Certificate in Rare Books and Manuscripts from the California Rare Book School out of UCLA.
Certificates in Core Bookbinding, and Cylinder and Platen Press Core – San Francisco Center for the Book
Classes taken at the San Francisco Center for the Book:
- Book Repair I & II
- Coptic
- Fishbone fold
- Vellum
- Flatback Cloth
- Rounded Back Cloth
- Orientation to Leather
- Leather I
- Titling and Tooling Core I
- Box Making
- Introduction to Letterpress
- Cylinder Press Core
- Platen Press Core
- Vandercook Press Maintenance
California and Virginia Rare Book School Classes
- August 2016, “Book as Object: a curatorial exploration” taught by Peter Koch
- August 2017, “Printing at the Margins: The History of Women Printers” taught by Kathleen Walkup
- August 2018, “History of Typography” taught by Paul Shaw with Grendl Löfkvist
- August 2019, “Descriptive Bibliography” taught by Gerald Cloud
- August 2021, “Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books” taught by Joel Silver
2 years book repair and conservation volunteer in Cincinnati Museum Center Preservation Department, including microfilming project for the Lloyd Library Rare Book Collection.
Conservation project for the Papers of William J. Butler, an International Human Rights Lawyer, at the Cincinnati Law Library
Volunteer book repair projects for the New Hanover County Public Library History Room
Volunteer repair of NC Law Books for the library at the Law Firm of Ken Shanklin, Wilmington, NC
Volunteer book repair for the library at Bowman Montessori School
Abbreviated Past Life Professional Experience
(A full list of my publications and presentations is located on my other website.)
Research Fellow, Stanford Law, Center for the Legal Profession – Published two papers examining the use of gamification and games to increase access to justice for the public and the use of gamification to increase productivity in law firms.
Author of four books published for the legal profession:
- Online Legal Services for the Client-Centric Law Firm, an International Report published by Managing Partner, a global resource on law firm management and a division of Ark Group Publishing, UK, August 2013.
- Consumer Law Revolution: The Lawyers’ Guide to the Online Legal Marketplace, ABA/LPD, March 2013.
- Limited Scope Legal Services: Unbundling and the Self-Help Client, ABA/LPD, 2012.
- Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver Legal Services Online, ABA/LPD, 2010, second edition 2015.
Founder and owner of Virtual Law Office Technology which was acquired by a Chicago-based company in 2010.
Owner of Kimbro Legal Services, a law firm founded in 2006 and closed in 2012.
Chair of the ABA Law Practice Division’s Ethics and Professional Responsibility Task Force
Member of the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services
Member of the ABA Presidential Task Force on Solo/Small Firms
Member of the ABA eLawyering Task Force
Advisory Board Member of the International Legal Technology Standards Organization (ILTSO)
Member of the Legal Cloud Computing Association
Member of the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) Law Practice Management Council and Technology Advisory Committee
Board Member of Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project (NTAP)
Numerous Presentations and Papers over a ten year period
Academic
B.A. Centre College, Danville, Kentucky (a small, private, liberal arts college)
M.A., History, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
J.D., University of Dayton Law School, Ohio
Research Fellow, Stanford Law, Center for the Legal Profession
Current Book Exploration
- Book collecting and private libraries
- Printing and fine press books
- Book arts
- Book binding
- Book repair
- Science behind what happens to the brain when we read, evolution of reading
- Book conservation
- Researching and writing about the history of the book
- Currently studying Rare Books and Book Collecting, Printing, Typography, and Artists Books through California Rare Book School
There are people who approach books from one or two of these angles. I am acquiring a well-rounded knowledge of printing and the book. I am very interested in the building of personal and private library collections, their preservation, and the ways they can be disseminated back into the reading public or to collectors. Each of these areas of study expand my understanding of the printed book and its continued and evolving role in our world.
Of Paper and Ink 