Thomson Reuters investment brings smart research to small law

SYDNEY, Feb. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Legal practitioners in boutique firms can now handle matters for clients faster than ever before, with a Thomson Reuters investment offering firms and sole practitioners an all-in-one approach to legal research. Built with input from practising lawyers and barristers in the profession, the solution provider's technology initiative is expected to provide relief to the small law market, who are known for spending excessive time on legal research for clients.

Carl Olson, Vice President of Legal Professionals at Thomson Reuters, Asia and Emerging Markets, said: "The small law segment no longer has to rely on the uncertainty of free legal research, as we have innovated with the industry to provide a smart alternative that is typically only afforded to large law firms. The profession can expect to see a rise in nimble law firms and barristers yielding speedier results for clients, due to the data retrieval benefits such as complex search algorithms and natural language search that Thomson Reuters' legal research technology offers."

Boutique firms and sole practitioners commonly draw on free legal research to represent their clients, which can turn clued-up prospective clients away from using their services. However, this new opportunity for the small law market to invest in verified legal research will provide additional assurance to existing and prospective clients.

Project leader, James Jarvis, who is Vice President of Legal Solutions at the company across Asia and Emerging Markets, said: "Good legal solutions ought to provide business-oriented results for lawyers and I am pleased our legal research software, Westlaw, can save practitioners up to four hours per week. Our design partners are the real heroes in the story here, where they have joined us on our digital transformation journey to overhaul research workflows."

Forget everything you know about searching for precedents and case law - the new software is a totally different experience for practitioners, and it's now easily accessible to the smaller end of town, with an additional suite of niche practice areas to tap into."

The design partners who helped inform the software developments include Danny King, Principal at Danny King Legal who founded her successful firm in 2011. Through partnering with Thomson Reuters, the benefits of the Thomson Reuters product to her employment law firm have been clear. King stated: "I have noticed my juniors have been spending less time looking for answers and more time conveying them to the team. As a boutique law firm, our resources are precious, so we see the new Westlaw as a smart investment for a nimble law firm like ours looking to take the burden out of manual knowledge work."

Corporate and litigation boutique law firm Principal, Mark Wilson founder of W Advisers, has said that Westlaw provides a compelling business case for firms like his across key knowledge areas. Westlaw in its newest form has also been praised by Melbourne-based barrister, David Kim, who noted that the marriage of the smart citator, built-in classification system and search function is a game-changer for how he will be able to serve his clients, now and in the future.

Thomson Reuters Westlaw is trusted by thousands of law firms and organisations in the Australian legal profession, offering unparalleled legal research capabilities in the cloud. You can find out more about Westlaw at https://legal.thomsonreuters.com.au/new-westlaw.

Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200221/2727020-1LOGO

SOURCE Thomson Reuters