Day: 11 January 2013

Legal service providers – who are you afraid of?

We have certainly seen the development of some big bad wolves in 2012. Perhaps “afraid” isn’t the right word, but who are the threats? Of the new breed of legal services providers, who should law firms be paying attention to? In this article I offer some views on several wolves who are definitely worth watching. […]

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Tomorrow’s Lawyers

Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future is a new book by Richard Susskind, published by Oxford University Press, January 2013. It is smaller and more compact than Richard’s previous books and inexpensive (in paperback at £9.99) but contains the condensed and assimilated wisdom of one of the most important thinkers that we have about […]

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Pay per click – how to use it effectively

The legal landscape is changing rapidly as a result of the Jackson Reforms ban on referral fees and the introduction of alternative business structures. With the large aggregators facing an uncertain future, many firms are increasingly looking to bring lead generation in house using pay per click (PPC) marketing platforms especially Google Adwords. PPC offers […]

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Should lawyers Surface?

My new Microsoft Surface RT was delivered on 31 October 2012. Not since I was a young boy opening the box to a Dragon computer or a BBC Micro had I so anticipated owning a new computer. (I never got a Sinclair ZX Spectrum or a Commodore 64.) The Surface is a slick looking piece […]

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Client feedback and business development

The new Outcomes Focused Regulations (OFR), increased competition in the legal services market and the changes in the way potential clients look for legal advice are all factors that should be encouraging law firms to spend some time looking at how their client feedback works and exploring how they can act on and use this […]

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Online dispute resolution

2012 was a big year for online dispute resolution (ODR) culminating in the introduction of the world’s first piece of legislation specific to ODR. Ten years after the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe launched the annual International Forum on ODR, the shaping by online technology of a global justice system is coming of age […]

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Access to judgments

On 20 November 2012 Lord Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court, delivered the First Annual BAILII Lecture, entitled “No Judgment – No Justice” in which he dealt with three important aspects of improving access to justice through improved access to judgments: their clarity, free dissemination and enhancement. His intro para is worth quoting here in […]

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Cloud technology platforms – it’s a legal matter

Delia Venables, Nick Holmes and I go back a long way (remember the old Law Society LOMAT guides Delia, or Computers for Lawyers from Longmans, Nick?) so it’s a great pleasure to be invited to write something for the online version of the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. By way of background, at about the same […]

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