Law Librarian Blog

BigLaw Associate Pay Should Return to 1998 Levels According to Altman Weil Expert

Altman Weil legal consultant James Cotterman thinks associate pay levels should be set back to 1998 levels. Associate pay at large law firms has dropped from $160,000 to $145,000, but that was only "about half of what was needed," Cotterman said. "They probably should have set pay back a decade, to 1998. That's what I was expecting ... this story may not be over yet." Quoted in Law.com's Experts: Lower Associate Pay Is Here to Stay. See also Cotterman's blog post, Changing the Rules on Associate Compensation.

Now about those law school tuition debts... [JH]

Round-Up of State Practitioner Blogs

California Divorce Lawyer Blog
http://www.californiadivorcelawyerblog.com
http://www.californiadivorcelawyerblog.com/index.xml
Discusses divorce law opinions, matters and news in California. Published by Gary D. Sparks.

California Employment Lawyers Blog
http://www.californiaemploymentlawyersblog.com
http://www.californiaemploymentlawyersblog.com/index.xml
Provides opinion on employment law news, cases and reports in California. Published by Howard | Nassiri, PC.

Orange County Employment Lawyer Blog
http://www.orangecountyemploymentlawyerblog.com
http://www.orangecountyemploymentlawyerblog.com/index.xml
Analyzes employment law cases, news and reports in California. Published by Duvel & Duvel.

Miami Criminal Lawyer Blog
http://www.miamicriminallawyerblog.com
http://www.miamicriminallawyerblog.com/index.xml
Provides insight on criminal law cases, news and reports in Florida. Published by Pensky & Kim.

Atlanta Injury Lawyers Blog
http://www.atlanta-injury-lawyers-blog.com
http://www.atlanta-injury-lawyers-blog.com/index.xml
Reports on injury law news, cases and opinions in Georgia. Published by The Murray Law Firm.

Plano DWI Lawyer Blog
http://www.planodwilawyer.com
http://www.planodwilawyer.com/index.xml
Analyzes DWI law news, cases and reports in Texas. Published by the Law Office of Derk A. Wadas.

Overtime Attorney Blog
http://www.overtimeattorneyblog.com
http://www.overtimeattorneyblog.com/index.xml
Discusses overtime law news, legislation and opinions in Texas. Published by the Law Office of Rob Wiley, PC.

Putting Out Westlaw OnePass Fires: The West Way to Customer Service -- Better Late Than Never But Not as Good as a Timely Heads-Up

So do you think sometime last week West's Lori Hedstrom (Marketing Manager, Librarian Relations) was planning to submit a message about the OnePass rollout to the pll-sis and law-lib listsersv yesterday afternoon? Or did it take Greg Lambert's Nov. 4th Westlaw's OnePass Fiasco: A Study In How NOT To Roll Out A Change blog post and/or LLB's follow-up to Greg's post yesterday morning, The OnePass Rollout Scramble for Westlaw Users: An Ounce of Communication Can Prevent a Pound of Complaints? (and/or others) to get some customer service the "West Way" by putting out the fires created by, to use Greg's words, "Westlaw's OnePass fiasco."

Hedstrom's listserv message contains some helpful information everyone, I think, would have very much appreciated well in advance of the rollout instead of being blindsided. I've republished it below in case you don't subscribe to either listserv or any other listserv she may have blasted yesterday. If you have access to the pll-sis and law-lib listserv archives, you can view law librarians complaints about the OnePass fiasco made in response to Heldstrom's listserv submission.

Hello Colleagues,

OnePass is a new sign on process where the Westlaw user will create his or her own unique username and password.  OnePass will provide better security and align our process with current Web standards.  The project will be implemented in phases so that our many Westlaw users can convert to the new system over time.  In response to questions on the listservs we offer the following resources.

