WestBlog.net

A blog ends and a blog begins

West — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:30:38 +0000

While this post marks the end of WestBlog.net… it also highlights an exciting beginning.

We’re moving to a new home in the blogosphere, with a new purpose and focus.

Our new blog is Legal Current and you can find it at LegalCurrent.com.

There, you’ll find even more news, information and commentary on the issues, trends, people and products that are shaping the legal landscape.

If you are a current subscriber to WestBlog, through RSS or email, the transition is automatic and you won’t miss a thing. However, please update any bookmarks in your browser.

Thank you for reading WestBlog, and making it an important and valuable communications platform for our businesses.

And thanks for joining us on Legal Current. We look forward to your comments and feedback.

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is donating meals to people in need

West — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:29:04 +0000

During National Volunteer Week, the Community Relations team at Thomson Reuters in Eagan, Minn., put out a challenge to employees. For every employee who attended a volunteer fair to learn about nonprofit agencies and how their needs have changed in the current economy, the company would donate a meal to Second Harvest Heartland.

Needless to say, employees in Eagan rose to the challenge. In all, 940 meals will be donated.

“Not only is there an increased need with individuals suffering these tough economic times, but nonprofit agencies – and food shelves in particular – have seen an incredible increase in demand as more people need help and fewer are able to donate,” said Martha Field, manager, Community Relations.

Posted by Nicole Hansen, communications coordinator, Thomson Reuters

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A project that shows innovation in action

West — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:54:53 +0000

Peter Jackson, chief scientist and vice president, Thomson Reuters, participated in a panel discussion at the SIAA NetGain Conference in San Francisco.

The topic was innovation and the challenges facing information companies in the digital age and amid the rise of social media.

Jackson, who is on the NetGain Steering Committee, discussed some of what Thomson Reuters has been working on, including the Reuters Insider multimedia project. Jackson’s team is involved in finding new ways to index video online and make it searchable, providing more insight and context to the end-user.

According to Jackson, the project is in beta and close to official release. He says it required new ways of thinking by his teams, and new uses for existing patented technology that’s already fueling many customer applications within the legal business.

In this video interview after the session, Jackson talked about the conference, the innovative work at Thomson Reuters and also provides more specifics on his team’s work on Reuters Insider:

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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Software industry learns to lead

West — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:40:26 +0000

The attendees here at the SIIA NetGain Conference in San Francisco are from a variety of businesses, from startups to major corporations.

They come to SIIA events to learn what their colleagues and competitors are doing to deliver content and information, and gain new insight on the new tools and business practices as Ed Keating, the vice president of the Content Division of the SIIA, explains:

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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Get your head in the clouds

West — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:38:12 +0000

Cloud computing is a concept and a reality embraced by many businesses dealing with data. The idea that digital information lives “in the clouds” means many businesses can cut their operating costs, no matter what industry they are in.

In a panel discussion about cloud computing here at the SIIA NetGain Conference, Larry Schwartz explained how his company, Newstex, relies on Amazon to be the cloud for video hosting among other services.

Schwartz, who is on the Steering Committee for the NetGain Conference, has some advice for businesses thinking about getting on a cloud in this video interview, and further explains how his company is doing it:

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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Judy Estrin on innovation

West — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:10:09 +0000

Judy Estrin is a serial entrepreneur, a Disney and Fedex board member, an ex-CTO of Cisco, and the author of Closing the Innovation Gap. I read this recently, and was then fortunate enough to hear her give a keynote at SIIA NetGain 2009 in San Francisco. The talk followed the contents and spirit of the book fairly closely.

The “gap” of her title derives from the fact that we are today living off the fat of the 1950s and 60s, when government and commercial spending on genuine R&D was way higher than it is today. She argues that we have an “innovation deficit”, whereby current gains are really incremental and based on past achievements. Meanwhile, management philosophies such as “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” have hurt our ability to fund exploratory work that does not meet immediate business goals.

Her concept of “sustainable innovation” goes beyond any single idea to encompass an environment, or ecosystem, that supports novel approaches to problems. “Innovation doesn’t just happen,” says Estrin, “you have to nurture it.” The ecosystem she identifies consists of a nutrient environment of funding, policy, education, culture and leadership that supports the activities of research, development and applications building.

She identifies the following as core values – questioning, risk, openness, patience and trust – and states that these values need to be in balance. For example, too much trust leads to blind faith, while too much risk leads to recklessness, as we have seen with innovations on Wall Street. She also stresses the need to move beyond silos and false dichotomies, e.g., science versus arts, research versus development, and recognize the value of people who have some breadth and function as connectors in organizations.

