|
New Media Lawyer Independent news and comment on legal technology and new media law from Legal News Media. Issue.98 - 06.12.2001
IN THIS ISSUE
DELOITTES IN AUSTRALIAN CMS DEAL
UK COURT SERVICE PUBLISHES ITS ANNUAL REPORT
In the Crown Court, the Agency will seek to deliver a step-change in the service provided to court users with the help of new and improved technology and information systems. The first hi-tech courtroom, for example, was launched in March of this year at Kingston upon Thames Crown Court. The Court Service has also worked with its partner agencies to develop the EXHIBIT system, to be piloted shortly, which will improve the speed and presentation of information to everyone involved in the criminal justice system, particularly victims and witnesses.
The Agency has also consulted widely about the future delivery of services in the civil and family courts, and has piloted initiatives such as an electronic advice kiosk and the use of video conferencing. More significantly, a facility to issue court claims online (one of the first web-based interactive services to be delivered by Government) has been developed over the last year and is expected to be launched in January. The Report also sets out how the Court Service performed in 2000-01 against its operational objective "to provide a good quality service in a cost effective manner".
Commenting on the report Ian Magee, the chief executive of the Court Service, said: "Over the past year we have begun to make real progress in modernising the service the courts and tribunals provide. With the introduction of the online claim facility, and the other initiatives to be piloted over the next few months, our customers will shortly begin to see the benefits for themselves.
"We will build on all of this progress to meet the challenges that face us. This means playing a full role in delivering the Government agenda for substantial improvements in the criminal justice system; sustaining the work we have started in providing courts and tribunal services fit for the demands of the 21st Century; ensuring that our existing services are delivered as efficiently as possible, while making radical improvements for users of the justice system; and managing a massive change programme affecting all areas of our business."
THE SHAPE OF THE LEGAL OFFICE TODAY
The seminar focussed primarily on the cellular offices versus open plan (or flexible environments) debate. Speakers and guests examined the factors that determine the decision to keep cellular offices and identified different ways to maximise space efficiency in an existing building or in a new build situation. Speakers considered the factors that determine the decision to look at new ways of working, albeit in the relatively conservative environs of legal practice.
The experiences of two recent open plan pilot projects carried out by Allen & Overy and Linklaters & Alliance and some of the methods they used to develop and test the pros and cons of working practices were outlined. The drivers for most participants clearly included the need to achieve better and more efficient use of space and cost savings. However several other issues were discussed. High on the list was the need to make better use of IT systems to enhance fee earner working practices and client services. Better team working, communications and work-lifestyle issues such as providing a more pleasant working environment, clear desk policies etc, were all high on the agenda for most of our speakers and guests. In relation to open plan working the chief concerns of noise, privacy and storage space were considered and some practical and valuable tips as to how to resolve these issues were shared.
Slaughter and May had undertaken a pilot open plan exercise some years ago involving partners and assistants. However feedback determined that in planning their new building, fee earners would continue to have their own offices. There would be two standard sizes of room: standard partner and standard assistant - the assistant room being two thirds of the width but same depth as standard partner. This provided the opportunity to have several alternative layouts for the assistants. The two standard widths provided flexibility when restructuring groups or teams. For example three assistant rooms could be converted to two partner rooms. Administrative and support staff would generally continue to work in an open plan environment.
The key issues of maintaining cellular offices in the new building were access to natural light for those working in the centre of the building, providing adequate desk space for fee earners and the need to maximise storage in the 1.35m grid of the new building. Pringle Brandon's solution was to introduce glazing to inner walls, move everyone to flat screens to make best use of desk space and to use the lower part of the inner wall of the cellular offices for storage with access from passageways. In some instances desk sizes differed - slightly shorter desks were introduced, for example, where high density robust shelving was required in litigators' offices.
Nabarro Nathanson decided to stick with cellular offices but needed to examine ways of using space more cost effectively in their new building. The solution, achieving a considerable occupancy cost saving, was achieved by introducing uniform single and double offices for fee earners and standard furniture for everyone in the practice. Key to maximising space efficiency was reducing the amount required for storage and filing cabinets and the introduction of a clear desk policy. The development of a firm wide user-friendly IT system has significantly reduced paper and the numbers of filing cabinets in work areas. A new intranet has also allowed all bibles and the minutes of internal meetings to be stored electronically.
