Month: November 2011
Is free law good enough?
It is ironic that BAILII, which came into being to free the law, has been called out recently for restricting access to the law. A Guardian editorial in September criticised the status quo in relation to the publication of court judgments and called for more open access. In so doing BAILII came across as the […]
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A sole practitioner in the internet age
I have been fascinated by the internet ever since I discovered, on buying my first computer when setting up as a sole practitioner in 1994, that there was this thing called the internet, where computers could talk to each other through telephone lines. I truly believe that it will bring in changes of the same […]
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The end of print? – a law librarian’s view
In the In the May/June issue, Nick Holmes suggested that particular types of print are under threat and he questioned whether ebooks were the future. In the last issue we published replies from three key law publishers. This time we provide a law librarian’s view. Ruth Bird, Bodleian Law Librarian Chris Hendry (Sweet & Maxwell, […]
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Two ebiz topics
With Gavin Ward The personal injury referral fee ban The government is seeking to ban the payment of referral fees in personal injury cases. The reasons include the ever-higher costs being charged by insurance companies, encouragement of a compensation culture in the UK and fostering of an industry pursuing claimants for profit. Given the potentially […]
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Writing barrister profiles
“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I’ve written a long one instead.” This quote is attributed to Mark Twain, and I would certainly agree that writing something brief which manages to convey essential information is surprisingly time-consuming. I am assuming here that you have been given the task of preparing a […]
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Should lawyers give free advice to attract clients?
I made friends with an entrepreneur recently who had looked into trade marking her business name. She has not yet proceeded with any of the firms she contacted. So I was curious to find out who she had approached and how much my competitors were charging. None of this turned out to be particularly surprising […]
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Law reports on YouTube – Scotland leads the way
The Scottish Council of Law Reporting (SCLR) is the publisher of the “official” law reports for Scotland; these are known generically as Session Cases. It also includes reports of Scottish cases heard in the UK Supreme Court, the Privy Council and the House of Lords. Session Cases have been published in one form or another […]
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Taking your firm into the cloud
In August my firm, Inksters, moved all of our IT systems into the cloud. This includes our email, word processing, client record management, case management and all cashroom functions. We have done so via Denovo Business Intelligence using their Intelligent Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. This article is a look at my initial […]
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Legal apps arrive
A brief history Oxford Dictionaries Online defines an app as “a self-contained program or piece of software designed to fulfil a particular purpose; an application, especially as downloaded by a user to a mobile device”. It is the latter half of the definition – especially in relation to iPhones and other smartphones – which popularised […]
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I-COM: Law firm marketing in the age of Google
Mike Blackburn represents I-COM The fundamentals never change – only the way in which they are delivered There was a time when getting business for your law firm was all about pressing the flesh – the old adage of “It’s not what you know, It’s who you know” being very true; the market was a […]
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ML Solutions 4U: Sharpen up on Money Laundering Regulations
Bill Jones represents ML Solutions 4U It may not be news to law firms that, as of the anti-money laundering (AML) regulations 2007, all solicitors, legal support and administration staff must comply with certain regulations and be properly trained. However, a new form of online training from ML Solutions 4U (www.mlsolutions4u.co.uk) may now make this […]
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DPSCloud: Reinterpreting The Cloud with law firms in mind
Jonathan Seaton represents DPS Software What does The Cloud mean to you? The Cloud by its very nature is such an expansive and amorphous phenomenon that when establishing exactly what it means for you and your legal firm it can be difficult to know where to begin. However, a logical starting point when looking at […]
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