Now that you are an attorney, you know that forms are one of those necessary evils about the practice of law. Every legal matter involves forms; many as a matter of fact. Unfortunately they are time consuming, require entering the same data repeatedly, and can just be a nuisance. Sometimes it seems like you spend more time completing forms than actually lawyering.

What if you were able to alleviate some of that hassle with the use of a new tool available on WestlawNext? That’s right. Not only does WestlawNext drive efficiency and streamline your efforts with legal research, now it also helps you become more efficient with your document assembly needs. Westlaw Form Builder is the newest tool available on WestlawNext, and turns your forms work from drudgery to simplicity. It employs state-of-the-art, easy-to-use technology to quickly find and build the complete, correct documents you need to serve clients cost-effectively.

With Westlaw Form Builder, you’re freed from paper and CD forms, making it easy to complete or revise documents while you’re on the move, anywhere you have an Internet connection. In addition, you’re able to:

• Access to more than 20,000 continuously updated forms from well-known and respected sources
• Store client data for reuse on additional forms, saving time and reducing the potential for errors
• Link seamlessly to the full text of a cited statute, case, or other authority on WestlawNext − at no additional charge
• Find forms and guidance, so you can branch out from your usual practice areas into related matters, instead of referring clients to other lawyers

We offer you a two-week free Westlaw Form Builder trial for small law firms, including a WestlawNext free trial so you can experience the integrated linking between Form Builder and legal research.  Click here to request a trial, with offer code “FORMS”.

It’s time to let technology help you with another aspect of your legal practice. With several plans starting at under $100, Westlaw Form Builder makes it easy to embrace the future of legal forms.

One of the primary justifications I used in purchasing my iPad was that it would be a great boon to me as an attorney.

However, I’ve struggled with the question of how it benefits me in that capacity – partly because I’m often asked it by others.

In fact, I’ve struggled with it so much that I’ve been actively trying to integrate it into my practice.

Although I can’t complain about the results – more organized contacts and calendars, better tabs on deadlines, quick access to various court documents scanned as PDFs, etc – it still feels like there should be something more I could leverage out of the iPad.

Specifically, with the great prevalence of eReaders on mobile platforms, I felt that there should be one especially for law books.

Apparently, Thomson Reuters felt the same way, since its new ProView app is just that: an eReader for Thomson Reuters law books.

I’ve been waiting for an app like this for one big reason.

When going to court, it’s very important to have statutes and other law right in front of you.

Unfortunately, that usually means either having to lug a sizeable book around with you and flip through until you find what you’re looking for, or trying to collect authorities that you anticipate you’ll need beforehand, which is added work and you always end up forgetting something important.

ProView combines the best aspects of those two practices and makes it all electronic.

First, it contains the entire book you need, so don’t have to worry about forgetting something.

Second, ProView lets you place bookmarks and highlight text within the eBook itself, and with the app’s ability to immediately view all and jump to any of your bookmarks and highlights instantly, you can find the information you want quickly.

The annotations function works in the same way: you can add notes to highlighted text, and immediately jump to it from a pop-up menu.

In addition, in case you need to look something up that you didn’t mark out beforehand, there are easily-accessible search and table of contents functions.

Yes, nearly all eReaders have these, but it’s especially useful in situations where you need to look up a statute in a hurry.
Actually, not only can you view your eBooks on the ProView website, but all of your bookmarks, highlights, and annotations automatically share over between the website and the app.

On the other hand, a feature ProView has that many eReaders don’t is the ability to view your eBooks on the web.

Okay, so does it have any problems?

Really, the only thing that disappoints me about the app is a result of its newness: its eBook selection is somewhat limited.

There are 23 eBooks currently available, with most of them being about various court rules and procedure for a handful of jurisdictions (if you practice in Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, or Texas, I envy you).

The other eBooks are either subject matter specific (i.e. Adventures in Electronic Discovery) or about the legal profession/law practice guides (i.e. social.lawyers: Transforming Business Development), which, while still very practical, are a bit more enjoyable to read than rulebooks.

