Creating the Successful Law Firm Intranet Session

Creating the Successful Law Firm Intranet
(A five-part webinar series hosted by Nina Platt Consulting, Inc.)

WEBINAR 1: Why is research critical to intranet success?
Wednesday, May 28 12-1:00 p.m. CDT

Deadline to Register: May 23, 2008
REGISTER TODAY!
Space is limited.

FEE: $30.00 Save 15% when 5 or more attendees register from the same firm.
REGISTRATION: Registration is by credit card only.

What is a successful law firm intranet? An intranet should be a business productivity tool. An intranet's success is measured by the increased efficiency of the lawyers and staff who use it. Building a successful intranet involves having a good strategy, a realistic plan and involving users in every step of the process. A successful intranet begins with effectively following a five-step process: Research, Design, Develop, Rollout and Measure.

Nina Platt Consulting, Inc. is hosting a five-part webinar series designed to teach you the steps to creating a successful intranet.

MODERATOR:
Nina Platt, Principle Consultant, Nina Platt Consulting, Inc. Owner and principal consultant, Nina Platt, is a former law librarian and AmLaw 100 firm library director who has worked with knowledge management (KM) in law firms since 1986. She has written and delivered numerous articles, presentations and papers on both KM and intranet-related subjects.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Witt, Project Analyst, Nina Platt Consulting, Inc.Amy has over 8 years of experience planning and managing intranet projects and teams. Previously to joining NPCI, Amy was Intranet Manager in an AmLaw 100 firm.

Laurie Southerton, Certified Usability Analyst, Southerton Consulting & Art, LLC
Laurie is a Certified Usability Analyst and a Certified Business Analyst providing clients exceptional results with intranet planning and design since 1994. Her company specializes in User-Centered Design, Marketing, Communications and Training.

Law Digest Free on Martindale.com

http://www.martindale.com/go/law_digest_free_on_martindale.html
Now Available! The Law Digest Free on martindale.com®
Registered users of martindale.com® now have free and unlimited access to the renowned Martindale-Hubbell® Law Digest via the Search Legal Topics section of the website. The Law Digest provides summaries of a vast body of statutory law, compiled and updated each year by prominent law firms, legal scholars and other experts in each jurisdiction. Now, these highly sought after individual 2007 edition Law Digests can be accessed online either using keyword or jurisdictional queries. Simply go to the Search Legal Topics Advanced Search.
About the Law DigestThe Law Digest is an excellent place for anyone to begin legal research. All information is classified under more than 100 easy-to-use topics and 700 subheadings — such as Statute of Frauds, Creditors' Suits, Estates and Deeds of Trust — to lead you quickly to the information you need. Included are:
Up-to-date digests of the laws of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
English-language summaries of the laws of 80 countries, including a separate digest setting forth European Union Law, in deference to its significance to the laws of many European countries.
The complete texts of over 60 Uniform and Model Acts and International Conventions.
Useful information on the United States Federal, Copyright, Patent, and Trademark Laws.
The Martindale-Hubbell® Law Digest is an invaluable resource for corporate counsel, law firms, public and government officials, business professionals and librarians — anyone needing to know about the laws of a particular state or country. Begin searching the 2007 edition Law Digest.

Explore Portland, AALL Local Committee Style

If you're going to AALL in Portland, you might want to check the site that the Local Arrangements Committee has crafted. Head over to http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/aall/ and you can find:

• a blog
• a map of downtown
• locations of food, drink, and shopping
• multimedia presentations

Check it out!

Spilled cookies

You cannot make this up.

14 tons of spilled Oreo cookies snarl Ill. traffic

MORRIS, Ill. (AP) -

Got milk?

Police say a trailer loaded with 14 tons of double-stuffed Oreos has overturned, spilling the cookies still in their plastic sleeves into the median and roadway. (cont.)

AALL Day in the Life photos

The winners have been announced for the AALL A Day in the Life photos. Go see them here.

Tools and Social Networking

At the AIIP meeting last week, someone asked me to share what websites/blogs I like to read to keep up on tech tools and social networking ideas.

I read several but two of my favorites are:
Mashable
http://mashable.com

New Media News for Independent Publishers
http://www.masternewmedia.org/

And just yesterday, readwriteweb had an interesting article on Linkedin vs. Facebook
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linkedin_vs_facebook_6_months_later.php

Yvonne Chandler wins award

Please join me in congratulating Yvonne Chandler who was selected as one of the two winners of the prestigious President's Council Outstanding Teaching Award for 2008.

Yvonne is an Associate Professor at the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences. She has been at UNT SLIS for the last 15 years.

Wendy K. Wilkins, UNT provost and vice president for academic affairs, is presenting Dr. Chandler her award.

Roy Mersky at UT

I have been informed that Roy Mersky passed away. Mr. Mersky died peacefully Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 5:23 pm at the Hospice Austin's Christopher House. He was with family.

From the University of Texas' website:
http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/profile.php?id=MERSKYRM

Roy M Mersky
Harry Reasoner Regents Chair in Law Director of Research
LLB 1952, University of Wisconsin-MadisonMS 1953, University of Wisconsin-MadisonBS 1948, University of Wisconsin-Madison
During his more than 40 years at Texas, Professor Mersky has overseen the evolution of UT's law library into one of the preeminent research facilities in the nation, and the development of its professional library staff into a training ground for law library directors around the country. In addition, Professor Mersky has done extensive writing, primarily in the areas of legal research and Supreme Court history. He is the co-author of a number of books, including Fundamentals of Legal Research (Foundation, 7th ed., 1998), and Successful and Unsuccessful Nominations of Supreme Court Justices by the Senate Judiciary Committee (William S. Hein, 1975-1996). He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the Texas Bar Foundation, and the American College of Law Practice & Management.

Microsoft-Yahoo deal off?

From law.com newswires:

Yahoo's Skadden Lawyers Engineer Rarely Used Tactic to Hold Off Microsoft
Zusha Elinson
05-06-2008

Pundits may credit Yahoo CEO Jerry
Yang's bullheadedness with scaring off Microsoft for the moment, but it appears that a tiny, yet timely, legal maneuver by Yahoo's lawyers also played a key role.

On Saturday, Microsoft walked away from its three-month pursuit of Yahoo after leaders of the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company wouldn't bite at a two-dollars-sweeter, $33-a-share offer. They apparently wanted $37 a share. (cont)

PLoL and Justia

Free Case Law Databases
by Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch, Editors of Internet Fact Finding For Lawyers
Originally published in Internet Fact Finding For Lawyers, March/April 2008.
Reprinted on The Virtual Chase

Levitt and Rosch summarize what researchers will find on The Public Library of Law (http://www.plol.org) and Justia (http://www.justia.com). They cover the strenghts and weakness of each database, plus give search tips.