The 120 strong projects group at Allen & Overy has recently undertaken an open plan pilot project. There were several drivers: the need to maximize use of existing office space, better communication and integration of project teams, getting lawyers to move way from the comfort blanket of shelves and paper and encourage better use of their relatively advanced IT systems. Research had indicated that at key times of the day little time was spent in offices - and at any one time up to a third of the group were out of their offices. Hot desking was considered to be a step too far.
The key concerns of open plan working were noise, desk size and access to sufficient storage. Early designs involved small teams working on large oval tables, but it was thought that this would inhibit team building within the broader group. The solution involved partners, associates, trainees and secretaries sitting together in bespoke horshoe-shaped desking clusters, surrounded by a necklace of amenities including quiet rooms and break out spaces. The inner edge of the horseshoe is lined with team filing cabinets. The system provides more desk space and allows different teams within the larger group to work better together and to swap into other teams more easily. The issue of noise was dealt with by providing telephone headsets to everyone and not supplying speakerphones on desks. A number of quiet rooms where fee earners could plug their laptops in and make conference calls were created. Glass fronts allowed secretaries and other fee earners to see where you were in the event that you required by a client and discouraged colonisation or monopolisation of the space.
This pilot represents a significant step towards a paperless office environment. All staff use laptops connected to a wireless LAN. Hard copy coming into the office is scanned and stored in virtual filing systems; personal information boxes on the server store individual's vital documents and reference materials in an electronic form and while the printing of documents is allowed for ease of reading and redrafting, shredders are provided to prevent the storage of paper on the floors.
Linklaters & Alliance undertook a more limited open plan pilot for three months but decided against a wider roll out. They carried out the project for three principal reasons: to maximise existing space, to improve the working environment and to facilitate and improve communication and team working. Research had indicated that people were out of their offices a great deal and that when in their offices were not happy with the working environment. The majority of fee earners shared offices - either with a trainee or a peer.
Pringle Brandon's pilot scheme provided individuals with a combination of facilities including a large desk (the main point of activity), separate quiet rooms and local meeting rooms for both impromptu and organised meetings. The concept of a town square or club area where people could meet informally and have coffee etc was investigated. However this was not undertaken in this initial pilot as it was limited to a mix of 22 people. A centralised filing system, centrally managed short term storage area and tight timetables for retrieval from off-site archives assisted more efficient use of space. Flat screens, laptops and headphones were found to be key to making best use of space and keeping disruption to a minimum.
COPYRIGHT CONFERENCE IN ACCRA
The programme includes sessions on: encouraging creativity through copyright protection,
the implementation of the WIPO copyright treaty, copyright protection in the context of online distribution, peer-to-peer distribution: Napster and beyond, the legal protection of databases, the legal protection of traditional knowledge, and licensing and legislation in the context of distance education
ONLINE ROAD TRAFFIC COURT ADVICE
Law on the Web founder Martin Davies says the site aims to prepare people for what can happen in court. "All we can give is guidance but that is a lot more than most people have when they receive a summons or walk into a Magistrates Court. It allows them to make a more informed decision about accepting a fixed penalty, contesting the case or going to the expense of instructing a solicitor". Law on the Web is now recruiting law firms who are willing to handle road traffic matters, with a view to passing on clients directly who have used the service and are looking for specific legal advice and representation. Interested firms should contact www.lawontheweb.co.uk/roadlaw.htm
BWDMA IN INTERNET SECURITY INITIATIVE
In a move towards self-regulation the BWDMA launched it's own Internet Integrity initiative, which aims to galvanise commitment from industry towards changing the culture of the UK internet. The BWDMA's Patrick White said the current culture is conducive to cyber crime. "It is a culture based upon creativity and innovation that we should encourage but we must do more to reduce the incidence of casual crime" he said, sighting the commonplace example of casual copyright theft, that occurs from misuse of cut and paste functionality.
White's view is that the internet created opportunities for people who may lack business ethics, social or moral consciences and called for industry to focus upon crime prevention rather than reliance upon legislation. "The future is internet anarchy that will erode consumer confidence or the straight-jacket of legislation unless industry creates a culture of integrity to fill the gap between law and technology".
