ISSUE No.113 - 17.07.2002 Libraries: smaller does not always mean cheaper - LOTIES voting now underway - Solution 6 acquire document management company - Hildebrandt expands into Germany - Clifford Chances opts for Copitrak - Bermuda gets its own law reports - Criminal justice conference transcripts available - Librarians say West is best - News in Brief - Next issue: 07.08.2002

LAW LIBRARIES - SMALLER DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN CHEAPER
The latest (June 2002) edition of American Lawyer Media's AmLaw Tech magazine casts an interesting perspective on the way some US law firm libraries are developing, as more and more publications become available in a digital format. A survey conducted earlier this year found that 55% of the firms in the sample had less shelf space dedicated to books than they did five years' ago and that of those firms where the main library had been redesigned or relocated during the last five years, 78% were now housed in smaller premises.

Given that 68% of firms reported cutting back on their purchases of law books and 75% had cancelled subscriptions to print law report series during the past two years, this shrinkage in size is easily explained. But, while libraries may be getting physically smaller, they are also getting more expensive to run, with 57% of firms reporting that their 2002 budgets were larger than those for 2001. Two factors contribute to this increase. The first is because the digital editions of most legal titles are sold on some form of per user licence basis, they are almost inevitably more expensive than their print counterparts. Secondly, the growing demand for specialist research and knowledge management services means many libraries are not only recruiting more librarians but also looking for more highly skilled staff who command higher salaries. Incidentally, according to the survey, over 36% of US law library directors now earn more that $100,000 per year.

LOTIES VOTING NOW UNDERWAY
The second round in the 2002 LOTIES - the UK's Legal Office Technology Innovation Awards - is now underway. Nominations have closed and users now have the opportunity to vote on the six shortlisted entries in each of the 15 award categories - these have been extended this year to include 'merit categories' for law firms, law firm IT directors, law firm IT teams and even a vendor personality of the year. The event is sponsored by Legal Technology Insider and you can find a full list on entries on the Insider web site at www.legaltechnology.com/TheLotiesShortlist2002.pdf

The closing date for voting is 1st October 2002 and you can vote online at www.inbrief.co.uk The awards will be announced at a gala dinner at the Cafe Royal, London on 14 November.

SOLUTION 6 ACQUIRE SINGLEVIEW
Solution 6 UK has acquired the assets of Singleview, a provider of document management and scanning systems for use by time based professionals. North London based Singleview was set up by Jeremy Hyman, as a spin-off from a project developed by accountants Berg Kaprow Lewis, and first appeared on the UK legal technology scene with its browser-based corporate intranet in a box about three years ago. Before rebranding the product under the Singleview name, it was sold by Laserform as the LFM LegalNet system. Browne Jacobson in Nottingham was one of the first law firms to install the system although it was also sold into the accountancy market under the Prism brand name. Solution 6, who have been working with Singleview for a couple of years, say the product will now be offered as an integrated document management system for firms wanting to create a paperless office that can scan and store inbound correspondence as well as outoing files.

HILDEBRANDT EXPANDS INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE WITH MUNICH OFFICE
Hildebrandt International is expanding internationally by opening a new office in Munich. The office will be headed by Chris Vaagt, a German consultant who has worked with law and other professional service firms in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe.

The Munich office will work closely with Hildebrandt's London office and Alan Hodgart, head of Hildebrandt's European operations. The Munich office will serve both German law firms and law firms based in other countries doing business in Germany and mainland Europe. Vaagt is a German lawyer and consultant who has worked with Hildebrandt for two years. Previously he spent three years as a business consultant in France and Germany and three years as a lawyer with a German commercial law firm.

"We see Germany as a key legal marketplace, one that has experienced tremendous dynamism and change in recent years," said company chairman Bradford Hildebrandt. "Having established a strong presence in Europe several years ago with our London office, we are extending our reach into mainland Europe with an office in the heart of the German market. Chris Vaagt has precisely the kind of background and experience we need to serve that market."

