The Legal Profession in a Changing World

I am grateful to Janet Noble of the Law Society for overseeing the commissioning of authors for this theme. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Law Society as the last three Guest Editors: Chris Holland, David Percik and now Janet all work there!

Current Topics

We have a mixed collection of articles in this issue. Sandra Meredith of Oxford University writes about the fourth edition of OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities), which was published in November 2010. This edition includes guidance on citing new media such as blogs. OSCOLA is widely used by the legal academic world and includes a style for Endnote, a popular referencing software.

We read about the innovative development of a Law Research Service pioneered by Alissa Sputore and her colleagues in the Law Library at Melbourne Law School, which has successfully added value to the academic publishing taking place by students and staff.

Jackie Fishleigh describes trying to implement a Sharepoint application for a know how database for the firm's company and commercial documents. Rather than try to re-invent the wheel she contacted colleagues to try to build from their experiences and this article recounts the results.

David Palferman talked about stress and conflict in the workplace at the 2010 BIALL Confernce and this article is an expanded version of his presentation. He is a psychologist with the Health and Safety Executive and has long experience of the deleterious effects of bullying and harassment.

We have an overseas contribution from the Legal Information Centre at the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg. Elena Shishmolina is a bibliographer at the Centre and she explains how important its role is in disseminating legal information to all sectors of the population, not just to visitors to the Library but by the provision of several legal database which are used in far flung parts of Russia.

Finally, Ufuoma Lamikanra from the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies recently visited the London Institute to gather ideas for improving services in her home library. Her description of conditions in the Nigerian Institute make salutary reading for those of us accustomed to 24 hour access to the internet and reasonable budgets. We hope that she succeeds in implementing some new services.

Subject Resource Guides

We have a comprehensive guide to research and resources, both electronic and hard copy, for competition law written by Daniel and Lisa Bunker of Clifford Chance. They cover domestic and European Union sources and explain in some detail both the challenges and the variety of work which large City firms undertake in this area.

Practical Matters

Cathy Mattis from Berwin Leighton Paisner provides a very helpful guide, based on her own experience, of conducting a knowledge management survey in a law firm.

Product Review

I am grateful to Hester Swift of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies for writing an extremely thoroughly researched product review of the International Law Reports on Justis. She makes some interesting suggestions for improvements to the service and we trust Justis will consider these in future releases.

Editorial Board

I am delighted to report that David Wills, BIALL President and Squire Law Librarian at the University of Cambridge is taking over as Editor of LIM, with effect from 1st April 2011. I am sure he will make an excellent Editor and he has lots of ideas for future development of the journal. Responsibility for compiling and editing this issue and sending it to the typesetters has been mine and David has taken over at the publishing stage.

I would like to thank all the members of the Editorial Board who have been so supportive over the years in various ways. Katherine Read from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies has, with the help of Laura Griffiths, produced immaculate Current Awareness columns for years. Michelle Celik was always full of good ideas for articles during her long stint on the Board. Claire Groom and Wendy Lynwood have uncomplainingly proof read each issue and Sarah Froggatt has been a very encouraging Chair.

Finally, when I took over as Editor, Sweet & Maxwell were the publishers. We moved to Cambridge University Press in 2004 and the team there have been a pleasure to work with. Sue Perkins has acted as Production Editor for the whole period and has offered a brilliant service. Ella Colvin was our first Publisher and both she and Rebecca O'Rourke have offered constant advice and encouragement. I will miss you all.