Having that “unsure” feeling of how to get started or how to complete the work can take a while to overcome.

If you are a new associate, you might be working with a partner who will want to know, “What’s a quick answer to this question? What are the key factors?”

Not only do you want to get an answer back to the partner quickly, who in turn is going to respond to the client, but you also want to be make sure you are getting to the answer efficiently and cost-effectively.

Some of you may be in that position now.

Do you ever wish that there was something that could help you feel confident in the tasks that you are assigned?

Something that helps you get up and running and contributing right away?

According to Katy O’Leary, a litigation associate at Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP “WestlawNext…makes it that much easier to be given a research assignment, hop online, get it done, and present it to the partner and be confident that what you’re presenting is accurate. The way it’s set up is essentially the way you’re supposed to do legal research.”

She adds that what “contributes to that feeling is the ability to see all the different resources available – from cases to pleadings, to statutes, to journal articles – right off the bat. You can see what’s there and peruse each of the resources to make sure you haven’t missed anything in your research.”

Watch the video below to hear more about what Katy has to say about WestlawNext and how it has made her more efficient and confident in her legal research.

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.

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.

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.

New developments in legal technology are transforming the way corporate legal departments approach the law and manage their legal operations.

At the same time, outside counsels are using technology to differentiate their legal service. In the process, new technologies are creating opportunities, as well as high expectations, for corporate counsel to drive down legal costs, while simultaneously optimizing resources to drive increased operating efficiencies and potential revenue-enhancing innovation.

To read this article on Legal Research Technology for Corporate Counsel please visit:

http://www.acc.com/legalresources/quickcounsel/Legal-Technology-Drives-Transformation-for-Corporate-Counsel.cfm

 Reprinted with permission from the Association of Corporate Counsel

[August, 11 2011] All Rights Reserved

This article shares tips that in-house and outside counsel can immediately and easily implement to control legal research costs, drive significant productivity, improve internal efficiencies, and connect legal research to value-based billing.

1.    Modern legal research technology enables you to conduct research significantly faster, to increase savings and reduce costs. 

Attorneys who use modern legal research technology are able to be more efficient and productive. The increased efficiency means they bill fewer hours to the client and deliver dramatically better work-product faster and in a cost-effective way. This offers significant savings to the corporate client in the fees billed.  While firms conducting traditional billable-hour work will bill fewer hours, firms seeking to gain market share can differentiate their service to their clients through quality, efficiency and cost-control. In this economic climate, firms will remain profitable. Clients can trust that they are not being billed for inefficient research, and they will increasingly expect firms to use modern legal research technologies to drive value-based billing. Whether a law firm employs modern technology is a consideration when scoring the efficiency/process management of a law firm under the ACC Value Index.

The research quantifying the improved efficiency that technology delivers is compelling. In March of 2010, Thomson Reuters hired the Legal Research Center to define and determine legal research tasks and then assigned these tasks to 100 attorneys. Fifty of the attorneys conducted the research assignments with the previous legal research technology and the other half used modern technology. The results were significant. Attorneys using modern research technology successfully completed assignments 64% faster – almost 3 times faster – than those who used the previous generation of research. Even more compelling is that the fifty attorneys who used the previous generation of research were very familiar with it, but the fifty attorneys who used the modern research technology were unfamiliar with this research service and received only one hour of training prior to using it. In practice, these efficiencies and improved process management would benefit the client with lower bills, better research results and enhanced value.

In the year since its launch, more than 22,000 law firms; corporate law departments; and law departments in federal, state and local government organizations have upgraded to WestlawNext, including 37% of Am Law 100 law firms and 40% of the Fortune 100, as a way to reduce legal costs. Both outside and in-house counsels recognize the value and impact that WestlawNext has on the business of law.

Read more here on Top Ten Tips for Leveraging Cutting-Edge Legal Research Technology to Control Legal Costs and Drive Client Value written by Lydia Flocchini, Director, WestlawNext

Reprinted with permission from the Association of Corporate Counsel

[June 20, 2011] All Rights Reserved

www.acc.com

If instead you want to find cases with your terms in the Key Number hierarchy, you can limit to the TO field.

Example:
SY,DI(“JOINT TENANCY”) retrieves 7,302 documents in ALLCASES

SY,HE(“JOINT TENANCY”) retrieves 4,734 documents in ALLCASES

TO(“JOINT TENANCY”) retrieves 5,079 documents in ALLCASES

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

(TE,HE((#TO +1 (MAINTAIN +3 CAUSE-OF-ACTION)) (#TO +4 PROVE BURDEN PREVAIL RECOVER ESTABLISH) +5 [insert CAUSE OF ACTION]+10 MUST +2 PROVE SHOW)) (TO([insert CAUSE OF
ACTION]) /P HE((ELEMENTS +1 #OF #FOR) MUST-SHOW MUST-PROVE))

An additional resource that may prove helpful is jury instructions which typically have annotations which indicate the decisions from which the elements of a cause of action were obtained.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

To access legislative history materials on WestlawNext, do one of the following: 

• At the WestlawNext home page, click Statutes and Court Rules in the All Content tab.  The Statutes and Court Rules page is displayed. Click Legislative History under Tools & Resources. Links to category pages are displayed for all federal and state legislative history materials currently available. Click the link to the appropriate category page, then browse the result or type a search in the text box and click Search.

• When viewing a statutory section for which you need legislative history materials, click the History tab. Then click one of the options available on the menu, e.g., Reports and Related Materials.