Smartphones as the New 'Swiss Army Knife'
c.Thomson Reuters

The idea of the “Swiss Army Knife” has become a kind of shorthand for
compact, handy, and versatile devices with functionality limited only by
the imagination of the developers. According to Wikipedia, this
ingenious little device was invented for the Swiss Army with a limited
goal of providing a tool which could be used to cut open a rations tin
and disassemble a Swiss Service Rifle. The original 1891 knife included a
blade, reamer, can opener, and a screwdriver. By 2006, there were 87
different tools supporting 141 functions. There is even a version which
includes a flash drive and Bluetooth capability…

 Thanks to the burgeoning world of apps, the owner of a smartphone soon
realizes that this compact little device is no longer simply a phone. In
fact, it may be least of all a phone. A mobile app is a software
program designed to run on mobile devices. According to one source there
are over 1.3 million apps available in the Apple App Store alone. Early
smartphone apps mimicked the standard desktop functions and supported
e-mail, contacts, and calendars…

Read the complete article in the January issue of  Practice Innovations


In 2008, just as the recession was shaking the foundations of law firms across New York, the Board of Directors* and the Executive Director of the New York Law Institute were undertaking a reassessment of their library and their services. In 2008 law firms were cutting partners, eliminating summer associate programs and deferring fall associate classes. Firms were collapsing. Across New York and the country  firm library budgets and staffs were cut. NYLI seized the crisis as an opportunity.Executive Director Ralph Monaco**  introduced a series of innovative new services which were tailored to the changing needs of members. In a pre-internet world, it was not uncommon for law firms to purchase treatises and journals using a “just in case” acquisition strategy. Technology and economics of “the new normal” has forced firms to switch to a “just in time” acquisition policy. Monaco continued to reorganize the staff by increasing the number of professionals and offering more services, such as remote access to databases and webinars. Despite the economic turmoil, he proceeded with  implementing the new business model, based on the NYLI Strategic Plan, determined to have the Institute emerge as a re-branded institution once the effects of the recession had passed. The New York Law Institute website announces “A legacy law library offering cutting edge services.”  NYLI has broken with the staid traditions and challenged the assumptions which have governed bar association and membership law libraries around the country for over a century. Their contrarian expansion at a time of universal contraction sets them apart from their peers and may well be the only model that can survive and thrive in the 21st Century.

The Legacy  

The New York Law Institute arose from the  efforts of  “two young lawyers, George Sullivan and James W. Gerard,  to break up the so-called “barrister ring” of twelve to fifteen lawyers who conspired with members of the  judiciary to monopolize all the “worthwhile” legal business in the New York Courts during the mid-1820s. When the Law Institute, was founded in  1828, one of its main goals was to found a law library.  In the early 19th century, all the major law book collections in New York were in the  private collections of prominent lawyers such as Chief Justice John Jay.  The NYLI members were determined to establish a law library that would contain “the law of the larger part of the civilized world.”  The collection still retains some of the original holdings including historic legal treatises and reporters which date back to 1558.

The New Model for The New York Law Institute

In 2008 the NYLI Board and Executive Director Ralph Monaco  began the process of evolving the collection from print-centric to digital in order to better support the needs of members.  They recognized that law firms were shifting their collection development policies from an ownership model to an access model. They began to partner with firms to provide cost-sharing access to resources including not just books, but electronic resources, and even library staff by providing “an extra pair of hands.”  NYLI’s goal was to be the premier provider of “just in time” access to research support and resources.

The launch of the NYLI website in 2011  promoted the shift from the Institute as a source for inter-library loans to the Institute as provider of  interactive digital resources for every member’s  desktop. New services have grown to include an eBook lending library of over 75,000 titles, seamless access to the NYLI catalog, widgets, SharePpoint WebParts and federated search.

Extending Geographic Reach

As New York based firms have established offices around the country, it became apparent that the new digitally based services could and should support member lawyers in any location. A logical extension was to open membership to law firms anywhere in the US regardless of whether they have any office in New York.

LaJean Humphries, Library Manager at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatte  which has offices in Oregon and Washington state but none in New York and has been a member of NYLI for 2 years. Humphries has integrated the NYLI eBooks into the firm’s catalog. The Schwabe lawyers browse and retrieve the NYLI eBooks several times a month.

At Schiff Hardin, Ruth Bridges, Global Manager of Library Services, regards NYLI as a great investment.  Schiff Hardin  has over 300 Attorneys in 8 offices around the country.  None of the offices have any Library staff, except in  the Chicago “home office.”   In the past, they had primarily used NYLI for document retrieval for the New York office, but Bridges now sees the extensive eBook collection at NYLI  as a huge new membership benefit.  “Instead of shipping books from Chicago to our other offices which will have to be returned,” we can easily  provide our lawyers with access to the  NYLI  eBooks .. all without the shipping expense, both ways!”

