Winter 2006 Volume 17 Issue 2
entire issue in Adobe Acrobat format
by Terry Psarras, Carlton Fields, Tampa, FL
FEATURES
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS: A PARADIGM FOR SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION WITH ADMINISTRATORS
by Carolyn P. Ahearn, Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Washington, DC
REMARKS ON PROFESSIONAL LEGAL MANAGEMENT WEEK, OCTOBER 3-7, 2005
by John Michalik, Association of Legal Administrators, Lincolnshire, IL
EXECUTIVE READING: LAW FIRM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS / MANAGING PARTNERS
Compiled by Patricia Orr, Dykema Gossett, PLLC, Detroit, MI
A FORMER LAW SCHOOL LIBRARIAN LOOKS AT MOVING FROM ACADEMIA TO THE LAW FIRM
by Nancy Tuohy, Clausen Miller PC, Chicago, IL
FREE TAX ALERT SERVICES
by Martin Korn, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, Los Angeles, CA
RESOURCE REVIEW
by Andrea Hamilton, Faegre & Benson, Boulder, CO
Terry Psarras, Carlton Fields, Tampa, FL
Think about the vast majority of our scheduling and time:
Then, we
• Do the same thing day after day
• Go to the same events weekend after weekend
• Then on Mondays, we start over again
Admittedly, not all of us will find the above routine representative of our lives, but most of us can see part of ourselves in this routine.
Routine is something most of us find comforting, but where is the dividing line between routine and rut? And, if routine becomes a rut, when does being in a rut become like being in a grave?
This issue of PLL Perspectives is dedicated to our relationship with our administrators. PLL is reaching out to the Association of Legal Administrators. What can you do to create a change, small or large, in your environment?
Dealing with our administrators and other administrative personnel at work can often become such a routine. You have been working at a place for a few years. The early thrills of a new job, a new city, a new firm's habits and traditions have worn off by now. You have established relationships with most if not all the other administrative folks at your firm, and those may not be changing much. Then an issue arises. Maybe you are asked to trim staff, trim collections, or your budget. Maybe the recovery of your online research is an issue again, for the umpteenth time in your career. My first response often, is "crap, here we go again!" My comfort level at doing things the way I normally do takes over, and I assume this is the same thing all over again. Maybe it is; maybe it is not. How do you prevent the routine from becoming a rut? What can you do to look at things from a different point of view?
Be open to change, as change is the only thing that remains constant in today's business environment. I left my previous firm after an eight year career, and boy did I think I knew all about how firms operate and how things are done. Boy, I was so wrong! I have had to learn to do a lot of things differently than I did at my old firm. Change can be uncomfortable, but no change can be that as well.
Try to put yourself in someone else's shoes. That may be the Firm Administrator, who is under pressure to reduce costs or raise bill-backs and reimbursements. Sure, you, as the librarian in the trenches, know exactly why the recovery rates are falling, and maybe you even wrote a glorious email to that effect in times past. Rest assured that your administrator either read and did not comprehend that email, read it and understood it but has forgotten what it was about, or is bombarded with so many other issues that in the three days a year she or he may have to spend a few minutes thinking about recovery rates, she needs you to do a better job in refreshing her memory.
That may also be the network gal or guy, who does not understand what your research related needs and desires are. How much do you understand about the work environment and challenges she or he faces each day? How can you reconcile the knowledge and expectation gap so that each gets what he needs from this hopefully symbiotic relationship? Again, I can only draw form my experience; but since I report to the Director of IT, Library and Litigation Support Services (and have run the firm's Litigation Support Department for 18 months), I have had the opportunity of being exposed to some of what our more technical brethren in law firms face. My willingness to get involved and get dirty with them smoothes the way so my subsequent requests for assistance are received in a friendly rather than an antagonistic manner.
Self Promotion is a concept both rather alien to a lot of us, and also very necessary in today's environment. A lot of us tend to stick to more traditional views of our profession, which do not include the ability to make sure that others know what we do. Think about how much you know about exactly what your HR Director does or your Comptroller. How much do you really know? Likewise, they will never know enough, so the more opportunity you can get to promote yourself, the better off you are.