I should also mention the availability of two book samples in case you’re like me and don’t want to pay for the car before you test drive it (but you really should at least test drive this thing).

Lastly, the fact that Thomson Reuters actually put the resources into developing this app means that we’re going to be seeing a lot more Thomson Reuters Westlaw publications in electronic format going forward, which is definitely a good thing.

As enthusiastic as I am about ProView right now, I’m going to be even more so when I can get my hands on statute, court rules, and practice guide eBooks for my jurisdiction.

Last week, Westlaw Portfolio was released for the Apple iPad.

Unlike many of Thomson Reuters’s other apps, the app’s title isn’t self-explanatory on the app’s function and purpose.

Thus, having known nothing about the app prior to downloading it, I had no idea what I was getting into.

Luckily, it’s free and relatively small, so there was minimal risk in trying out the app.

Anyhow, Thomson Reuters Westlaw Portfolio is essentially a magazine app for the Westlaw Portfolio publication.

The publication, also viewable through your web browser (although the interface isn’t quite as user-friendly), is probably best described as a catalog for Thomson Reuters Westlaw publications.

“Catalog” is likely too narrow a term for the app, though, since it’s anything but a simple listing of Thomson Reuters Westlaw products.

Instead, there’s a great deal of free content included in the app, such as articles, author interviews, and book excerpts.

The book excerpts are particularly helpful to me, since, when ordering books online, I always wonder about the layout and content of a book because I can’t see it in person first.

The excerpts solves that for me, since I can see how the content in a book is arranged (i.e. format, presentation, table of contents, etc), and what content is in the book.

In addition, the topics covered in Thomson Reuters Westlaw Portfolio are either fast-moving or particularly popular areas of law, or both.

For example, the first topic of the first issue is “Social Media,” which is both a popular and fast-moving area of the law.

In that section, the first entry is the article “Oversharing:  Help your clients understand it – and avoid it”

The article itself is three pages long, and includes an audio excerpt on social media’s impact on the law from author John Browning, and is actually a pretty helpful and inclusive overview on the subject.

After the article comes the actual “catalog” part listing several legal books related to social media, but it provides more than just the standard book summaries and customer reviews.

There are also audio clips from authors of two of the books, and four-page excerpts from three of the books.

The free content isn’t limited to just Westlaw books, though: the next section is a free article from Westlaw Journal Class Action on the recent Wal-Mart v. Dukes Supreme Court decision.

If neither of these topics interests you, there are plenty more, all of which include excerpts and author interviews: litigation, criminal law, family law, estate planning, bankruptcy, and immigration.

You may be wondering how many of the listed topics fit into the publication’s selection of popular and fast-moving topics.

Within the larger legal topics are topics with such qualities.

For instance, although family law itself isn’t particularly popular or fast-moving, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues within family law are.

As such, the family law section includes content on such issues, in addition to new materials on family law staples such as custody and support.

Likewise, immigration law isn’t per se a hot legal topic, but with the recent upheavals in many Arab countries, asylum law is, and the topic is included in the immigration law section.

Overall, this is actually a pretty neat app.

Yes, a large part of it is a catalog for Thomson Reuters Westlaw products.

However, the app is free, and it does provide significant content for free.

If you have purchased or plan on purchasing Westlaw books, this app is perfect.

Even if you don’t plan on buying, the app provides excellent content for only the negligible cost of the space it consumes on your iPad.

Either way, just about any legal practitioner can get use from Westlaw Portfolio.

If you’re anything like me, you don’t want to be caught off guard when someone uses a word you aren’t familiar with.

This becomes even more important in legal settings, where it’s almost (and sometimes literally is) like learning a new language.

The first solution that may come to mind is, of course, Black’s Law Dictionary.

Again, though, if you’re like me, you don’t like lugging around a large dictionary nor flipping through it to look up a word on the fly.

Enter: the Black’s Law Dictionary App.

The app has actually been around on Apple’s App Store for several years now, but it was just released for the Android platform.

