This article first appeared in Legal Web Watch August 2017. Legal Web Watch is a free email service which complements the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. To receive Legal Web Watch regularly sign up here.
The following items have been selected from Delia Venables’ “New” page.
Co-op Legal Services can pay all the costs of a Co-op Funeralcare Funeral
Co-op Legal Services is working with Co-op Funeralcare to offer a joint deal. If a person uses the Probate Complete Service then the funeral can be provided without additional charge, assuming that the Estate has sufficient assets which can be sold in due course. All costs are fixed in advance so that there will be no nasty surprises. See here for the details of the offer.
This is an interesting example of a big and trusted organisation, the Co-op, which has many activities in its portfolio, putting some of these activities together to provide a special deal for its users.
Targeted client acquisition for B2B law firms
Client.ID is a joint venture by Moore Legal Technology Limited and Candidate ID. It is a Demand Generation Platform that provides automated online marketing and demand generation specifically for law firms. The software allows a firm to create and monitor a pool of engaged prospects that can be nurtured until they are suitably interested in the service being offered. In other words – a firm can build relationships with potential clients, and clearly identify when these prospects are ready to "buy".
Justis to extend their coverage to New Zealand
Justis are extending their coverage to New Zealand – a new jurisdiction in their case law offerings. Following a partnership with The Law Report, Justis will provide decisions of the higher courts of New Zealand from 2010 onwards across all major practice areas. The Law Report select important decisions for the series and provide summaries for cases with weekly updates. Viewers will be able to access the cases alongside those from other common law jurisdictions including Canada, Australia and the UK, and conduct comparative research more easily as the Justis team cross-reference every decision added to the database against their existing collections. The Law Report will be available on the Justis platform from September 2017.
Faster access to The Irish Reports
Justis and the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for Ireland (ICLR) have reached an agreement to make recent judgments available on Justis as soon as their editorial steps have been completed. This arrangement means that users can access the official reports of significant Irish cases online shortly after the judgments are delivered, and well before the availability of the cases in hard copy. Justis Managing Director Masoud Gerami, says: “This is a significant development for our online subscribers to The Irish Reports, and we are delighted that users will now be able to access this invaluable content to use in their research as soon as cases are reported. I congratulate ICLR for such a progressive decision.”
A very good site for individuals in Ireland to understand basic Irish law
Lawyer.ie is a Guide to the Law in the Republic of Ireland. This is not a new site – I knew it several years ago as the website of Dublin firm Tyrrell Solicitors, and Roddy Tyrrell is still the publisher of the site – but it has developed strongly as a resource for lay people to understand the law in Ireland. The site majors on personal injuries, family law and probate/wills but also covers consumer law, company law, taxation, employment, immigration, insolvency and defamation.
Law Society issues guidance on Money Laundering
Quick guide to the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 was issued on 11 July 2017 by the Law Society. It provides a brief overview of the key issues firms will need to be aware of and the changes they will have to implement in order to comply with the regulations. The new regulations – The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (the regulations), which transpose the Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive into UK law, were laid before parliament on 22 June and commenced on 26 June. Although the Fourth Directive was finalised in June 2015, a draft version of the regulations was only released in March 2017 and the regulations themselves were only laid before parliament one working day prior to commencement.
See also my page on Money Laundering topics here.
Language courses, suitable for lawyers, start at the end of September, in central London
Languages2000 is the website of Susan Isaacs. She has an M.A from Oxford and has been running courses in the City for the past thirty years. Her classes are mainly based near Moorgate, Barbican, London Bridge and Canary Wharf. Although her classes are not specifically for lawyers, they are aimed at professionals and her clients include students from Norton Rose Fulbright, HSBC, Linklaters, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Herbert Smith, Simmons and Simmons, the GLA and the Bank of England. Languages covered include French, German, Italian and Spanish at various levels. You can see more details from the website as above, or email her at susanelizabethisaacs@icloud.com, asking for details of the language(s) that interest you.
