In the latest roundup: Trends: convergence questioned + “procuring” legal services; Blawgs: a taxonomy + a UK update; Search: Oracle search + tagging; Jurisprudence: two new articles.
Legal Market Trends
– Law Departments – Challenges to Convergence (Legal Times, March 20, 2006). Law department consultant Rees Morrison questions the basis and value of “convergence” (law departments consolidating work among outside counsel, reducing the total number of firms representing the corporation).
– Buyer’s market? (Legal Week, UK): “Procurement professionals are having an increasing influence on the selection processes of major corporates. So how can law firms respond to the challenges involved?” Any move to rationalize the legal market is likely to increase the role and value of technology in law practice. (Spotted at Adam Smith, Esq.)
Blawgs
–A Taxonomy of Legal Blogs. A 3L project, this looks like a nice taxonomy of blawgs, including law firms (large and small) with blogs.
–Finally The Times notices by Simon Chester on slaw.ca blog comments on a Times (of London) article on legal blogging in the UK.
Search Technology
–Oracle Shakes Up Enterprise Search (eWeek, March 20, 2006): “On March 1, Oracle unveiled a secure enterprise search engine that reaches into every nook and cranny but minds its p’s and q’s around business rules and sensitive data.” This has the potential to shake-up the search market but it will be interesting to see if Oracle gets more traction this time round than with its ConText search product of a few years ago.
–To Tag or Not to Tag. From Portals and KM blog, an interesting discussion of the value of tagging and taxonomies.
Jurisprudence
My friend, former colleague, and mentor, David Johnson, has written a visionary article, The Life of the Law Online that likens law to a living organism and explores the implications for how law develops, especially laws concerning Internet usage. Read this with a companion piece by Johnson and my friend and former colleague David Post, The Great Debate – Law in the Virtual World. Both Davids are long-standing visionaries on the topic of law and cyberspace.