Black’s digitalization brings the expected technological features – ease-of-use, an intuitive search function, the ability to adjust font sizes, etc.

Although this alone would be enough for me to pick the app over the print version (if I had to choose) since my bias is usually toward the technological, the Black’s app has several additional advantages over the print version.

For one, it provides audio pronunciations for words that are less common or in another language.

For example, it offers three different pronunciations of the word “certiorari” (probably one of the more commonly mispronounced legal terms).

Android version

While there are already written pronunciation guides, the feature does add an extra level of certainty to pronunciations, which is indispensible to attorneys and other legal professionals.

In fact, an incorrect pronunciation could be disastrous in some circumstances (imagine having the court reporter interrupt you to ask for clarification on the word you just mispronounced).

Plus, it’s kind of fun to hear the app say “lucre nuptialia” and “restitution estracti ab ecclesia.”

Despite how much I’ve spent talking about it, though, the audio pronunciation isn’t the most significant feature of the app.

One deceptively minor trait is the provision of page numbers that correspond to an entry’s location in the print version of Black’s, which is important for, among other reasons, citation purposes.

In addition, the app addresses a major aspect in both the print and Westlaw versions of Black’s that always got on my nerves.

Have you ever looked up a term only to have the dictionary tell you to see another, broader entry that your searched term is organized under (for instance, you want to look up “mail fraud” but the entry only says “See FRAUD”)?

I realize that there are organizational reasons for arranging entries in this manner, but it remains cumbersome nonetheless.

The app, as mentioned earlier, fixes this by listing the reference to the broader term along with the specific definition side-by-side, so no cross-referencing is needed.

Also found in the app are links to statutes and KeyCites in Westlaw (obviously something absent from the print version), making for an excellent springboard into legal research.

These links are, however, found in the Black’s on Westlaw, which may raise the question of whether the app’s version offers any advantages over Westlaw’s.

To me, though, there’s no question.

One of the app’s biggest advantages is its being a self-contained database unreliant on an Internet connection.

Apple iPad version

Besides bringing increased mobility, this also allows the app to be much faster, both in searching for and retrieving an entry.

The app also has links to dictionary entries for other terms within a given entry’s definition, eliminating the need to copy and paste the term into a new search.

Also reducing search time is the bookmarks function, which lets you add individual entries to an easily-accessible list of favorite entries.

Taken together, all of these features make the app far and away the superior medium for using Black’s Law Dictionary.

In fact, given what Black’s is meant to be – a quick reference on a wide range of legal topics – the app would seem to be the work’s perfect incarnation.

I would recommend it not only to those who are already regular users of Black’s, but also to any legal professional except those who spend all of their time behind a desk.

While you may think, as I did, that Black’s isn’t that pertinent to your routines, you’ll find that your practices and processes becomes faster and easier once you start using it.

What is it?

A dynamic analytics engine that provides actionable information to help you run your firm efficiently.

It enhances or replaces current practices such as print surveys and informal networks for understanding rates and market conditions.

Matter Benchmark Reports uses actual law firm timekeeper billing invoices for analysis and trending.

Far superior to print surveys or an informal network with peers (or no information or system at all), Matter Benchmark Reports is a dynamic engine with 456 million data points (from 15,000 law firm offices in 180 metro areas) that provide the up-to-date, actionable information you need.

Matter Benchmark Reports leverages the data from Serengeti® Law, the developer of the No. 1-rated e-billing and matter management system and the largest connected network of firms and clients.

Using WestlawNext’s interface, this data is compiled in colorful charts and graphs.

The reports are set out in the following sections:

• Law Firm Billing Report – Matter overview by law firm size and location of billing office.
• Corporate Representation Report – Matter overview by company size and industry
• Timekeeper Billing Rates Report – Rates by timekeeper type and law firm size
• Total Invoice Approval Report – Average invoice (fees and expense) breakdowns and total amounts billed by firm size

And the reports have the following filters:

• Matter type and area of law
• Jurisdiction for litigation matters
• Company size and industry
• Firm size and location
• Date

Okay, but what does this all mean to me and my law firm?

