THE INTERNET AND THE PRACTICE OF LAW Keynote Address to Pace Law Review Symposium March 20, 1998 White Plains, NY Part 2 of 6

---

1. How the Internet is changing the practice of Law (Some examples) The Internet is accelerating changes that have been going on throughout the 20th Century. While the Internet has a unique combination of capabilities, each of these capabilities had a precursor in prior technologies. For example, the telephone in some ways made geograpy irrelevant. Anyone with a phone can call anyone else in the world with a phone. But for most of the 20th Century, the time and distance model of billing made New York a long way away from California in economic terms and even further from a foreign location such as Tasmania. The Internet has changed that. Lets look at some of the Internet's capabilities and some examples of legal related websites that take advantage of these capabilities.
1. Geography is irrelevant - On the Internet geograpy is irrelevant. It is as easy to send email or view a webpage in Tasmania as it is to send email or view a webpage in Tennessee or Tuckahoe, NY. And, unlike traditional telephone rates, there is no additional cost for viewing webpages regardless of the physical location of the server.
1. Siskind Susser & Haas - was one of the earliest firms on the Internet and their website is one of the most successful in generating business for the firm. Greg Siskind left a larger firm and started out as a solo practicioner in Nashville, Tennessee.  Through the use of the Internet, his firm has grown in the last four years to have offices across the U.S. and in Canada. His practice of immigration law is ideally suited to take advantage of the Internet's geographic irrelevancy. Siskind, Susser's website has limited use of graphics, which makes for fast downloading in countries with communications systems supporting limited bandwidth (like most of the U.S.). When looking at how the Internet affects the practice of law, many people focus on the World Wide Web portion of the Internet, but Siskind Susser's site illustrates many of the ways that that the Internet can be used today and that will be used by more law firms in future, particularly with expanding bandwidth.
1. Electronic publishing - Siskind, Susser has one of the more successful cyber-bulletins in their "Siskind's Immigration Bulletin". This bulletin is emailed to over 13,000 subscribers in all 50 states and 100+ countries. The Bulletins are archived on the Siskind, Susser website and seen by thousands of additional people. Were this a traditional print publication it would be considered highly successful and would also be very expensive to deliver. The minimal distribution costs of the Internet has given rise to a huge number of additional resources making available detailed current legal information to anyone with a web browser or email .
2. Remote conferencing, text, audio and video - The Internet is not just email and the World Wide Web. There are a variety of other ways to communicate on the Internet including Internet Relay Chat (IRC), which can be by typing, audio (IP telephony) and video (e.g. C-U Seeme, NetMeeting). Siskind, Susser uses a variety of these technologies to communicate with clients and prospective clients around the world. The biggest impediment to more widespread use of these technologies is the lack of bandwidth for most clients, a 28.8 kbps modem. Even if both parties have adequate bandwidth such as a corporate client connected via a T-1; net congestion, and the difficulty of getting and configuring the hardware and software needed to communicate in this manner are temporarily slowing the use of these new ways of communicating with clients.
2. Massive amounts of information can be stored and delivered quickly to anywhere - Modern computer storage systems, such as hard drives, CD-ROMs and tapes drive can store massive amounts of information.  The Internet connects the massive amounts stored on these devices with the world. The Internet is the logical progression from data processing on punch cards, through mainframe processing, personal computers, local area networks, proprietary standard wide area networking and at present the internetworking of networks using a common TCP/IP standard. Massive amounts of information that used to be difficult to get and require specialized knowledge to acquire is now just a few clicks away. Traditional massive amounts of information is putatively public, but in reality is only occasionally accessed by lawyers, and their agents such as title searchers or private investigators. With the Internet, information that was only accessible for substantial costs in money, time and training is now available to everyone.
• Knowx - is a good example of how massive amounts of information from a wide variety of sources that were previously difficult to find or access are now available to anyone. Detailed information is available for free or a small fee on
• the owner of a telephone number,
• property ownership and value;
• assets including real estate and stocks;
• bankruptcies,
• lawsuits,
• judgments,
• liens,
• UCC filings,
• professional licenses,
• name availability,
• business owners & officers,
• residences,
• death records,
• aircraft ownership,
• DEA registrations,
• FAA Airmen Directory,
• sales tax permits, and
• boat ownership.
  
