ISSUE No.114 - 07.08.2002 Sweet & Maxwell acquire Lawtel - Cameron returns to consultancy - Law Society starts 2003 guide selections - Vendor news - Online news in brief - German courts get XML - Litigation support news - Next issue: 21.08.2002

SWEET & MAXWELL ACQUIRE LAWTEL FROM CENTAUR
Sweet & Maxwell, part of the Thomson legal publishing business, has acquired the Lawtel legal online information service from Centaur Communications (the publishers of The Lawyer magazine) for an undisclosed sum. The deal marks the continued expansion of Sweet & Maxwell's online services in the UK - which already include Westlaw UK, New Law Online and Consult GEE - and with Lawtel now added to the stable probably pushes rivals Lexis/Butterworths into second place.

Lawtel offers current awareness and other legal services designed to allow lawyers to keep in touch with the latest legal developments at their desktops. It is widely used by individual practitioners at the Bar, in law firms, in corporations and in the public sector. According to Wendy Beecham, managing director of Sweet & Maxwell: "The addition of Lawtel will greatly strengthen our ability to reach a broader range of legal customers. It is an ideal partner for Westlaw UK which provides in-depth research services and serves the needs of legal research professionals."

Beecham told the Insider that it was Sweet & Maxwell who first approached Centaur about selling Lawtel as they could see that as a current awareness offering it would complement rather than compete with Sweet & Maxwell's primarily black letter law online publications. In particular, Beecham saw the benefits of a service that reached directly to the desktops of practitioners in smaller firms, local government and inhouse counsel, whereas Westlaw UK has tended to be used as an in-depth research service by librarians, PSLs and information services specialists in mainly top 100 firms.

As of 1st August, all of Lawtel's staff (with the exception of Rachel Lesiter, the managing director of The Lawyer Group, who will be remaining with Centaur to develop other publications and services) have transferred to Sweet & Maxwell. Beecham is keen to stress that there are no pland to close the Lawtel service - in fact the name will continue to be used and within the next few weeks a new interface platform will be rolled out to Lawtel subscribers. Further details have yet to be released but the changes will include a more user friendly iunterface and more powerful search facilities.

CAMERON RETURNS TO CONSULTANCY FIELD
After two years with Keystone Solutions as product strategy director, Neil Cameron is leaving the recently created Solution 6/Keystone group to return to the world of legal IT consultancy, a field he dominated in the UK, European and latterly Asian-Pacific markets during the 1990's.

Explaining the move, Cameron said "I have had two exciting and interesting years with Keystone Solutions and Solution 6 but I feel a need to get back to 'the knitting' and in my case that is advising law firms on strategic business IT issues. The completion of the merger between Solution 6 and Keystone Solutions was a convenient 'line in the sand' for me and marked a sensible time to go back to consultancy." Cameron leaves Solution 6 at the end of August. For information about Neil Cameron Consulting call 07973 165130 or email ncameron@neilcameron.co.uk

LAW SOCIETY STARTS SELECTION PROCESS FOR 2003 SOLUTION GUIDE
The English Law Society is about to start the selection process for supplier entries for next year's edition of its Software Solutions Guide. The 2003 Guide will follow broadly the same lines as this year's edition, both in terms of selection criteria and content, with the key emphasis once again on practice management systems however suppliers will in addition be asked to provide details of any other products they can supply, including case management software, archiving and online access services. The closing date for applications is Friday 13 September and the Society plans to launch the Guide at the Legal IT Exhibition in London in February 2003. For further information contact Sue Cummings at the Law Society on 020 7320 5804 or email sue.cummings@lawsociety.org.uk

VENDOR NEWS IN BRIEF

NEW HUMMINGBIRD VP FOR EMEA - Hummingbird has appointed Tony Heywood as senior vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In his new role with Hummingbird, Heywood will have chief responsibility for business development strategy and execution throughout the EMEA market, as well as leading the sales organization. Prior to joining Hummingbird, Heywood held several key positions within the IT industry, most recently as senior VP with Xchange and executive VP at Open Text.

ELITE UP, LONDON BRIDGE DOWN - Elite Information has reported an 18 percent increase in revenues to $37.5 million (2001 - $31.7 million)for the first six months 30 June 2003. Net income was $1.3 million compared with $986K for the same period last year. Chairman & CEO Chris Poole expects the trend to continue during the next six months and is predicting revenues up approximately 12-to-14 percent on the full year. "We remain very optimistic about our business. Our booked backlog is strong and growing and our pipeline of prospective business is solid. But in a togh economy firms tend to spend more on enhancing their existing technology investments than on acquiring new, big ticket systems. We have been and will continue to watch this trend very closely," said Poole.

But if it was good news at Elite, it was bad news for London Bridge Software, which saw its shares on the London Stock Exchange fall by 40 percent to a record low after issuing a profits warning. In an attempt to cut costs, the debt collection software company (which incorporates the old Charterhouse and Hatton Blue legal software businesses) has closed a number of its overseas office and laid off about 10 percent of its workforce.

