Headlines

Money running out for court reforms?
The UK Government's enthusiasm for reforming the civil justice system - which originally envisaged major case management and court computerisation projects - seems to have run out of steam, amid reports that the Court Service will now only receive £95 million to support its IT projects rather than the £500 million it had initially bid for the project. Commenting on the reports, Anthony Maton, a litigation partner with KLegal in London who chairs the London Solicitors Litigation Association working party on court technology, said "There is a massive potential for technology to make civil litigation cheaper, quicker and more accessible for all. But to seize those benefits requires real commitment from government - both in terms of funding and in adapting the ways the courts work. This far that appears to be absent."

Three UK firms to implement Lawport 3.5
Earlier this week SV Technology, the developers of the Lawport legal portal and KM system, announced that three UK firms - Cameron McKenna, Lawrence Graham, and Morgan Cole - would be implementing the newly released version 3.5 of Lawport. New features introduced in version 3.5 include: new SOAP web services; a legal object model for simplifying internal firm development; an extended taxonomy for matter categorization; Lotus Notes Integration and an advanced search with preview, highlighted terms and thesaurus.
http://www.svtechnology.com

AIM reckons it is bucking the industry trend
AIM Group Holdings, the specialist UK software supplier to legal service providers (including law firms and local authorities), retail organisations and the financial services sector, has announced audited operating profits of £948k (2002 - £1.08m) for the financial year ended 30th April 2003 despite the difficult conditions continuing to prevail in the software market generally. Turnover grew by over 9% to £8.6 million (2002 - £7.9 million) resulting in an operating profitability of 11%. The company says the underlying operating profitability was consistent with 2002 after taking into account £102k of non-recurring expenditure relating to corporate restructuring.

The breakdown in the £8.6 million turnover between the legal services side of the business (AIM Professional) and the remainder (AIM Commercial) was AIM Professional: £5,558,000 to AIM Commercial: £3,062.000. During the course of the last trading year, the number AIM legal end users grew by 33%. These include Lanyon Bowdler, the largest law firm in Shropshire, which has just rolled out AIM's Evolution case and practice management system to 120 staff in four offices.

More new legal IT events hit the UK market
Undaunted by some of the setbacks the traditional legal IT events have been suffering in recent months, this week comes news of not one but three new events.

The first is the By Legal, for Legal conference that a number of IT directors from London law firms (Jan Durant of Lewis Silkin, Tim Hyman of Harbottle & Lewis, Julie Berry of Reynolds Porter Chamberlain and Ann Elia of Travers Smith Braithwaite) have put together to provide about 25 IT directors with an opportunity to network and discuss topics of mutual interest. It is primarily a by invitation only event and will be sponsored by a select number of suppliers. Interestingly, the cost to suppliers is relatively little, the IT directors paying nothing and any surplus funds will go to charity. This is scheduled to take place on 24-to-26 September in Bath with the consultant Neil Cameron chairing the event.

Next we have Lex Connect UK 2004, which will take place in London on 19 & 20 January. Following the success of LEX Connect 2003 in Amsterdam, the Ark Group is holding its second invitation-only strategy and solutions event for managing partners and IT directors from leading UK law firms. Delegates will have the opportunity hear practical perspectives and case studies from their peers, and meet with leading solution providers and consultants who can explain the strategic benefits of implementation. In addition, the event will offer solution provider companies mutually selected, pre-arranged face-to-face meetings with up to 70 managing partners, IT directors and other law firm decision makers. According to the Ark Group "As seen by the decline in the legal trade show market, this format is the only proven style of event that managing partners attend". For details email Caroline Searle at the Ark Group on 020 8785 5930 or email csearle@ark-group.com

Finally, APIL (the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) is planning a two day exhibition - with upto 32 stands - at its annual conference at the Novotel West hotel in London on 20 & 21 May 2004. Stands are available from £750 + VAT and there are also a range of sponsorship opportunities.