  
• Knowx, a subsidiary of West, has made these records available for free or a small fee per record. The same records, prior to the advent of the WWW were available to lawyers and other professional via services such as Lexis and Westlaw for a substantial monthly and hourly fees. Many of these records were difficult or as a practical matter impossible for a private citzen to get without the assistance of a lawyer. [The implications for personal privacy in making such public information readily available to anyone is beyond the scope of this presentation, but the WWW generates additional ways to track people. Note the number of cookies that this site sets before allowing you access to each page. To see the cookies being set on your computer in Netscape go to Options|Network Preferences|Protocols and check Show an Alert Before  Accepting a Cookie.]
  
  
  
• Meta-information - is information about information. In the print world, things such as table of contents, bibliograpies and indexes are meta-information. Because of the WWW's ability to not only list the sources of information, but also to link directly to the information anywhere in the world, meta-information has become much more important.
1. Court TV Small Business Center (forms) - organizes a variety of forms and documents found on law firm websites across the country. Court TV provides a valuable service simple by putting up this set of links information on other websites that contain  forms useful to small business. The WWW creates a wide variety of ways to organize legal information from sources across the U.S. and around the world which lawyers and law firms have made available.  The information provided is useful not only to clients, and prospective clients, but also to people who, because of physical location, income or prior relation with an attorney, will never become a client. Interestingly, one of the largest group of viewers of the legal information on law firm websites is other lawyers.
2. Jurist project - is another excellent example of the potential effects of meta-information on law. The Jurist project organizes websites created by law professors from across the nation. It also provides the means for them to exchange both professional information and the informal banter that does much to define the culture of an institution. It is not difficult to see how such a website, that covers everything from Real Property to Internet Law, could be organized into a virtual law school with no specific physical location. The Internet gives greater power to individuals, law professors in this case, and will result in institutions examining the core reasons for maintaining there present real world operations.
3. Pace Second Circuit Courts of Appeals - Pace Law School is one of several law schools that have joined together to put all federal circuit court decisions on-line. These law schools are to be highly commended for what they have done. Just as the paper case reporters make the practice of law based on precedent possible, these electronic records make these precedents available to everyone. The basic sources of law are no longer only in a few thousand law school and courthouse libraries, but available to anyone. And, even better than in the physical libraries, the on-line cases are electronically searchable just as they are on the expensive and proprietary services. Some consequences of this arrangement:
• Legal case information is becoming a commodity. People will use a free service, unless Thomson and Reed Elsivier can provide valuable enhancements, such as keynotes or other "services" with perceived value.
• Even with enhancements, the price that Thomson and Reed Elsivier charge for their basic service has dropped and will drop substantially over the next five years, however, due to lower distribution costs, the profits on such services will not drop in lock stop with income, the Thomson and Reed Elsivier duopoly should maintain high profit margins on this public domain information over the next few years.
• The judicial branch alone among the three branches of federal government has to date been a miserable failure in providing information and services to the public.
  