New Website

NYLI’s Director of Information Techonlogy, Elyssa Kroski  was a driving force behind the rebranded  website design. Newly added features include a responsive design well-suited for mobile devices, drop-down menus for easier navigation, search functionality on every page that enables quick access to their Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC), All Collections, and all website content, an improved events calendar, and news sliders highlighting resources, news, and events.

E-book lending

One of the most exciting and innovative offerings  is the NYLI eBook collection. NYLI currently offers over 75,000 titles in the  areas of law, business management, finance, pharmacy and engineering. NYLI also adds approximately 1,000 titles a month. Members can download eBooks to their computers or portable devices anytime, anywhere. Each borrower can download each title on to 3 devices ( such as a work computer, a home computer and an iPad).  All titles are always available to all members, there are no waiting lists. They use a “Patron-Driven Acquisitions” model which means that NYLI doesn’t have to buy eBooks in advance. They  offer members access to a very large collection of eBooks, then NYLI basically rents each title on behalf of  the requesting members. After 3 rentals or loans the book is purchased by NYLI.  They also offer a unique  lending model referred to as “non-linear lending” — which makes their eBooks available to unlimited users simultaneously.
Not surprisingly the eBook lending program has been very successful. Over 2,500 eBooks have been browsed since November 2012. 1,800 eBook loans have been issued and nearly two-thirds of NYLI member firms are borrowing  eBooks.

Seamless Catalog 

The  NYLI Seamless Catalog enables NYLI member libraries that use EOS.Web®  integrated library system to directly integrate NYLI’s entire collection, seamlessly with their own holdings. The goal of the initiative is  to allow member libraries to eliminate the cost of marginally used print volumes such as treatises and other serials while still offering their attorneys access to what they need. There are 11 law firms who have integrated the NYLI catalog with their own OPAC. Steve Lastres, Director of Knowledge Services at Debevoise & Plimpton pioneered the Seamless catalog integration and is proud to demonstrate the efficiencies delivered by their partnership with NYLI. NYLI is currently working with additional ILS vendors to use  Z39.50 to mimic the functionality of  their Seamless Catalog.

Debevoise & Plimpton Catalog with NYLI ebooks
Debevoise & Plimpton Lists all NYLI resources in their catalog

Widgets and SharePoint Web Parts

Non-Eosi libraries can use SharePoint Web Parts to allow them  to search the NYLI catalog  and the 75,000 eBooks  within their intranets.

Federated Search 

A new custom federated search application searches all of NYLI’s holdings, both print and electronic as well as our remote databases.  This “All Collections” search, crawls the NYLI online catalog and eBooks collection, and a variety of databases including Proquest Congressional, LLMC Digital, SSRN, GAO, and FedSys.

Integration with OneLog, ResearchMonitor, Lookup Precision.

NYLI’s electronic resources can now be integrated with OneLog, Lookup Precision, and ResearchMonitor implementations.  This new functionality enables member libraries to track their firm’s usage of NYLI’s e-resources as well as automatically log in users without necessitating that they sign in daily.

NYLI in the Cloud

Hosted EZProxy Service. The OCLC   EZProxy solution will assure that  members have access to their remote resources 24/7. To safeguard this access, they recently migrated their authentication service to the hosted OCLC EZProxy solution. They made this move in order to better ensure reliable up-time and access to their remote databases by removing the variables that come along with hosting a local server such as; periodic building electricity shut-downs, winter storms, and hardware failure. With OCLC’s service they receive 24/7/365 access monitoring, maintenance, and security, all of which will minimize unexpected downtime.

Future plans

Monaco, the NYLI Board and staff are committed to continue providing user-centered services and initiatives. They recently conducted a survey of law librarians from member firms in order to assess  the value of  current services and collections as well as determine future needs and direction.

Eric Kaufman, Assistant Director of  Research and KM at Stroock, Stroock & Lavan in New York, describes NYLI as “innovation at its finest.” “ While law librarians in NYC have in my opinion, some of finest available resources in the country, it is NYLI that has gone where none have gone before. Librarians can now provide their firm’s attorneys with a book’s highlights, TOC, or provide suggested titles all with a simple URL.”

Monaco sums it up this way: “we will continue to provide valuable new services, innovative technology initiatives, and essential collections.”

Take a Trial

NYLI is currently offering a  60 day  free trial.

______________________________________
* In the interest of full disclosure, I am currently a member of the NYLI Board. All of the innovations described in this post were developed prior to my term.
** Executive Director, Ralph Monaco was (and is) an Adjunct Professor at St. John’s University Graduate Division of Library & Information Science. I was a student in his Legal Research class in 1980.