Step Back and take a good look; see if you can change anything. Try to be open- minded about issues that arise, as hard as that may sometimes be. Take a vacation; and while you are away from the office, take a frank look at what you do and how you do it. Make time to read up on your profession. Go to meetings and conventions, local, regional or national, and mingle with others in the industry. Share ideas and information. Sometimes you get some creative solutions, a different person's answer to the same questions we all face. If not, at least sometimes it feels nice to know others are experiencing the same issues you do. You are not alone.
So next time you face an issue at work, remember this little aphorism. Now if you will excuse me, I am going back to the same old work I have always done and will always continue to do… :-)
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS: A PARADIGM FOR SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION WITH ADMINISTRATORS
Carolyn P. Ahearn, Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Washington, DC
Mind your own business? That hardly sounds like good advice for successful interactions with firm management! Minding one’s business in the usual sense, however, is not what I’m hinting at here. Rather, I believe that to build and maintain productive, solid working relationships with administrators, firm librarians can benefit from viewing their libraries from the perspective of a small business owner. After all, don’t both entrepreneurs and firm librarians spend time strategizing, supervising, prioritizing, budgeting, marketing and delivering “the goods”? And don’t both do all this in order to successfully meet the needs of their customer base, in our case, the attorneys and administration? And perhaps most important, don’t entrepreneurs and librarians face the ultimate risk if performance proves lacking? The business folds and we lose our jobs! So why shouldn’t we approach our libraries as our own small businesses?
The internet is replete with articles about building and maintaining a successful small business, and I encourage law firm librarians to read some of these articles. One thread running through much of the literature is the importance of communication to the success of any business. Whether you sell widgets or library services you need to communicate effectively to those folks who ultimately control your success or failure – your customers. Communication, both written and oral, is an essential skill for success.
Savvy entrepreneurs spend a great deal of time creating, revising and following a detailed business plan that clearly communicates the goals and objectives as well as the accomplishments and initiatives of the business. The plan helps keep the business on track and moving in thoughtful direction. It can also serve as justification for outside financial support from banks. In the case of libraries, in addition to providing a roadmap for action, a business style plan can be very effective at budget time if it conveys to management the connection between money spent or requested by the library and specific services and initiatives. This can go a long way toward dispelling the image of the library as a huge money pit with no tangible benefit for the firm.
Not only can a business plan be used to connect library services with budgets and marketing initiatives, but it can also be used as an objective measure of the librarian’s success at performance review time. It is nice to have folks say you’ve done a good job, but how much more is it to quantify your accomplishments as part of an overall plan tied to the goals of the organization?
When preparing your plan, remember to use business terms rather than library terms. For example, don’t list “upgrade ILS” as a goal. That does not mean much to anyone outside the library profession. Find other ways to demonstrate what you plan to do and convey what the value to the firm will be in terms of return on investment. If your goal is to improve library services, demonstrate how you intend to do it in the business plan. Remember to provide an executive summary of your plan. Few folks are likely to read an epic from cover to cover but a summary presentation of the most salient points can be easily presented to a number of management folks. And why not post it in the library for users to see? You might need to modify it a bit for public consumption, but goals and accomplishments aren’t usually sensitive. Don’t forget to be aware of your audience and be sure your plan is well reasoned, well written and has with no typos or grammatical errors. Lawyers are the consummate editors and often focus on the errors in a document to the exclusion of the content.
Thriving small business owners realize the importance of oral communications in addition to their business plan. Successful oral communications require a good understanding of the customer to whom information is being conveyed, a belief in the product or service being sold. Just as an entrepreneur needs to understand his customer on all levels, librarians benefit from a detailed understanding of the firm. Sometimes this “inside” information is difficult to obtain. Often librarians are not routinely made privy to the economic condition of the firm or perhaps not even the next “hot” practice area the firm plans to develop. Use your research skills, creativity and persistence honed on the job to learn as much as you can about your work environment. Offer to meet with practice groups to share information about the library and learn what they are doing. Exchange information with other firm managers who might have knowledge in areas you don’t. Ask your boss questions and explain your reasons for inquiring. Make the connection between understanding the firm and being better able to support and serve it.
It also pays to have a solid understanding of the specific communication preferences of your boss, arguably your most important customer! Does she like to get full-blown reports on issues, a short memo, or maybe just a visit to explain the new initiative you’d like to undertake? Does your committee like to meet regularly or only when there is something big on the table? And what do they consider “big”? Understanding these firm currents can go a long way toward helping whatever you want to communicate be received in a positive way.