Introduction to OnePass: Download OnePass_Customer_Presentation_11_09

Step by Step Process: Download OnePass_Step_by_Step

OnePass FAQ: http://west.thomson.com/support/customer-service/onepass/faqs.aspx

Quick Reference Guide: Registering Your Westlaw Password: http://west.thomson.com/documentation/westlaw/wlawdoc/wlres/onepass.pdf
 
To address a few specific issues that have been mentioned:

Most Westlaw users will not have to change their OnePass passwords every 90-120 days unless their firms elect to do so or they access content or products that require additional security, such as West Batch Processing. 

You can use the same OnePass for multiple applications just as your current Westlaw password can be used across applications.  OnePass will allow users who have access to multiple products (currently requiring different passwords) to use a single sign-on for all of them (i.e., Westlaw, Westlaw Business, West km and more).  Please refer to Accessing West Products with OnePass: Updating OnePass to Include Multiple West Applications, http://west.thomson.com/documentation/westlaw/wlawdoc/wlres/westpasw.pdf.  If you have questions about this process please contact Customer Technical Support at 1-800-WESTLAW (1-800-937-8529).

If you have questions specific to your firm’s issues or migration dates please contact your Account Manager and/or Librarian Relations Manager.  For general assistance please call 1-800-WESTLAW (1-800-937-8529).  There is a recorded message that will walk you through the steps or say “OnePass Assistance” for an agent to assist you personally.

Thank you for your patience as we work through this new system together.  We also will post this information on west.thomson.com/librarian  for your convenience.

Lori
Lori Hedstrom
Marketing Manager, Librarian Relations
West, a Thomson Reuters business
610 Opperman Drive, D5-N190
Eagan, MN  55123
Phone [redacted]
Fax [redacted]
lori.hedstrom@thomsonreuters.com
http://west.thomson.com/librarian

[JH]

Friday Fun: League of Librarians Trading Cards

Librarians at the University of Rochester River Campus credit Carleton College for giving them the inspiration for their League of Librarians Trading Cards including political science and law librarian Ann Marshall's card, click to enlarge, left. View the Flickr slideshow. Hat tip to Betsy McKenzie, Out of the Jungle. [JH]

The 2009 Am Law Tech Survey

The American Lawyer's Alan Cohen reports that one-third of the 110 Am Law 200 law firms participating in the Am Law Tech Survey for 2009 reported that their capital budgets were down more than 10 percent this year. Staffing levels and salaries have taken hits, and equipment purchases and software upgrades have been put off. Cohen's summary of the survey's findings with links to charts for budget, communications, operations, quality of life, software, VoIP and wireless are available here. [JH]

Reminder: Today's Law Librarian Talk Show to Feature Carl Malamud

Today's Law Librarian Blog Talk Radio program will feature Carl Malamud, of Public.Resource.org. Malamud will be discussing Law.Gov and other digital preservation and open access issues at 3:00 PM ET. Should be very interesting. See LLB's It's Time for Law.Gov. [JH]

Some Oldies but Goodies in the Government Domain

"Over my six-plus years of tracking the federal web developments for [e-Government and Web Directory: U.S. Federal Government Online] -- through the post-9/11 scrubbing of numerous dotmil sites, the continuing conversion of government's printed publications to online-only, the massive Homeland Security reorganization, experiments with social media, and a change in presidential administrations -- I have found that federal web sites do not change as rapidly as people seem to think," writes Peggy Gavin. "The content on federal government websites is dynamic, constantly being refreshed and redesigned. However, the sites themselves, the ones that represent so much of the work of the federal government and are selected for inclusion in the book, are fairly stable." Garvin highlights several of these essential sites in The Government Domain: A Handful of Classics on LLRX. [JH]

Some Thoughts on the Bob Berring Video Comments

Bob Berring’s statement about Lexis and Westlaw being a better alternative to legal research than volunteer Internet sites is pretty accurate.  Both databases offer depth of resources, organization, precise search language and tools that simply can’t be matched by the Internet in its current form.  I also agree with Berring that the work performed by volunteer sites is admirable.  Nonetheless, they do not come close to the rich research experience available to Lexis and Westlaw subscribers.  If nothing else, West (and Westlaw) has a 100+ year start on gathering and organizing Anglo-American law and providing the metadata to make that law accessible.  Lexis started in 1975 but it was then and is now well capitalized to compete with West at the same level and with comparable editorial standards.  Who else is out there who can match these efforts (read through to the bottom for the answer to this question)?