 

 

 

 

 In early January Lexis sent emails to its customers, announcing that they  had entered into an exclusive agreement to  provide access to the New York Times  in the legal market.This means that the New York Times will be removed from Lexis’ main competitors Westlaw and BloombergLaw.
Over the past two decades Lexis has steadily built a an impressive news portfolio. LexisNexis now owns or controls access to a big chunk of legal and business news in the legal market.  Exclusive content now includes: ownership of Law360, control of  legal market access to the American Lawyer Media news archive,  access to the Wall Street Journal Online and  now the New York Times.

Then this morning Oustell posted a story from New York magazine “.People Are Talking About Michael Bloomberg Buying the New York Times, Including Michael Bloomberg.”

“For years now, it has been speculated in media circles that Mike Bloomberg could be a white knight and save the New York Times. Now it appears he may actually have tried to do it.Near the end of Bloomberg’s time as mayor, he told Times chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. that he was interested in buying the Times, according to a source with direct knowledge of the conversation. Sulzberger replied that the paper was not for sale. Bloomberg’s overture, previously unreported, might be one reason why talk of a Bloomberg-Times eventuality has flared up among insiders in the wake of the most recent round of Times’ layoffs. Given the fact that both sides vehemently deny that there have been recent conversations (Sulzberger “can’t remember the last time he spoke with Bloomberg,” said a spokesperson), this may very well be wishful — or apprehensive — thinking being played out in the echo chamber of media gossip”

The story doesn’t mention the Lexis exclusive deal  for the New York Times which certainly can be counted as evidence against the sale of  the NYT to Bloomberg. In addition. Lexis has reportedly paid top dollar for its exclusive news deals in the past. So did the fees from the Lexis deal alleviate some of the NYT financial woes…at least for the short term? Was it a kind of “poison pill” to ward off a Bloomberg acquisition?

How Tight is the NYT/Lexis Deal?

It is not inconceivable that the Lexis-New York Times deal could survive the purchase of the NYT by Bloomberg. But somehow, I can’t imagine Mike Bloomberg owning content that was available on Lexis but not on Bloomberg Law. The New York Magazine article highlights Bloomberg’s desire to focus on expanding his media empire in general, not in undermining a key competitor to his legal product Bloomberg Law.  But Bloomberg is no fool and he can hire the best lawyers  – so I would expect that any deal for NYT would result in the content being added to  Bloomberg Law. A spokesperson for Bloomberg Law declined to comment on the story, because  they are a subsidiary of Bloomberg and “not in a position to comment.”

 So a Bloomberg purchase of the New York Times? It’s a “definite maybe! ” Stay tuned– I will be watching this one.

In October 2013 the American Association of Law Libraries issued a Request for Proposal  seeking consultants to deliver a report on the economic value of law libraries. The RFP specifically stated that “When complete,
the report should offer law librarians and the institutions and businesses they
serve important metrics (italics
added) that can help them calculate the
return on investment law libraries provide. AALL set the bar high. I and many
others in the organization expected a report that delivered actual ROI
metrics.  The final Economic Value of Law Libraries report is 42 pages
long. It does not attempt to calculate the value of law libraries or law librarians at all.
 AALL leaders previously indicated that one
of the key reasons for selecting the HBR consulting firm was that they were
well known to the legal community and therefore the metrics delivered in the “value
report” would have credibility with law firm partners and  law school deans. Unfortunately this report
contains no data which would ever be shared beyond the members of
AALL. In fact the report is devoid of “important metrics.”

If the Australians Could do it…?In April 2014 a consortium of Australian  Library
organizations including the Australian Law Library Association hired a consultant SGS Economics and Planning which, developed a
methodology and then conducted surveys which actually generated a  financial metric on the value. According to
their study  Putting A Value on Priceless, the ROI of information resources and services is $5.43 for every
dollar invested.

What Kind of
Report is This?  I am still puzzled.  It
is too simplistic to be called a blueprint. It is really a collection of rubrics
and best practices for a “do it yourself” project. The recommendations in this
report simply validate the kind of advice that is routinely given in management
programs at the AALL annual conference: “Align yourself with your
organizations strategy,” ”adjust your message to your audience,” “ determine
your stakeholders communication preferences,” “don’t use library jargon when
speaking to management.”   We needed a consultant to tell us that? The
only thing report does is to validate common sense and good management
practices with some stakeholder data.

What this Report is Not. Many of us already collect sophisticated service metrics. What we needed was a tool or a formula  or a methodology for converting that data into a dollar value. The report doesn’t deliver anything at that level of sophistication. The report is a theoretical narrative which is short on math and statistical analysis. The report doesn’t follow one of it’s own quantitative recommendations:

“Go beyond the mere measurement of activities and utilize
methods that measure and demonstrate success or impact on organizational
services.”

