Open Access to law and the WebMD effect

Is there a WebMD effect?
open access to law, the public, and the legal profession

11/03/09 -- Cornell Law School Alumni SFO -- Margolis & Tisman LLC

During the last revolution, in the
15th Century....

SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

15th Century....

✤ [Coke offers the law in English, not Law French] “so that the nobility
and gentry may understand.... seeing that ignorance of the law is no
excuse”


15th Century....

excuse”

✤ ..and in the same volume...


15th Century....

excuse”

✤ ..and in the same volume...

✤ [law should not be translated] "lest the unlearned, by bare reading
without right understanding might suck out errors, and trusting in
their conceit, might endamage themselves, and sometimes fall into
destruction"


Why is any of this important now?



✤ Open-access publishers need better understanding of their impact.




✤ Commercial publishers need to understand a changed marketplace.





✤ Lawyers need to understand the informed client





✤ Lawyers need to understand the informed client

✤ Law ﬁrms need to understand the marketing implications of new
media and new audiences


So, what’s different now?



✤ The breadth, depth, and quality of what’s available have increased
enormously



enormously

✤ Patterns of information consumption have changed



enormously


✤ More sophisticated appreciation of law as an economic engine



enormously


✤ More sophisticated appreciation of law as an economic engine

✤ We’re living in an administrative state (and have been for years)


Who’s putting law on the Web?



✤ Law originators: courts, legislatures, agencies




✤ Commercial publishers





✤ LIIs and other open-access providers






✤ Regulated communities







✤ Those who sell compliance solutions (goods and services)







✤ Those who sell compliance solutions (goods and services)

✤ People who want to reach lawyers


What is the public doing with it?



✤ The “public” is at least two publics, maybe more, and there are a lot
of them.



of them.

✤ They’re not doing what lawyers do when lawyers do legal research.



of them.


✤ Contextualizing/assessing position/managing risk



of them.



✤ Taking cross-bearings on other information sources -- their lawyers,
for example



of them.



✤ Taking cross-bearings on other information sources -- their lawyers,
for example

✤ Subliminally getting ideas about price and value


How do we assess impact?



✤ Behavioral study of legal research




✤ Formal study of LII impact and best practices




✤ Formal study of LII impact and best practices

✤ Evaluation of lawyer marketing practices and their effectiveness


What does a service like WebMD
really do?


really do?
✤ Same duality as Coke: promotes understanding, but risks harm


really do?

✤ Provides support for people with obscure conditions, but...


really do?


✤ ...may create “cyberchondria” in those who don’t


really do?



✤ Provides routine answers to routine questions


really do?




✤ Aggregates information from commercial providers


really do?




✤ Aggregates information from commercial providers

✤ By way of illustration....


Questions lawyers will need to
answer


answer

✤ What about the “latent legal market”?


answer


✤ What must lawyers do as purveyors of legal information?


answer


✤ What must lawyers do as purveyors of legal information?

✤ What new opportunities exist?


The latent legal market



✤ First articulated by Richard Susskind, a British “lawyer-futurist”




✤ Key perception is that there is a large audience that is underserved





✤ Extensively reinterpreted to emphasize price barriers, esp. for the
middle class





✤ Extensively reinterpreted to emphasize price barriers, esp. for the
middle class

✤ Barriers of understanding/comfort are possibly more important for
even more audiences


What must lawyers do as legal-
information purveyors?



✤ What goes above the 800 number?




✤ What do clients want or expect to see?




✤ What do clients want or expect to see?

✤ An illustration: Joy Blumkin vs. Nolo Press vs. Saul Elnadav vs.
Green and Seifter


What new opportunities exist?



✤ Attorney marketing to J. Random Citizen




✤ Attorney-to-professional marketing





✤ Attorney-to-attorney marketing





✤ Attorney-to-attorney marketing

✤ All of these work well alongside primary and secondary law
resources


Open Access to law and the WebMD effect

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