Successful entrepreneurs all share a passion for their product and convey this to everyone with whom they come in contact. Librarians can do this! Have confidence in your skills as a professional. Market your library and sell your services at every opportunity. Communicate your latest initiative or even your newest purchase in the elevator with an associate in that practice group. When someone casually asks “what’s new in the library,” be prepared to respond with something that shows what you’ve accomplished or what you plan to undertake. Remember, it is your business – its success depends greatly on how well you plan, promote, cultivate and ultimately communicate about it!
REMARKS ON PROFESSIONAL LEGAL MANAGEMENT WEEKOCTOBER 3-7, 2005
John Michalik, Association of Legal Administrators, Lincolnshire, IL
“SYNOPSIS OF REMARKS BY ASSOCIATION OF LEGAL ADMINISTRATORS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JOHN MICHALIK AT THE PLL/SIS BREAKFAST AT THE AALL ANNUAL CONFERENCE – JULY 17, 2005, SAN ANTONIO, TX
Managing any business, let alone one in the legal field, has never been easy. In law firms, corporate legal departments, and other legal organizations, effective management takes broad knowledge and expertise. It requires diverse business skills and abilities. It takes dedication, hard work, patience, and perseverance. And management in legal organizations is uniquely impacted by the fact that the practice of law is a service profession where, in addition to all the standard challenges, business decisions and management must mesh with service to clients, high degrees of accountability and public trust, and an intellectually charged and demanding environment.
"Success" in business, including the practice and business of the law, can be characterized or defined in many ways and contexts. One important definition is that "success" is good management in action, at all levels and in all areas. Good management is professional management, and the importance of that concept to the success of the business of the law is what led ALA to establish Professional Legal Management Week (PLMW).
Professional Legal Management Week is about awareness, understanding, education, and recognition. It is about conveying what men and women in the legal management profession – whether their responsibilities are in finance, technology, the firm library and resources, or any other area – do on a daily basis. It is an opportunity for education and for increasing the management understanding and business "savvy" of everyone in the organization – among other things, this special week can be an impetus for better in-firm education about how your firm runs and how and why your library and its services function. "Man" is the principal syllable in "management" and PLMW is in part tied to recognition of the human side of business success.
We at ALA are pleased that all of the other major legal management related organizations in the U.S. have joined with us as co-sponsors of PLMW. Those groups are:
• American Association of Law Libraries
• ABA Law Practice Management Section
• International Legal Technology Association
• International Paralegal Management Association
• Legal Marketing Association
• National Association for Law Placement
All of these groups have united in promoting and recognizing Professional Legal Management Week, including through their participation in a joint information-sharing Web site which is now up and live at www.plmw.org.
PLMW is a unique opportunity for the members of the Private Law Libraries SIS to join with the Executive Directors, Managing Partners, and others in their firms to use the week for firm-wide education in what management in a law firm is all about. It is a great way to demonstrate the value, not just in books but in client and firm service, that librarians bring to the successful management of the law firm.
WHAT LIBRARIANS CAN DO TO BE SURE THAT ADMINISTRATORS, MANAGING PARTNERS AND OTHERS UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE VALUABLE ASSETS AND HOW WHAT YOU DO DOES AND CAN CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR FIRM'S BOTTOM LINE
It is interesting that earlier this week, in a law.com article, Heather Smith of The American Lawyer, looked back ten years to 1995 when Baker & McKenzie laid-off all 10 members of its main library staff in Chicago. That action, as some will recall, prompted the next issue of the AALL magazine to bear a funereal black cover and also led AALL to form a Task Force on the Value of Law Librarians in the Information Age.
A lot has happened in the ensuing decade, and the most recent ALM survey of Am Law 200 librarians shows not only that budgets are increasing but also that, increasingly, librarians are contributing to firm bottom lines. Librarians now spend more time doing advanced research, and many firms are now billing for that professional, skilled time. Thus, investing in libraries and library staff has – as the counterpoint to Baker & McKenzie's action in 1995 – become more palatable to partners. All good news for librarians, who are far from being marginalized.