This report never moves from measurement to methodology or impact.  

One size does not fit all. The biggest flaw that
becomes apparent in reading the report is that the 3 major constituencies in
AALL: private firm, academic and Government/court law libraries operate in drastically
different environments supporting stakeholders with dramatically different
support needs and service expectations. All of the data provided in the report aggregates
the responses from all 3 types of organizations. The institutional  differences invalidate the aggregated
responses. For example, the aggregated data indicate that “business
development” activities are not highly valued. Anyone who works in a law firm
will disagree with that assessment. But two thirds of the respondents work in environments
(academic and Government/Court) where this type of service has no meaning.  Unfortunately there is no attempt to report
data based on organization type.

The report
suggests that  since there was no easy way
to measure value across all organization types, HBR and the committee threw up their
hands and decided not to try. They use these known differences as an  excuse for not delivering a real ROI metric.  I don’t buy that. They could have and
should have been able to develop 
methodologies and metrics for individual types of organizations. If it
could not have been done all at once, AALL should have allowed the Academic,
Private Firm and Government and Court Library SIS’s to work with HBR or another
consultant to develop a custom study  for
each type of organization. Maybe that needs to happen in the future.

These flaws were completely foreseeable  and  I would
have expected a prestigious organization like HBR to recommend a survey
methodology to  overcome this kind of
problem. That issue should have been obvious at the time they responded to the
RFP.

Do it Yourself? Really? The bottom line is that AALL and
HBR have produced a report that says “we couldn’t figure out how to measure
your value – we hope you have better luck on your own.“ Given the  reduced staff and time pressures we all face,
this is an absurd recommendation.  Of
course we will all continue to try to hone our own metrics but we expected
a  report that reached well beyond what
we are able to do as individuals. We expected AALL and HBR to do some heavy
lifting and instead they have passed the problem back to the members. 

I do not
disagree with many of the report’s recommendations… I simply disagree that they delivered the
kind of report that was needed and expected by many members… especially members who have already undertaken
the kind of initiatives and activities recommended in the report.

Who Needs To Read This Report If you have never attended an AALL conference  and if you don’t  read professional literature, don’t follow any
 professional blogs and never speak to
your colleagues, this report will  be a
real shocker. 

Is there is anyone out there who doesn’t currently report
on the activities of their organization? 
Thirty percent of the responding directors  (in all types of organizations) indicated
that they do not provide any reports to management because they are not
required to do so. That is a dangerous and naive place to be.  For that 30% this report should be a “wake up
call” and the report will provide valuable guidance on beginning the process of
thinking about how to communicate with management and what services are worth
measuring.

Here are the key findings of the report:

Qualitative Information

1. Employ both formal and informal communications regularly.

2. Provide context with qualitative data.

3. Use testimonials to highlight the impact of delivered services.

4. Tailor the value message to stakeholder preferences.

Quantitative Information and Analysis

1. Go beyond the mere measurement of activities and utilize
methods that measure and demonstrate success or impact on organizational
services.

2. When reporting metrics related to specific library activities,
report them in the context of the larger frame of importance to the
organization.

3. Define the measurements within your organization used to
demonstrate value to their stakeholders (clients, elected officials, board of
trustees) and adjust library metrics accordingly.

4. Identify the external resources used by stakeholders to
evaluate organizational success and especially law library success. Adapt
internal processes as appropriate.

5. Identify current formal valuation methodologies used within
your organization. Evaluate the applicability of that method for use by the law
library and adjust the related processes accordingly.

Communication

1. Determine your stakeholder’s information delivery preferences,
including distribution channels through a collaborative process with the
stakeholder.

2. Create a schedule of reporting that fits into the strategic
planning and decision making cycle of the organization to ensure that critical
library data is delivered in a relevant timeframe.

3. Refrain from using library jargon when sharing qualitative
data.

4. Find or make opportunities to present the information in formal
meeting settings.

5. Determine the communication styles that match organizational
preferences and get comfortable with different communication styles that can be
easily adjusted to formal and informal settings as well as stakeholder
preferences.

Comprehensive Best Practices

1. Form strong interpersonal relationships with stakeholders.

2. Employ short, frequent communication through existing channels
as defined by stakeholder preferences.

3.
Create templates that highlight the key considerations for current strategic
initiatives in both narrative and numerical formats.

4.
Adjust information delivery to meet a mix of demands and expectations.

5.
Define foundational library services and emerging service opportunities within
your organizations through a collaborative strategic process with stakeholders.

6.
Embrace the leadership responsibilities and expectations of the management and
director role.

Draw your own conclusion.

