The document discusses the implications of open access to law and the changing landscape for legal professionals and publishers. It highlights the increased availability of legal information and how this impacts the public's engagement with law, noting a shift in legal research practices and information consumption. The document also addresses the challenges and opportunities for lawyers in adapting to these changes, particularly regarding marketing and serving underserved audiences.

1. Is there a WebMD effect?
open access to law, the public, and the legal profession
11/03/09 -- Cornell Law School Alumni SFO -- Margolis & Tisman LLC

2. During the last revolution, in the
15th Century....
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

3. During the last revolution, in the
15th Century....
✤ [Coke offers the law in English, not Law French] “so that the nobility
and gentry may understand.... seeing that ignorance of the law is no
excuse”
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

4. During the last revolution, in the
15th Century....
✤ [Coke offers the law in English, not Law French] “so that the nobility
and gentry may understand.... seeing that ignorance of the law is no
excuse”
✤ ..and in the same volume...
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

5. During the last revolution, in the
15th Century....
✤ [Coke offers the law in English, not Law French] “so that the nobility
and gentry may understand.... seeing that ignorance of the law is no
excuse”
✤ ..and in the same volume...
✤ [law should not be translated] "lest the unlearned, by bare reading
without right understanding might suck out errors, and trusting in
their conceit, might endamage themselves, and sometimes fall into
destruction"
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6. Why is any of this important now?
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7. Why is any of this important now?
✤ Open-access publishers need better understanding of their impact.
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8. Why is any of this important now?
✤ Open-access publishers need better understanding of their impact.
✤ Commercial publishers need to understand a changed marketplace.
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

9. Why is any of this important now?
✤ Open-access publishers need better understanding of their impact.
✤ Commercial publishers need to understand a changed marketplace.
✤ Lawyers need to understand the informed client
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

10. Why is any of this important now?
✤ Open-access publishers need better understanding of their impact.
✤ Commercial publishers need to understand a changed marketplace.
✤ Lawyers need to understand the informed client
✤ Law firms need to understand the marketing implications of new
media and new audiences
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11. So, what’s different now?
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12. So, what’s different now?
✤ The breadth, depth, and quality of what’s available have increased
enormously
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13. So, what’s different now?
✤ The breadth, depth, and quality of what’s available have increased
enormously
✤ Patterns of information consumption have changed
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

14. So, what’s different now?
✤ The breadth, depth, and quality of what’s available have increased
enormously
✤ Patterns of information consumption have changed
✤ More sophisticated appreciation of law as an economic engine
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

15. So, what’s different now?
✤ The breadth, depth, and quality of what’s available have increased
enormously
✤ Patterns of information consumption have changed
✤ More sophisticated appreciation of law as an economic engine
✤ We’re living in an administrative state (and have been for years)
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16. Who’s putting law on the Web?
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17. Who’s putting law on the Web?
✤ Law originators: courts, legislatures, agencies
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18. Who’s putting law on the Web?
✤ Law originators: courts, legislatures, agencies
✤ Commercial publishers
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19. Who’s putting law on the Web?
✤ Law originators: courts, legislatures, agencies
✤ Commercial publishers
✤ LIIs and other open-access providers
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20. Who’s putting law on the Web?
✤ Law originators: courts, legislatures, agencies
✤ Commercial publishers
✤ LIIs and other open-access providers
✤ Regulated communities
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21. Who’s putting law on the Web?
✤ Law originators: courts, legislatures, agencies
✤ Commercial publishers
✤ LIIs and other open-access providers
✤ Regulated communities
✤ Those who sell compliance solutions (goods and services)
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22. Who’s putting law on the Web?
✤ Law originators: courts, legislatures, agencies
✤ Commercial publishers
✤ LIIs and other open-access providers
✤ Regulated communities
✤ Those who sell compliance solutions (goods and services)
✤ People who want to reach lawyers
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23. What is the public doing with it?
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24. What is the public doing with it?
✤ The “public” is at least two publics, maybe more, and there are a lot
of them.
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25. What is the public doing with it?
✤ The “public” is at least two publics, maybe more, and there are a lot
of them.
✤ They’re not doing what lawyers do when lawyers do legal research.
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26. What is the public doing with it?
✤ The “public” is at least two publics, maybe more, and there are a lot
of them.
✤ They’re not doing what lawyers do when lawyers do legal research.
✤ Contextualizing/assessing position/managing risk
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27. What is the public doing with it?
✤ The “public” is at least two publics, maybe more, and there are a lot
of them.
✤ They’re not doing what lawyers do when lawyers do legal research.
✤ Contextualizing/assessing position/managing risk
✤ Taking cross-bearings on other information sources -- their lawyers,
for example
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

