The need to monitor competitor activity and anticipate competitive actions is a standard activity for most businesses. In order to succeed and grow, firms need to understand what rival firms are doing, and furthermore what is happening in the overall business environment. However unlike a manufacturing company, or a high-street retailer, or indeed many other businesses, obtaining intelligence on competitors is not so easy for professional service firms.

The European Conversion for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) is an international treaty of the Council of Europe. It was adopted in 1950, ratified by the UK in 1951 and entered into force in 1953. The unsual feature of the Convention, as an international human rights instrument, is that it provides a mechanism for individuals to enforce their Convention rights against state parties.

Patricia T Rickard-Clarke writes on the complex issues relating to access to justice for the citizens of Ireland. Her article addresses the practical need for consolidation of legislation and the issues of making law accessible in a form that people can understand. The article also takes into account comparative developments in other jurisdictions.

This short piece makes reference to an event that was held in May 2019 at the London School of Economics. The occasion was entitled ‘Oral History Research: Illuminating the Past’. There were three speakers and the session was chaired by Professor Michael Lobban. One of the speakers that evening was Lesley Dingle and, following this introduction, her talk is featured in this issue of Legal Information Management.

Roderick Munday, Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge and Editor-in-chief of the Justice of the Peace Reports, shares his invaluable perception and extensive research on the difficulties which arise from the excess of access to judgments.

This article by Jas Breslin was, again, based on a presentation given at the BIALL Conference in Belfast in June 2012. It provides a background to the implementation of Research@mofo, a centralised enquiry service run by the library team for the benefit of the firm and its clients.

This piece, by Celine Kelly, is a report on a paper that was presented at the JSI 2013 in Melbourne and explores the key points made by Andrew Godwin on the globalisation and liberalisation of legal services in the Australasia region. The talk included a discussion on the pros and cons of globalisation and case studies of legal services in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, China, India and Australia.

Alison Johnson reviews Eversheds' approach to delivering legal research training and the development of an effective training module which was first delivered in 2002 and has recently had its first cohort moving into qualification and the workplace as fully trained lawyers.

The purpose of this article, by Stephanie Biggs of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP, is to give an introduction to private equity. The article provides a brief overview of the industry, then looks in more detail at the two key processes in which private equity lawyers are involved: fundraising and doing deals. The author also looks at the resources available for researching private equity and provides a glossary of commonly used terms.

The first issue of the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers came out at the end of 1995, and sprang out of the work I was doing on my Web site (http://www.venables.co.uk) as well as my work as an IT consultant for lawyers. Although the Web site is free to the user, I did hope that some money could be made from the Newsletter! Initially, the Newsletter went to just a few tens of clients and subscribers but I am glad to say that it has grown steadily since then and now has around 1,000 paid subscribers.

This report, compiled by Gerry Power, describes the process of updating the records of the FLAG (Foreign Law Guide) database. His article outlines the aims, method and the findings of the 2013 update.

Hester Swift writes about the successful one-day courses on foreign and international legal research that have been run since 2009 at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) in conjunction with BIALL. These courses have been a collaborative venture between the Foreign and International Law Librarians at the Bodleian Law Library at Oxford, the Squire Law Library at Cambridge, and the IALS Library, together with law librarians from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies and the University of Cardiff. The courses have attracted delegates from many different sectors of the legal information profession. The post of Foreign and International Law Librarian, or Foreign, Comparative and International Law Librarian, is relatively new to the UK, but has a long history in the United States. The BIALL-IALS foreign and international law training initiative complements the cooperation of the Foreign Law Research (FLARE) Group.

A job with a global law firm can involve meeting or working alongside colleagues from many different countries. In order to communicate effectively, we need to be aware of the different norms within which we work. Sara Batts, Jas Breslin and Susanna Winter, who together have many years’ experience working internationally, discuss three key areas which can help enhance our interactions with our counterparts overseas.

This article results from the Pre-Conference Seminar presented at the BIALL Conference in June 2009 by Victoria Jannetta and Pamela Wolffsohn. Having both raised their Information Department's profiles in a better economic climate, they shared how they created opportunities to establish good positioning in their firms. They also addressed the challenges we now face in these frostier times. This was a workshop and was brought to life by spirited discussions, potential solutions and ideas on how to deal with problems faced by many of us – reduced resources and headcount.

my hypothesis on the thinking behind this list is that libraries are organisations which are dynamic self evolving complex systems and so i have applied the simple systems theory template to how to merge two libraries. i think the key thing to remember is that systems cannot change radically or quickly and that they depend on feed-back to adjust their equilibrium. that said it follows that any merger, with its implications of big rapid change, will be difficult for any library system. it will be essential to keep open channels of communication and feed-back both within the immediate environment (the law firms themselves) and the external environment (publishers, service providers, journal subscriptions)

Over the last six months there have been a number of developments in legal information provision. The major publishers have released new services, and have updated existing products. As a busy information professional it can be difficult to keep up to date with all the changes, and there is not always time to evaluate the benefits of one service over another.

This paper formed the basis of a seminar given by John Furlong and Susan Doe at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Annual Conference in St Johns, Newfoundland in May 2005.

The chairman of the European Information Association examines some of the more useful sources of regular information for those seeking to keep up to date on the European Union, its institutions and legislative process. Having reviewed the key official sources, such as the Rapid database and the press site of the European Commission's Representation in London, he explains the importance of the free services available from the various commercial producers of EU information.

In this article Sarah Glassmeyer and Pete Smith address, and focus on, ‘open law’ and the technical issues that can enable access to primary law, and the secondary materials associated with it.

One thing I learned is when an old friend [Carswell's Bonnie Preece] calls inviting you to be the rapporteur of an event that will take place months in the future, particularly when she importunes you with the carrot that you will not have to prepare anything in advance of the conference, DO NOT SUCCUMB. I subsequently discovered that the task of marshalling the substance of more than a dozen hours of outstanding presentations is a challenge indeed. I had to actually attend every session; I had to furiously take notes for hours; I had to work late into the night to consolidate these woefully inadequate notes. Whatever their limitations, however, I offer them here as some record of this marvellously well executed and educational programme.