I encourage everyone to read the report and draw their
own conclusion. I was expecting a lot more from AALL and HBR. If this report
meets the needs of a substantial number of members  then it will have been worth the time and cost invested. 


This report  does not break new ground or  “move the ball forward”  for many professionals who have already developed metrics and effective communications.  A grand slam would have been the development of a formula for converting service metrics into dollar values. I would say that this report stops at “first base.”
The January Issue of Thomson Reuters Practice Innovations has been released. The latest issue is focused on cutting edge legal technology issues impacting the business and practice of law.

Deconstructing the Myth of Low Technology Adoption in Law Firms
By Conrad Jacoby, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Paralegal Studies Program,
Washington, DC.

Safe Travels in the Age of Digital Espionage: Protecting Your Assets on the Road
By David Herst, Data Privacy and IT Solutions Consultant, Dynatrace (formerly Compuware),
New York, NY and Don Philmlee, Legal Technology Consultant,Washington, DC

Legal Pricing Technologies
By Toby Brown, Chief Practice Officer, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Houston, TX.

Client Data Security Audits—A Preemptive Checklist
By William P. Scarbrough, Chief Operating Officer, Bodman PLC, Detroit, MI.

Smartphones as the New “Swiss Army Knife”
By Jean O’Grady, Director of Research Services, DLA Piper LLP (US),Washington.

Portable to Wearable to Embedded—How Technology is Literally Becoming Part of Us
By Don Philmlee, Legal Technology Consultant, Washington, DC.

 

Now in its sixth year, the PLL Summit
continues to be a vehicle for examining the impact and opportunities presented
by change in the legal industry. The PLL Summit 2015: The Innovation
Imperative will explore how librarians can help provide innovative
solutions to the business challenges which law firms and legal information professionals
are facing in today’s legal market.　

The Summit Keynote is Karl Ulrich, Vice
Dean of Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of
business,. Professor Ulrich is the author of Innovation Tournaments:
Selecting and Creating Exceptional Opportunities. Attendees will
participate in an exciting “innovation tournament” exercises facilitated by
Prof. Ulrich. The goal is to have Summit
attendees not only to learn about innovation in theory but also to practice
innovation in action.　

Additional presentations during the
day will address the current state of the legal industry, the roles librarians
play in our organizations, and will provide examples of innovative products and
processes developed by information professionals to meet existing and evolving
business needs of their clients.　　　

Please visit the 2015 Summit blog for more
details and updates.Marcia
Burris & Denise Pagh are the 2015 Summit Co-Chairs.

NPR Host Terry Gross is Keynote for
AALL Annual Meeting and Conference.

National Public Radio is one of the few news
organizations which routinely gives “on air” credit to the contributions of
their librarian Kee Maleski to each show. Ms. Gross may be the
first AALL keynote speaker who has a personal appreciation of the contributions
of information professionals to the success of an organization.

Here are excerpts from the AALL Press
Release:
 

Fresh Air: Terry Gross Interviews
Terry Gross
CHICAGO, Jan. 21, 2015—The American
Association of Law Libraries (AALL) officially released the name of its 108th
Annual Meeting & Conference keynote speaker today: Terry Gross, host of
National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air.” In 1975, Gross joined WHYY-FM in
Philadelphia as producer and host of “Fresh Air,“then a local, daily interview
and music program. “Fresh Air” evolved into a daily, one hour national edition
that has been produced by WHYY-FM, and distributed by NPR, since 1987. Gross
has won praise over the years for her low-key and friendly yet probing
interview style and the diversity of her guests, often asking them well
researched and unexpected questions about their early careers. Ever-inquisitive
and nuanced, she gives her listeners unique access to the perspectives of
thought leaders in the arts, sciences, and popular culture through her thorough
and often revelatory interviews.”Fresh Air” is currently broadcast on nearly
600 stations and became the first non-drive time show in public radio history
to reach more than 5 million listeners a week. “Fresh Air” and Gross have
received a number of awards over the years including the Peabody Award in 1994;
an America Women in Radio and Television National Network Radio Personality
Gracie Award in 1999; and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Edward R.
Murrow Award in 2003.The AALL 108th Annual Meeting & Conference will be
held in Philadelphia from July 18-21, 2015; registration will open
mid-February.

 
No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. Clause 39 

The “Lincoln” Magna Carta

History has been kind to King John. He is a fixture in US history textbooks. His image is carved into a ceiling frieze and molded into the brass doors of the US Supreme Court. The story of Magna Carta’s impact on the development of  US law is being told at the Library of Congress exhibit “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor” which opened in November to celebrate the 800th Anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. at Runnymede. The exhibit will close on January 19th.