Estimating Costs

• Estimate what it will cost to represent a client in a new matter
• Give quick responses to client questions about cost estimates

Evaluating Performance

• Compare matter costs with peer firms and industry benchmarks
• Understand how specific practice areas or offices compare to similarly situated firms

Billing

• Present concrete information about prevailing rates when reviewing bills with clients
• Be better prepared to address potential client questions

Identifying Opportunities for New Business

• Determine geographic areas and practice areas best suited for growth
• Identify how best to allocate limited resources

Developing Flat Fees/Blended Rates

• Apply guidelines to develop responses to requests for flat fee proposals and other alternative fee arrangements

Detailed Budgeting

• Leverage additional data points when preparing budgets for clients
• Understand how budgets may need to change as circumstances change

Matter Review/Year-End Review

• View similar matters at conclusion or all matters at year-end

To order or for more information, contact your West Representative at 1-800-220-9378.

The new Westlaw Gulf service offers a full suite of legal research tools and an unrivaled database of legislation and cases for lawyers operating across the Gulf region.

Westlaw Gulf provides lawyers with expertly written English translations of over 8,000 of the most commercially relevant and widely used laws from major Gulf States, including Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

The service includes a searchable database of 23,000 laws from across the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 3,000 laws from Qatar, providing lawyers with access to thousands of translated principles of cases from key courts, reducing valuable time spent on lengthy legal research.

In addition, Westlaw Gulf provides access to important legal principles from courts such as Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts, Dubai Court of Cassation, Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation, and Union Supreme Court (Federal).

A unique feature of the Westlaw Gulf service is the assistance offered to users who have translation and research requests.

In the event a user cannot find the translation of the law they require, the Westlaw Gulf team will work to provide an accurate translation within 72 hours of the initial request. If the user has subject-specific questions or needs to know about regional developments, the Westlaw Gulf team will also be on hand to provide assistance.

Additional features of the service include:

• Alerts updating users of the latest legal developments across the Middle East
• Daily reports on key legal stories in the local press and breaking news alerts
• Custom free-text and category searching, which enables users to search within legislation, cases, citations, journals, books and news sources
• Translations of legislation on request, free of charge
• Learn more

Helen Owers, chief development officer, Strategic Markets for Thomson Reuters, said:

“Westlaw Gulf will radically improve the way that lawyers work in the Gulf by offering the most comprehensive source of laws covering the region. Westlaw Gulf will increase the speed at which a lawyer can work and will be a real boost to the accuracy and depth of information that lawyers can access on Gulf law.” She noted that most beta users have been converted to customers. “A number of law firms have already subscribed to this service, including four out of the five magic circle law firms,” she added.

Jim Smith, chief operating officer for Thomson Reuters said

“During the past several years, Thomson Reuters has made significant investments in products for professionals in the Gulf region, I am especially excited about Westlaw Gulf, which I believe will not only bring transformational change to legal research and the practice of law in the Middle East, but also enable attorneys and other legal professionals to experience the law like never before.”

Westlaw Gulf will be featured at the International Bar Association annual meeting in Dubai, Oct. 30-Nov. 4.

New York Law Journal

Serengeti Tracker was selected for best matter management system, recognizing the efficiencies found through electronic billing and auditing, budget management, performance tracking, configurable reports and document management.

WestlawNext was accorded the honor of “best online research vendor”, acknowledging that innovations and advancements in WestlawNext enable legal organizations to deliver information and legal services more efficiently, control legal costs, and differentiate client value and service.

 Pangea3 was awarded best legal process outsourcing provider, recognizing its high quality legal solutions that enable corporate legal departments to expand their capacity, improve efficiency and innovate while saving money.

Westlaw Litigator was recognized as best small firm/solo research vendor.

This is the second annual Reader Rankings survey, which is designed to let the New York legal community tell New York Law Journal which vendors are the best at what they do. 