To improve industry knowledge sharing and collaboration the BWDMA introduced several new concepts to support the Integrity Initiative, including a Cyber Crime Directory, a Cyber Crime Forum and Industry Best Practice guides. As an example, the BWDMA have produced a guide for victims of internet copyright abuse, which will also help the legal profession and Internet Service Providers to respond to the problem. The draft document is currently out for industry consultation with a target to be released at the year-end. BWDMA aim to have the guide endorsed by the NHTCU. www.cybercrimedirectory.co.uk/
INDUSTRY & PROFESSIONAL NEWS
The nucleus of the thinkDOCS SDK is ActiveX, the Microsoft technology that allows programmers to share abilities and information, so they can control thinkDOCS and have flexibility in integrating thinkDOCS with existing systems. The SDK also utilizes patent pending technology called LiveData, which keeps any key information as active live data fields that remember if they are tied to other pieces of data within the same or related documents and automatically notifies users of any changes. thinkDOCS SDK is compatible with Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP and works with Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP.
www.thinkDOCS.com
ONLINE STUDENT WINS PRIZES - Michael Ward, a second year student on SPR's fast track course leading to a University of London LLB has been awarded the Brigid Cotter prize. The prize is awarded at the discretion of the Convocation Trust of the University of London to the student who achieved the best result in the Intermediate Examination provided the student concerned was not studying full-time at an institution of higher or further education. Ward studied the first year of the course from Anguilla, where he was a director of a local company and had enrolled on the Semple Piggot Rochez online LLB course. Said Ward "As an overseas student I had keenly awaited the advent of internet based course delivery. SPR have provided excellent materials and first-class support. This is the future of distance learning." www.spr-law.com
WARD HADAWAY LAWYER APPOINTED TO NOMINET TEAM - Bob Elliott, a partner in the technology team at Newcastle based Ward Hadaway, has been appointed to Nominet UK's team of experts who will provide adjudications on disputes over entitlement to domain names administered by Nominet without the need for going to court.
LITIGATION SUPPORT INITIATIVE Crawford & Company, one of the world's largest suppliers of claims management, loss adjustment, risk management services and class action administration services to the insurance industry, is establishing what it calls a "Legal PPO" to control litigation costs. Michael Boutot, Crawford's director of litigation management, says the PPO will be a group of professional legal service providers whose intent is to do the best job possible to provide an accurate, thorough and efficient defense of civil litigated cases. See www.litigationmanagement.org and www.crawfordandcompany.com
FIRSTLAW FOUNDER BECOME C&I DIRECTOR - Anthony Armitage, a solicitor and the founder of the FirstLAW.co.uk online legal service, has been appointed the national communications director of the English Law Society's Commerce & Industry Group.
THE LEGAL HITLIST - THE UK'S BUSIEST LEGAL WEB SITES FOR THE 30 DAYS ENDING 1 DECEMBER 2001
1. (15.24%) (1) Lawtel www.lawtel.co.uk
2. (14.50%) (2) Butterworths LEXIS Direct www.butterworths.co.uk
3. (8.93%) (3) The Court Service www.courtservice.gov.uk
4. (6.11%) (4) UK Patent Office www.patent.gov.uk
5. (5.36%) (5) Freelawyer.co.uk www.freelawyer.co.uk
6. (5.03%) (6) Lord Chancellor's Department www.lcd.gov.uk
7. (4.19%) (8) HM Land Registry www.landreg.gov.uk
8. (4.00%) (9) CABx Advice Guide www.adviceguide.org.uk
9. (3.62%) (10) British Employment Law www.emplaw.co.uk
10. (3.33%) (13) Legalease/International Centre for Commercial Law www.icclaw.com
11. (3.02%) (11) Solicitors-Online www.solicitors-online.com
12. (2.84%) (7) The Law Society www.lawsociety.org.uk
13. (2.47%) (14) Delia Venables Legal Resources www.venables.co.uk
14. (2.23%) (15) Divorce Online www.divorce-online.co.uk
15. (1.89%) (18) Sweet & Maxwell www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk
16. (1.82%) (17) Law Careers.Net www.lawcareers.net
17. (1.74%) (16) LawZONE www.lawzone.co.uk
18. (1.71%) (22) BAILII (British & Irish Legal Information Institute) www.bailii.org
19. (1.69%) (12) Bar Council www.barcouncil.org.uk
20. (1.60%) (20) Law Society Gazette Online www.lawgazette.co.uk
21. (1.48%) (23) Smith Bernal Casetrack www.casetrack.com
22. (1.46%) (-) Just Ask! www.justask.org.uk
23. (1.36%) (21) Butterworths Law Direct http://macdonald.butterworth.co.uk
24. (1.30%) (-) Law on the Web www.lawontheweb.co.uk
25. (1.27%) (-) Work Permit.com www.workpermit.com
|