One fact worth exploring here is who constitutes the target audiences for commercial and free resources.  Law students get subsidized access to Lexis and Westlaw for three to four years before they go into their legal careers.  The analogy to drugs is apt.  The first one is free, then (addicted) you pay.  That indoctrination is abetted by promotions and some form of customer service.  Lexis and Westlaw are squarely aimed at the legal professionals who have enough cash to pay for the convenience of comprehensive legal research.  The Internet target is anyone, and that includes legal professionals, paralegals, pro se plaintiffs, and anyone else who needs to find law.  The Internet is a great place to find law, but not a great place to research the law.  And that is essentially the problem.

Primary law is all over the place.  States place their laws online.  Illinois does that.  Note this statement from the General Assembly’s web site:

Disclaimer: This site contains provisions of the Illinois Compiled Statutes from databases that were created for the use of the members and staff of the Illinois General Assembly. The provisions have NOT been edited for publication, and are NOT in any sense the "official" text of the Illinois Compiled Statutes as enacted into law. The accuracy of any specific provision originating from this site cannot be assured, and you are urged to consult the official documents or contact legal counsel of your choice. This site should not be cited as an official or authoritative source. Court decisions may affect the interpretation and constitutionality of statutes.

This comes from the government, and the government says not to cite it.  The U.S. Supreme Court does the same thing with its PDF copies of U.S. Reports on its site.  If there is an conflict between the online version and the printed version, the printed version controls.  This is one reason why Berring questions the value of governments fronting primary law on the web to the citizenry.  How authoritative, then, are third party sites?  In one sense, the courts will rely on unofficial texts in paper and online from West and Lexis, and not from the source that created and hosts those texts.  The irony is palpable.

I remember in my days at Texas sitting in on a meeting with West representatives who displayed several mock-ups of pages of Wisconsin cases as they might appear in the Northwestern Reporter.  This was in the days before a hearing by the Wisconsin Supreme Court regarding the adoption of an open citation format to published Wisconsin cases.  The case was promoted as a way to open the law beyond the control of West, West citations, and even the book.  Wisconsin did adopt a form of open citation, West added the elements to its presentation in the Northwestern Reporter, and nothing for all intents and purposes changed.  The law became open (hooray) and West continued to profitably sell NW2d volumes to firms in the Badger state.

I remember sitting in on another meeting five years later where an independent author lectured about the book he was writing.  One of his themes was that West and Lexis were dinosaurs in the Internet age, what with the explosion of free legal resources on the web.  He made the case that closed systems such as Westlaw and Lexis couldn’t compete with free.  Needless to say West and Lexis competed quite well with value added materials.  Do not underestimate the power of the West Key Number system as a way to cross reference law.  Lexis finally agreed when it created something like it for its database, albeit without the numbers.  It’s hard to beat “more like this” when it’s precision driven.  Then there are the scholarly secondary sources that are cross referenced to the cases and each other.

Legal commentary available via the web is represented by recent law review articles, law firm newsletters, blogs (shameless plug:  see our other fine offerings on substantive legal topics at Law Prof Blogs) and wikis, none of which compare to published treatises in scope and coverage of legal topics.  Citators in any useful form are nonexistent.  Why is this?  Because copyright keeps the good stuff locked away behind a pay wall and there is no editorial consistency across free sites.  I make the point again that the Internet is a great place to find law, but not to conduct research on a legal topic.

