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5 Bus. L. Today 37 (1995-1996)
On-Line Services Help Busy Lawyers

handle is hein.journals/busiltom5 and id is 243 raw text is: THlE COMU TER ~ t WZA RO' On-line services help busy lawyers By Alan Goldberg Today's lawyer has more infor- mation available for research, and less time available for thinking, than ever before. Computer tech- nology, including on-line computer services, CD-ROM disks and the Internet, provide the lawyer with just about everything needed to find out what the law is or was. But computer technology, including facsimile transmissions and electronic mail, also encour- ages attempts at instant profession- al gratification and can deprive the lawyer of time to ponder and reflect. Nevertheless, the age of technolawyering is here, and the law will never be the same. And on-line services can no longer be ignored: Sooner or later, most lawyers will be on line. Many lawyers are finding that commercial on-line computer ser- vices provide valuable information and a means of rapid conmmunica- tion. Each of the major on-line ser- vices has something for any lawyer, but none has everything for every lawyer. Prices tend to be pretty much the same, give or take a cou- ple of dollars a month for mini- mum basic services (with the notable exception of CounselCon- nect, discussed below, on which this columnist is a discussion group moderator), and thus content If you have questions or connents about this colunn, contact Alan S. Goldberg at Goulston & Storrs, 400 Atlantic Ave., Boston, MA 02110-3333. Phone 617/482-1776; fax 617/,574-4112; Internet 5416769@MCIMail.coim is the distinguishing feature. Let's take a look at what's out there in cyberspace, and see how distin- guished the features really are. The biggest on-line service is now America Online, with several mil- lion members. There are an unbe- lievable number of features on AOL for everyone, and lawyers are no exception. Type in the keyword Legal, and you enter the Legal Information Network where those interested in legal issues and the practice of law meet to share infer- mation and experience. Message hoards, software libraries, the Court TV Law Center, a self-help law center, and a chat area are available. Under the prac- tice-areas heading, anyone can begin or follow a discussion on just about any topic involving a legal practice area. Anyone can be no one you would want to meet, of course; in other words, the encour- agement on AOL to use pseudo- nyms means that even the minimal comfort that one might feel when seeing what purports to be another lawyer's real name and law firm identification is usually unavail- able. Seminars and round tables include What about law makes you angry, and there is no short- age of discussants. On-line study groups, lawyer resumes, a special place for paralegals and other such material rounds out the discussion feature. Because AOL integrates a World ,;de Web Internet browsing fea- tore in the Legal Information Net- work, you can quickly go to Internet sites that are relevant to law practice and switch back and forth between the World Wide Web and the other AOL features. Maga- zines such as Business Week and newspapers such as The New York Times are available, with selected ABA SECTION OF BUSINESS LAW articles from current editions and even photographs. Special mention should be made of The Motley Fool feature of AOL. An odd but rather interesting collection of business-oriented informational sources, the Fool (its keyword) is ... sort of like a big desk with a ton of great stuff piled on top of it. The negative is that sometimes it's kind of hard to find things. The positive is that virtual- ly everything you pick up is a worthwhile read. There are mes- sage boards, stock quotes, industry analyses, a guide to selected favorite places on AOL with a busi- ness orientation and lots more - great for a business lawyer visiting cyberspace at 2 a.m. on sleepless nights. Based on a review of its features that likely would be of interest to lawyers, AOL is a good, solid, mid- dIe place to be. Mostly light on substance, largely hcavy on gossip, and pretty much what one would expect from the apple pie of on- line services - something for everyone but not a lot of depth for each one. And Please wait while we add new art to America Online has to go down in cyber- history as one of the most irritating messages to see and to see again, and it appears again and again dur- ing every AOL session. Neverthe- less, AOL still has the best and easiest to use look and feel of any on-line service and its Internet connection at 28,800 bps is easy to use and well-integrated with the rest of the AOL features. Prodigy, another of the Big Three commercial general interest on-line services, has a jump to feature that will take you to the Legal Exchange BB that lists elder law, employment law, lawyer jokes, and criminal law among its selections. The messages seem to

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