We are all on the path to research Nirvana. Along the way we meet the true believers — many of them are my fellow librarians others are legal tech entrepreneurs. I recently had a chat with Pablo Arredondo, Co-Founder and Chief Legal Research Officer at Casetext  – an intrepid fellow traveler and legal research thought leader. Arredondo is passionate about citations, algorithms and optimizing the legal research experience. Casetext has recently  enhanced their algorithms to identify valuable new caselaw features and elements including: motions, causes of actions and party type which can be used as filters to narrow and focus a search.

Arredondo provided insights into the importance of these new features: “Optimal legal research systems must enable attorneys to navigate the common law along dimensions that matter.  Motion at Continue Reading Casetext CARA Adds Intelligent Filters To Enhance Research Precision

Last month I launched a new “Hits and Misses” survey which is replacing  the annual “Start Stop” Survey on products.  The new survey is more structured and should only take 5 to 7 minutes to complete. Please take a few minutes to share your insights on the state of legal publishing industry practices, products and technology. You can access the survey HERE.

This is an anonymous survey,  however respondents who wish to be entered in a drawing to win an Amazon Echo Dot have the option of including their name and contact information.

The survey will be open through Sunday February 3rd.

What Did You Think About Legal Publishing and Tech Trends in 2018?

2018 was a tumultuous year for legal publishing and technology. Consider just a few of the key events. The American Continue Reading Last Call: Respond to the Hits and Misses Survey Open Through Sunday February 3rd

Last week I attended a private press preview of Thomson Reuters latest enhancement to Westlaw Edge: Precedent Analytics. Although Thomson Reuters was the first legal publisher to launch a legal analytics product aimed at librarians and marketers (The Thomson Reuters Intelligence Center); they were a very late to the “analytics for lawyers” party. For several years I predicted the imminent launch of a Thomson Reuters analytics product.  In July 2018 a new platform Westlaw Edge was launched which offered litigation analytics based on 8 million federal dockets and 150 million state dockets. Since that launch they have continued to expand the motion filters available in Westlaw Edge. They currently offer filters on 23 motion types and more than 100 motion sub-types. Today they are launching a very different Continue Reading Thomson Reuters Launches Precedent Analytics to Challenge Lexis Context (formerly Ravel Law)

Thanks to ARK, ALM, PLLIP and SCALL for inviting me to speak at upcoming events:

Panelist, From Conversation to Conversion: Getting Lawyers to Use New Tools, Legal Tech, New York, NY,  January 31, 2019.

Moderator, Start It or Stop It? Jump Starting Initiatives and Innovation in 2019. PLLIP webinar, Feb 6, 2019

Panelist, Buyer Beware: Evaluating Analytics Products – How to Select an Analytics Product. Ark Law Firm, Library, Research and Information Services Conference, New York, NY, February 21, 2019.

Speaker, Not the Robot Apocalypse: AI as Opportunity for Librarians and Knowledge Professionals, Santa Barbara, Ca. February 22, 2019.

 

We have all become used to the idea of extracting insights from litigation docket data. But regulatory analytics appearto be emerging as an exciting new area for practice and competitive insights. Intelligize just launched a new feature which offers interactive Insights derived from from No Action letters enabling lawyers and financial analysts to glean quick insights into No Action Letter grants and denials by company, issue an law firm. No action letters are used by companies  to  send inquiries to the Securities & Exchange Commission Staff in order to determine if certain activities, actions or products would violate federal securities law.

New Analytics show

  • Top Shareholder Proposal Subcategories – trends
  • Successful requests by law firms – League tables
  • Most Cited Letters – find key seminal letters that became precedent
  • Request Outcomes -See incoming letter to the SEC and the past letters the the SEC concurred on, were unable to concur on requests which were withdrawn.

Other Enhancements Continue Reading Intelligize Launches No Action Letter Analytics – A New Regulatory Practice League Table?

Even though the government is shutdown, Voxgov is still “listening.”  Since 2014 Voxgov has been ingesting and analyzing every statement, report, newsletter and tweet from over 14,000 government websites and social media accounts. To date they have collected almost 50 million pages!

I asked Robert Dessau, voxgov Founder and CEO  if he  could provide some  insights into the statements of official Washington since the start of the shutdown. The word cloud images included in this post are previews of new visualization features which will be added to voxgov in the coming months. The word clouds are based on documents collected by voxgov between December 16, 2018 and January 16, 2019. The government shutdown started December 22nd.

Surprisingly members of  both houses are releasing almost the same number of official statements as they released during the same period a year ago (44,118 documents in the past thirty days versus 45,522 in the same 30 day period a year ago.)

There is a much larger impact  in the executive agencies which have released only 149,259 documents in the past 30 days compared with 397,238 documents in the same period a year ago. Voxgov normally ingests between 170,000 and 200,000 documents per week.

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S FACEBOOK AND TWITTER WORD CLOUD:

– Continue Reading The Shutdown Didn’t “Shut Up” Official Washington According to Voxgov – Insights Into the Words of Washington – Republicans Have Not Mastered The Hashtag#

Please mark your calendar for a Private Law Librarians and Information Professionals (PLLIP) Webinar from the Education and Professional Development Committee:

Feb 6, 2019 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM CST

Start It or Stop It? Jump Starting Initiatives and Innovation in 2019

Description:

Listen in on a lively conversation that will help you jump start your new year! Since 2013, Jean O’Grady has been conducting a Start Stop survey via her blog, Dewey B Strategic. As a prequel to the 2019 survey, Jean will be facilitating a panel discussion on the topic of new initiatives in the new year, including ways to remove obstacles and begin implementation. Gain wisdom from your colleagues as they disclose tactics for developing and executing new ideas, getting buy-in, etc., and be inspired as they share about some of the exciting new initiatives they’ve recently undertaken.

