Month: May 2009

Beyond collaboration

In his groundbreaking book The End of Lawyers?, law professor and futurist Richard Susskind discusses ten types of “disruptive legal technologies” that will shred the existing business models of most law practices. One of those forces is “closed client communities” that draw upon their members’ collective wisdom in legal matters to produce a knowledge database […]

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CaseCheck sans borders

CaseCheck is a Web 2.0 service providing an extensive collection of case summaries. Initially focussed on Scots law, it has now substantially expanded its coverage and extended its borders with the addition of over 4,000 case summaries from England, Wales and the EU from the archives of Law Brief Update. Law Brief Update is a […]

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Why should lawyers blog?

One of the most marked developments heralded in by Web 2.0 technology has been the rapid blossoming in popularity of the blog – the abbreviation of weblog, a web-based journal – as a means of communication. You’ll no doubt be familiar with the concept and you may well have a few among your bookmarks, but […]

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Words fit for purpose

The question of the fitness for purpose of words is especially important in the communications of professional firms. In this article, I will be outlining how to make sure the words you use are fit for purpose. The first question to ask is, “What exactly are we trying to achieve?” Being clear about that is […]

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Planning an email campaign

In the last issue we looked at how to go about building up a database of email addresses, how to capture suitable contact details from existing clients and contacts, and what external email lists can be purchased. We also covered the basic rules for who you can and cannot email. In this article, we look […]

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Inksters innovations

Inksters is based in Glasgow but carries out legal work throughout Scotland and in particular in Shetland where I come from. I am a sole practitioner with an associate, a trainee solicitor (with another about to join us) and three support staff. Although a small practice, we have embraced web-based technology with enthusiasm. The Telegraph […]

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Sweet & Maxwell’s new web presence

As the first part of the process of redesigning our new-look website (www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk) we embarked on a customer research and usability study to understand exactly what our customers wanted from our site as a channel for purchasing publications (books, journals, looseleafs and CDs), sourcing useful information about these (eg checklists and filing instructions) and finding […]

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Voice recognition in practice

I had first thought about getting voice recognition software as long ago as 1996, and while I had been impressed by the wizardry, I had not been impressed by the functionality. Having kept an eye on the reviews since then, particularly those that appeared in PC Pro (in my experience it provides a balanced and […]

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