Aug

4

FindLaw UK launches while the UK is on holiday

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Just as we leave home with our buckets and spades, FindLaw UK launches. Originally an independent site where you could … well … find (US) law, FindLaw has been part of the Thomson Reuters empire for some years now and the UK site, like it’s US cousin, is “primarily a collection of free legal resources for consumers”; in other words it’s a site designed to drive consumers into the arms of lawyers.

Per the Official FindLaw [US] Blog:

It includes many helpful articles with free legal information; a question-and-answer community forum; news feeds provided by Reuters; and tools to help consumers find a solicitor to assist them with their legal issue via FindLaw UK’s Contact Law service. FindLaw UK also reaches out to the legal professional audience, with a Solicitor Marketing area discussing tools and strategies for solicitors to enhance their online presence.

With over 5000 pages of content already in place, FindLaw UK is ready for its new audience. Legal consumers in the UK are seeking more extensive and reliable legal information from the Internet, beyond that available from an array of existing sites that contain largely leaflet information. The site will fill what consumers perceive to be a void in quality, free, UK-focused legal content.

The content developed for FindLaw UK focuses on the legal topic areas most sought after by UK legal consumers, including employment, personal finance, and community issues. The site’s content is arranged around life events like getting married or buying property, rather than strictly by legal practice area, to help consumers narrow their search more quickly. And of course, as with FindLaw.com, FindLaw.co.uk will be a living online destination that continues to grow over time.

FindLaw UK expands upon the work of FindLaw’s Solicitor blog, which has been keeping consumers informed on relevant UK law for more than a year and a half now. With the new site we look forward to expanding our UK audience to reach the many consumers seeking legal information, or a quality solicitor.

On the plus side it has been professionally put together for FindLaw by Robert Clarkson and his team. The blog is well written, the articles are sensibly selected from (in the main) public sources and the the FindLaw team provides competent answers to forum questions rather than leaving the blind to lead the blind.

But it’s uninspiring and unoriginal and will add little to human web-happiness. Let’s be honest this site exists to churn out “good” content which will be well regarded by Google, attracting punters who won’t find answers on the site but many of whom will ultimately use the Contact Law (or other) service on the site thus earning FindLaw commissions.

At least there are no embarrassing splogs yet.

By Nick Holmes, 4 August 2010
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Jul

2

BabyBarista lucks out

Filed Under Law sites, Law blogs, Blogging | 2 Comments 

Tim Kevan is on a roll. BabyBarista now has a tenancy at the Guardian in their new Law section. Congrats Tim!

He’s suitably nice about the Grauniad:

I’m really delighted to be joining the Guardian at such an exciting time in the development of their online strategy. With over thirty million users a month they have what I consider to be the most vibrant and innovative online presence of any of the national newspapers.

I’m particularly impressed by their Open Platform and the way they have introduced the idea of partnering with bloggers such as myself whereby I can retain my own website and identity as well as working directly with them (they even wrote me a Wordpress plug-in especially!) It’s a paradigm-shift away from the old-school need for ownership and exclusivity and is definitely the way forward for traditional media to harness the power and energy of the web’s creative forces.

By Nick Holmes, 2 July 2010
Filed under Law sites, Law blogs, Blogging | 2 Comments 

Jun

24

FreeLegalWeb

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In case you haven’t heard via other channels, the FreeLegalWeb beta service is now live.

By Nick Holmes, 24 June 2010
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Jun

16

Personally, I think we’re tops

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Have you noticed how recently your site has been doing so much better on Google? Those SEO efforts are really paying off, right?

Wrong! Google is showing you what you want to see.

Actually it’s been going on a long while. In April 2009 Goog introduced Personalized Search for everyone. Basically this means that your Google results are by default customised for you, based on your last 180 days’ search activity (your “Web History”), whether you are signed in to a Google account or not. So if you frequently check out your web pages’ SERPs for particular keyword searches, you’ll see those pages rise in the SERPs until, wonder of wonders, you’re top!

For the cold, hard truth you should turn off personalised search.

By Nick Holmes, 16 June 2010
Filed under SEO | 2 Comments 

Jun

12

A new Legal Web ebook with CPD for solicitors

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Thanks to Tessa Shepperson for reviewing favourably Delia Venables and my latest Legal Web ebook with CPD for solicitors called Modern Practice Topics for Solicitors.

Are you feeling ignorant about the internet. Worried about wikis? Bothered by blogs? Or intimidated by twitter? You need a bit of professional training and guidance.

Allow me to introduce the answer. This is the new ebook and CPD course from Nick and Delia on Modern Practice Topics for Solicitors.

Nick and Delia have been involved in and writing about the legal internet for years. Must be at least ten, probably more. Both have informative web-sites, Delia runs the best set of legal links on the internet, as does Nick, as Infolaw. Together they produce the fabulous and award winning Internet Newsletter. Every now and again they produce an ebook / CPD product and this is the most recent offering. It is very good.