Over 4,200 readers cast votes for their favorite vendors in 51 categories encompassing the areas of Technology, Research, Accounting, Insurance, Financial Services, Litigation Support, Education and Recruiting/Staffing.

A recent HBR Law Department Survey found that, for the first time in memory, law departments in 2009 reduced their total spending for outside counsel by 5 percent in the United States and 6 percent worldwide.

This cutback reflected an overall reduction in total legal spending of respondent companies by 1 percent in the U.S. – a dramatic about-face considering total legal spending by law departments grew by an average of 7 percent a year in each of the preceding nine years.

Whether it is pressure from the clients they serve, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s (ACC) Value Challenge, or making Alternative Fee Arrangements work, traditional law firm business methodologies are changing and clients are demanding increased value in legal services at lower costs.

General Counsel (GC) are employing a variety of strategies to control legal spend, including bringing more work in-house, pushing back on billing rates, and challenging outside counsel to consider alternative billing models.

In fact, 69 percent of U.S. law departments reported keeping more work in-house during 2009, and 71 percent expected to move more work in-house in 2010.

All of these expense management initiatives are designed to offer greater savings to the corporation and to their clients.

Beyond cost, clients are also looking for the quality and value they receive in legal services…Download full FREE REPORT

Co-authored by Amy Larson, Marketing Manager for WestlawNext , and Lydia Flocchini, Director of Marketing for WestlawNext.

Here’s an enhancement that can potentially save a litigation practitioner time, money, and frustration.

Before, you could view exhibits for a particular filing by clicking the exhibit number hyperlink (where available) from the docket document.  You could only retrieve one exhibit at a time.

The image view was not saved in your WestlawNext history, nor were subsequent views free of charge.

Now, the Batch PDF Downloads page will contain individual check marks for each available exhibit so you can download precisely the exhibits you want—any or all of them, simultaneously—right from the Batch PDF Downloads page.

In addition, downloaded exhibits are linked to the Dockets Requests page, where they can be accessed free of charge for 21 days (the user is charged only for the initial download).

To view the Dockets Requests page, click the Docket Requests icon in the lower right corner of any WestlawNext page (visible once PDFs or updates are stored in the delivery queue) or Docket Requests under Tools & Resources on any Dockets category page.

Often requested by users, this feature is available only on WestlawNext—not Westlaw (westlaw.com).

Our response: As of August 1, more than 400,000 headnotes have been reclassified in the West Key Number System, particularly within Criminal Law (topic 110) and Arrest (topic 35).

Changes are especially significant in the following areas:

• Evidence of other crimes or misconduct: The “other crimes, wrongs, or acts” rule, in its entirety, has been the subject of more appeals than any other evidence rule. David P. Leonard, Character and Motive in Evidence Law, 34 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 439, 441 (2001).  Accordingly, there are now more Key Numbers covering the purposes for which evidence of other crimes or misconduct is admissible (e.g., the single Key Number for the admissibility of other crimes or prior bad acts evidence to prove motive has been expanded to 26, organized by the offense being prosecuted), more Key Numbers covering the use of such evidence to prove knowledge and identity, and newly created Key Numbers for the frequently-litigated issues of gang membership and juvenile misconduct evidence.

• Confessions, statements, and admissions:  Three former sections for confessions, statements, and admissions have been consolidated into a single section, so that similar concepts governing all three types of evidence are in the same place.  For example, headnotes pertaining to whether a defendant is “in custody” for the purpose of Miranda warnings are now classified under a single Key Number.

• Wrongfully obtained evidence: There are more Key Numbers to cover frequently litigated issues, such as the inevitable discovery and good faith exceptions to the exclusionary rule.  Key numbers have also been added for exclusionary rule issues not involving searches and arrests, such as violations of privileges and attorney disciplinary rules.

For all three areas, West attorney-editors have created new Key Numbers covering specific procedural issues in the admission of such evidence, such as motions, hearings, notice, and burden of proof.

In addition, there have been many smaller changes in other topics, such as those under Schools and States relating to notice, demand, and presentation of claims.