A Self-Serving King Acting in ” Bad Faith”Instead of being a noble visionary, King John was a bad king who faced a revolt of his barons for excessive taxation. The road from Runnymede in 1215 to Philadelphia in 1776 is a spectacular and improbable illustration of “the law of unintended consequences” “writ large” (pun intended). With something akin to a “sword to his head” King John signed a document  enumerating a series of concessions to the barons (which he intended to revoke at the first opportunity). For the first time, a king had made himself subject to the law, not above the law. It became the foundational document which protects common law country citizens around the world from the excesses of government.

Nearly Forgotten It  was nearly forgotten by the English until 17th century jurist Sir Edward Coke wrote his treatise the Institutes of the Laws of England.  The Coke treatise ended up in private  law book collections  in the former colonies  of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and inspired the thoughts and writings of the American Founding Fathers. Coke’s examination of Magna Carta supported the creation of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

Magna Carta specifically inspired:

  • No taxation without representation
  • Freedom of religion
  • Right to a speedy trial
  • The establishment of an independent judiciary
  • Due Process
  • The Jury system
  • Writ of Mandamus
  • The US system of checks and balances

12 things you probably didn’t know about Magna Carta:

  • The document should be refered to as “Magna Carta” not as “The Magna Carta.”
  • Only 4 of the original 44 copies of Magna Carta are known to be in existence
  • The Works of Shakespeare do not include any references to Magna Carta
  • George Washington was a descendant of King John
  • The Magna Carta was put on display in the Magna Carta Pavilion at the 1939  New York World’s Fair in order to strengthen ties with the US  as Britain faced threats from Nazi Germany. 
  • It was almost blown up in 1940 when a time bomb was left inside the Pavilion.  2 NYC policemen were killed when the bomb exploded after being removed from the Pavilion.
  • It was stored in Fort Knox for the remainder for WWII until it was safe to return it to the UK.
  • In the UK only 3 of the original clauses are still law.
  • Clause 39 became Article 1 of the US Constitution
  • Clause 61 inspired the US system of checks and balances in government.
  • The US Supreme Court has cited Magna Carta more than 80 times in the past 50 years.
  • Although the document originally focused on the grievances of the barons, the charter outlined the rights of “free men” rather than limiting the rights to the barons. The rights of “free men” created the opening for these same rights to be extended to all British and US citizens.

Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor

Thomson Reuters and the Library of Congress have published  a book called Magna Carta Muse and Mentor edited by Judge Randy Holland. The book includes chapters from leading US and British scholars and jurists including US Chief Justice John Roberts, Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Law Librarian of Congress David Mao, Black’s Law Dictionary editor/legal writing expert Bryan Garner and others.

 Upcoming Magna Carta Events:

January 14, 2015 – Magna Carta Lecture Series: Magna Carta—Women in Medieval Europe in 1215. The Law Library welcomes Dr. Ruth M. Karras, chair of the History Department at the University of Minnesota, for this program. The program will take place at 1:00 p.m. in the Mumford Room (LM-649).
January 14, 2015 – Gallery Talk, Nathan Dorn, exhibition curator, will discuss highlights of selected items from the exhibition. The program will take place in the South Gallery, second floor, Thomas Jefferson Building from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m.
January 16, 2015 – Gallery Talk, Heather Wanser, preservation conservator, will discuss the conservation of George Washington’s copy of the U.S. Constitution which is displayed in the “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor” exhibition. The program will take place in the South Gallery, second floor, Thomas Jefferson Building from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m.
January 19, 2015 – Gallery Talk, Chris Woods, director of the National Conservation Service (United Kingdom) discusses the care and conservation of Magna Cartas, including the Lincoln Cathedral 1215 manuscript copy on exhibition. The program will take place in the South Gallery, second floor, Thomas Jefferson Building from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m.

The Exhibit closes January 19th.  Well done all!

 In my humble opinion….looking back on 2014 here are some standouts…for better or worse….Worst piece of proposed legislation for law firms Award OK accounting is a snooze, but this issue has my attention. The  tax law amendment proposing mandatory accrual accounting for law firms could wipe out
all the  staffing and process efficiencies law firms have gained since
the recession with the stroke of a pen. According to the ABA  Section
3301 of the draft “Tax Reform Act of 2014”and Section 51 of a similar
Senate draft bill would force law firms with gross
receipts over $10 million to use the accrual method of accounting rather
than the traditional cash method. Law firms would be forced to pay taxes on income long
before it is actually received. The administrative overhead to implement and comply
with these changes will bloat accounting staffs …in fact law firms might
as well just become accounting firms because that is the business they
will be in if this law passes!

The Most Collossal Failure of Law, Technology and Common Sense.  The loss of Malaysia Flight 370 highlights the misplaced growth of technology to provide pervasive access to inane blathering while ignoring life saving communication systems for international transport. The airline industry has failed to self regulate and international regulatory bodies have failed to act for the public good. Google is developing cars. Maybe it is time for Apple to enter the airline industry — at least we can count on them to develop a “find my airplane” app.