CLIFFORD CHANCE GOES WITH COPITRAK
Clifford Chance LLP, the world's largest integrated law firm, has just signed up to use a range of cost recovery and expense management systems from Copitrak Systems to manage its printing and copying costs. The firm is also planning to implement other Copitrak modules to manage landline phones, mobile phones, fax, taxis and courier costs in the near future. The systems will initially be going into Clifford Chance's London and German offices. Copitrak Systems now provide five of the UK magic circle firms and 44 of the world's Top 100 law firms with their cost recovery and expense management systems - another recent signing has been Freshfields' Paris office. www.copitrak.com

BERMUDA GETS LAW REPORTS - ONLINE
Bermuda, which has previously never had its own law reports series (although the jurisdiction has been represented occasionally in the West Indian Law Reports) can now finally offer case reports from the Bermuda Supreme Court and Court of Appeal via the web. The new Bermuda Law Reports currently cover the period 1990 to 2001, with new materials going on weekly and a project underway to extend the coverage back to 1980. Access to the service is currently free of charge however there are plans to introduce a subscription. The system can be searched by keywords, date, name of parties, cases or legislation referred to, and/or by the judge or attorney's name. www.bdalawreports.net

MODERNISING CRIMINAL JUSTICE TRANSCRIPTS AVAILABLE
WordWave Internation has just announced that the transcripts of the keynote speakers at the recent Modernising Criminal Justice conference in London are now available online. The four day event was addressed by speakers such as Prime Minister Tony Blair, Home Secretary David Blunkett, Lord Woolf, Director of Public Prosecutions, David Calvert-Smith and other important criminal justice professionals, academics and politicians. WordWave recorded and transcribed these speakers and we are hosting the transcripts and audio recordings on a dedicated web site. The transcripts site is at http://webforms.wordwave.co.uk/MCJ/index.htm or visit the event web site for more information www.conference2002.jjay.cuny.edu

WESTLAW UK IS NUMBER ONE ACCORDING TO ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS
Westlaw UK from Sweet & Maxwell has established itself as the clear leader in the field of online legal information - according to the BIALL/SPTL Academic Law Library Survey profiled at the 2002 BIALL Conference. The research reveals that Westlaw UK is now the legal database with the highest number of subscriptions in British and Irish academic law libraries. 74% of academic law libraries subscribe to the service and 25% of respondents took out a subscription in the past year. One of the recent improvements to the service was to make Westlaw UK accessible using the Athens Authentication Management System. This enables students and faculty members to access Westlaw UK using the same username and password that they use for other online services they subscribe to. This has simplified the process for students to gain access to the valuable Sweet & Maxwell content and at the same time substantially reduced the administration effort for academic law libraries across the country.

NEWS IN BRIEF

MORTGAGE POWER FOR LAW FIRMS - Just A Mortgage is a new venture set up by the London-based Blevins Franks Group to provide law firms with access to mortgage placing facilities for their clients. Just A Mortgage is designed for professional organisations wanting to find the best deals for their high net worth private clients. Law firms can also add an online mortgage finder service to their own web sites. For more information contact Just A Mortgage sales & marketing director Christopher Tanner on 020 7324 8218.

MEDICAL EXHIBITS TO GO - US-based The Doe Report is now promoting Doe-It - what the company describes as the world's first online medical exhibit software. The software provides users with a D-I-Y facility to create anatomical models to be used as illustrative/demonstrative evidence in medical related litigation. For more details visit the site at www.doereport.com

NEW GUIDES TO ONLINE BUSINESS LAW - Kogan Page this week launches 'A Practical Guide to Business, Law and the Internet' by Peter Adediran (Price £25.00 - ISBN 0 7494 3734 0) which is aimed at managers of SMEs and entrepreneurs, as well as lawyers wanting a quick reference source, to keep them on top of all the legal and tax regulations governing the conduct of business over the internet. The book also explores IP issues including domain name regulation and online brand abuse. By coincidence ICSA Publishing has also got a new book out on internet law - 'A Practical Guide to E-commerce & Internet Law' (Price £39.95 - ISBN 1 8607 2180 X). The book has been put together by lawyers at Osborne Clarke and is also aimed at business managers wanting to get to grips with online business law.

MANCHES AT CUTTING EDGE - London & Thames Valley law firm Manches has launched a free newsletter aimed at technology transfer specialists working in universities and research institutions. It is called 'Cutting Edge' and you can be added to the distribution list by contacting Kerry Webb at kerry.webb@manches.co.uk

FREEDOM ACQUIRES ASP ARM OF CENTIA - Freedom 2000 (the Watford based IT solutions company probably best known in the legal market for providing ASP services to the Bar) has announced that it recently acquired the application service provider division of Centia (formerly Futurelink Europe) for an undisclosed sum. Centia, located in Newbury, provides ASP services to a range of corporate clients across the UK.

LEXIS OPTS FOR THE HITBOX - LexisNexis has selected the HitBox Enterprise online visitor analysis service from WebSideStory Inc - www.websidestory.com - to provide instant point-and-click access to the behavior of visitors to more than a dozen sites spread across multiple servers in different geographic locations. WebSideStory specialise in providing outsourced web analytics services, so LexisNexis will have access to the data without having to process, manage or maintain cumbersome web server log files.