Estrin distinguishes between three types of innovation: breakthrough (totally new idea, e.g., light bulb), incremental (tuning a new idea to generate a product, e.g., flashlight), and orthogonal (combining existing ideas into something new, e.g., sneakers with lights). She points out that only the second is customer-driven; customers are not going to do real innovation for you. I think this is certainly true of the Internet publishing space.

Speaking for Corporate R&D, I like to think that we practice what I call “serial innovation”, producing a steady stream of incremental and orthogonal improvements that satisfy customers while waiting for the “big bang” of a breakthrough. Genuine breakthroughs are few and far between, and you can’t plan for them. But staying as close as you can to the research literature and being conversant with the latest methods are good ways to improve your chances.

Peter Jackson
Chief Scientist and Vice President
Thomson Reuters

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SIIA NetGain Conference

West — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:43:53 +0000

Greetings from the Software and Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) NetGain Conference at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

I’m attending the conference for two reasons. One, WestBlog is a finalist for an SIIA CODiE Award in the Best Corporate Blog category and Westlaw Business is a finalist in the category of Best Online Business Information Service.

The second reason is to highlight some of the topics up for discussion at the conference for WestBlog, including a panel this morning on innovation featuring Peter Jackson, chief scientist and vice president, Thomson Reuters.

NetGain has several other interesting sessions on tap, and keynotes from author Judith Estrin, Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive, Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine and Kara Swisher of D: All Things Digital.

You can follow updates from NetGain here on WestBlog, and on Twitter with the hashtags #netgain or #SIIA.

By the way, the CODiEs will be handed out tomorrow night. We’ll be sure to let you know if we bring home some hardware.

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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Should Souter’s chair be filled by a judge?

West — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:46:12 +0000

United States Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s decision to retire is not a great shock, but it is a big moment in the new administration.

It is a fairly recent notion that justices are selected from among sitting judges. Justices Harlan, White, Warren, Black and Douglas are among the many justices who were not from judicial ranks.

If a judge is selected, Sonia Sotomayor adds a second woman and a first Hispanic to the Court. She also has the odd honor of having been appointed to one court by George H.W. Bush and to another by Bill Clinton (though there is more to that story).

If any academic, then Elena Kagan or Cass Sunstein would seem logical choices. They both have distinguished records and close relations to President Obama.

But what if it were a politician or practicing lawyer as the president once suggested?

Any ideas?

Denis Hauptly
Vice President, Technology Strategy
Thomson Reuters Global Resources

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Legal analysis of servicer safe harbor

West — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:33:45 +0000

The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act (H.R. 1106) has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and is now under consideration in the U.S. Senate. It is aimed at preventing mortgage foreclosures and enhancing mortgage credit availability.

The bill, and the concept of servicer safe harbor, also is now the subject of a free audio webcast and white paper from securitization litigation expert Talcott J. Franklin, co-author of two noted legal treatises on securitization from West.

In addition to Franklin, the webcast features:

Aline van Duyn, U.S. Markets Editor, Financial Times
Eric J. Brenner, partner, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
Micah S. Green, partner, Patton Boggs LLP, and former President and CEO of The Bond Market Association
Hamish P. M. Hume, partner, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
Katherine M. Porter, associate professor, The University of Iowa College of Law

The free webcast, titled The Next Scandal in the Credit Crisis, is available here.

The free white paper from Franklin, titled Mortgage Servicer Safe Harbor: A Legal and Policy Analysis, is here.

Franklin is the co-author of , Emergency Economic Stabilization Act Handbook and Mortgage and Asset Backed Securities Litigation Handbook, published by West Legalworks.

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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“Love, Law and Litigation”

West — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:58:21 +0000

Playwright Tony Kushner will take part in the next event in the Guthrie Theater’s continuing legal education series with West LegalEdcenter.

Kushner will be a panelist at the CLE titled Love, Law and Litigation: A Dialog of Bias in American Sexual and Gender Identity on June 9 at the Guthrie in Minneapolis. He is best-known for his two-part epic Angels in America, and has won the Pulitzer Prize, an Emmy Award and two Tony Awards.

The event aims to explore polarized social attitudes related to sexual orientation and gender identity and their effect on law throughout the United States, and will feature live stage performances by Guthrie actors, along with discussions of excerpts from Kushner’s plays by a panel of legal professionals.

Attorneys around the world also can access the event online at West LegalEdcenter as a live webcast from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Central on June 9, and later as an on-demand video.

To enroll in either the live event at the Guthrie or the live webcast on June 9, visit West LegalEdcenter.com, search by program name and continue through the checkout process.

The course, which costs $200, provides 2.0 credits toward the Elimination of Bias requirements in Minnesota, California and Oregon. It provides 2.0 or greater CLE credits toward the Ethics requirements of most other jurisdictions. CPD credit has also been applied for in the United Kingdom.

