Month: November 2013
Legal research: the unreported story
Mark Debenham represents Justis Publishing. “Headnotes reign supreme when it comes to digesting cases because they tell you what happened and what the result was. They give you the facts,” a London-based barrister said to me last year. A true and succinct assessment – just like a headnote. In the digital age where there’s so […]
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Content is king but curation wears the crown
Back in 1977, the Nobel-winning economist Herbert Simon warned about the dangers of a looming information-rich world in which “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”. Another variation of this warning is “we are data rich but information poor” – or as my old Granny used to say, “You can’t see the wood […]
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Setting up a law firm e-commerce site
Burnetts Solicitors is one of the largest law firms in Northern England with offices in Carlisle, Penrith, West Cumbria and Newcastle and a nationally recognised legal expertise. The Legal 500 2013 describes us as “excellent on all fronts” and our strapline is “It’s not just business, it’s personal”. Why e-commerce? In June 2013 we launched […]
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RSS is alive and well
More than six years ago I predicted RSS would explode. Perhaps I used the wrong word. For most web users the earth did not move; they either remained blissfully unaware of RSS or couldn’t care less about it. And these days we have so many better ways of sharing latest updates. Who needs RSS when […]
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Google Hummingbird takes flight
As the world’s most popular search engine celebrated its 15th anniversary in September 2013, it revealed a new search algorithm named Hummingbird. According to the head of search at Google, Amit Singhal, Hummingbird represents the most dramatic change to Google search for over a decade. Google has been reluctant to disclose any specifics of the […]
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Event planning – for both real and virtual events
Events are a great source of fresh new leads. They provide true permission-based marketing, bringing potential buyers directly to you. The type of event, however, varies significantly. For example, you may be inviting accountants to talk about tax legislation changes or targeting estate agencies to advise on conveyancing law changes. Alternatively, you may have secured […]
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Social media and the courts
Having recently spent six months teaching some delightful, articulate teenagers A-level law it really brought home to me just how embedded social media is in the lives of young people, and also for the not quite so young as well. The students laughed incredulously at tales of queuing to use a payphone to call home […]
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Blogging law updates
There are now several hundred legal blogs in the UK, covering every shade of legal writing. A relatively small number seek to provide a high level of ongoing commentary and analysis of developments in the law. We’re asking the founders to profile their blogs. View all blog profiles.
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Nearly Legal
Nearly Legal started life as a personal, anonymous blog when I was a paralegal in 2006. It had posts on my experience, opinions on recent events and anything law-related that interested me. As I was working in a housing law department, this included reports and views on housing cases, then more and more housing cases. […]
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UK Criminal Law Blog
Sara Williams, Lyndon Harris and I decided to start the UK Criminal Law Blog in the early autumn of 2012. I have been a barrister in chambers for 10 years, Sara is a practising barrister, just out of pupillage, and Lyndon a BVC graduate who is currently the editor of Banks on Sentence. Whilst this […]
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Free Movement
Free Movement began in 2007. The strapline is that it offers updates and commentary on immigration and asylum law but it also includes a lot of editorial, policy and media comment and has a definite campaigning feel to it. I wrote anonymously for the first few years. Word got around the immigration law sector that […]
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Putting the law into social media
As social media continues to grow at an ever-increasing rate, more and more industries and companies are tempted by the idea of “going online” and building their social media presence. It’s a worthwhile endeavour, but one not without pitfalls. Care needs to be taken; this isn’t just something you should dabble with until you get […]
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