Ken Hirsh is many things. In 2019 Ken capped a thirty-year career as a law librarian and legal technologist when he retired as Director of the Law Library and Professor of Practice at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Previously he worked at Duke University Law School, where he instituted the first local area networks and one of the first technology departments at an American law school in 1993.He remains a member of the American Association of Law Libraries, in which he served on more than two dozen committees or sections and as a member of its executive board from 2013-2016. The Association’s Legal Innovation and Technology Special Interest Section named its distinguished service award for Ken, who was its initial recipient. In 2019 he received the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by AALL. He served on the board of the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) from 2002 – 2015. Although some friends and family have called him a gentleman and a scholar, he is much more the former than the latter.
He is married and the proud father of three children. Ken is a trivia nut, especially about 1950’s – 1970’s television, and in 2016 he accomplished a nearly life-long dream when he appeared as a contestant on Jelpardy! Ken won his first game and became a one-day champion.
Following his retirement from the University of Cincinnati, Ken was admitted to the North Carolina Bar. He has a solo law practice in Durham, North Carolina.