Thomson Reuters has revealed its new products for 2014 aimed at the legal industry at the annual LegalTech New York trade show this week, while it continues to demonstrate the products at large law firms, corporate law departments and government offices. It has announced that it will start demonstrating its products and their enhancements to individual legal professionals.
The product at the center stage for Thomson Reuters’ 2014 products strategy is “Practical Law,” which the company acquired last year, but the core of its product strategy remains WestlawNext®.
“Practical Law” has been launched in U.S., U.K., and China markets already, and the company has started on the long-term path to bring Practical Law’s powerful know-how content into the workflow of Thomson Reuters’ customers.
In the U.S., “Practical Law” content has been integrated into “Firm Central,” the workflow platform from Thomson Reuters for small law firm customers. “Practical Law” is also being integrated into Thomson Reuters Concourse, which provides matter-centric practice and department management in corporate law departments.
Chris Wedgeworth, managing director of “Practical Law” at Thomson Reuters said, “Practical Law provides a great starting point for a matter, whether it’s a familiar or new area of law. For instance, an attorney in a small law firm might specialize in litigation but refer transactional work – even for their best litigation clients – to a different firm. Practical Law will allow small law firms to keep more work by providing expert guidance and know-how tools that help attorneys navigate matters with confidence using Checklists and Practice Notes created by Practical Law’s expert attorney-editors.”
Wedgeworth noted that “Practical Law” integration with Thomson Reuters’ products has created entirey new state-specific know-how products for small law firm users.
Beyond the addition of “Practical Law” to its product suite, Thomson Reuters has also announced a number of enhancements to Concourse including an integrated suite of products for transactional attorneys, including Drafting Assistant and Form Builder. Other enhancements to Concourse include Practitioner Insights, the highly customized current-awareness service.
Another significant new development is the introduction of Client Portal, an extension of Firm Central which will provide solo and small-firm attorneys and their clients with a private, secure shared space to communicate and share documents, organized by the matter on the Firm Central dashboard.
There are more innovations scheduled throughout the year.