Headlines

Special report: IBA/Lexis service finds big differences in law firm attitudes towards IT
The IBA (International Bar Association) in conjunction with LexisNexis, has just published the results of an international survey it conducted among 600 of its members in Europe, North America and Australia on the subject of legal technology. Despite the fact many of the lawyers operate in similar common law jurisdictions and use almost identical IT systems, the survey uncovered some surprising differences of opinion and views.

* For example, although the US has the highest proportion of lawyers (68%) who believe they are running the latest legal IT products and services, they are also among the most conservative (at 25% along with the UK) in terms of being the first to adopt new technologies. This is in straight contrast with Australia where only 40% think they have the latest technology but 54% believe they are the first to adopt new technology.

* In terms of the key barriers to the adoption of technology, there are more lawyer in Australia (54%) and the US (52%) than anywhere else who believe cost is the biggest stumbling block. By comparison, in Canada the figure is 40%, in the UK it is 34%, France 27% and Germany 25%. Canada and Australia jointly have the highest number (22%) who believe lack of perceived benefits is the biggest problem - the Germans are the most optimistic here with only 7% sharing this concern. On the other hand Germany (29%) and France (25%) have more lawyers who believe the problem is an unwillingness to change work habits - Australia are the happy bunnies here with only 7% worried by this. Finally, the wooden spoon for techno-illiteracy goes to the UK, where 17% of lawyers said their firms' lack of skill in using technology was the key barrier to using technology. This contrasts with 16% in Germany, 14% in France, 12% in Australia, 10% in the US and just 6% in Canada.

* So who makes the decisions when its comes to new technology projects? Committees of partners still rule across the board however they have the most influence in France and Australia (45%) and least influence in Canada (18%). Curiously - given the previous figures- chief technology offices/IT directors have the most influence in Australia (33%), followed by the US (26%) while they have the least influence in France (0%). And, just to confirm that Australian law firms do now seem to be setting the agenda for legal IT, technology partners (21%) and KM officers/head librarians (19%) have more influence there than anywhere else. Sadly, another black mark for the UK where KM/library heads have the least (1%) influence in decision making.

* What about legal research? Who carries it out and how frequently? There are more partners carrying out research in the US (72%) and Germany (71%) than anywhere else - particularly France with just 22% of partners bother. Librarians (78%) and associates (87%) are most widely used in Australia and least used in Germany, whereas paralegals conduct more research in Germany (59%) and the least work in France (3%). As to the frequency with which research is conducted: 44% of Americans do it everyday, compared with 43% in Germany, 42% in France, 35% in Canada, 27% in Australia and 25% in the UK. There again, 19% of Australian and UK firms only carry out research once a month or less - and 8% of French firms say they never carry out any legal research! For the record, the highest number of lawyers (58%) complaining that online research services are too expensive are in the US, while the highest number (51%) who feel they are being overloaded with research data are in Australia.

* Turning to spending plans, the most optimistic outlook is in the UK, where 60% of firms said their spending on IT would increase over the next 12 months, followed by the US (57%); Germany (55%) and Canada (52%). In Australia, 46% thought it would increase and and 52% felt it would remain static, while in France although only 44% predicted an increase, the rest thought it would remain static. The biggest pessimists were in Germany were 4% predicted a decrease in IT budgets.

Talent continuing to haemorrhage from Hummingbird
Stephen Murphy, originally the face of Hummingbird in the UK and more recently the sales director for Spain is the latest high profile departure from Hummingbird to join arch DMS rivals iManage/Interwoven. Murphy joins Helen Freestone, Neil Etheridge and Daniel Brown have now all left to in some way work with iManage. Brown has joined the business development team at Brookland Computer Services (020 8652 2600) which is in the process of helping a 350 user firm migrate from Hummingbird DOCS to iManage.