The Most Famous Research Product Which Doesn’t Actually Exist Award goes to
IBM’s “Legal Watson.”  Legal Watson got an awful lot of press … considering that it is still more a concept than a product. Of course I want to see where this is all going, but
hopefully I will be retired before it can take over my job.

The Longest Non-Rollout Award  Goes to Wolters Kluwer’s new research platform called Cheetah. I wrote a post on it over a year ago… there were public previews at AALL in July and yet the curtain has not yet been raised. I am counting on a 2015 release.

The Bumpiest Rollout goes to Lexis Advance. Nuf said.

No No Not Another Award. For the past decade we were inundated with news monitoring products. This year it was Pacer/docket products. I don’t mean to discourage innovators, after all Avis did give Hertz a run for their money.

The Show Me the Data Award goes to Thomson Reuters Dealproof
(Drafting Assistant Transactional )– I am actually serious here. Every
vendor “talks the talk” about how they will help law firms become more
efficient. Rarely do they ever deliver a piece of evidence. Thomson
Reuters   developed one of the most compelling pieces of marketing documentation which shows the actual time savings achieved when a lawyer uses the Dealproof to review transactional documents. Don’t talk to me about big data products if you can’t deliver your own data on your own products.

Worst federal government technology roll out Award. OK it doesn’t quite reach the level of the Affordable Care Act Website debacle. The Administrative Office of the  US Courts roll out of  the new electronic filing system (ECF) must have been developed with solo practitioners in mind. It is an administrative nightmare for large law firms looking to centralize and streamline workflows. Pacer was actually 214 systems cobbled together and YES something needed to be done. But we needed a solution that worked for both the government and the legal profession and we are not there yet.  So far the roll out has been marked by poor communication, confusing instructions and a failure to assess workflow impact  on large law firms.

Who needs archives Award? Goes to, oh no…. the Administrative Office of the US Courts  wins again for removing access to pubic dockets in 5 courts including the Second Circuit!!!!!
They seemed surprised that anyone noticed or cared. They have since announced plans to restore the missing dockets after a public outcry.

Legal Research Hall of Fame  goes to Martindale Hubbell. Baseball players get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame so lets give that old workhorse Matindale Hubbell a fond farewell and thanks for the memories.

Missed Opportunity Award goes to Lexis, Westlaw , BloombergBNA and Wolters Kluwer for failing to purchase American Lawyer Media and giving it the technical infrastructure and substantive law context which ALM needs to expand. It would have been a win/win for ALM and any of the large legal publishers.  Instead ALM went to a venture group (again).

Man With A Mission Award goes to Bryan Garner with his spectacular rewrite of Black’s Law Dictionary… 50,000 legal definitions were completely rewritten and 16,000 new definitions added.

Reinvent Your Profession Award goes to lawyer and legal consultant Susan Hackett who delivered a powerful message to legal information professionals as keynote speaker at the PLL Summit in July.

Show Me the Money Award goes to the Australian Law Libraries Association
which conducted a study which determined the ROI of law librarians. Law
librarians deliver $5.43 in  value for every dollar invested.
Congratulations and thanks to our colleagues “down under.”
 
Fire the Loose-leaf filer/Save a Tree  award goes to Bloomberg BNA for their “Streaming” Bankruptcy Treatise. It never was in print and no one will ever have to retrieve a missing binder for filing. Amen!

Crystal Ball Award goes to Lex Machina for giving us a glimpse of the predictive uses of big data in  anticipating lawyer and judges behavior in IP litigation.  

The Ticking Timebomb of Legal Malpractice Award goes to the evil cousins  “ Link Rot” and “Reference Rot” who were recently  “outed” in a program  hosted by Georgetown Law.

Fair Use Hero Award goes to Judge Rakoff for explaining why legal briefs submitted to courts can be made available and searchable on Lexis and Westlaw without violating copyright.

The  Secret CKO Award  goes to the late comedian Joan Rivers who cataloged  and archived over a million jokes.

The Beyond Words Award.  In October Nasa released an archive of sounds from outer space on Sound Cloud. The recordings include the sounds of Saturns rings, Neptune, Jupiter and Earth from outer space.

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2015.