 Read the full review on her blog.

By Nick Holmes, 12 June 2010
Filed under CPD, Legal practice, Legal web | Leave a Comment 

Jun

10

In praise of Small Law

Filed Under Business | 2 Comments 

I’m usually suitably supplicant in agreeing with future-of-law guru Susskind, but I take issue with the views implicit in his recent Times Online piece Does the Law Society know that there’s an internet generation?

The report tells us that, in 2008, 85.9 per cent of law firms had four or fewer partners, while 44.2 per cent were sole practices. To the business-minded, this looks like a cottage industry, with members who handcraft labour-intensive and bespoke solutions in delivering a face-to-face advisory service.

Where in the report, then, in relation to lawyers, is the radical rethink? Nowhere. There is no discussion, for example, of the scope for project management, workflow tools, outsourcing, wider use of paralegals, economies of scale or shared services centres. The spotlight is never trained on the inefficiencies of traditional legal practice.

I’m sure it is true that a large number of solo and small practitioners are inefficient and behind the times, but there are many who are as efficient if not more so than the “best” large firms and who are at the same time more innovative and responsive than the larger practices can only dream of. I deal with many and they are quite happy to be small.

You’ll forgive me for not reading the Law Society’s report, but I suspect that it does not dwell on Big Law practices because Big Law - whatever their current problems - are big enough do without Law Society support; it is the little guy who needs a leg up.

Scale is not everything - some don’t need paralegals and shared service centres to deliver a good and efficient service. Big Law does not deliver better law any more than Big Business delivers better business or Big Finance delivers better finance. Big has cocked things up recently in the City, in the Gulf of Mexico etc. Small just gets on with it.

Sorry Richard, but Small is beautiful.

By Nick Holmes, 10 June 2010
Filed under Business | 2 Comments 

May

29

BabyBarista balks at the paywall

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Tim Kevan has raised two fingers to the Digger and withdrawn the BabyBarista blog from The soon-to-be-paywalled Times, saying:

I didn’t start this blog for it to be the exclusive preserve of a limited few subscribers. I wrote it to entertain whosoever wishes to read it.

BabyBarista is now at www.babybarista.com and includes cartoons by Times cartoonist Alex Williams.

From its independent blog beginnings, BabyBarista appeared on The Times for over three years which led to a book deal with Bloomsbury: BabyBarista and the Art of War was published as a trade paperback last year. A mass market edition with the new title Law and Disorder is due out in August. Book Two of the BabyBarista Files will also be published by Bloomsbury in 2011.

By Nick Holmes, 29 May 2010
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May

13

Sleeves rolled up

Filed Under Government | 1 Comment 

To gauge how on the ball these ConDems are, I did a quick trawl around the Gov dept sites which reveals that …

Most departments haven’t had time to do anything but post a rather ominous message along the lines of:

Content on this site is under review following the formation of a new government.

See eg DfT, BIS, DEFRA.

All is very calm and sensible at Education:

All statutory guidance and legislation linked to from this site continues to reflect the current legal position unless indicated otherwise, but may not reflect Government policy.

But Boy George at HM Treasury has been quick and ruthless:

Following the result of the 2010 General Election, we have reviewed and amended our web content to remove information related to the previous administration.

So, that’s 13  years erased in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile everyone’s headed over to join baldy at the Foreign Office and the National Security Council ponders …

What do we do now?

By Nick Holmes, 13 May 2010
Filed under Government | 1 Comment 

Apr

9

Social meejah - just for kids?

Filed Under Social networking | 1 Comment 

Head on over to Stem where Jordan Furlong is penning a series of posts on Social Media for Lawyers.

He kicked off with Facebook for law firms.

And has followed that up with Twitter for law firms.

These look at how law firms can use social media effectively to promote the firm. No journalistic hype or platitudes here: Jordan brings a wealth of experience to bear.

By Nick Holmes, 9 April 2010
Filed under Social networking | 1 Comment 

Apr

8

A tale of two professions

Filed Under Law publishing | 1 Comment 

Legal Research Plus comments on an article about John West [founder of West Publishing] and other non lawyers who have revolutionized legal research.

Apparently West called for neutral citations way back in 1908.

The author of the article, Prof Robert Jarvis, asks:

how a man who did not go to college, and was untrained in law, was able to devise methods that revolutionized legal research and, by extension, legal practice.  Why was no judge or lawyer able to see what he saw?  Perhaps the answer is that they were not looking, or perhaps it took an outsider to see what the cognoscenti could not.

I think the short answer is that lawyers are (we hope and expect)  good at lawyering not at developing publishing systems.

The full 23-page article by prof Jarvis is available in PDF.

By Nick Holmes, 8 April 2010
Filed under Law publishing | 1 Comment 

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