Year: 2010
ABS – not as simple as ABC
How did we get here? In July 2003 the Department for Constitutional Affairs (as it was then known) published a report entitled “Competition and Regulation in the Legal Services Market”. That paper was a response to a consultation about competition in the legal profession published by the Office for Fair Trading in March 2001. Annexed […]
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Blogging for law firms
In all the recent excitement over the three famous brand options, we sometimes forget that blogs started it all; equally, we can confidently predict that if unforeseen disasters were to befall social networking, blogs would be the last ones standing. As before, this post will look at the use of blogs in the enterprise context, […]
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Webcasts and CPD
In the current financial climate and increasing pressure on training budgets, lawyers have to look at more cost effective ways of keeping up to date with legal developments. Gone are the days of getting the nod from the senior partner or manager for a trip to London to attend a face-to-face course with a three-course […]
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Webinars and CPD
Back in early 2006, my barrister friend Daniel Barnett ran a telephone seminar on employment law and was struck by how popular it proved to be. This gave him the idea to set up a business delivering CPD training online and from there the two of us decided to collaborate on setting up CPD Webinars. […]
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Hosted systems – user comments
(with Bill Kirby) This is a follow up to our article in the last issue where we reviewed which legal practices are using hosted practice management and other hosted applications. Over the past 2 years, we have generally advised all clients reviewing their IT that they should at least explore the option of using some […]
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Freemium? – pah!
I would like to see the back of the word “freemium” – it’s ugly, contrived and smacks of an in joke. More importantly, it does not describe anything new or concrete. The fundamental concept underpinning a “freemium” service – something offered for free to get someone to pay for something else – is as old […]
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Free case law – an overview
Free case law is old hat now. The House of Lords posted its first judgment on the web in 1996 and BAILII “freed the law” in 2000. But how far have we come since then? This article sums up the current position. Public sector provision The Supreme Court at www.supremecourt.gov.uk publishes its Decided cases in […]
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Hosted systems and cloud computing
(With Bill Kirby) First of all, let’s define a few of the terms which are used in this area: A hosted system is created where the bundle of computer applications that lawyers use (Word, practice management system, digital dictation etc) that would traditionally be run and managed in-house are run and hosted remotely by a […]
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Twitter for law firms
It’s easy to use Twitter poorly, something millions of users demonstrate every day by updating their followers about what they’re doing, thinking or feeling at any given moment. There are extremely few people whose opinions and emotions are so compelling and central to the public good that we should hang on every character (up to […]
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LinkedIn for law firms
Speaking generally, I’m much less bullish on what LinkedIn can do for law firms than what either Facebook or Twitter can offer. I’ve come to view those as dynamic platforms that offer interesting and even exciting possibilities for law firms to tell their stories and shape their online personas. LinkedIn, by contrast, is more a […]
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A solicitor’s eye view of SEO
In December 2007 I finally decided I knew enough about my chosen field to open up my own firm, Driving Defences LLP. My partner, Philip Trotter, and I, opened the door and waited for the work to flow in. I made my website as good as I could, plastered my phone number all over it […]
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The iLegal iPhone app
The iLegal iPhone application, created by Timothy Leigh, a law student currently studying the Legal Practice Course, aims to provide you with the law in your pocket – or at least access to the UK’s revised primary legislation as taken from the UK Statutory Law Database (SLD). It provides access to all the UK’s primary […]
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