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"Completely Electronic Case Law System", Or "Putting Lipstick On A Pig"

By Greg Lambert on August 22, 2008
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My hat is off to the library at Thompson Coburn in St. Louis for putting a spin on getting rid of their entire National Reporter Set (you know those tan books with all the cases in them….) I had to read this article twice when I read how they announced that they had a “completely electronic case law system,” and that they “freed up 1,500 linear feet of shelving” in the library so that attorneys could “access [the cases] through their terminals.” Now that is some impressive marketing phraseology!!Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been saying that we are moving to a completely electronic case law system all the way back in 2001 when I talked about it in the AALL publication Beyond the Boundaries. But, we called it by it’s less popular name of “getting rid of the books” and “moving the attorneys to Westlaw/Lexis case law searching only.” If only I had such a turn of the phrase that some of my colleagues have, I could have put that lipstick on the pig years ago!!Hmmm…. I wonder how I could spin the outsourcing of legal jobs to India in such a positive light?? Anyone have a suggestion??

Photo of Greg Lambert Greg Lambert

Librarian-Lawyer-Knowledge Management-Competitive Analysis-Computer Programmer…. I’ve taken the Renaissance Man approach to working in the legal industry and have found it very rewarding. My Modus Operandi is to look at unrelated items and create a process that can tie those items together. The overall…

Librarian-Lawyer-Knowledge Management-Competitive Analysis-Computer Programmer…. I’ve taken the Renaissance Man approach to working in the legal industry and have found it very rewarding. My Modus Operandi is to look at unrelated items and create a process that can tie those items together. The overall goal is to make the resulting information better than the individual parts that make it up.

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