Year: 2011
Social media as a legal tool
Social media in the riots Social media is yet again in the news following the August riots. There were numerous arrests and prosecutions based upon posts and messages on Facebook and Twitter allegedly inciting others to join in rioting, violence and looting, as well as the photographic and video evidence found online and on people’s […]
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The rise (and rise) of the iPad lawyer?
Apple’s iPad was released in the UK on 28 May 2010. Since then I have used mine daily in my practice as a corporate lawyer, both in and out of the office. So after a year and a half of this, what is the point for lawyers? Are tablets just a gimmick or are they […]
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The end of print? – the law publishers reply
In the May/June issue, Nick Holmes suggested that particular types of print are under threat for a number of reasons and he questioned whether ebooks were the future. We asked key law publishers to respond. Sweet & Maxwell, Thomson Reuters – Chris Hendry, Head of Advanced Media Print is undoubtedly on a downward spiral, accelerated […]
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Two ebiz topics
Successful email signatures Email signatures are one of those deceptively simple but high impact marketing techniques that might slip under your business radar. Indeed, your email signature may be the single most important piece of digital business stationery that your prospective clients and existing clients will see. It is worth a bit of time and […]
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Keeping your website up to date
According to a recent study by ComScore, 70 per cent of people using search engines include a location modifier, eg “solicitors in Manchester”, to find an offline business and 54 per cent of searchers use the internet rather than the phone book to find services. However, it’s not just being found on search engines that’s […]
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Are brands (for services) dead?
I will declare an interest here: I have not only worked for and with law firms for the last two decades, I am currently researching in brand equity and have spent a lot of my free time reading around the area in the last year. The legal profession is awash with talk about brands and […]
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The paperless office – 12 months on
On 6 September 2010, Abney Garsden McDonald solicitors took the plunge, and went paperless. In a previous article I described the process of evolution from conventional paper files, through scanning all incoming correspondence in 2003, to “paperless” a year ago. We now have clean desks, fewer filing cabinets, large bins for shredding on each floor […]
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Rough and ready Justice
On 1 April 2011 the Justice site (www.justice.gov.uk) was born. This is not the Ministry of Justice site by another name but the beginnings of a “super-site” that will act as a portal to all services within the justice system for the professional user. The previous administration’s “Transformational Government Strategy” (published by the Cabinet Office […]
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Connect2Law – referral with a difference
Basic Information from Paul Coombes, of Pannone LLP The Connect2Law network for law firms was established in 2001 by Pannone LLP. There is no cost to membership and the primary benefit was to offer member firms the ability to service their clients in areas of law they didn’t undertake themselves by referring them to Pannone. […]
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The new JustCite citator
JustCite, the multijurisdictional citator from Justis, has been rebuilt from the ground up, with the new version released in December 2010. More recently it has been enhanced to incorporate details of barristers in England and Wales, cross-linked to their cases. But perhaps the biggest shift is that now the first page of JustCite results is […]
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Key sites for keeping up to date with case law
BAILII (the British and Irish Legal Information Institute) provides access to the most comprehensive free and up-to-date collection of British and Irish primary legal materials on the internet with 76 databases covering 7 jurisdictions including the Court of Justice of the European Communities and the European Court of Human Rights. Also on BAILII are Law […]
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Legislation.gov.uk and the myth of Sisyphus
The launch in July 2010 of legislation.gov.uk to little fanfare (there was no marketing budget!) was a significant landmark achievement, both in terms of official legislation and of the whole Berners Lee inspired concept in Government of “linked data” and the semantic web. And, like many aspects of public sector information, it raises enormous issues […]
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