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Legal Technology News From the publishers of Legal Technology Insider
IN THIS ISSUE No.105 - 10.04.2002
SIFT TO ENTER LEGAL WEB SITES MARKET
Sift has been operating a similar service in the accountancy market - under PracticeWeb banner - for some time now and has over 130 accountancy firms licensing the application, which allows firms to both build a professional web site and then keep it up-to-date. Stat Plus will be taking the message out to the market through its extensive sales network which has some 6000 law firms on its books. The move will presumably also provide the ActiveLawyer and Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer HomePages services (which both offer an out-of-the-box, easy to update approach to web site development) with some serious competition. www.practiceweb.co.uk
GAMBLING LAW REPORTS ONLINE
The editorial panel includes some of the UK's leading specialists in this field, including Kevin de Haan QC, Tony Wollenberg from Steptoe & Johnson, Hilary Stewart-Jones from Berwin Leighton Paisner, and David Zeffman from Olswang. World Online Gambling Law Report is available both in hard copy and online for £425 pa For more information contact the managing editor Lindsey Greig on +44 (0)20 8374 4242 or visit www.e-comlaw.com
ARE WOMEN BETTER DRIVERS THAN MEN ?
Visitors to the site, who have had a brush with the law in their car, are able to request information by email of the likely outcome for any motoring matter. They can also get hints on how to keep their sentence to a minimum and be given guidance on whether it is worthwhile even thinking about instructing a solicitor to help, either with preparation or with representation. The site will even try and help them find someone to represent them if this is what they want.
According to former criminal law solicitor Martin Davies, who runs the site: "Just over 50% of our enquiries relate to various speeding offences, with men accounting for almost 90%. There are only three offences where the percentage of women offenders rises above 20% - careless driving (22%), drink driving (22%) and driving without insurance/tax (24%).
And just in case you think the results are slanted by demographics, internet usage by women in the UK is not significantly lower than by men - according to NetValue in January the ration is 58% men to 42% women. The full analysis of the first 1000 enquiries to the Road Reckoner can be found at
iMANAGE EXPANDS INTO ASIA-PACIFIC MARKET LEGAL WEB SITE & ONLINE SERVICES NEWS
LASER SHARP RESEARCH - Legalease, the publishers of the 'Legal 500' series of directories, are now offering users to their web sites access to a very easy to use law firm specific search engine. Called the LaSeR - or Law Site Register - all you have to do is type in a firm's name, or even a part of it, and the search engine will pull up the law firms and accompanying URLs that most closely match the name keyed in. www.legal500.com/index.php
IN THE LAW AND ON THE NET - The US 'zine 'In the Law & on the Net' which looks at "information privacy, e-commerce, internet law, and digital culture" has resumed publication after a 10 day delay because, in the words of its editor Professor Michael Sweig, of De Paul University School for New Learning, he has been "too stunned" by the latest turn of events in the Middle East, in the war between the Palestinians and Israel. The zine is published in both an email format and on the web at http://ecl.flashlog.com
REFERENCE THIS WITH INFOLAW - Users of Infolaw's Lawfinder legal search engine service can now take advantage of a new 'References to this' facility. This is a simple feature designed to facilitate further research. To find all web references related to any document or resource listed, simply click the 'References to this' link below the entry. In most cases the resulting list will include references directly related to the document in question. If related references are not found, you can make the search more specific by enclosing some or all the search words in "quotation marks". www.infolaw.co.uk
LIVERPOOL FIRM LAUNCHES REVAMPED SITE - Liverpool based solicitors Morecroft Urquhart has just gone live with a new look web site that was redesigned by Odyssey Interactive. The site was given a revamp to improve navigation and provide visitors with faster access to information. The firm now plans to work with Odyssey on the development of online services for clients and related parties. www.morecroft.co.uk www.odyssey-i.com
NEW URL FOR LIT SUPPORT COMPANY - As part of a rebranding exercise Quorum Litigation Services, one of the pioneers of electronic discovery and large scale litigation support technologies in the United States, has acquired the www.quorum.com address and will now begin phasing out its current URL http://www.quorumlanier.com
iMANAGE & WHITEHILL TO PROVIDE INVOICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The integration of iManage with Whitehill's "document transformation technology" now provides a clean process for firms to manage invoices after creation, while retaining their professional appearance, without the need for complex scripting or third party import tools. By bringing these documents into the iManage WorkSite DMS system, the new functionality enables firms to manage their billing records with the same efficiency, reliability and security as the rest of their business content, as well as providing the option of sharing invoice data with clients through an extranet.
NEW US KM VENDOR MAKES DEBUT
CASE STUDY - PICKING UP THE PIECES IN SHORT ORDER
Thacher Proffitt & Wood operates on a calendar year basis, so the last thing the firm wanted or needed was a transition at the end of the year. In fact they initially hoped to change their accounting system in the spring of 2002 however the tragic events of September 11 abruptly changed the firm's plan.
Due diligence in researching the appropriate financial and practice management system for Thacher Proffitt & Woods' needs was complete prior to September 11 but after losing their backup in the tragedy, the firm's accounting department knew they needed to make a decision on which system to implement immediately. After researching new systems to replace their old one, Thacher Proffitt & Wood decided on Solution 6's CMS OPEN. Their research indicated that the product was easier to navigate compared to competitive products, the transition would be easier for end users, and the product met the firm's database requirements.
The firm began utilizing CMS as their PMS system in October 2001. As a result of losing their data, the firm did not have to go through the usual data conversion process - but instead they had to completely rebuild their database. Thacher Proffitt & Wood's executive director Anthony Cassino says this task would not have been possible without the help of CMS OPEN's Consulting Resource Group (CRG) and their "can do" approach during the implementation and training process. "We needed a team that was flexible enough to think out of the box and not follow normal procedure," said Cassino. "We knew that there would be long nights, early mornings and busy weekends ahead. The CMS staff worked so well with ours that you couldn't tell who worked for CMS and who worked for the firm." And, thanks to the CRG implementation and training teams, the CMS system was completely implemented within three months.
In addition to creating a game plan for the installation after September 11, the firm was also faced with rebuilding their records, processing ongoing transactions, training staff and dealing with a variety of accounting issues, all of which were successfully and flawlessly completed by CMS in this time frame. The firm spent the majority of their first live months entering data and concentrating on the core functionality of CMS OPEN's financial applications yet after being live on CMS for just over three months, the firm's year-end went off without a glitch, balancing to the penny.
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