As fall associates settle into the reality of legal practice, I am taking the opportunity to share a variety of research “best practices.” These rules can be applied across all environments: law firm, corporate, public service and government. New associates are facing the messy reality of needing to harness legal and factual issues that need to be addressed in real time an often on tight deadlines. No matter what kind of environment a lawyer is in, I recommend finding a research mentor of some kind. Large and medium sized law firm are likely to have a research team staffed by professional researchers, often with an MLS and/or a JD. Countless benefits can follow from tapping into their expertise to guide your research challenges.

Research has changed dramatically over the past decade as technology has replaced standard print finding tools. Volumes of citators and digests have been supplanted by digital and AI enabled tools of breathtaking wizardry. No matter where an organization is on the technology spectrum the basic “rules” below should ease your research journey.

1. Be certain that you understand the assignment. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. There is no shame in asking for clarification.

2. Just Ask! A popular mnemonic “Just Ask” is used by many library teams to remind lawyers

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Law.com Radar, ALM’s technology-driven legal news platform has added a significant new offering to its litigation surveillance tool. Law.com Radar will now offer “breaking litigation” updates from the Delaware Chancery Court. This matters because, the Delaware Chancery Court is one of the most significant courts for commercial litigation in the United States.

Each case filed in the Court of Chancery will be available on Law.com Radar with a concise summary and one-click access to the complaint.

Radar’s alerting features enable subscriber to use filters to customize alerts targeting companies, industries, practice areas and Continue Reading “Breaking Litigation” Alerts From Delaware Court of Chancery Added to Law.com Radar

HBR Consulting (HBR),  a  leading legal industry  strategy, operations and technology consulting firm, has been acquired by private equity firm Renovus Capital (Renovus). The press release describes Renvous as a strategic capital partner. The agreement was effective November 10, 2022.

Renovus specializes in the knowledge and talent industries, with recent  investments in the legal services space. They previously invested in LAC Group which like HBR offered consulting and management of library/information services.  “The legal industry remains in the early stages of digital and operational transformation,” said Renovus founding partner Jesse Serventi. “As we scanned the legal marketplace as part of our investments in LAC Group and Wilson Allen, HBR routinely came up as a firm at the cutting-edge of this movement.”

Here is an excerpt from a message they are sending to customers:

The agreement will separate HBR’s traditional advisory and IT managed services businesses into two separate entities.

Matt Sunderman will assume the role of CEO of HBR Consulting. HBR Consulting co-founders Christopher Petrini-Poli and Nicholas Continue Reading HBR Acquired by PE Firm – To Join LAC in Renovus Professional Services Portfolio

Today  Lex Machina and LexisNexis announced the official release of a new topical area of analytics — Internet Law. This new federal practice area  includes data for any case with one or more claims brought under one of the following federal statutes: (i) the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), (ii) the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), or (iii) the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) which includes the Stored Communications Act (SCA). It is an important area of law in which transparency and understanding provide a crucial edge. The new Continue Reading Lex Machina Launches Legal Analytics for New Practice Area: Internet Law

On September 15th I presented the results of my “2022 Dewey B Strategic Start Stop Survey” at an HBR-sponsored LINKS program. I co-presented the results with HBR Managing Director Kris Martin.  The Dewey B Strategic “Start Stop Survey” was launched in 2013 but was suspended during the pandemic. The 2022 survey was intended to gather feedback on both products and projects that readers started or stopped since the start of the pandemic (March 2020) through August 2022. This post will focus on the vendor and product related results. Forty-three firms responded to the survey.

The survey questions asked respondents to identify products purchased or cancelled and the best products or features added. We also asked what product readers would like to see developed. A new topic that was addressed in this survey focused on identifying vendor “worst practices.”  Bonus content includes pop survey about the launch of Westlaw Precision. 

What practice do you want vendors to stop doing?
Summary: Survey participants were asked what practices vendors need to stop. The number one issue identified by survey participants was bundling.

Bundling is a practice that requires firms to purchase one or more products that they do not need in order to purchase the product(s) that they do need. Many vendors describe their relationship with law firms as a partnership. A partnership would involve acknowledging the

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This week  Fastcase  is announcing three new projects for 2023 which will become the foundation of additional state initiatives across the country in the future.
Dockets with the State Bar of Texas
State Bar of Texas has given its members access to  DocketAlarm brief, pleading and motion documents in Fastcase. The Texas bar will also launch a  digest curated by the Fastcase/Casemaker editorial team in the key practice areas of oil & gas and real estate. These initiatives are all based on feedback as they build out docket analytics within the Fastcase platform.
Forms workflow with the Arkansas Bar Association
The Arkansas Bar Association is expanding its publishing projects with Fastcase. The Bar Association is offering its own practice guides

Continue Reading Fastcase 2023 Roadmap Includes New Citator Called “Cert”

Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. is  announcing the launch of the Securities Enforcement Analyzer, a new research and data visualization tool. Although the legal analytics market has exploded. Regulatory analytics have lagged behind. Wolters Kluwer Securities Enforcement Analyzer is filling an important gap for securities practitioners. The new product provides visualizations and data on SEC enforcement actions, trends, and outcomes. The tool is accessible from the Securities section on VitalLaw or from RBsourceFilings.

