Legal Information Management co-editors Jas Breslin and Mike Breslin sat down with current President Diane Miller to find out what her role involves, where BIALL is going, and how members can get so much more from a deeper involvement with the organisation.

It goes without saying that few things are more important to information professionals than data, all the more so when that data relates to their own profession. Which is why this third edition of BIALL's Law Firm Survey is so welcome, providing, as it does, data on a range of different information departments working in the library space, while also drawing comparisons from the results of earlier surveys. Here Catherine Bowl and Diane Miller explain the process of compiling the survey, its findings, and the interesting trends it has highlighted.

The National Archives launched a new service called Find Case Law in April of last year. Here Daniel Hoadley, Amy Conroy and Editha Nemsic, of Mishcon de Reya LLP, argue that while this does offer some accessibility and legibility it's perhaps not providing access to the full corpus of law that it could, or even should. Also, on a broader level, they propose that there is a case to be made for access to the law being guaranteed and publicly funded.

The European Union Databases User Group (EUDUG) is a group of information professionals, and others, who have an interest in European Union information resources and matters. Here Frederico Rocha (manager of the European Documentation Centre at Cardiff University and chair of EUDUG) and Hester Swift (Foreign and International Law Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library and EUDUG secretary) explain the aims of the group, while illustrating the wide and varied range of speakers and organisations that have played a part in its meetings. They also describe how the group has continued to be relevant in this post-Brexit world, while outlining its plans for the future.

In this article Rachael Wild discusses the transformational difference librarians and information professionals can make by contributing to community causes in the workplace, using her own experience leading Fieldfisher's Sustainability Programme to show how they can become effective project leaders.

The BIALL Sustainability Working Group is now up and running, having received formal approval from the BIALL Council. Here Christine Baird, Information Services Officer at Pinsent Masons LLP and a member of the new group, explains how it aims to ensure that sustainability is at the heart of BIALL's agenda, both now and going into the future.

In this article John Franssen, Head of Research at Travers Smith LLP, gives an overview of what private equity is (including a brief glossary of some key terms), how private equity invests, the type of work lawyers in private practice are involved in and some of the key resources that they need and that are available. This article will also highlight the growing importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and sustainability investment for private equity managers.

Recruitment within the legal information sector has been challenging in recent years, in both the UK and the US, with a market that has been heavily skewed in favour of applicants. Which is why the City Legal Information Group (CLIG) hosted a virtual conference in late February to look at the current state of the recruitment market, the best ways to hire the very best people, and also the methods individuals might employ to find work in the sector themselves. Here Caroline Asbjornsen, a researcher at Watson Farley & Williams LLP and a member of the CLIG committee, talks us through what turned out to be a fascinating discussion.

In the first in a series of regular articles reviewing archived issues of Legal Information Management and The Law Librarian – as the journal was once known – the LIM editors examine the issues, and indeed the issues, of 1973.