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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City Pages provides legal research history lesson

West — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:50:28 +0000

An article in City Pages traces the history of West and the value and expertise that West and Thomson Reuters provide through their professional legal research and reference products.

Erin Carlyle conducted interviews with several leaders within the legal businesses of Thomson Reuters, including President & CEO Peter Warwick.

City Pages is a weekly newspaper in Minneapolis/St. Paul, covering news and entertainment in the Twin Cities and Minnesota.

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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First iPhone app from Thomson Reuters

West — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:18:23 +0000

Sometimes innovation starts with a trip to a bar.

Literally.

While winding down at the end of a day of recruiting new talent for West at Michigan State University last October, Dan Bennett and Jay Peyer started talking about the kinds of iPhone and iPod touch applications they could create.

Little did they know that conversation would put them on a path to develop the first Thomson Reuters app for the popular Apple mobile devices.

Today their creation, a Black’s Law Dictionary app, is officially for sale on iTunes.

The app features the 8th edition of the relied-upon and respected dictionary, edited by Bryan A. Garner. Black’s is considered by many attorneys, legal professionals and law students to be the most citable and credible legal dictionary. And a mobile version just made sense, to provide easy access to its legal terms and phrases and embedded audio of that information which does not require an Internet connection.

The process to create the Black’s Law Dictionary app allowed Bennett, a senior director in New Product Technology at West, and Peyer, a senior software engineer in Application Technology, to break new ground.

In this video interview, they explain how they made it happen:

The Black’s Law Dictionary app from Thomson Reuters is available for purchase on the App Store in Apple’s iTunes for $49.99.

Even Garner, himself very much a fan of books, is excited to see Black’s Law on the iPhone.

“The idea that you can have a very full, elaborate, complex and richly textured book like Black’s available at your fingertips is fantastic,” Garner says. “I myself am stubbornly in favor of print sources, but I like to watch my daughters use their iPhones. And I know that there’s another generation of people who really prefer the electronic medium at their fingertips.”

While Black’s Law Dictionary is the first iPhone application from Thomson Reuters, there’s more in the queue. We’ll keep you posted as more apps are launched.

More coverage:
ABAJournal.com

Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites

iPhone J.D.

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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Doing deals in China

West — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:12:55 +0000

The practice of law in the People’s Republic of China can be a challenge for any attorney working on behalf of companies doing business with the Chinese.

China, now the world’s third-largest economy and the recipient of more foreign investment each year than any other country, can be a bit intimidating. Its business laws and the practice of deal-making have long been a source of confusion or mystery.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I recently talked with Owen D. Nee Jr., of counsel with Jones Day, for a Westcast podcast (Listen to the audio).

Nee told me the failure of many joint ventures is linked to basic misunderstandings of the deal-making process, which too often occur because the investor or its counsel fail to study the applicable legal ground rules.

Nee wrote the new Shareholder Agreements and Joint Ventures in China from West, and co-authored Mergers and Acquisitions in China with Jingzhou Tao, partner at Jones Day.

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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One year later: Thomson Reuters, Legal

West — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:33:29 +0000

Today we’re marking the anniversary of Thomson’s acquisition of Reuters, and the launch of the Thomson Reuters brand across the company.

In this video, Peter Warwick, president and CEO, Thomson Reuters, Legal and members of his executive team talk about what we’ve achieved in the business in the last year, and what opportunities lie ahead:

Posted by John Shaughnessy, senior director, Corporate Communications, Thomson Reuters

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ABA TECHSHOW delivers value

West — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:45:05 +0000

ABA TECHSHOW, presented by the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section (LPM), just marked its 23rd year. The event in Chicago is billed as “the world’s premier legal technology CLE conference and expo,” with three days of educational sessions in legal technology and networking for legal professionals.

Several of our colleagues within the legal businesses of Thomson Reuters were on hand and we did some video interviews with a few of them on April 3, the last day of the show, to get a sense of what they were hearing from customers.

Sean Carter, field technology manager for West, discusses a presentation he gave on delivering value and using technology wisely to improve efficiency and workflow in this video interview:

We also talked with Jill Dabrowski, a product developer at West, who discussed the importance of understanding chronology and timelines for attorneys – especially litigators.

Knowing when things happened or what’s happening next is important- not only in managing a case, but also versions of documents and overall workflow. Here’s Jill’s interview about West Case Timeline:

And, Donna Weinberg, product specialist at West, told us about LiveNote and Case Notebook and the positive response from attendees about the products. Watch her overview of the features of Case Notebook in this interview:

Posted by Kevin Hunt, senior communications specialist, Thomson Reuters

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