Trying and trying again.

Guest post: Legal research takes a giant step forward

[EDIT: @ivegotabooboo has withdrawn her praise for this product (and has learned a great lesson about the nature of product demos).  Please see her comment following the post]

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My fiancee came home last night RAVING about this new search product Westlaw (sub of Thomson Reuters) is rolling out.  I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her this effusive about a consumer product, let alone a B2B industry portal that was the bane of our existence in law school. She was so excited, in fact, that she readily agreed to write a post about why she loved this product so much.  Enjoy!

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Hello Readers,

Today I went to a program at Thomson Reuters for the rollout of WestlawNext. This new software/engine is amazing, and I’m not just saying that because I won a Kindle in the business card raffle. BOOYAH!

Here’s the deal: WestlawNext figures out what I am looking for and finds it.  For those of you unfamiliar with legal research, it’s seriously siloed.  You have to pick your databases (ex: NY > State Law > Lower Courts > Labor Relations) before diving in.  Pick wrong, and you’re in for another round.  With WestlawNext though, if I don’t know where to search, it intuits what I’m after and takes me there.  It’s like a legal research unicorn hunter!

To use an example from the presentation, if my boss is all like, “go get me some NJ law on whistleblowers,” I have to figure out how to translate that request into a narrow, database-specific keyword search.  That shit’s annoying, and usually requires extensive IMing or chatting with a Westlaw customer service rep to figure out the best search terms (this industry charges by the search).  Fortunately, my new bestie knows what’s up. Type in “whistleblower law and new jersey”…Poof! Even though NJ doesn’t use the term “whistleblower” in its statutes, WestlawNext knows what my uninformed boss seeks and provides me with lists of cases, statutes, treatises, articles, etc. on the topic.

Unlike old school Westlaw.com, but just like Google, WestlawNext searches everywhere and then allows you to view relevant portions of every result, sorted by, well, by anything.  Because of that, WestlawNext ameliorates the scary and daunting task of making sure “no stone goes unturned.”  Knowing that I didn’t miss a strangely worded case in the 6th Circuit makes meetings with senior partners far less intimidating.  Going back to the New Jersey example (what can I say, I love Jackson, NJ in the springtime?), the search results are ordered by relevance, and then you choose additional filters. Not special enough for you? Fine, check this out: you can see snippets of the search results before opening/paying for that document. Can even scroll through search terms! Awwwwwesssommme.

What about the second dreaded topic in the big bad partner’s office? No, not sexual harassment. “Is this good law?” Before, Westlaw and LexisNexis let you know about possibly bad precedent with a red or yellow flag (red = bad, yellow = maybe bad).  Need more than just a little yellow flag to know the answer on quick notice? WestlawNext has yo back! Details explaining the flag chill out with the flag at the top of the page so you can authoritatively say, “still good in our district, although a low level appellate court in Minnesota distinguished it in 1994.” Done and bonus.

Ya see, those crazy orange-polka-dot-wearing R&D people at Thomson Reuters did their research. (Hahaha! Research). By utilizing the totally acceptable invasion of privacy known as data collection, they saw where and how attorneys search for cases. Then scientists in lab coats tracked attorneys’ eyeballs to see where we look and how our eyes/brains react to certain items on the Westlaw.com page. Then they made searching intuitive. The result?  Now we can be an average of 64% more efficient (in terms of # of searches run) when conducting legal research.  And did I mention the cool swag? Cordless USB mouse and I won a Kindle! Sweet!  Makes me as happy as a rabbit in a carrot patch.

Here’s to hoping that my firm pays the price hike (13-20% — clearly worth it).

Stay classy everyone,

@ivegotabooboo