Social & Savvy - FreePint for Legal Professionals
Jinfo Blog

By Clare Brown

Abstract

Clare Brown examines how FreePint can help legal information professionals. She highlights articles evaluating Nexis, a business and news product, as well as those on social enterprise within and outside the organisation. Most importantly she includes articles about how legal information centres can prove their worth to management. 

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Information provision is central to the legal organisation and we strive to get the right information to the right person at the right time.

We need communication methods that are fit for purpose, so interaction within and outside the organisation should be reviewed regularly.

A higher profile Information Service ensures we are observed by everyone (trainees, associates, senior management). It's not just communication, content is important too.

Information providers make regular improvements to services so we need to reevaluate our search methods. FreePint can help legal information professionals face these challenges and ensure our contributions are heard and valued.

Recent FreePint articles and reports of interest to those working in the legal sector:

Articles & Reports:

• Tracking Breaking News for Competitive Intelligence
• Product Review of Nexis
• Source Update for Nexis
• FreePint Report: The Social Enterprise
• What's the Problem with Enterprise Social?
• Getting the Most Out Of Expert Directories & Staff Profiles
• Social Media Habits We Should ALL Develop in 2014
• Securing Senior Management Buy-In
• The Importance of Value

Not Just Legal

Legal professionals need access to current and archived news sources. Although free services like Google News are available, as mentioned in Tracking Breaking News for Competitive Intelligence, legal information centres will take a subscription news database.

Often they are related to the "big two" legal information providers, Lexis and Westlaw. Lexis's product Nexis, reviewed by Anne Lonergan, explains the service. Nexis is a comprehensive global business information research tool, providing access to thousands of sources.

Although the legal researcher can use the sophisticated search options, lawyers are easily able to create and save effective searches without assistance. Sources are constantly being added to and removed from Nexis so Anne Jordan's regular source updates are "must reads" for Nexis subscribers.

Social Information

The best place to get an entire overview of social information is the FreePint Report: The Social Enterprise. However, if your organisation still needs convincing, Richard Hare's article What's the Problem with Enterprise Social? addresses the downsides.

As he says, "simply rolling out enterprise social networking tools, blogs and wikis does not immediately result in a raft of intractable problems suddenly being solved". The information professional has to convince management that a fundamental organisational shift is needed; no easy task.

Starting small with Getting the Most Out Of Expert Directories & Staff Profiles could convince management about new ways of sharing information. Lawyers asking questions like "Who can speak X language?" or "Who dealt with Y barrister" is common, so bringing together readily available information on staff or experts is an easy win.

Combining this with workshops on how LinkedIn highlights external expertise, using James Mullan's "good social media habits", and you have demonstrated that internal and external social action offers benefits. You are on the path to being a Social Enterprise.

Communicating Value

Value cannot be stressed enough; without proving your worth, the legal information professional is redundant. Securing Senior Management Buy-In is an excellent piece offering practical advice on making your ideas count. It states "communicate your value by getting involved in meetings... blog about what you do" and I couldn't agree more.

The final word on value is from Michael Gruenberg, author of "Buying and Selling Information".

Although this article suggests to me that the book is aimed at sales people, he makes some valid points about building relationships and quality of product. I think information professionals could learn much from the sales techniques he outlines. 

Editor's Note

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