  
3. The World Wide Web can be searched quickly
1. Altavista - Information of all types, whether public records, meta-information, court cases, law firm articles or discilplinary actions can now be searched quickly as can much of the rest of the information available on the Internet. Millions of people each day are looking for information and are being directed to such legal information, often without actively seeking such information. For example an Altavista search for "Francis A. Duckworth" returned only one hit, to a list of Arizona Bar attorney disciplinary actions.
2. Arizona Bar's Attorney disciplinary actions - reported that a Francis A. Duckworth was disbarred on 05/22/96, however, this page no longer resides at the address it did on March 20, 1998; a common problem on the WWW. The search engine did not return any hits showing a reinstatement, but this may be reason the page was taken down. In other cases information about discilplinary actions will continue to make available information to anyone searching the proper name. In a wired world, discilplinary actions are much more public and can carry much more social opprobrium and future consequences. Also anything you say or that is said about you on the WWW, in a newsgroup, or an archived email discussion group, whether accurate or not, can be found by your friends, your enemies and curious significant others.
4. New services can be delivered interactively
1. Robinson & Cole's Deregulation.com - is an example of how law firms are redefining client services and marketing. [N.B. This site was designed by Web Counsel.] Most law firm websites consist of brochureware and frequently shovelware articles. Brochureware is simply the law firm brochure coded in the lingua franca of the WWW, Hypertext Markup Language ("HTML"), without significant enhancements. Shovelware is articles or text prepared for other media, usually paper, and then shoveled onto the WWW with only the minimum changes needed to accommodate, HTML formatting. Unlike such brochureware sites, Deregulation.com provides a daily new service to clients, utility executives and government officials throughout the U.S., Canada and even Asia and Europe. The site also has a discussion group for these individuals to discuss the rapid utility changes in the Northeast. In addition, anyone can download Powerpoint presentaions and accompanying scripts that explain important deregulation matters. This site brings together many of the ways, but by no means all ways that law firms are enhancing client services, while making regular contact with prospective clients.
2. QuickForms Contract Online - Lawyers daily use a variety of software packages to prepare contracts and other legal forms. Taking such software packages and making them available to anyone via website interface is not difficult (although done properly it is not inexpensive either). In addition firms are putting forms on-line with accompanying instructions. Legal publishers with self-help books, such as Nolo Press, are making form completion interactive and other "publishers" are creating contract creation sites from scratch. If a form has only certain options for entering data, a website can be designed that will explain these options, provide the supporting law and precedence and in limited cases complete the form as well as the best attorney. Even in areas where the options are not so well defined, an interactive website can be designed to provide agreements as well crafted as many attorneys can draft, especially considering the attorney's economic constraints to deliver a reasonably priced legal service. This area promises to be a fertile ground for controversy as such interactive websites prepare contracts and other forms and are perceived as taking or actually do take business away from lawyers practicing in a traditional manner. Texas has already announced an investigation of Nolo Press. ("A Legal Press In Texas", Time, p. 51 8/3/98)
5. New ways to advocate for clients
1. Anderson Kill's Vacatur Center - is an example of how law firms can use the web to advocate for a particular class of client. [N.B. This website was designed by Web Counsel.] Representing insurance policyholders against insurance companies that refuse to honor their contracts of insurance is a major part of Anderson Kill's business. Insurance companies when they lose a precedent setting case on insurance policy interpretation will often offer the plaintiff an additional payment, if the plaintiff and insurance company can together convince the judge to vacate his or her decision. Many such cases are never reported, and even though this practice has been disallowed by the U.S. Supreme Court in certain circumstances it continues. The WWW gives Anderson Kill the ability to publicize this practice and the cases that disappeared from or were never reported in the case books. In addition, the site garnered lots of publicity in papers such as the Washington Post; on radio and television; in industry trade journals and in the cyber-media. The knowledge that this site stands ready to publicize any such additional cases, may well deter future efforts to exploit this practice.
2. NAAG State Tobacco Information Center - is an early example of how the web will be used to put forward positions in the big political case. The National Association of Attorney Generals website is just one of several websites dealing with the multiple suits, bill and proposed agreements to resolve tobacco companies liability. The tobacco companies have a website, as do plaintiffs attornies and other parties, such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Websites are ideally suited to explain complex issues to a large diversified audience. Complex arguments can be broken down into their component parts and delivered as requested by the viewer, who can skip information already known or information not of interest to that particular viewer.
3. Hagens Berman Class Action advocacy - is an example of a private firm starting to use their website to advocate for clients. Hagens Berman has brought a class action against Quincy Fertilizer who alleged distributed fertilizer contaminated with heavy metals. The website (which navigates poorly) tells the story of Duke and Jaycie Giraud the lead plaintiffs in a class action against Quincy Farm and Chemical.  The site also gives you a place to fill in information to join one of the firms class actions. With the new Securities Reform law, getting the largest number of plaintiffs, become a critical issue if the firm wants to the benefits of being lead counsel in securities class actions.

Next Litigation in a Wired World

Copyright 1998 Web Counsel, LLC