What can I add to that picture? Well, even before Heather Smith's article came out I posed the question to the members of ALA's Large Firm Administrators Caucus – which is kind of a special interest group of ours comprised of the principal administrators in law firms of over 100 lawyers. We have close to 300Caucus members, and they maintain a very active ListServ that contains daily inquiries and extended discussion threads on topics ranging from very sophisticated strategic planning approaches to more mundane, but occasionally more pressing, issues like whether tile or carpet is best in the firm cafeteria. When I posed the question "In what ways can librarians make firm administrators more aware of their 'asset value' and how their endeavors can be additions to their firms' bottom lines" I got a flood of responses.
From all of those, I selected six that seem to synthesize and summarize what everyone else was saying, and I'd like to simply read those to you as comments that reflect some of what your bosses are thinking:
• "One thing of great importance is that librarians understand, and help us understand, the true cost of various services – not just the price but real cost effectiveness; what the service means to lawyers and the firm; what it means in client service; and how it is justified in terms of return to clients and to the bottom line."
• "I have asked my librarian to help me in the business aspects of running the firm. In the past, his priorities were getting the information to the lawyers as quickly as he could at any cost. I think that together we have changed his priorities to get the information the lawyers need at the lowest cost and as quickly as he can. For example, I have my librarian track the 10 highest non-billable times of Westlaw/Lexis users each month and communicate with them to make sure the non-billable time was truly that and could not be billed – and often that process means he converts some of that time into the billable time it should be."
• "Our librarian frequently works with our Chief Marketing Officer helping her evaluate products for client/industry research. The librarian has also initiated regular meetings with our practice group leaders to discuss their information needs and address the library collections related to their groups. That has led to weeding, tweaking and, really, honing of our collections…. She also works closely with the associate development and training committee organizing in-house programs on efficient legal research. She has also worked hard to educate attorneys regarding the skills of the research librarians, and that has increased their billable time – while freeing attorneys for other work."
EXECUTIVE READING: LAW FIRM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS / MANAGING PARTNERS
Compiled by Patricia Orr, Dykema Gossett, PLLC, Detroit, MI
Regardless of title, the person entrusted with guiding a firm to success in the practice of law and financial profitability must be well informed in financial, corporate governance, and legal issues. To maintain “continuous partial attention” to all matters which may affect firm success, a CEO needs access to a variety of publications. This bibliography is a result of the generous contributions of PLL-SIS librarians who answered a simple question: “What do your CEO / Managing Partners read to assist them with their responsibilities?” Titles related to an attorney’s practice area have been omitted. My thanks to our colleagues who have contributed to this work!
ALAS Loss Prevention Manual. Attorneys’ Liability Assurance Society. Chicago, Ill., http://www.alas.com.
American Banker. American Banker, a division of Source Media. New York, NY, http://www.americanbanker.com/
American Lawyer. American Lawyer Media. New York, NY, http://www.americanlawyer.com/
AmLaw Tech. Annual survey publication of American Lawyer Magazine, http://www.alm.com/
BNA’s Daily Executive Report. Bureau of National Affairs. Washington DC, http://www.bna.com/products/corplaw/der.htm
Business Journal (for various cities). American City Business Journals. Charlotte, NC. [Daily business news for major American markets]. http://www.bizjournals.com/
Business Week, McGraw-Hill. New York, NY http://www.businessweek.com/
Compensation & Benefits for Law Offices. Institute of Management and Administration., New York, NY. http://www.ioma.com/issues/CBLO/
Corporate Counsel. Two publishers issue titles with this name.
American Lawyer Media: http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/index.jsp
Executive Press: http://www.section16.net/main.asp
Corporate Legal Times. [Effective Jan 1, 2006: becomes Inside Counsel.], Week’s Business Information.