A practitioner can get single opinions from court web sites and save a buck or two instead of getting it from Lexis and Westlaw.  Research capability on the web is not conducive to becoming aware of that opinion unless it is a case significant to generate news or commentary about it.  Even then it can take effort to locate enough information to make that opinion findable.  If there is one aspect of legal research that the professional on down is aware of, time is rarely on anyone’s side.  Google is of little help here, except possibly for Google Scholar, as search results have an awful lot of chaff for the wheat that is available.

Now, back to our earlier question, who can compete with the efforts of Lexis and Westlaw and still make primary law available in a free, organized, and searchable form?  Google.  It’s obvious they have no plans to create a legal database, at least as of now.  But if their mission is to organize all of the world’s knowledge in an easily findable form, then it’s a natural for them to take on a project such as this.  Moreover, they are probably the only company who has the capital and the mindset to upset the status quo for organizing legal literature online.  If Google gave us Boolean search (something it does not have now) and organization (something it can do) it can give Westlaw and Lexis a run for their money.  That may make them even better.  [MG]

The OnePass Rollout Scramble for Westlaw Users: An Ounce of Communication Can Prevent a Pound of Complaints

In Westlaw's OnePass Fiasco: A Study In How NOT To Roll Out A Change, Greg Lambert writes that West sent out a mass email last Thursday about rolling out it's new OnePass login system two days later. One librarian, Cindy, commented to Greg's post that she didn't get the email but did receive a vague heads-up from her Westlaw rep (In her words, "This would happen sometime in November, though not an exact date.") Some Westlaw reps informed their clients months ago, others did not and may not even had known about the rollout according to Greg. Did you get a heads-up from your rep? Did you receive the mass email last Thursday? I didn't.

Perhaps the rollout is being staggered. Hell if I know. Do note that the entire OnePass system is supposed to be fully implemented by the end of January 2010. Here's just another illustration of why West rates as the worst provider of customer service in the legal publishing industry. See LLB's Rate Your Legal Resources Vendors Survey: Customer Services Findings for BNA, LexisNexis, West and Wolters Kluwer.

So as a "public service announcement" for Westlaw users and the librarians and IT staff who support them because West has dropped the ball for many of its clients, if you need to learn what's going on, visit the OnePass page of the Company's website and download the OnePass Quick Reference Guide. It explains how to register Westlaw passwords so you can help your Westlaw user population.

OnePass Glitches. Hopefully your Westlaw users won't experience the glitches in the OnePass registration system some of Cindy's users did when they tried to create their new logins. In fairness to West, if glitches do occur, they may be caused by configuration settings and apps running at the user's end. However, that's another reason why West should have given its customers more advance notice in greater specificity and given its customers' support providers, meaning librarians and IT staff on site, the opportunity to test drive the system before Westlaw dumped mass implementation into their laps.

The OnePass system has a number of benefits but it's implementation would have benefited from "a little more forethought on the side of West" writes Greg who has the last word on this fiasco: "let's all work together to make sure we don't have to scramble to achieve the changes just because there is a lack of communication between the vendor and the clients. An ounce of communication can prevent a pound of complaints later!!" [JH]

The Information Age: Finding Needles and Haystacks

Created by Jessica Hagy, author of Index, this simple graphic may be a great illustration for legal research instructors when a student asks, "why can't I just use Google?" [JH]

The Five Sacred Cows of Library Technologists

According to Cindi Trainor:

1. Our users haven't asked for that.
2. Library technology=Windows or Mac.
3. Cutting-edge is better; bleeding-edge is best.
4. is the only way to go.
5. Technology is the domain of the few.

See Trainor's ALA TechSource post for details. [JH]

When is a Library not a Library?