LiST aims to provide LIT support think tank
Litigation support technology specialists from major UK law firms and the Court Service have formed the Litigation Support Technology group (LiST) - a new think tank with the aim of encouraging and developing uniformity of approach to the use of technology in litigation and dispute resolution. LiST hopes its work will be endorsed by lawyers and judges and evolve into customarily accepted standards and processes, thereby minimising unnecessary disruption and delay, encouraging a collaborative approach to technology use in litigation and dispute resolution and achieving significant cost savings for clients in future matters.

UK firms so far participating include: Allen & Overy, Ashurst Morris Crisp, Beachcroft Wansbroughs, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Clifford Chance, Clyde & Co, CMS Cameron McKenna, Denton Wilde Sapte, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Ince & Co, Linklaters, Lovells, Masons, Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, Norton Rose, Simmons & Simmons and SJ Berwin. Membership of the Litigation Support Technology group is restricted to people working in-house, in private practice or Government however the experiences and views of suppliers and vendors to the UK legal profession will be called upon from time to time. For further information contact Jo Glenister of Allen & Overy at Jo.Glenister@allenovery.com

Barristers chambers use video as part of new marketing initiative
London barristers' set Doughty Street Chambers is running a series of video commercials on its web site as part of a new marketing initiative. The videos - which were created by Player Communications www.playercommunications.com - each feature a client or clients of three specialist teams in the areas of housing & social welfare, employment & discrimination and public law. Geoffrey Roberson QC, the Head of Chambers, said "Doughty Street Chambers has long been at the forefront of human rights and has been involved in some of the biggest civil liberties and miscarriages of justice cases. However through these videos we wanted to illustrate our commitment to the cases we do every day which don't make the headlines but which can have major consequences for the people involved". The videos can be viewed at www.doughtystreet.co.uk

Lawyer magazine's publisher joins WorldWave
WordWave International - the company is probably best known for its Smith Bernal Court Reporting, including the LiveNote service, and Casetrack online database of full text legal judgments - has strengthened its team with the appointment of Julia Szczepanski, formerly of the publisher of The Lawyer magazine, as business director. After working as a company and commercial lawyer, including a stint in Australia, Szczepanski was the marketing director at law firms Charles Russell and Beachcroft Stanleys (now Beachcroft Wansbroughs). More recently she joined the The Lawyer team at the Centaur group. WordWave managing director Sarah Andrews said the move signals the company's intent to consolidate and develop its work with leading barristers and law firms in the coming months. "Our focus over the coming months will be firmly on the legal sector and we'll be working closely with clients to improve existing services and develop new ones."

LEX Connect UK on track for success
With two months to go, the Ark Group report that they are ahead of target for delegate bookings at LEX Connect UK (19 & 20 January) and have just signed up two further sponsors - Computacenter and Voicepath - for the event. They join SAP, Canon, eCopy and Nortel Network. According to event director Caroline Searle "Our delegates are looking forward not only to hearing best practice from a fresh line up of workshop facilitators but also to the opportunity of meeting with vendor companies new to the legal market." For further information, contact Caroline Searle on +44 (0)20 8785 5930 or email csearle@ark-group.com

Two new protocls for illness & housing claims
The English Law Society has launched a new Pre-Action Protocol for Disease & Illness Claims that sets out a code of conduct that should be followed by solicitors or other representatives of the parties involved before a disease and illness claim is issued. The Law Society says people involved in disease and illness cases should find their cases are quicker and cheaper thanks to a new protocol which encourages an earlier exchange of information between parties.

The Law Society has also launched a new protocol for housing repair disputes that encourages tenants and landlords to consider whether other options, such as mediation or arbitration, are more appropriate than court action. Both protocols will be implemented on 8 December this year as part of the 33rd Edition of the Civil Procedure Rules, which will be published on the Department of Constitutional Affairs's web site www.dca.gov.uk

Fat lady sings at the iManage & Interwoven marriage before setting off on road show
Earlier this week (Monday 24th) Interwoven and the legal sector document management systems joint market leader iManage formally launched 'the new Interwoven' after the successful completion of all the legal and financial red tape surrounding the merger of the two companies.