28. What is the public doing with it?
✤ The “public” is at least two publics, maybe more, and there are a lot
of them.
✤ They’re not doing what lawyers do when lawyers do legal research.
✤ Contextualizing/assessing position/managing risk
✤ Taking cross-bearings on other information sources -- their lawyers,
for example
✤ Subliminally getting ideas about price and value
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29. How do we assess impact?
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30. How do we assess impact?
✤ Behavioral study of legal research
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31. How do we assess impact?
✤ Behavioral study of legal research
✤ Formal study of LII impact and best practices
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32. How do we assess impact?
✤ Behavioral study of legal research
✤ Formal study of LII impact and best practices
✤ Evaluation of lawyer marketing practices and their effectiveness
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33. What does a service like WebMD
really do?
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34. What does a service like WebMD
really do?
✤ Same duality as Coke: promotes understanding, but risks harm
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35. What does a service like WebMD
really do?
✤ Same duality as Coke: promotes understanding, but risks harm
✤ Provides support for people with obscure conditions, but...
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

36. What does a service like WebMD
really do?
✤ Same duality as Coke: promotes understanding, but risks harm
✤ Provides support for people with obscure conditions, but...
✤ ...may create “cyberchondria” in those who don’t
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

37. What does a service like WebMD
really do?
✤ Same duality as Coke: promotes understanding, but risks harm
✤ Provides support for people with obscure conditions, but...
✤ ...may create “cyberchondria” in those who don’t
✤ Provides routine answers to routine questions
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

38. What does a service like WebMD
really do?
✤ Same duality as Coke: promotes understanding, but risks harm
✤ Provides support for people with obscure conditions, but...
✤ ...may create “cyberchondria” in those who don’t
✤ Provides routine answers to routine questions
✤ Aggregates information from commercial providers
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

39. What does a service like WebMD
really do?
✤ Same duality as Coke: promotes understanding, but risks harm
✤ Provides support for people with obscure conditions, but...
✤ ...may create “cyberchondria” in those who don’t
✤ Provides routine answers to routine questions
✤ Aggregates information from commercial providers
✤ By way of illustration....
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40. Questions lawyers will need to
answer
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41. Questions lawyers will need to
answer
✤ What about the “latent legal market”?
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42. Questions lawyers will need to
answer
✤ What about the “latent legal market”?
✤ What must lawyers do as purveyors of legal information?
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43. Questions lawyers will need to
answer
✤ What about the “latent legal market”?
✤ What must lawyers do as purveyors of legal information?
✤ What new opportunities exist?
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44. The latent legal market
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45. The latent legal market
✤ First articulated by Richard Susskind, a British “lawyer-futurist”
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46. The latent legal market
✤ First articulated by Richard Susskind, a British “lawyer-futurist”
✤ Key perception is that there is a large audience that is underserved
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

47. The latent legal market
✤ First articulated by Richard Susskind, a British “lawyer-futurist”
✤ Key perception is that there is a large audience that is underserved
✤ Extensively reinterpreted to emphasize price barriers, esp. for the
middle class
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

48. The latent legal market
✤ First articulated by Richard Susskind, a British “lawyer-futurist”
✤ Key perception is that there is a large audience that is underserved
✤ Extensively reinterpreted to emphasize price barriers, esp. for the
middle class
✤ Barriers of understanding/comfort are possibly more important for
even more audiences
SFO alumni - 2009-11-03 - Margolis & Tisman LLC lii

49. What must lawyers do as legal-
information purveyors?
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50. What must lawyers do as legal-
information purveyors?
✤ What goes above the 800 number?
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51. What must lawyers do as legal-
information purveyors?
✤ What goes above the 800 number?
✤ What do clients want or expect to see?
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52. What must lawyers do as legal-
information purveyors?
✤ What goes above the 800 number?
✤ What do clients want or expect to see?
✤ An illustration: Joy Blumkin vs. Nolo Press vs. Saul Elnadav vs.
Green and Seifter
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53. What new opportunities exist?
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54. What new opportunities exist?
✤ Attorney marketing to J. Random Citizen
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55. What new opportunities exist?
✤ Attorney marketing to J. Random Citizen
✤ Attorney-to-professional marketing
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56. What new opportunities exist?
✤ Attorney marketing to J. Random Citizen
✤ Attorney-to-professional marketing
✤ Attorney-to-attorney marketing
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57. What new opportunities exist?
✤ Attorney marketing to J. Random Citizen
✤ Attorney-to-professional marketing
✤ Attorney-to-attorney marketing
✤ All of these work well alongside primary and secondary law
resources
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