No lazy summer days for legal info providers
Jinfo Blog

By Tim Buckley Owen

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Even through the sleepy month of August, legal, tax and regulatory information rivals Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis continue to innovate furiously. The arrival of the potentially disruptive Bloomberg on the scene may be one factor – but another one is likely to be the increasing availability of free legal stuff from government. Most recently, Thomson Reuters launched its iPad app for its search-friendly WestlawNext service (http://digbig.com/5bcghy or see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27853 for background).

Just days before, it had announced the 2.0 version of its West Case Notebook (a case analysis and management software package – http://digbig.com/5bcgja) and launched Checkpoint Learning, which centralises learning, courseware, guidance, record-keeping and compliance requirements for tax and accounting practitioners onto a single online platform (http://digbig.com/5bcgjb).

Meanwhile LexisNexis announced InterAction 6.0 for Microsoft Outlook – its second major collaboration with Microsoft this year, integrating functions from its established customer relationship management application directly within Outlook (http://digbig.com/5bcgjc or see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27904 for earlier background). Immediately before came a strategic partnership with software developer Business Integrity to incorporate its ContractExpress document assembly solution within LexisNexis products, beginning with an automated precedents capability for Lexis PSL (http://digbig.com/5bcgjd or see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e17797 for background on Lexis PSL) – plus the launch of LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer, offering attorneys insights into the outcome of cases similar to their own (http://digbig.com/5bcgje).

August also saw Thomson Reuters’ Elite professional practice management system integrated with KleinMundo’s Datalenz document creation and conversion software (http://digbig.com/5bcgjf) – plus its launch of a United Kingdom version of FindLaw FirmSites, providing customised websites for solicitors and law firms (http://digbig.com/5bcgjg or see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e29972 for background on FindLaw).

Finally LexisNexis announced that it had reached agreement with SRA International to incorporate its NetOwl text analytics solution, enhancing organisations’ ability to find and analyse information across large enterprise databases (http://digbig.com/5bcgjj).

These two heavyweights have a long history of going head-to-head on innovations – but their struggle is given added urgency by the recent pre-launch of Bloomberg Government. First mooted last spring (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e28192 for background), BGov.com should allow professionals to understand the business implications of government actions in real time, based on a combination of data analysis, Bloomberg’s own reporting and aggregated global news (http://digbig.com/5bcgjk).

But what must really have impelled this movement into workflow solutions and ancillary services is the growing availability of the core documentation – statute, case law and more – courtesy of the taxpayer. The United Kingdom has just seen the launch online of all legislation back to 1267 (http://digbig.com/5bcgjm), and not-for-profit organisation Public Resource is pressing for a free repository of all United States primary legal materials (http://digbig.com/5bcgjn).

Both the Obama and Cameron administrations are committed to greater transparency in government. Information providers – and intermediaries – will need to continue to box clever if they’re to keep their edge.

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