iManage chief financial officer John Calonico has joined Interwoven's executive team as senior vice president of finance, and will assume the position of chief financial officer in the first quarter of 2004. Additionally, iManage chief technology officer Rafiq Mohammadi assumes the new role of senior vice president of engineering and CTO. Together with Jack Jia, current senior vice president and CTO at Interwoven, they will form the 'Office of the CTO'. Also, Mahmood Panjwani, president and chief executive officer of iManage, joined the Interwoven board of directors and was appointed Vice Chairman of the board of directors at Interwoven. Bob Corey, a former member of the iManage board, also joins the Interwoven board. iManage UK's Guildford HQ now becomes the Interwoven Legal Group however all other contact details, including phone numbers (+ 44 (0) 1483 549400) remain unchanged.

For their honeymoon, the happy couple are heading for Europe where next week iManage begins its Legal IT Leadership Summit Report & Roadshow to explain the findings of its recent research into what are the big issues concerning law firms today. Attendees will receive an exclusive summary report that includes quantitative and qualitative data on current trends in legal IT: including budget priorities for the next 12-18 months: the top initiatives of industry IT leaders: strategies for addressing the challenges of cost cutting: staff retention and mergers; and best practices for effective business continuity planning.

The event starts in Amsterdam on 3rd December at the offices of Stibbe and is followed by sessions in Madrid (4th December at the offices of Garrigues), Paris (5th December at the offices of Landwell), Manchester (8th December at the offices of Addleshaw Goddard) and London (9th December at the offices of Berwin Leighton Paisner). For details and registration visit
http://mktg.imanage.com/mk/get/itroadshow?src=10-0116-1003-ITSUMM 
 
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News in brief

New archiving system for Exchange
C2C Systems has released Archive One Compliance, an archiving, retention and retrieval management application for Microsoft Exchange. Archive One Compliance is designed to provide a full discovery and audit trail to organizations that need to comply with the vast array of country, government, industry and corporate rules and regulations for email retention and retrieval. Features include: integration with leading storage management software, including HP OpenView Data Protector; all search and retrieval results available from Outlook; full audit trails for regulatory compliance, including audit of searches and scaleable architecture from tens to thousands of users. For more information visit www.c2c.com/products/archive1compliance/default.htm

Elite Billback gains momentum
Thomson Elite, now part of The Thomson Corporation, has announced that two more US firms have purchased Elite Billback, Elite's cost recovery and management solution. The firms are Jackson & Wallace in San Francisco and Bradley Arant Rose & White of Birmingham, Alabama. Elite also announced the successful implementation of Billback at Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek of Madison, Wisconsin, and reports "a healthy pipeline of sales opportunities, with several more deals expected to close by year end". Chris Poole, the president & general manager of Thomson Elite added: "Elite Billback has clearly arrived at the right time, as law firms are quickly seeing value in the integration of a software-centric cost management offering with the enterprise financial system."

KM web site wins award
Internet Tools for Lawyers in the US has made the KM web site Excited Utterances, which is run by Joy London, the Knowledge & Training Manager/US Law Group for Allen & Overy in New York, its latest web site of the month. According to NetLawTools "Excited Utterances is considered a leading source of information about developments in law firm knowledge management. This web site is a great illustration of the value of focusing on a particular topic." The site can be found at www.excitedutterances.blogspot.com - lick on the Archives link to view a 18 months' worth of KM content. You can also subscribe to receive free email alerts when new material is posted to the site.

Elsevier to launch new computer forensics journal
Elsevier has announced the launch of Digital Investigation, a new international journal on digital forensics, cyber crime and incident response, which will make its debut in February 2004. According to editor-in-chief Eoghan Casey: "Around the world, major advances in the methods and tools used to conduct digital investigations are being made at a rapid pace. Digital Investigation will provide a valuable forum for sharing these advances among the diverse groups in our community, including researchers, attorneys and investigators in corporate, criminal and military settings. Through this exchange of knowledge we can collectively keep pace with, and contribute to, developments in this area. For more details visit www.compseconline.com/digitalinvestigation
 
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