Keeping up with lawtech

A Page on the Web, published in the Solicitors Journal, September 1998.

It goes without saying that every firm should have an IT strategy. But with the technologies developing so rapidly and new suppliers appearing almost daily, informed decisions become that much more difficult. How can you keep informed of developments? Where can you go for impartial advice? and How can the internet help?

Cloudnine Technology

Cloudnine, run by Charles Christian, publishes the Legal Technology Insider newsletter and provides a range of technology and law-related information services for IT suppliers, inhouse legal departments, local authorities and law firms in the UK. The Insider bills itself as ‘the source for independent legal technology news, comment and analysis’ – and it is. Each fortnightly (barring holiday breaks) issue contains a remarkable number of pertinent news items on developments ranging through staple law office software from major suppliers such as Microsoft, industry-specific systems such as case management and litigation support, electronic law publishing and information provision, and internet activity by all the above suppliers as well as law firms and departments themselves.

The Insider – printed on a distinctive orange paper – is not itself on the web, though you can subscribe to an emailed version which you can view with a web browser or load on an intranet.

Cloudnine’s website has recently been revamped and extended and now provides access to the following facilities:

hypertext links to organisations mentioned in the latest issue of the Insider plus an archive going back to February 1997
a free ‘digital’ Local Government Law current awareness newsletter, reporting on latest court cases.
a free ‘digital’ Internet Law current awareness newsletter, reporting on latest legal and business issues
a free service generated by Text Daily which automatically monitors a selection of web sites on a daily basis for the latest legal IT reports.

More services are due over the next two months.Contact Cloudnine on 01379-687704, email: info@cloudnine.co.uk.

Delia Venables

Regular readers of this Page will know that Delia is an IT consultant, specialising in advising the smaller firm, who is also particularly enthusiastic and well-informed on the internet.

Delia’s publications include Researching the Legal Web, a book jointly authored with yours truly; a series of a dozen or so information technology articles (‘Nuggets’); The Internet Newsletter for Lawyers; and a Guide to the Internet for Lawyers. Extracts and information about these publications are on Delia’s website together with the following lawtech features:

on-line tutorials associated with the Guide to the Internet for Lawyers
a ‘website workout’ to help you appraise your own legal website
links to and brief details of legal software and information technology suppliers
links to and brief details of web services companies targeting legal sector clients
Year 2000 sources of information, including information on and links to official sites and some compendium sites, major suppliers’ sites with Y2K information, what UK Lawyers are doing, and seminars and conferences on Y2K issues.

Contact Delia on 01273 472424, email delia@venables.co.uk.

Other sites

The Society for Computers & Law site is probably most useful for its Emag – the online version of the Society’s magazine – of which currently the current and two previous issues are available. Unfortunately the site is rather too full of frames, colour schemes and Java gizmos which leave me cross-eyed and upset my computer.

The Lawyer magazine includes infotech stories amongst its archives. the latest can be accessed in reverse date order by clicking on the Infotech Stories search link.

Neil Cameron, acknowledged lawtech guru, publishes plenty of lawtech articles and advice on his pages. Sadly the site is not up to date, most pages dating from December 1997. Incidentally, an Alta Vista search for ‘Neil Cameron’ produced 415 hits; though ‘… near technology’ reduced this to 34, most on Neil’s own pages or the SCL site.

Legalease’s Legal IT site is still ‘coming soon’, but promises to be a useful bookmark.

Web Watch

Associations

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

Services

Lawbooks Online

Offshore

cyber.loi – a guide to information technology law in jersey

Welfare and benefits

National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux

Martin Rathfelder’s Weasel Words – links to disability benefits sites

Binary Law

Legal information in the digital age on the blawg since 2004