Chicago, IL http://www.insidecounsel.com/
The Deal. The Deal, LLC. New York, NY http://www.thedeal.com
Delaware Law Weekly. American Lawyer Media. Philadelphia, PA http://www.delawarelawweekly.com/
Disaster Recovery Journal. published by Disaster Recovery Journal. St. Louis MO, http://www.drj.com/
Financial times, Financial Times. London and New York, NY. http://news.ft.com/home/us
Forbes. Forbes Magazine. New York, NY. http://www.forbes.com/
Fortune. Time, Inc. New York, NY. http://www.fortune.com/fortune
Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business School subsidiary of Harvard University. Cambridge, MA http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/hbr/hbr_home.jhtml
Human Resources Management. CCH. Chicago, Ill. http://hr.cch.com/human-resources/
Law Firm, Inc. http://www.alm.com/almPublication.asp?profile=3
Law Office Administrator. http://www.ardmorepublishing.com/loapage1.html
Law Office Management & Administration Report. Institute of Management & Administration. New York, NY http://www.ioma.com/issues/LOMAR/
Law Practice Management. Law Practice Management section, American Bar Association, Chicago, IL , http://www.abanet.org/lpm/magazine/articles/mag219_front.shtml
Law Technology News. American Lawyer Media http://www.lawtechnews.com/r5/home.asp
Law Week Colorado. Circuit Media, LLC. Littleton, CO http://www.lawweekcolorado.com/
The Lawyers Competitive Edge: the Journal of Law Office Economics & Management. ThomsonWest. Eagan, MN
http://west.thomson.com/store/product.asp?product_id=16485766&cookie%5Ftest=1
Legal Business (UK). http://www.legalbusiness.co.uk/index.htm
Legal Times. The Legal Times of Washington, DC
http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/index.jsp
Legal Week (UK). Incisive Media plc. London, UK http://www.legalweek.net/
LJN’s Legal Tech Newsletter. Law Journal News. http://www.lawjournalnewsletters.com/pub/ljn_legaltech/
Marketing the Law Firm. Law Journal News. http://www.lawcatalog.com/product_detail.cfm?productID=1097&setlist=0&return=search_results&
The Motivational Manager. Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc. Chicago, IL
http://www.managementresources.com/ME2/Sites/Default.asp
National Bar Association magazine. The National Bar Association. Washington, DC. http://www.nationalbar.org/magazine/index.shtml
National Law Journal. American Lawyer Media. New York, NY , http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/index.jsp
New York Times. The New York Times Co. New York, NY. http://www.nytimes.com/
Of Counsel: The Legal Practice Report. Aspen Publications. New York, NY, http://www.aspenpublishers.com
Partner’s Report. Institute of Office Management & Administration. New York, NY
Personnel Law Update. Council on Education in Management. Charlotte, NC http://www.counciloned.com/newsletters/newsletters_detail.asp?news_id=18
Report to Legal Management. Altman Weil, Inc. Milwaukee, WI and Newtown Square, PA
http://www.altmanweil.com/products/newsletters.cfm
U.S. Law Week. (Email version). Bureau of National Affairs. Washington DC.
http://www.bna.com/products/lit/uslw.htm
Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Co. New York, NY http://www.wsj.com
A FORMER LAW SCHOOL LIBRARIAN LOOKS AT MOVING FROM ACADEMIA TO THE LAW FIRM
by Nancy Tuohy, Clausen Miller PC, Chicago, IL
After Randall J. Thompson’s memoir of changing from firm to law school librarian appeared in the last issue of PLL Perspectives, I was asked if I thought the reverse commute came with as many surprises. When, after thirteen years as an academic law librarian, I was given the opportunity to head up a large law firm library; I hesitated because I feared that I had grown too soft to switch from the cushy, stress-free, ivory tower atmosphere of law school to the pressure-cooker, 24-hour rat race that academic librarians believed described big law firm life. Although I knew the myths about how easy it was being a law school librarian were untrue and even though I had worked as a solo firm librarian for two years early in my career, I was still intimidated by the stereotype.
Well, imagine my astonishment when I found that working in a large firm library was not very much different from working in academia after all. I think my law librarian colleagues were also very surprised when they asked me how I was bearing up under all the pressure and the increased tempo, and I told them I had hardly noticed any difference. I don’t know why so few librarians jump back and forth between the two camps; but if it is because they are afraid the jobs and the settings are so completely different that they wouldn’t fit in or thrive in the other, I hope I can dispel a few myths.
The frenetic pace of law firms versus the peace and quiet of the academic atmosphere.