 

2014
was the first year since 2007 in which  the legal press began consistently
publishing optimistic news about the legal market. Law school enrollments are
still shrinking. Large law firms continue to combine into mega-firms. Law firm
support roles and ratios continue to evolve. In 2014 legal publishers began to
deliver products which help transform big data into analytics which offer the
promise of a  competitive advantage if lawyers and information
professionals can ask the right questions.
The Most Popular Post on Dewey B Strategic was posted only 3 weeks
ago and it shot to the top of the list:
It Takes More Than a Dumpster to Build
A Digital Law Library: 12 Critical Components For Digital Law Library
Transformations  December 10th.
My personal favorite  was the most popular post until it was surpassed by the “Dumpster” post on December 11th. It is a comic nostalgia piece:
 Martindale Hubbell: Another
Legal Icon Bites the Dust. But It Was Once Worth Its Weight in Gold (and Held
for Ransom)  January 9th.
Here are the remaining 8 most popular Dewey B Strategic posts of
2014 in chronological order: 
ALM Law Firm Support Staffing Report:
Optimizing Staff Ratios & Increased Demand for Analytical Skills .  March
25th 
Law Librarians in the Digital Age: New
Identities Beyond the Bookshelves. April 13th 
“Putting
A Value On Priceless”: New Study Reports that Librarians Deliver ROI of
$5.43 Per Dollar Invested . April 16th 
Black’s Law
Dictionary 10th Edition: Making Everything Old New Again. Why Legal
Dictionaries Still Matter. May 9th 
American Lawyer Media Sold: What Does
This Mean for the Journalism of Law and Personality? June 5th.
 
ALM Legal Intelligence 2014 Law
Librarian Survey Trends: Embedding, CI, KM, Sole Providers .July
29th  
 Law Firm Space Planning as a Knowledge
Management Strategy. July 31st
Ravel Law:Legal Research Radically
Reimagined. August 27th

2014 was marked by an unusual level of churn in the leadership of legal information companies. Here is a rundown of notable changes:

Bloomberg
BNA Legal Division.The most interesting  executive change was Bloomberg’s selection of “legal rebel” David Perla as President of Bloomberg BNA Legal. There
have been a succession of short term leaders at Bloomberg Law since it’s launch
in 2011. David
Perla joined the Bloomberg BNA Legal Division in July. Perla
was a co-founder of Pangea3 which was purchased by Bloomberg BNA competitor Thomson Reuters.

Bloomberg LP 
the parent company of Bloomberg BNA is also undergoing a leadership
change.  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is returning to
his former leadership role effective January 1st 2015 according to a press release.  Dan Doctoroff will be stepping down from his role as CEO. Doctoroff joined Bloomberg as President in 2008 and became CEO in 2011. Doctoroff oversaw the evolution of Bloomberg Law into a serious competitor to Lexis and Westlaw. He also engineered the acquisition of legal publisher Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) which demonstrated Bloomberg Law’s innovative “no  exclusions” policy. Most legal publishers charge additional fees for access to  newly acquired new content.  Examples of this  excluded content approach are Thomson Reuters’ acquisition of GSI and Practical Law and LexisNexis’ acquisition of Knowledge Mosaic and Law360.
Intelligize –
In  March 2014  Intelligize founder Gurinder
Sangha  left the company and was replaced by Todd Hicks.Phil
Brown was named Chief Strategy Officer.  Hicks joined Intelligize in August 2010 as
Vice President of Sales & Marketing to develop the company’s go-to-market
strategy and to accelerate its revenue growth. Phil Brown has worked with
Intelligize since 2010 as a strategic adviser. Brown is well known to the legal
information community as former CEO and co-Founder of Global Securities
Information(GSI) which was purchased by Thomson Reuters in 2005.

LexisNexis  Robert Romeo, CEO of LexisNexis North American
Research and Litigation Solutions since 2011 resigned on June 30th. Sean Fitzpatrick assumed leadership  with the new title of managing director, North American
Research Solutions. Fitzpatrick,
was vice president of small law since joining LexisNexis in 2005.

Thomson Reuters On
January 1st  Susan Taylor Martin became the first female president of
Thomas Reuters Legal. She  replaced Mike
Suchsland. In 2013 Suchland  announced  TR’s strategic pivot from being an
information provide into a solutions provider when he introduced the Concourse and Firm central workflow management products. 
Taylor
Martin  was previously  managing director of Thomson Reuters Legal in
the U.K. and Ireland. According to the companies press release  Martin has been with TR since 1993,
serving in several posts, including ‘head of Corporate Strategy at Reuters and
president of Reuters Media.

 Wolters Kluwer Law and Business had  one of the busiest  booths at the AALL conference in July where it was previewing the next generation Cheetah platform. It was real stunner to many, when CEO
Robert Lemmond departed in September. In addition to steering the development
of Cheetah, Lemmond had created Wolters’ Kluwer’s first  Advisory Council of information
professionals, launched a suite of topical daily newsletters, launched the new
Health Care platform. Gregory Samios
became president and CEO of Wolters Kluwer Law & Business on Sept. 8. He
was previously president of health programs at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions
and held prior positions Reed Elsevier.