Emily Allbon is a former academic law librarian who is now a Professor of Legal Education at City St George’s, University of London and the author of a number of books. She is known as the founder of the award-winning legal website Lawbore and as an expert in the field of Legal Design, both of which she discusses in some detail in this interview. She also gives LIM her views on the SQE and other matters concerning legal higher education.
In the latest in our series reviewing archived copies of Legal Information Management and The Law Librarian – as the journal was once known – LIM's co-editors leaf through the issues published in 1986.
This article outlines the work of the team at the Solicitor's Legal Information Centre (SLIC), which is based in Edinburgh and is the legal library and research service for the Scottish Government Legal Directorate and its associated offices. It will also examine some of the issues the team is currently dealing within its library, and it will go over some of its plans for the future. The author of the article, Frankie Hannah, is a law librarian at SLIC.
This article examines the recruitment challenges facing the legal information profession in law firms, particularly the lack of new graduate hires. By way of a literature review examining the role of the legal information professional itself, alongside analysis of 37 recent job specifications, the author identifies a significant barrier to entry: the profession's evolution toward knowledge management and commercial research has created requirements for the role that new graduates cannot meet. One example is that 94.6% of the positions considered require previous experience in similar environments, creating a situation where entry-level positions are inaccessible to new entrants. This article argues that without deliberate efforts by law firms to create genuine routes for graduates to enter the legal information profession, the profession runs the risk of shrinking and ultimately stagnating.
This short essay serves as a companion article to Regulation by a Thousand Entities: Navigating the US Business Law Research Landscape, by Janet Kearney and Alison Shea (see p 128). In this piece, an overview is provided of specialised courts in the US for business disputes, both commercial and corporate. It focuses on the role of the New York State Commercial Division and US District Court for the Southern District of New York. This article is based on the presentation given by the author at the BIALL Annual Conference in June 2025.
This article identifies two key areas in United States business law: finding business information from incorporation to court dockets and identifying enforcement actions against businesses. It will build upon previous discussions of US legal research more generally by focusing on these key aspects for business and corporate research. Readers will be able to analyse the US legal and regulatory landscape surrounding common issues involved in corporate and business legal research.
This article explores the outcomes of the BIALL Big Plastic Count, an initiative by the BIALL Sustainability Working Group to measure the amount and types of plastic packaging received by legal information professionals during library acquisitions. Over one week, participants tracked their plastic waste and completed an optional follow-up survey, providing insights into procurement habits, recycling practices and supplier performance. The results revealed significant variability in plastic waste generation and identified a number of barriers to sustainable practices. The article offers practical recommendations for suppliers, libraries and BIALL, focusing on clearer guidance, improved labelling and stronger collaboration to support more environmentally responsible procurement and waste management in legal libraries.
Set up in 2021, the BIALL Mentoring Scheme offers a member-to-member support framework, aimed at improving the professional development of legal information professionals across the organisation and even further afield. Here Henderson Waithe, the BIALL Mentoring Scheme Coordinator, talks us through the aims of the scheme, its eligibility requirements, how it works, the benefits it brings for both the mentors and the mentees - and, crucially, how someone might get involved.
Emily Allbon is a former academic law librarian who is now a Professor of Legal Education at City St George's, University of London and the author of a number of books. She is known as the founder of the award-winning legal website Lawbore and as an expert in the field of Legal Design, both of which she discusses in some detail in this interview. She also gives LIM her views on the SQE and other matters concerning legal higher education.
This paper provides an introduction to business registers outside of the United Kingdom for legal information professionals, through a discussion of corporate filing platforms in Hong Kong, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Jillian Saucier of Morrison Foerster provides an overview of what information is available and how to obtain it.
In this profile Dunstan Speight, Librarian at Lincoln's Inn Library, talks us through the rich history of this famous law library, describing some of the treasures contained within its wonderful collection and outlining its areas of expertise, before going on to explain how it's dealing with modern phenomena such as the rise in the use of generative AI.
Horizon scanning is a key service that research/library teams can offer in law firms to keep lawyers (and clients) up to date on news and legal developments. Horizon scanning is also a powerful marketing tool for the research/library team in raising its profile within a firm. This article looks at the different categories of horizon scanning in a law firm, who it is for and what content is monitored. The authors share best practice, benefits and challenges, and briefly look at AI's role in horizon scanning. The article is based on a presentation given at the BIALL Conference in June 2025 by Julie Ferris and Diane Stitt, Research Analysts at A&O Shearman, and Philippa McIntosh, Lead Marketing Manager at Vable.
This article is based on a plenary session lecture that was presented at the BIALL Annual Conference at the Eastside Rooms, Birmingham, on Wednesday 11 June 2025. Anne Coles and Helena Marshall delivered the session, co-authored by Wendy Johnson, which outlined the recent introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam, the most significant reform to solicitor training in the past three decades, and focused on the subsequent need to introduce robust legal research skills training within commercial firms. The authors discussed the challenges facing the legal information profession, including how to bridge the diverse knowledge gaps amongst trainee cohorts, and offered strategies for turning these difficulties into opportunities. The lecture then introduced practical advice for legal information professionals to develop flexible, innovative training sessions which address this evolving qualification landscape.
The 2025 BIALL Law Firm Library Survey provides a wide-ranging review of law firm libraries across the UK and Ireland. Now in its fourth edition, the survey presents findings on traditional concerns, such as print collections and library space, as well as the use of digital tools and the growing influence of artificial intelligence. In this article, BIALL President Sin & eacute;ad Curtin reports the findings, sets them in context and offers advice on the running of future surveys.
Competitive Intelligence (CI) research can be challenging and time-consuming, especially when dealing with large and complex data sets, diverse sources and dynamic scenarios. So how can information professionals leverage genAI (generative artificial intelligence) to enhance their CI research skills and services? In this article Ashurst's Lisa Paul and Susan Lamond share five use cases they tested using genAI for CI research. They will discuss the scenario, the data sources, the genAI features and functions, the outputs and outcomes, and the lessons learnt from each use case. This article is based on a presentation given by Lisa and Susan at the BIALL conference in June 2025.
The Faculty of Advocates and the Advocates Library are part of the oldest legal institutions in Scotland, and the Advocates Library is widely considered to be one of the best legal libraries in the UK. Here Natasha Aburrow-Jones (Systems Librarian) and Beth Fraser (Arts, Heritage & Engagement Co-ordinator), Advocates Library, Faculty of Advocates, take us through the history of the institutions, the treasures they house, the work that they do, and the plans for the future.
This article provides a comprehensive guide to the Irish legal system and the key resources available to law librarians. It outlines the structure of the Irish government and judiciary, the legislative process, and the sources of legislation and case law. It also highlights essential commentary, commercial databases, and free online tools, offering practical insights for legal information professionals working with Irish law. It is based on a presentation at the BIALL 55th Annual Conference 2025.
This article introduces the Welsh Government Publications Archive: a resource developed to preserve and promote public access to archived government publications which is maintained by the Welsh Government Knowledge and Library Services. It discusses the statutory and practical requirements for preserving government publications under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 (RPSI). It outlines the evolution of the archive from a Publications Centre enabling access to predominantly physical publications to an online repository directing users to mostly scanned or born-digital publications. It highlights its role in supporting transparency, accountability and institutional memory. Examples of the Publications Archive's holdings are provided, and their relevance to Wales' devolution journey, policy landscape, public administration and economic development is highlighted. A recent upgrade to the archive is detailed, exploring collaborative efforts to improve its usability, adherence to standards, and the work done to ensure it remains a valuable resource for researchers, civil servants and the public.
