JD Supra in the News (or: "Launch website. Get noticed.")
Here is a brief roundup of some of the coverage we've seen since our launch earlier in the week. Thank you, editors, writers, bloggers, for starting conversations and spreading the good word. (For a comprehensive list of related links please see JD Supra's In the News page.)
- The Wall Street Journal Law Blog: "... JD Supra is a new site that allows lawyers of all stripes to post court docs, filings, articles, client alerts — anything relevant to a case, really — for others who are doing legal research. The homepage has a cool sidebar that keeps track of who’s contributing the most docs."
- ABA Law Journal: "... JD Supra also offers a free platform for attorneys and others involved in legal matters to market themselves and identify individuals with useful expertise. A search page allows them to look for relevant material by jurisdiction, subject matter and document type."
- National Post: "JD Supra launches the YouTube of law... Let the posting begin!"
- Justia Law, Technology, and Legal Marketing Blog: "... We are encouraging all of the law firms we work with to participate and share with JDSupra's law library. By working together we can help build a great new legal research library. This is a very nice start of a new free research service!"
- WisBlawg From the UW Law Library: "... It's not only that JD Supra is facilitating the sharing of legal content - there are other sites do that, like DocStoc or Scribd - but what makes it unique is that it is able to lend some authority to those documents by tying them to author profiles. As a librarian, I'm much more likely to rely on a source when I can verify the expertise of its author. [It's] quite ingenious actually."
- MyShingle.com: "... JD Supra gives solo and small firm lawyers a way to strut their stuff. By posting documents, other lawyers can get a sense of what your work product is like. And by uploading a document, you gain a listing in JD Supra , which is another way to gain visibility online."
One mention that generated an interesting conversation around the JD Supra virtual water cooler comes from LawyerKM: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms. The post - titled "Is JD Supra inter-law firm Knowledge Management?" - asks: "are any firms going to share the good stuff — the “intellectual capital” that really gives them the competitive advantage over the other firms out there?"
Two days into our launch and we're thrilled to see a question such as this one. We hope that this is not just the beginning of a worthwhile dialog about Knowledge Management but also the start of a conversation that goes to the very heart of it all: the way we value information today in the face of dramatic technological innovation (ie., web and internet and the technologies they bring forth).
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[Finally, taking a page from Tim Stanley's book (actually from the bottom of his Justia Law posting about JD Supra) here's what we're listening to today: Grateful Dead, live at Roscoe Maples Pavilion, Stanford University - Feb 9, 1973. Downloaded from the Internet Archive, streaming directly to our ears.]
- The Wall Street Journal Law Blog: "... JD Supra is a new site that allows lawyers of all stripes to post court docs, filings, articles, client alerts — anything relevant to a case, really — for others who are doing legal research. The homepage has a cool sidebar that keeps track of who’s contributing the most docs."
- ABA Law Journal: "... JD Supra also offers a free platform for attorneys and others involved in legal matters to market themselves and identify individuals with useful expertise. A search page allows them to look for relevant material by jurisdiction, subject matter and document type."
- National Post: "JD Supra launches the YouTube of law... Let the posting begin!"
- Justia Law, Technology, and Legal Marketing Blog: "... We are encouraging all of the law firms we work with to participate and share with JDSupra's law library. By working together we can help build a great new legal research library. This is a very nice start of a new free research service!"
- WisBlawg From the UW Law Library: "... It's not only that JD Supra is facilitating the sharing of legal content - there are other sites do that, like DocStoc or Scribd - but what makes it unique is that it is able to lend some authority to those documents by tying them to author profiles. As a librarian, I'm much more likely to rely on a source when I can verify the expertise of its author. [It's] quite ingenious actually."
- MyShingle.com: "... JD Supra gives solo and small firm lawyers a way to strut their stuff. By posting documents, other lawyers can get a sense of what your work product is like. And by uploading a document, you gain a listing in JD Supra , which is another way to gain visibility online."
One mention that generated an interesting conversation around the JD Supra virtual water cooler comes from LawyerKM: Knowledge Management & Technology for Lawyers and Law Firms. The post - titled "Is JD Supra inter-law firm Knowledge Management?" - asks: "are any firms going to share the good stuff — the “intellectual capital” that really gives them the competitive advantage over the other firms out there?"
Two days into our launch and we're thrilled to see a question such as this one. We hope that this is not just the beginning of a worthwhile dialog about Knowledge Management but also the start of a conversation that goes to the very heart of it all: the way we value information today in the face of dramatic technological innovation (ie., web and internet and the technologies they bring forth).
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[Finally, taking a page from Tim Stanley's book (actually from the bottom of his Justia Law posting about JD Supra) here's what we're listening to today: Grateful Dead, live at Roscoe Maples Pavilion, Stanford University - Feb 9, 1973. Downloaded from the Internet Archive, streaming directly to our ears.]
Steve Matthews, founder of Stem Legal and web strategist for JD Supra, responded at length to LawyerKM's question in the comment fields to that blog, and will be posting more on the subject at his own very active blog.
But, to add my own, more philosophical perspective: the practice of law is an art, not a science.
I find the premise behind the initial post interesting: that a lawyer's written work product is her "intellectual capital," and that sharing this work could undermine her competitive advantage over other firms.
Perhaps this assumption would be true if the practice of law were a science: a brief in one matter the formula to prevail in another. But, that is not the case.
The practice of law is an art. Should DaVinci have hidden his greatest masterpieces in the attic for fear of losing his "competitive advantage"?
I look forward to the conversation(s) to follow.
I'm sure there are certain elements of deal experience, especially on the solicitor's side, that may be more procedural in nature. But generally I would agree. Lawyers are hired for transactional or trial experience, and even with a great set of precedent documents, that's not the same as being in the trenches. Real experience is not easily replicated.
As I said in the noted comment, I think high end documents are likely to be held back. At least for now. But that could change as time passes.