Manchester 2017 saw us welcome David Allen Green for the first plenary session/ Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture on ‘Informing the debate about Brexit’. Because this is still a relevant and contentious topic, BIALL invited him back to Bournemouth 2019 to give a follow up talk. Anyone who follows David on Twitter knows that he cuts through the political bias to give a clear, considered explanation of the legal issues. This was a good opportunity to…

Jargon is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand”. Many years ago I wrote about the difficulties of jargon in the world of information and knowledge management, and concluded that ‘language can be both a barrier and a means of effective communication’. I asked guest blogger Sarah to revisit this topic.  Sarah McLaughlin MPSI studied at Robert Gordon University…

Conference season is almost upon us once again, and Team Vable are busy making plans for some exciting upcoming events. For my part, I am looking forward to BIALL in Bournemouth where the theme is the past, present and future of the legal information profession. What are the current issues? What can we take from our history, and how can we use our extensive knowhow to make speculations about the future? Reflections on the past…

Keeping up to date with library and information colleagues has never been easier. Everyday I find a new blog to read and it enriches my professional life to know that ideas, concerns, passions are shared. As part of this sharing experience, here are some blogs that I read regularly.   The Personal Touch Elizabeth Hutchinson – Elizabeth works to improve libraries in education. She does this through extensive conference speaking, and some of the best…

Twitter is a reliable bellwether of organisational pre-occupations. With confidence, I can report that client engagement is trending in the minds of many business owners and legal tech commentators. For instance, this recent exchange got me thinking about not only the importance of asking what people want, but how you ask: Matt Homann: What do your best customers wish you’d do better? Nir Golan: Love the idea of asking your customers what they wished you…

Twitter is a reliable bellwether of organisational pre-occupations. With confidence, I can report that client engagement is trending in the minds of many business owners and legal tech commentators. For instance, this recent exchange got me thinking about not only the importance of asking what people want, but how you ask: Matt Homann: What do your best customers wish you’d do better? Nir Golan: Love the idea of asking your customers what they wished you…

A recent post on business development for law firms stated, “law firm newsletters are a lot of work. And honestly, I don’t know any firm that does them well. In fact, you probably should not send a boring newsletter stuffed with tidbits about your firm’s new staff members and sales pitches”. We couldn’t agree more. If emails remain the most popular way of communicating with people, how can law firms ensure that clients appreciate the…