SCL Conference "Back to basics: the technology" on 19 September 2017
The Annual SCL conference will take place on Tuesday 19 September 2017, 9.30 am – 5.30 pm (Registration from 8.45 am. Drinks from 5.30 pm)
The conference is hosted and sponsored by Bristows LLP, London, 100 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DH
The write-up of the event says: "We aim to answer many of those questions that sometimes sound too silly to ask. We assure you they are not! SCL has assembled a team of practising lawyers and technologies to bust through the jargon and explain how things work, without too much bamboozlement!"
The full programme is now available here.
Cost is £300 + VAT for SCL members and £450 + VAT for non-members. There are also assisted places, concessonary rates and bursaries.
Justis webinars help young lawyers (and older ones) to learn essential legal research skills
JustisOne UK Practitioner Training Webinars are designed to introduce new customers and remind existing ones, about JustisOne, the latest platform from Justis Publishing. JustisOne contains the largest collection of judgments available anywhere online. The free webinar series will cover the UK, Ireland, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and other jurisdictions (in separate webinars) for both practitioners and academics. You can register on the site.
A practical guide to marketing for lawyers by Catherine Bailey & Jennet Ingram
A practical guide to marketing for lawyers is a new book written by two experts in this field, Catherine Bailey & Jennet Ingram. The book covers Strategy: The What, the Why and the How; The Importance of Branding in Law; Ensuring Successful Communications; Social Media Strategies; What Makes a Winning Website; Press, PR and Events Planning; The Importance of Design; Developing Clients and Acquiring Prospects; Managing Marketing Budgets; and Essential Checklists.
Catherine Bailey is MD of Bar Marketing and has 20 years of experience in strategic and operational marketing. Jennet Ingram holds Chartered Marketeer status and works with legal software suppliers, outsourced service providers, law firms and barristers’ chambers.
You can read Chapter Two for free, on The Importance Of Branding in Law.
Now available for £14.99 from Amazon, with the Kindle version priced at £9.99.
LEAP announces partnership with The Cashroom
LEAP, a key cloud-based practice management software provider is going into partnership with The Cashroom to provide outsourced cashier, management accounting and payroll services to its clients. The services will include all books and records, paying suppliers, reconciling bank accounts, day/month end routines, submitting VAT returns etc. Management accounts and information can be provided together with budgets and cash flow projections to keep a firm fully informed. It will also include payroll services, with statutory payments, pensions and other deductions, and can administer ‘auto-enrolment’ and workplace pensions in accordance with the regulations. Peter Baverstock CEO of LEAP comments: "Through our partnership with The Cashroom we can now offer LEAP clients the option of outsourcing the accounting function of their practice. This removes a traditional and substantial cost by providing day to day processing of accounts by trained professionals."
Clarity on sources of impartial legal advice for Grenfell
The Law Society's president, Joe Egan, has clarified that North Kensington Law Centre is a trusted provider of free legal advice to those affected by the disaster. He said: "This local law centre, dedicated to serving some of the poorest and most disadvantaged in the area for nearly 50 years, works with volunteer lawyers to provide independent, impartial and free legal advice on housing, employment, immigration and asylum and welfare benefits. Lawyers who are offering free, expert legal advice through North Kensington Law Centre can help people decide how best to proceed with legal issues they may be facing – from inquests, wills and probate to benefits, housing, immigration or asylum matters. They can also advise on sources of further advice if that is needed."
Further information can be found here.
Justis to become the exclusive provider of Caribbean Law (CariLaw)
Justis will add cases from 18 Caribbean jurisdictions to their large collection of case law, in November this year. The CariLaw database is the result of the hard work and dedication of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Faculty of Law Library. Since 1970, The UWI has been collecting, organising and disseminating Commonwealth Caribbean primary law, both in print and electronically. The CariLaw website was established by the Faculty of Law Library in 2003. It has been continually updated, and now contains the full text of over 44,000 cases with headnotes. In November this year, these cases will also be available via the Justis database. Masoud Gerami, MD of Justis, says that for the first time Caribbean case law will then be part of a common-law wide research environment. Full details of this initiative can be found here.
"Free Movement" website provides updates, commentary and advice on immigration and asylum law – not "new" but a great resource
Free Movement, run by barrister Colin Yeo and colleagues, aims to provide good quality and clear information available to all affected by immigration control: migrants themselves, their families, their lawyers and their judges. As he says on the site "Immigration law has become very complex in the UK and changes very rapidly; we try to make it simple, or at least understandable". The website receives over 300,000 page views a month with a great deal of free information and there is also a membership scheme for additional information, costing from £20 a month. There are guides for purchase and also a fixed price legal advice scheme for people with particular problems. He also tweets from @ColinYeo1 and provides a regular flow of information on the latest developments in this field.
