A Page on the Web, published in the Solicitors Journal, May 2000
LegalTech London (www.legaltechshow.com/london/) is the new incarnation of the annual Summer lawtech show at the Barbican centre in London, now under new management. With around half last year’s number of exhibitors, this year’s show, on 17 and 18 May, had an air of exclusivity about it – though many suppliers had simply dropped out following poor attendance at last year’s event and had not been enticed back by the new organisers Imark.
Most exhibitors had something to show on the internet front. The principal law publishers (or ‘content providers’ in the current jargon) were of course present, as were a number of the legal news publishers. Two new legal portal sites took stands (meaning dozens didn’t) and other exhibitors and application solution providers (ASPs) offered an array of intranet, extranet and e-commerce solutions.
Of course, a show such as this is not the best platform to review the internet services on offer since this can be done from the comfort of your own office without the attendant salesman. Nevertheless, since they took the trouble to show up, here’s an update as to what is on offer from the web publishers.
Law publishers
Butterworths (www.butterworths.co.uk) now has no less than 14 online subscription services including its leading brand All England and Halsbury’s services as well as specialist services for most practice areas. Probably only half this number of services were available this time last year. The pace of development is testament not only to the amount of money being thrown at it, but to the fact that the standardisation of its data repositary and development of its electronic editorial and production systems were under way many years before we’d even heard of the internet.
Playing a hectic game of catch-up over the last couple of years has been Sweet & Maxwell (www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk). Although its site lists a large number of online services, the flagships are three: Current Legal Information is the online version of Current Law. Late 1999 saw the launch of Localaw UK (www.localaw.co.uk), a service incorporating materials from its comprehensive series of local government law encyclopedias and articles and current awareness bulletins prepared by Eversheds. Westlaw UK (www.westlaw.co.uk), is the culmination of more than two years’ development of its primary law data repositary, delivered using US-proven Westlaw technology, and shaped to the requirements of its larger UK clients.
Context last year released the online version of its Justis and Celex databases (www.justis.com), including law reports: The Law Reports, Weekly Law Reports, The Times Electronic Law Reports, Industrial Cases Reports, Lloyds Law Reports and Family Law Reports; Statute Law: covering UK Statutory Instruments from January 1987 to present and from May 2000 the full UK Statutes database; and European Law. A Human Rights service is the latest to be added.
Lawtel (www.lawtel.co.uk) continues to develop its online presence. To its base Case Law, Articles Index and Legislation services it has added specialist ‘interactive’ centres for Personal Injury, Civil Procedure, Local Government and, now launching, EU interactive.
A new publishing kid on the block is Everyform (www.everyform.net), offering an innovative solution for the provision of prescribed law forms.
Legal news
The show was sponsored by Centaur Communications, publisher of The Lawyer newspaper, Lawtel (above) and interactivelawyer.com, the internet service incorporating The Lawyer content. Also present was Global Professional Media, publisher of Legal Week and Legal IT and their online equivalents legalweek.net and legalit.net, which chose to present itself under the Legal IT banner. As is the case with their paper equivalents, these sites are essentially supported by advertising and offer daily news, news archives, daily updated law, directories, events, jobs, books and company information.
In Brief Magazine (www.inbrief.co.uk) runs the Loties (Legal Office Technology Innovation Awards) and presented those awards at the event. Although the winners are clearly and lavishly presented in May’s printed issue of In Brief, a visit to their site on Monday 22 May disappointed, in that the 1999 winners were still on display.
Portals
The last year has seen a proliferation of legal portal sites, including the legal news-based sites (above), as well sites from legal office service providers such as Waterlows and Oyez Straker, law firms such as Simmons & Simmons and many others. Two on show were Hemscott Legal (www.hemscottlegal.com) – aimed at finance and investment lawyers, with data about companies, deals, disputes recruitment – and Law.com/UK (www.law.com/uk). Using the same technology as its US parent, law.com, the latter has bought in content from a range of law publishers and developed an interface specific to the needs of the UK legal marketplace.
… and finally
What is it about little boys in striped tops? In their current ads both Everyform and Westlaw UK are using just such a lad to peddle their services. Answers to me at the SJ must be accompanied by your best shiny Pokémon card to qualify.