According to the YouTube description, "this Flashmob was organised as a part of Open House: Irish Architecture 2009. The piece is entitled "When is a Library not a Library?" and was designed to challenge your perceptions of what happens in a public space. It was directed by Tony Fegan of Tallaght Community Arts and Louise Costelloe, Dancer in association with South Dublin Libraries." [JH]

Opening: Harvard Law Library, Web Developer

Duties And Responsibilities: The Harvard Law Library is seeking an energetic and creative web developer to join our newly created Digital Lab team. The Digital Lab is the Library's focal point for a wide range of activities including developing internet tools to promote and enhance access to legal information. The Web Developer manages the full life cycle of development projects. Reporting to the Manager of the Digital Lab, the Web Developer will design, develop, test and deploy new applications and extensions to existing applications; research coding and infrastructure technologies in connection with application design and implementation; identify integration requirements between applications; review and modify systems programs as needed to correct utility or application programs; install or customize modules and features for open source and proprietary software packages; develop and maintain documentation, participate in third party tool and product evaluations as needed, and take on other related duties as assigned. Works closely with librarian, unit director and other programmers.

Basic Qualifications: B.A. or B.S. in an appropriate area of specialization such as Computer Science or Informatics; at least 2 years of preofessional experience designing, implementing, testing and documenting web and other application projects.

Additional Qualifications: Preferred: MCS (Master of Computer Science), MIS (Master of Information Systems), MLIS (Master of Library and Information Science) Expertise in several programming languages including PHP, PERL, JavaScript; as well as combinations of languages such as AJAX. Experience using relational databases, in the design of database schemas, use of SQL, and installation and management of databases, especially MYSQL; strong understanding of HTTP, XHTML, LDAP, XML, and CSS; ability and comfort with working in a variety of operating systems, technical architectures and programming languages. Experience working within teams and using collaboration and management tools; ability to work with non-technical clients; strong written and verbal communication abilities; solid organizational skills including time management and prioritization; commitment to customer service. Background in object oriented programming language (C++, JAVA, etc.); project management, web design and experience with library systems experience, a plus.

Apply online here.

Harvard University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. 

ACTA Copyright Provisions Becoming Clearer

The secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement treaty provisions are starting to leak out in spite of the "national security" status granted to it by the Bush and Obama administrations.  The government let several groups (including public advocacy groups) see draft text on a non-disclosure basis.  The treaty provisions generally are starting to come out anyway.  Boing Boing has one interpretation.  Think DMCA times way worse on an international scale.  A more rational (but no less scary) view is presented by the ever thoughtful Michael Geist.  If the analysis is correct, ISPs will police copyright infringement, I'm guessing through deep packet inspection.  Perhaps that is the national security issue.  ISPs will have a reason to use it for detecting copyright infringement and the government gets the benefit of detecting matters of more interest to it.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but the treaty would be a plausible excuse to permanently monitor Internet communication.  There are also implications for DRM and third party copyright infringement liability.  Follow the links above to get more details.  [MG]

Don't Waste Your Time Trying to Do Better Than WEXIS: Responses to Berring on Open Access Law

By now, I expect many law librarians have viewed West's video of Bob Berring's opinion on the open access to legal information movement. If not, see below. In a nutshell, Berring advises legal information consumers that they should not bother trying to do better than commercial legal vendors like West and LexisNexis. Berring is one of the most respected academic law librarians in the country and his contributions to the profession are substantial. I'm sure he means what he says in the video and is not just serving as a mouthpiece for West but what he has to say is very controversial (to put it mildly). In response to the Berring video, I recommend the following three blog posts:

Cornell LII's Tom Bruce: Berring on the merits

CanLII's Daniel Poulin: Berring, CanLII and Kobe Beef

Catherine Best: Berring, free legal information, and making good choices

While the YouTube video upload date is Oct. 29, 2009, the video was produced months ago as part of West's "salute to law librarians" campaign. In other words, the video was created long before the announcement of the Law.gov project. See LLB's It's Time for Law.gov post. I wonder whether Berring's opinion on OA Law would be different (but I have my doubts that it would be). I also wonder if West would have released the video had Berring come out strongly in favor of OA Law as a viable alternative to the duopoly in the legal information market. But that's another matter.