According to the press release, Wolters Kluwer developed the Securities Enforcement Analyzer to address one of the biggest challenges in securities professionals’ workflow.. The  Analyzer contains over 90 filtered fields that  enable lawyers to quickly locate the most relevant enforcements based on specific client scenarios. It also provides users with access to detailed and unique data as well as penalty analytics that cannot be found elsewhere, all in an easy downloadable format.

“With the increase in volume of SEC enforcement actions and the associated penalties, it’s important to be prepared for more complexity across the industry and constant changing information,” said Ken Crutchfield, Vice President & General Manager of Legal Markets at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. “Our Securities Enforcement Analyzer offers a large number of search filters and superior details, helping legal professionals gain an edge in quickly advising on securities related issues.”

The tool provides customers with detailed downloadable graphics and tables, and available filters remove the need to conduct complex full-text searches and inspect numerous documents for relevancy. Users can leverage the Securities Enforcement Analyzer to better assess risks and craft the best defense strategy possible for clients.

The Market There is definitely a need for federal regulatory analytics, but the market is developing very slowly. The only other product I know of in this area is the a Bloomberg Law feature SEC  Administrative Law Judge Enforcement Analytics which launched in 2018. Since Wolters Kluwer and Bloomberg Law which acquired BNA  are the two legal vendors with deep regulatory editorial expertise  are ahead of the rest of the market in tackling the regulatory analytics challenge.

To learn more, visit: https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/vitallaw-law-firms/securities-and-corporate-law/securities-enforcement-analyzer

Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. today announced the addition of ESG Daily to its daily reporting suite on VitalLaw.  The ESG Daily will provide  updates on on rapidly evolving ESG regulations, legislation, and standards across key practice areas.  The newsletter will focus on breakings news and expert analysis in energy, sustainability, andgovernance (ESG) affecting a wide array of legal practice areas, including securities, banking, labor and employment, and health. ESG Daily is available at no additional cost to VitalLaw customers.

Built on a wide range of world-class content, Wolters Kluwer’s VitalLaw is a cutting-edge, digital research solution that empowers legal Continue Reading Wolters Kluwer Launches ESG Daily – Expands Environmental, Social, and Governance Content on VitalLaw with ESG Daily  

Lex Machina and LexisNexis announced today that it has officially released a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Module, which provides Legal Analytics for over 115,000 Chapter 11 proceedings. It’s been a long time coming. Ever since they launched their Bankruptcy Appeals  Analytics  in 2017, customers have be wondering when Chapter 11 analytics would launch. Hooray! That day is here.

Excellent timing given the fragile state of the economy. Recessions has historically been a boon for Bankruptcy and Finance practices. The Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Module includes the entire docket in any bankruptcy proceeding filed after 2009 in a United States Bankruptcy Court under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Like other Lex Machina modules, the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Module provides insights into judges, courts, debtors, creditors, creditor committees, and trustees involved in Chapter 11 proceedings over the last 13 years.

The Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Module incorporates special features such as filters for cases involving business debtors, voluntary petitions, and confirmed plans. It also incorporates an extensive collection of practice bankruptcy specific document tags to filter Continue Reading Lex Machina Launches Bankruptcy Chapter 11 Module.

TRG Screen has released a powerful new enhancement to their Research Monitor product. The new Optimize Insights platform provides visual analytics for proactive management of digital resources. Law libraries were already reducing their print resources before the 2020 pandemic. The sudden and long term shift to remote work resulted in a dramatic conversion to digital resources. This means that a significant proportion of the resources budget has shifted to digital formats. What’s a law librarians to do? Research Monitor has always offered a significant suite of digital reports for computing utilization ROI. This is often translated as “cost per user” and “cost per session.” The Optimize platform is more flexible and intuitive and offers great “out of the box” graphics.
Optimize Insights sits at the heart of TRG Screen’s new Optimize platform, which launched in 2020.  Resource monitoring platforms are a “must have” for Library Directors and Knowledge Managers responsible for optimizing digital resource budgets. Instead of random

Continue Reading Power Tools for Budget Planning – TRG Releases Optimize Insights for Research Monitor