Legal Research

JD Supra - Free Access to Legal Documents Goes Live

By Connie Crosby

Over on his Law Firm Web Strategy blog Steve Matthews announced that JD Supra has been launched. I had a preview of this service back in September, so I had a fresh look am pleased to see the further development of this new service.

JD Supra allows for law firms, law schools and other legal organizations and individuals to share documents. Having a name behind the documents lends credibility to them, while the contributors get to be known for having expertise in their respective areas. This is combined with a profile that will drive traffic back to their websites. A nicely thought-out marketing strategy. Well, not surprising since both Steve and legal marketing guru Larry Bodine are involved. Besides Larry Bodine, the JD Supra team includes Adrian Lurssen, Eliot Gersten, Brittanie Williams, the group at POP Interactive, and especially JD Supra?s founder Aviva Cuyler.

I had a look around and noticed legal documents including pleadings, briefs, research memoranda and decisions. Also included are legal forms, legal articles, and firm newsletters. The system is flexible, allowing for posting of other types of documents; for example, I found at least one law professor posting a course outline.

It is free to join, and free to post documents. There is a nominal fee for a more robust profile including links back to an organization’s website, blog and other web properties.

It is smartly done. A number of law firms were invited in as founding members to contribute documents in the beta test to get the ball rolling, so there is already good and current documents in the system. It is easy to set up a profile and start posting documents. I encourage you to have a look. To get you started, here is a link to my little profile. Oh! And don’t miss their great blog JD Scoop.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on February 27, 2008 (boomark / email).