I always pay close attention to Berring's opinions on law librarianship and cannot think of one time that I have not benefited from doing so. Personally, I would rather remember Berring for his advice for reference librarians video (also produced by West) instead of the below video but this video is a worthy contribution to the on-going debate on how best to provide legal information. In other words, it deserves consideration. It's just unfortunate that it's West-branded; it is hard to ignore how all this dovetails neatly into the Company's self-interests. [JH]

Now that is a door prize

Quiet a few law librarians are also attorneys, and some of that group even keep up their CLE hours like they are required to do for maintaining an active license. That being said I wanted to pass along an email I received yesterday from the Alabama Bar:

"The 2009 Iron Bowl CLE, presented by the Alabama State Bar Young Lawyers Division will be held on Friday, November 20, 2009 from 1pm – 4:30 p.m. at the offices of Balch & Bingham in Birmingham. The fee is $100. The registration and program information details speakers and subjects. Note: A pair of lower level Alabama/Auburn tickets will be given away as a door prize!"

Now that is what I call incentive to go to a CLE, even for those who are not football fans this would be a sweet reward as a lower level ticket on StubHub begins at about $250. {BB}

AALL Elections Now Underway

Check out the candidate biographies and vote online here. The deadline to submit ballots is 11:59 p.m. Central Time, Tuesday, December 1, 2009. Here's the slate of candidates:

Candidates for Vice President/President-Elect

Darcy Kirk
Associate Dean for Library and Technology and Professor of Law
University of Connecticut School of Law
Hartford, Connecticut

Merle J. Slyhoff
Collection Development & Resource Sharing Librarian
University of Pennsylvania Law School Biddle Law Library
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Candidates for Treasurer

Diana C. Jaque
Head of Collection Development and Acquisitions
Gabriel and Matilda Barnett Info. Technology Center & The Asa V. Call Law Library
Gould School of Law
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

Susan Lewis-Somers
Associate Director for Public Services
Pence Law Library, Washington College of Law
American University
Washington, D.C.

Candidates for Executive Board

Lucy Curci-Gonzalez
Director of Library Services
Kenyon & Kenyon LLP
New York, NY

Coral Henning
Director
Sacramento County Public Law Library
Sacramento, CA

Robert H. Hu, Ph.D.
Director and Associate Professor of Law
St. Mary's University School of Law
Sarita Kenedy East Law Library
San Antonio, TX

Ronald E. Wheeler, Jr.
Associate Director
Georgia State University
College of Law Library
Atlanta, GA

Chech Out FDsys Video Tutorials

The GPO has produced the following four FDsys how-to video tutorials:

1. FDsys Overview: a brief overview on the background of FDsys.
2. FDsys Simple Search: how to perform simple searches within the system and filter your results.
3. FDsys Advanced Search: how to perform advanced searches and citation searches within the system.
4. FDsys Browse: how to browse for government publications within FDsys.

Here's the tutorial launch page link. Hat tip to LISNews. [JH]

So Many Law Review Articles, So Little Time: Jotwell to the Rescue

Edited by Michael Froomkin (Miami) the mission of  Jotwell: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) is to bring to readers’ attention recent legal scholarship by providing short reviews. "Here you will find leading academics and practitioners providing short reviews of recent scholarship related to the law that the reviewer likes and thinks deserves a wide audience." [JH]

Chicago Tribune to Go AP-less for a Week

How bad is it getting for the newspaper industry?  The Chicago Tribune is dropping AP content for a week beginning November 8.  The experiment is designed to see if news coverage suffers.  Content will be drawn from Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg and other sources not normally used by the Tribune.  Other papers owned by the Tribune will contribute content as well.  The AP will still send some sports statistics, and the Tribune will use the AP if it is the only source for a particular news story.  The paper will likely drop all AP coverage in October, 2010 if this works.  The full story is in Phil Rosenthal's column here.  [MG]