ONLINE NEWS IN BRIEF

WORLDCOM INFORMATION - There is now a new web site containing all the latest news, information and commentary on the Worldcom bankruptcy at www.worldcomnews.com

ELEXICA GETS REVAMP - The Simmons & Simmons web portal Elexica has been relaunched with a number of changes made to the design to speed up access to information. Other changes include additions and improvements to the service's range of CPD training modules on Witness Summonses, Disclosure, Witnesses of Fact and Expert Evidence. A module on Security for Costs will shortly be available.

Webmaster Jonathan Maas said the thinking behind the revamp "is everything you need is still no more than two or three clicks away rather than hidden deep down behind pointless screens and links. To help with speed the use of graphics is minimal and we do not believe in gimmicky technology that delays delivery of the information you want. We are lawyers - we know how important is to get reliable information quickly so our aim has been to simplify and clarify the site even further." Here on the Insider we think it is just a pity a few more law firms don't subscribe to this view. www.elexica.com

PART IIa SITES NOW ON SITECHECK - The Sitecheck environmental report service for conveyancers now includes details of identified Contaminated Land Register Entries & Notices (Part IIa Sites) within the search area. Local Authorities in England, Scotland and Wales have now started to identify contaminated sites under Part IIa of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and, where appropriate, have issued remediation notices and statements to the occupiers/owners. Sitecheck has now collected and collated data on these sites and incorporated it into environmental searches. This information will be updated on a regular basis. www.landmark-information.co.uk

GERMAN COURTS GET XML
After the recent debacle in the UK over the Lord Chancellor's Department's flawed attempts - seven years and £230 million wasted - to provide a new IT infrastructure and case management system for English magistrates courts, it is heartening to see that not all countries suffer this problem. In Germany, Software AG has just announced that its XML-powered JUSTUS solution will now provide support and simplify workflows for Baden-Wurttemberg's social court system. As a result of the successful pilot project, Software AG was awarded the contract worth five million euros.

The implementation of JUSTUS is an integral part of the push toward modernisation, which started at the Baden-Wurttemberg Ministry of Justice in October 2000. This project, unique in Germany, was initiated by Justice minister Professor Dr Ulrich Goll. According to Dr Goll: "The goal of this project is to create a standardised IT application architecture for the civil, criminal and non-contentious courts of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg and to equip the approximately 8900 court-office workstations with modern software geared toward their specific needs."

JUSTUS is a Java and XML-based modular application solution. It gives judges and officers of the courts a high level of support, as it automates all the administrative parts of a legal process. With this application, all documents that are required for legal action are displayed on the screen in an organised manner. The status and sequence of the court proceedings are presented clearly, as are all participants. Because JUSTUS does not require knowledge of any particular programming, court employees do not have to take part in costly training courses.

Software AG implemented the JUSTUS program for the social court on schedule, in just nine months. (How unlike the UK!) After the JUSTUS project starts in Baden-Wurttemberg, Software AG plans to offer the standardised court solutions to other states in Germany as well. The company says that due to its component oriented architecture, JUSTUS is easy to customise for the specific needs of other federal states. www.softwareag.co.uk

LITIGATION SUPPORT NEWS IN BRIEF

ELECTRONIC DISCOVERY NEWSLETTER FROM QUORUM - US litigation support specialists Quorum is now producing a regular ezine on electronic discovery issues. Subscription is free and to register for a copy visit www.quorum.com/ASP/sales_marketing.asp

LEXIS-NEXIS MOVE INTO LIT SUPPORT - The US arm of LexisNexis has just announced a new litigation support service that utilizes the DolphinSearch system "to make trial preparation and electronic data discovery easier, faster and more reliable". LexisNexis say the key benefit of DolphinSearch is that it can analyse information by context and so find links between words and concepts without involving complex Boolean search strings. LexisNexis cites one recent Washington DC case where the attorneys ran a search on the query "chemical poisoning streams" and DolphinSearch automatically returned documents containing references to "arsenic in ground water". The defendants settled out of court. LexisNexis litigation support products and services are currently only available in the US. www.dolphinsearch.com

ELECTRONIC DISCOVERY POSITION PAPER - UK document management and litigation support bureau LDM has published a new position paper on electronic discovery. The authors - LDM director Chris O'Reilly and Jason Derting of Pacific Legal - look at all the problems associated with electronic discovery and propose a number of guidelines for tackling these issues. The document is too long to include in this ezine however you can download it as a Word DOC file from the Bookmarks & Downloads page on the Insider web site at www.legaltechnology.com/bookmark.htm

NEW PARTNERSHIP AIMS TO STREAMLINE DUE DILIGENCE - Two IT companies - Legistics and Conchango - have just announced the launch of a new software package designed to increase the efficiency and accuracy of M&A work by automating the due diligence process. The application is called Inform and has been developed for the Microsoft .NET platform. Inform brings together the management of all processes involved in due diligence under a single application. This allows lawyers involved in the process to view any transaction on a single screen, and share information more effectively and accurately with their colleagues and clients. The two companies reckon Inform can cut the time spent on due diligence by an average of 25 to 50 percent.

Legistics Limited is a company founded by Jeremy Tobias-Tarsh and Jeroen Plink two former corporate finance lawyers at Clifford Chance. The term 'legistics' was coined by Insider editor Charles Christian in his 1998 book 'Legal Practice in the Digital Age' to describe "the use of advanced technologies, such as the internet, to deliver legal advice and information services to clients and lawyers'. More information about Conchango can be found on its web site www.conchango.com