There was a long line of students waiting outside of my door one day during my first year as reference
librarian in a law school and first time teaching legal research. Faculty members were calling in with research requests at the same time the Dean wanted me to meet with the new legal writing coordinator, and I think there was a construction project going on somewhere in the library. I have never been so busy in my life as I was in those days, and the workload did not abate until the summer when I had about six weeks to prepare for the next onslaught. There are very busy terms in the law firm too, especially the ten weeks of summer associates; but most of the time the workload is manageable, and I think it is because there are so many people one can call upon for help in a firm. Secretaries and file clerks will help you get organized; docket clerks and messengers will run around town to courts and agencies to pick up records and documents you need; paralegals can help with research and data management; computer specialists will help with technology; human resources hires the candidate you choose with a minimum of fuss; and accountants will help you run your numbers and take your word for it that you need a check drawn immediately. Most law school libraries are part of a much larger bureaucracy that forces one to spend lots of time filling out paperwork just to get a petty cash reimbursement and spend months in committees making hiring decisions. The back-up helper is usually an undergraduate part-timer who is off duty when needed.
Big firm lawyers are demanding, arrogant and indifferent to your schedule and personal life.
My experience with big firm lawyers has been almost entirely positive. Of course there are some prima donnas as there are among law school faculty; but overall, lawyers want a balance between work and home just as much as librarians do. I spent many more late nights at my law school job than I have ever spent at the firm. There were evening classes until at least nine every night, and the library was staffed from seven in the morning until almost midnight. Librarians were expected to teach night classes along with the rest of the faculty, and evening students wanted to see professional librarians at night and on weekends. It is true that there is often a sense of urgency about requests that come in to the firm library that is rarely seen in the law school, but the good news is firm librarians can spend money to make things happen quickly. They can hire services and pay for couriers and investigators and subscribe to expensive online databases that make quick work of complicated “rush” projects.
The work is not as intellectually stimulating in the firm.
If the law school library presents more opportunities to research the history and philosophy of law, to
handle rare books and to study the law of other cultures and through other disciplines, then the firm advantage is the chance to follow a case from start to finish, to see real trials and appellate arguments and to work on research for actual clients. Research projects in either environment can be exciting and challenging and draw upon all of a librarian’s education and experience. There are tedious aspects to any job, and law libraries are no exception whether they are firm or academic. It can be very confusing giving the same research lecture to more than one section of students and tiresome to answer the same citation question year after year; but it is truly rewarding to work with law students every day, and that is the part of academic life I miss the most. On the other hand, while I no longer have the chance to specialize in public services as I did in the academy and I wish I could delegate more technical responsibilities, I do have a much better understanding of the business and economics of law practice and legal research. I also have summer associates and law student researchers under my supervision throughout the year in the firm, so I can still enjoy the enthusiasm of those just starting in this business.
Advancement is limited and professional development and teaching opportunities are rarer in the firm.
While I do think that universities provide more pathways to higher office for ambitious faculty and librarians and though there are few law firm librarians, if any, who end up running big firms, many of my colleagues have become firm administrators and otherwise taken on responsibilities that were never contemplated in library school - all without having a law degree. Our professional association offices and committees are regularly filled by law firm librarians, and the depth and usefulness of our literature owes a great deal to their contributions. Professional conference attendants from firms rarely have to pay their own expenses. Formal teaching opportunities, though a part of everyday life in the law school setting, are often available to firm librarians who teach as adjuncts in law and library schools. Firm librarians also have the flexibility to conduct informal sessions on any topic of interest merely by sending an email and reserving a conference room (lunch included). The chief advantages of teaching in the firm are the opportunities to tailor courses to individuals and small groups and to follow up to ensure the lessons are long lasting.
Every firm, just like every law school, has a different culture, and perhaps in some of them the bad stereotypes are true; but I would recommend either milieu without reservation. I do not think it takes a different kind of librarian to succeed in a law firm than it does in a law school, and I am very thankful I’ve had the opportunity to work in both settings at jobs I loved.
by Martin Korn, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, Los Angeles, CA
In the spring of 2004 I used the PLL list-serv to ask the question: “What free tax news alert service(s) do you use or are you aware of?” Much to my surprise, I did not receive a single response that really answered the question. The vast majority of responses were essentially “I’m out of the office,” leading me to believe that perhaps I had missed a memo announcing a profession-wide labor action. I received one response from a vendor directing me to that publisher’s free tax news – but it is a news web-page without an alert feature, therefore not an answer my question. The second most frequent number of responses were simple requests for a summary of responses. How disappointing that there weren’t any!
