Suzanne Arist, Internal Communications Committee member and Reference Librarian

Ken Des Jardins, the First Year Director of SLA-Illinois, is a research specialist at Kirkland & Ellis LLP where he has been employed since October 2005. He does mostly business related research to support the various practices at the firm. He also edits the Research Services department’s quarterly newsletter.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is a full-service law firm representing global clients in complex corporate, restructuring, tax, litigation, dispute resolution and arbitration, and intellectual property and technology matters. The firm has over 1,100 attorneys at its offices in Washington, D.C., Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, and San Francisco.

All of Kirkland’s offices have libraries, and Chicago’s has the most staff. The library serves attorneys and legal assistants in each of the firm’s practices as well as the client development group and others.

Ken works with a staff of nine research specialists in the Chicago office, as well as specialists in Kirkland & Ellis’s libraries in other offices. The research specialists have access to a growing set of electronic resources ranging from the very general to the highly specialized. Kirkland & Ellis’s Chicago library also has a significant print collection consisting mostly of legal resources. The print collection has decreased in size considerably as electronic access to materials has become more widespread. The library’s highly skilled interlibrary loan staff are experts at tracking down the hundreds of documents in all media that the attorneys request each month.

Ken gained his expertise through a variety of professional and academic experiences. He has an undergraduate degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and an MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After attending library school, he worked as a business researcher in several settings. These include an accounting firm (Arthur Andersen), an Internet consulting firm (marchFIRST), and a business and science research outsourcing firm (Threshold Information). Before library school, Ken worked for several years as a technical writer, and he puts his writing skills to work wherever he can.

Ken says much of his expertise can be attributed to networking with “really smart people” including his managers, co-workers, and colleagues as well as the people he has served.

When asked for highlights of his career, Ken responds that some of his best memories are from his days working for an Internet consulting firm, despite his being set adrift when the firm went under. He found it exciting to work in such an entrepreneurial environment where he had the opportunity to define and market the service offerings of his department.

The most inspiring people he encountered as he advanced through his career are those “whose dedication to customer service outweighed any preconceived notions of what a librarian is or should be”. These are the people who taught him the importance of establishing relationships with people throughout the organization. He stressed that they also demonstrated that “not my job” is a phrase that successful professionals avoid using.

Currently Ken is a First Year Director of the SLA Illinois Chapter. His primary duty is to serve as a liaison between the Board and three of the chapter committees: Student Outreach, Public Relations, and International Relations. He works with these committees to ensure they have whatever they need from the Board. Also Ken keeps the Board up to date on committee plans and activities.

Ken is a former member of the Strategic Planning Committee and Programs Committee of the Chapter. When he served on the Strategic Planning Committee several years ago, he helped formulate the Chapter’s mission statement and strategic plan.

Ken has been published in internal publications at each of his employers. At Threshold Information he wrote for Opportunity Knocks, a web-based newsletter for clients and potential clients.

When not at work, Ken enjoys traveling. He is looking forward to this year’s ski trip to Steamboat Resort, in Colorado. He also enjoys cooking, reading (most recently 1776 by David McCullough and Made in Detroit by Paul Clemons) and going to movies and theater.

Through his work experiences, Ken has developed some personal philosophies to pass on to beginning librarians who aspire to play a major role in a prestigious law library. At work keep your eyes and ears open and watch for opportunities to contribute beyond the day-to-day tasks as a research specialist. He says it can be tempting to settle into a comfortable, safe routine, but that won’t help a librarian to extend his or her influence beyond the doors of the library.

Clearly Ken’s focus and drive have contributed to where he is now in his career.