Host:

  • Jean O’Grady, Sr. Director of Research and Knowledge Services, DLA Piper

Panelists:

  • Colleen Cable, Director of Information Services, Orrick
  • Martin Korn, Director of Research & Knowledge Services, Sheppard Mullin
  • Stacy Pangilinan, Sr. Manager Knowledge  Solutions, DLA Piper
  • Emily Rushing, Competitive Intelligence Manager, Haynes & Boone

Registrater here

Contact:
Lindsey Carpino email:  lcarpino@sidley.com and Denise Pagh email:  dpagh@orrick.com
Education and Professional Development Committee Co-Chairs

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Don’t forget to take the “Hits and Misses”  Product and Vendor Survey here.

Learn more about the survey here.  

 

 

 

Today I am launching a new “Hits and Misses” survey which will replace the annual “Start Stop” Survey.  The new survey is more structured and should only take 5 to 7 minutes to complete. Please take a few minutes to share your insights on the state of legal publishing industry practices, products and technology. You can access the survey HERE.

This is an anonymous survey,  however respondents who wish to be entered in a drawing to win an Amazon Echo have the option of including their name an contact information.

The survey will be open through January 31st.

What Did You Think About Legal Publishing and Tech Trends in 2018?

2018 was a tumultuous year for legal publishing and technology. Consider just a few of the key events. The American Continue Reading Welcome to the First Dewey B Strategic “Hits and Misses” Survey – What Did Legal Publishers Get Right/Wrong in 2018?

Normally the top blog posts are  heavily weighted with posts which introduced readers to new products.  While readers remained interested in innovative products, this year  readers were also intensely interested in w legal publishing and technology company layoffs, expansions, pricing policies and content strategies. What do these changes say about the state of the legal information market ? Will these trends continue into 2019 ?  I for one think that the coming year will bring  some major shifts in the market – but that is for a 2019 blog post.  Here are the top 2018 posts:

  1. Widespread Layoffs at Thomson Reuters Legal – Office Closings to Follow
  2. The Law Librarians Revolt: AALL Accuses LexisNexis of Engaging in Unfair Business Practices – Possible Antitrust Violations
  3. Thomson Reuters to Layoff 3,200 Staff Through 2020, Close Offices and Eliminate Products – Which Legal Products Might Die?
  4. Judicata Just Ranked 20 Top California Law Firms By Grading Their Briefs. What Grade Did Your Firm Get?
  5. Bloomberg BNA Editor in Chief Outlines Reorganization and Layoffs– Shifts in Content Strategy
  6. CARA AI: Did Casetext Just “Drop Kick” Keywords Out of the Legal Research Process?
  7. Start Stop Survey Results AALL’s : “The Know it All” Is Voted Best New Product and Bloomberg Law’s “Docket Key” Best New Feature
  8. Products “At Risk” Due to Thompson Reuters Layoffs – Readers Respond
  9. ALM Releases 2018 Survey on Library and Knowledge Profssionals: Intelligence, Analytics and AI Dominate
  10. Fastcase Fastracks Launch of State Docket Analytics & New Features Following Docket Alarm Acqusition
  11. Your Workflow Product Costs Half a Million Dollars — Now How Do I Measure My ROI? Where is the Quickview and PowerInvoice for Practical Law and Lexis Practice Advisor?
  12. Thomson Reuters Launches Watson AI Feature in New Data Privacy Platform
  13. Surprise -Your Expert Witness Has a Rapsheet – New Survey Examines the Sorry State of Expert Research Workflow in Law Firms
  14. Bloomberg Law: New Leadership. New Products: SEC Administrative Analytics and Practical Guidance  and “Hot Topic” News
  15. AI in Legal Research – Does Casetext’s Document As Query Search Improve Efficiency and Results?
  16. Move over ALM and Law360 – LexBlog is Launching a Legal News Network
  17. Changing the Subject from Layoffis – Thomson Reuters Celebrates 1,500 Westlaw Edge Subscribers – Still Faces Market Resistance and The Challenge of ROI.
  18. Lexis Re-imagines the Shepard’s Citator with Ravel Analytics: Adds 500,000 New Cases, 6 Million Images
  19. Lexis and NLRG Respond to Casetext AI Study- Casetext Defends Study -Have we Reached the Trough of AI Disillusionment?
  20. ALM Releases Report on Artificial Intelligence in Law Firms: Where is Your Firm on the AI Adoption Spectrum

Last week Lex Machina hosted a panel discussion on the value of analytics in the practice of law. The panel was moderated by Josh Becker, Chairman, Lex Machina and Jackie Bell, Sr. Reporter, Law360. The Panel included 4 of the 5  The 2018 Data Driven Lawyer award  recipients: Eric Falkenberry, Partner, DLA Piper, Kate Gaudry, Senior Associate, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, Evan Moses, Shareholder/Co-Chair, National Class Action Practice, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC, .Kyle Poe, Partner, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.Scott Forman, Shareholder, Littler Mendelson PC did not participate in the panel.

You can access the full recording here

Overcoming Resistance. Readers who have met resistance from lawyers when they tried to introduce analytics products in their firms will find some insights to justify exploration of analytics products in their firms. Of course every new technology introduces new risks as well as rewards. Back in the 1980’s some lawyers refused to try the early Continue Reading Driving Analytics Into Practice: Advice from the Data Driven Lawyers