Equitrac makes appointments & rolls out new products
After a quiet period with apparently very little happening on either the corporate or product front, the costs recovery systems pioneer Equitrac is back on the radar with a raft of new announcements. These include the appointment of five senior managers - the first major changes since Mike Rich became the CEO of Equitrac last year. The five are: John Johasky as Senior Vice President, Sales - previously with IBM and its printer offshoot Lexmark; Gary Blenis, Senior Vice President, Product Operations - most recently with L&H Dictaphone Voice & Data Systems; James Kwock, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Global Alliances - most recently with NetSpeak where he was responsible for building channel partnerships; Neville O'Reilly, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Market Planning - he has a PhD in Statistics & Operations Research and before he joined Equitrac served as COO for Open Telecommunications; and Andrea Maizes, Vice President, Human Resources who career in HR includes senior posts with Convergent,Ernst & Young, Arthur Anderson and Deloitte & Touche.

On the product side, the company has announced two new cost recovery products that track and report scanning costs. Adding to existing print, copy, fax and phone cost tracking facilities, Equitrac Professional v3.5 and Equitrac Professional Enterprise Edition v4.6 now incorporate Equitrac ScanPost technology to track scanning data. By adding Equitrac's PageCounter and PageCounter Professional Control Terminals to provide access control and validated client allocation, ScanPost also enables detailed reporting and client billing. Additionally, ScanPost is designed to integrate with embedded document delivery technology from leading device manufacturers, including Canon, Ricoh and Xerox.
http://www.equitrac.com

Getting to grips with conflicys of interest
A bit like London buses, there is never a conflict of interest system around when you want one and then news of two of them comes along at once. Our first report is from Accutrac Software which has just launched what it describes as "a next-generation conflict avoidance application module that helps law firms and other professional service companies approve new business prospects quickly, make informed decisions and reduce the risk of liability, investigations and fines."

Part of the Accutrac Records Management Program, the updated module lets firms do both record searches and conflicts management through a single easy-to-use interface. All client, matter and related party information can be found within one comprehensive database, eliminating the need for multiple searches. The 'Reserve Party' feature also adds prospects into the system while immediately alerting practitioners of conflicts that could occur in the future. For more details visit http://www.accutrac.com

Meanwhile Goodwin Gruber in Texas has just purchased the the RELAY.fileopen and RELAY.conflicts workflow systems to automate their file opening and conflicts of interest checking process. RELAY software is based on the Microsoft .NET platform and the Goodwin Gruber deal was handled by CMS Open consultancy Mammoth Effects.
http://www.relayworks.com

Asia Pacific news: Timeframe in Cognos deal
Following closely on its recent deal with Intellera, TFS Timeframe Systems has just announced a business partner agreement with Cognos that will see Timeframe providing consultancy services throughout Australia and New Zealand and offering a full range of Cognos BI (business intelligence) solutions. Commenting on the deal, Timeframe said "Cognos solutions are mature and provide the best of breed in BI. It is exciting to make them available to professional service firms in this region. They are a natural partner for the modern practice management systems used by our clients such as CMS, Keystone, and Elite."
http://www.time-frame.com
 
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News in brief

ITNet wins major Government deal
The UK systems integrator and FM/outsourcing specialist ITNet - which was last in the news a few weeks ago when it became a Hummingbird DMS partner - has just secured an £83 million, five year contract from the UK Government to handle the Cabinet Office's web hosting infrastructure. The first phase of the project will see ITNet consolidate the Government Gateway, the Knowledge Network, and Delivering on the Promise (DotP) - a pan-government content management system - onto a single managed service. Other government departments will also make use of the hosting capability in the future. Historical note: ITNet began life as the inhouse IT resource for the Cadburys chocolate business.

