Monday, May 25, 2009
JD Supra Unveils 'Law Centers'

The document-sharing site JD Supra will formally launch a new feature tomorrow that makes finding and following information on specific topics much easier. The new addition -- already available on the site -- is a series of Law Centers that organize documents by topics and areas of interest. These topics are arranged under four main categories -- Business, Personal, Government and Law Practice -- with various subcategories under each.

Within each section are featured news articles along with the latest articles and legal documents posted to JD Supra that relate to the topic. Contributors are also highlighted. Each section also has its own Twitter feed where you can follow new additions. (Here, for example, is the feed for the Labor & Employment section.) I'd love to see an RSS feed also, but I couldn't find any evidence of one.

JD Supra founder Aviva Cuyler said in an e-mail that the new feature "makes the content much more accessible, and also allows visitors to see the latest cases and analysis on timely legal issues in their areas of interest at a glance. This also allows us to really showcase the contributors who are providing content on particular subjects."

You can see other posts I've written about JD Supra collected here.

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posted by Robert Ambrogi @ 9:08 PM, , links to this post

Thursday, November 20, 2008
JD Supra Launches Facebook App

The document-sharing site JD Supra is launching an application for Facebook today that lets its members stream their documents and professional profile information into their Facebook profiles. This means that if you contribute documents to JD Supra, you can get additional exposure by having them show up in Facebook.

The application lets members display their documents in either or both of two ways -- a box in the left-hand column of a member's Facebook profile that displays the latest documents or a "My Docs" tab that displays all your documents as well as your JD Supra professional profile. Needless to say, you must be a JD Supra member and have contributed documents for this to work. There is no cost to join.

JD Supra is a site where legal professionals can share documents -- court filings, decisions, legal forms, articles, alerts, newsletters and the like. Contributors get to publish and highlight their best work and others get the benefit of free access to their contributions. I wrote about its launch in February 2008.

The advantage to an application such as this is that it gives you more bang for your buck, so to speak. By allowing you to contribute information to one site and have that information stream across multiple sites, you reach a broader audience and gain that much more exposure.

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posted by Robert Ambrogi @ 8:47 AM, , links to this post

Monday, February 25, 2008
JD Supra Launches Tomorrow

I first wrote in August about the planned launch of JD Supra and then told you in November that it had scheduled its launch for December. Now word comes from founder Aviva Cuyler that tomorrow, Feb. 26, will be the official launch, and this time it looks as if all systems are go.

In my November preview, I wrote:
"Based on the preview, the site is part legal networking, part lawyer directory, part document repository and part legal research service. The basic idea is that lawyers use the site as a place to post court filings, favorable decisions, jury verdicts and articles they have written. They can also set up free profiles of themselves and their firms. Their profiles will link to the documents they have contributed and their documents will link back to their profiles.

"The plan is that this database of contributions will become a resource for other lawyers, consumers and the news media. Lawyers will use it for research, consumers will use it to find lawyers who have worked on cases similar to theirs, and reporters will use it to get information about new court filings and opinions and to find sources. It will be free for lawyers to create listings and post documents. For a fee, lawyers will be able to 'enhance' their profiles with additional features, such as hyperlinks to blogs and Web sites."
Based on a quick look this evening, it looks as if that description still holds. Since I wrote it, the site has built out its collection of documents and its roster of contributors. The latter now includes the law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo; the Cato Institute; and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I will write more about the site when I have more time to dig in.

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posted by Robert Ambrogi @ 10:11 PM, , links to this post

Sunday, November 11, 2007
JD Supra Plans December Launch


I wrote here in August about the planned launch of JD Supra, a new legal site with the premise, "Give content, get noticed." A preview site has been up ever since, but now the site's founder, San Francisco business lawyer Aviva Cuyler, tells me the site will launch in full operating mode in December. She also plans to launch a blog soon to track the site's development.

Based on the preview, the site is part legal networking, part lawyer directory, part document repository and part legal research service. The basic idea is that lawyers use the site as a place to post court filings, favorable decisions, jury verdicts and articles they have written. They can also set up free profiles of themselves and their firms. Their profiles will link to the documents they have contributed and their documents will link back to their profiles.

The plan is that this database of contributions will become a resource for other lawyers, consumers and the news media. Lawyers will use it for research, consumers will use it to find lawyers who have worked on cases similar to theirs, and reporters will use it to get information about new court filings and opinions and to find sources. It will be free for lawyers to create listings and post documents. For a fee, lawyers will be able to "enhance" their profiles with additional features, such as hyperlinks to blogs and Web sites.

Cuyler says the idea for the site came to her while working late one night on a brief. The idea is good, but the key to the site's success will be in whether lawyers contribute – and particularly whether they contribute pleadings and briefs. We can find court decisions and articles elsewhere, but useful and relevant court filings remain harder to find. To have these readily available and easily searchable would be a boon.

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posted by Robert Ambrogi @ 10:03 PM, , links to this post

Thursday, August 02, 2007
JD Supra Prepares to Launch

Larry Bodine gives the heads up on a new Web site he is helping to launch, JD Supra. The idea, apparently, is to promote yourself and your law practice by contributing content to the site. Bodine writes that he and Aviva Cuyler, a California lawyer, cofounded the site "to give members of the legal community an effective and convenient place to showcase their work and their successes." Doing that, Bodine says, will help members get new clients, earn national recognition and media attention, and get access to a free legal research resource.

Although the Web page is up, so far it is just collecting e-mail addresses of anyone interesting in learning more. Pre-register and contribute documents before the site's formal launch, Bodine says, and you will be promoted on the site as a "founding contributor."

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posted by Robert Ambrogi @ 6:09 PM, , links to this post