Eclipse announces new case and practice management software written especially for small law firms
Eclipse Legal Systems, long established provider of very powerful software for UK legal firms, has now developed a new system called "Eclipse Compact", a cloud-based (hosted) system designed specifically for small firms of between 1 and 10 users. Built using Eclipse’s existing Law Society Endorsed "Proclaim" case and practice management platform, Compact provides a core set of tools enabling smaller organisations to benefit from many of the facilities originally designed for larger firms. With no up-front costs, Compact can be rapidly rolled out for a standard "per user, per month" price. An upgrade path is available, if the firm needs a more comprehensive system at a later date. Eclipse Compact is available immediately and can be taken as a pure case management solution for specific work areas, or an integrated practice management system with SAR-compliant finance tools. There are more details of this new software launch here.
Tikit’s Carpe Diem cloud solution recognised by government framework
G-Cloud is a government initiative designed to aggregate cloud-based IT services and put them in one place – the ‘CloudStore’ – giving public sector organisations access to cloud suppliers which are government approved. This is intended to drive the wider adoption of cloud computing in the public sector. Tikit, part of the BT Group and leading provider of technology solutions for law and professional services firms is now able to supply its Carpe Diem cloud-based time recording solution under the Government G-Cloud Framework, giving public sector organisations easy access to one of the leading time recording systems available. “Being part of the G-Cloud Framework agreement significantly simplifies the procurement process for any government organisation looking for a best of breed time recording solution" said Katherine Ainley, CEO of Tikit. "Carpe Diem time recording has been a leading solution for law firms for over 20 years and we are keen to bring its benefits into the public sector.” More about this story here.
Now that's what I call a global user conference! (A Huge HUG)
HotDocs, market-leading document automation specialist, has just had a big HotDocs User Group meeting in London with over 100 customers and partners from nearly a dozen countries including Australia, United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Romania, the Czech Republic and, of course, the UK. There were new product developments, customer success stories, technology and business streams and a general sharing of information on document automation technology. Delegates at (HotDocs User Group) HUG 2017 came from a wide range of industries and professions, with technical and senior management representatives from banking, law, real estate, insurance, local government and large enterprise in attendance. There is a regional HUG in New York in November. HotDocs was formed in 1996 and has its HQ in Edinburgh. There are users in 60 countries. There is more about the conference here.
David Lloyd George, the only Solicitor ever to become Prime Minister, is now to be honoured by the Law Society
The former Council Chamber at the Law Society’s Hall in Chancery Lane, London, is to be renamed in Lloyd George's honour. He became Prime Minister in December 1916 and to date is the only solicitor in England and Wales to become Prime Minister. David Dixon, the Law Society council member for South Wales, proposed the motion to commemorate him in this way and the motion was passed by acclamation. He said, “The Law Society should be proud that one of its members became the head of the UK government. This was a colossal achievement for someone we would now regard as a High Street practitioner, who practised in a small town with a population of under 1,000 people on the north coast of Cardigan Bay and for whom English was a second language. Moreover, he assumed office at a time of crisis, when we appeared to be losing the First World War. He led the country to victory in that War and through the years of uncertainty which followed.” Following the meeting, David Dixon said, “This motion is about showing pride in the profession and honouring the memory of a solicitor who achieved great things and of whom the profession should be proud.”
Eclipse Legal Systems selected as an Approved G-Cloud supplier
Eclipse Legal System’s Proclaim legal software solution is now available through G-Cloud 9, a scheme developed by the Government to simplify procurement for public sector organisations and departments across the UK. Within G-Cloud 9 is a secure online store called the ‘Digital Marketplace’, and as an approved supplier, Eclipse now has the opportunity to promote its Proclaim Case and Practice Management solutions directly to the public sector via the online store. Essentially, this will provide organisations with a cheaper and quicker method of buying services. More info from Eclipse here. There is more from GOV.UK about the scheme in general here.