Microsoft to add legal research to office
Industry sources report that LexisNexis is working with Microsoft to create a free legal research option on the forthcoming Research Task Pane to be featured in Microsoft Office 2003. The Research Task Pane will allow users to highlight words or phrases in a document and then search third-party online databases from within an aplication such as Outlook, Word or Excel however at this stage it is unclear whether the legal research option will be available outside the United States where Lexis will be providing access to summaries of court decisions found on its LexisONE portal.

College of Law selects Sales Logix CRM
The College of Law has selected the SalesLogix CRM (client relationship management) system to improve the management of customer information and relationships between the College, its staff, students, universities and law firms. The system is being supplied to the College as part of a £100K deal won by the IT services group Touchstone (+44 (0)20 7841 7300). Previously the best known legal user of SalesLogix was the law firm Irwin Mitchell.

Addleshaw Goddard spin off volume conveyancing division
UK law firm Addleshaw Goddard has sold its Enact volume conveyancing business to its existing management for an undisclosed sum. The MBO team was headed by Richard Dinning, who has now left the firm's partnership to become the executive chairman of Enact. Enact's IT infrastructure is provided by Axxia Systems, who also provided the IT for similar volume conveyancing operations run by Hammond Suddard's Hammonds Direct and Leeds-based Praxis Partners.
 
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Online news in brief

Medico-legal portal goes live
Following the completion of a four month trial, Specialist Info has launched a new online database in the UK, designed to provide insurance companies, law firms and medico-legal agents with a comprehensive information on 26,000 medical specialists. Subscription rates cost from just £99 however you can register for a free trial of the service via http://www.specialistinfo.com

Perfect Information enters into agreement to acquire Synergy
Perfect Information, a provider of online financial company information including SEC Edgar and non-Edgar filings, has entered into an agreement to acquire the Synergy Group, the developer of historic information, charting and portfolio management systems. Perfect Information, which is a subsidiary of the Centaur Communications group, can be found at http://www.perfectinfo.com

Lexis Nexis to adapt global IT platform
The LexisNexis Group says it is nearing completion of a single technology platform to deliver its information products and services worldwide. The move is part of the company's long-term strategy to strengthen its position in core markets and to support continued expansion in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America with new or enhanced information services and tools for corporations, lawyers and information professionals. The new platform will unify the company's comprehensive, 35,000-plus sources of analytical and primary legal information, news, business data and public records. The platform will be customizable to the specific information needs and language of a country, a jurisdiction or professional market. In addition, the system will support LNG's ongoing efforts to enable integration of LexisNexis information and features with internal customer portals and knowledge management systems.
 
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Email management news in brief

DLA goes with secure remote access via Eurodata
Eurodata Systems has delivered an SSL VPN solution from Whale Communications - the e-Gap Remote Access Appliance - to the law firm DLA. DLA's staff now have browser-based access to the firm's Microsoft Exchange servers from any place they can find an internet connection whereas previously they had to use expensive and inflexible dial-up solutions from their laptops. The Whale system includes a number of special features - including the Attachment Wiper 'virtual shredder' that wipes out all forms of temporary files, browser cache, downloaded files and pages, user credentials, and other sensitive information recorded by web browsers - to help provide secure internet-based corporate email access.
http://www.eurodatasystems.com

Laserform signs up Redletter as email partner
Legal systems supplier Laserform has entered into a partnership deal with Meticulus Solutions and will now be offering the company's Redletter secure email system to its users.

Email monitoring guide launched
Email management software vendor, Waterford Technologies and Robert Muckle Solicitors have launched a legal guide for corporate email monitoring, to help employers understand their legal obligations and make sense of all the legislation that governs email monitoring in the UK workplace. The guide also provides practical advice for employers on how to implement the correct safety measures that will prevent corporate email abuse, including the creation, management and enforcement of an 'Acceptable Usage Policy' for email to ensure that corporate guidelines are being adhered to. To register for a free copy of 'Email Monitoring in the workplace - a simple guide to employers', visit http://www.mailmeter.com
 
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