Here then is a report of tax news alert services that I’ve investigated on my own. At first I had planned to compare every news item from the free alerts with those from several commonly licensed and expensive tax databases. Once I began to compare everything, I found it was far too time consuming for my personal schedule, so instead I charted a single month (May 2005) of free tax alerts.
Free tax news that arrives via e-mail comes in two basic formats. Most services use a simple text format with either a linked abstract or the full text right up front. Others send an alert that consists of a very short message using a link to direct the reader to a more “sophisticated” PDF document. I view these two formats as arising from two distinct schools of thought. The first wants to provide the information simply and quickly, to put it out with a minimum of effort. The second concept regards the reader as requiring a more "professional" looking newsletter in order to read the material in a more efficient manner. I personally prefer the professional newsletter delivery method over the text message. The problem with this link delivery, however, is that links will often break within weeks of delivery – as I discovered with RIA's Howard Zaritsky's Estate Planning alerts.
In the course of reviewing the news that arrived this May, I made the following observations. If one had to choose a single alert, CCH Tax News would be the most comprehensive. CCH delivered a combination of both federal and state tax news. Their coverage included legislative, regulatory, enforcement, and litigation news. If a user was more interested in state taxes, then I would recommend a combination of CCH Tax News and the less frequent services from Vertex, and Burr-Wolff.
In the course of completing this article, I discovered that the IRS itself issues a variety of alerts. I strongly encourage interested librarians to check these for topics of interest.
A similar source of tax news alerts not specifically identified in this article, is your state’s department of revenue and taxation. Many of these may have a tax news alert available to the general public, as California did at one time.
One source I expected to locate quickly surprised me by its absence. When I began investigating e-mail alert services for this article, I visited five to ten taxpayer advocacy organizations’ web-sites, without luck. Early on I was convinced that if anyone offered this sort of free news, these were the most likely folks to come through for me. As with all research though, I’m sure I missed something obvious.
Ultimately, I’ve come to two short conclusions in preparing this article. While I don’t believe it is possible to keep a tax practice properly informed without purchasing the news from any one of several excellent vendors (with whom we are all familiar), I do believe that we can certainly supplement our licensed news and perhaps use a combination of fee and free to lower our overall costs. I am also convinced that an enterprising individual with enough surplus time would be able to use a combination of these free alerts, constructed news clips (on Google, Lexis, Factiva, WestAlerts, etc.), and strategic monitoring of key tax web-sites to create a reasonably comprehensive tax news service. At the very least, I ask that those librarians who maintain web-sites of interest to post an updated list of available tax alert services such as those described here.
With that I will end my musings and let the chart speak for itself.
To quickly summarize the chart:
IRS Newswire; delivered 11 news items in eight e-mails.
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/content/0,,id=105771,00.html
IRS e-News for Tax Professionals in California; delivered nine news items, only two of significant interest.
http://www.irs.gov/taxpros/article/0,,id=98120,00.html
CCH Tax News Headlines; delivered 81 news items in 19 e-mails.
http://tax.cchgroup.com/getcontact/cf-default.asp?formatid=22
RIA – SEC/GAAP Watch; delivered 36 news items in 17 e-mails.
http://ria.thomson.com/mea/riawebsignup.asp
Burr Wolff State & Local TAX ALERT; delivered seven news items in one e-mail.
http://www.burrwolff.com/tax_news/tax_alerts.cfm
FindLaw Tax Case Summaries; delivered eight news items in three e-mails.
http://newsletters.findlaw.com/
RIA - Howard Zaritsky's Estate Planning
http://ria.thomson.com/mea/riawebsignup.asp
Vertex CyberTax News; delivered eight news items in one e-mail.
http://www.vertexinc.com/TaxCybrary/News/
Grant Thornton Hot Topics; delivered 21 news items in two e-mails.
www.grantthornton.com/content/10003.asp
Found at the time of article submission:
A large collection of free IRS tax news alerts can be
found here: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/content/0,,id=103381,00.html
A collection of general subject tax news alerts from Deloitte can be found here:
http://deloitte.12hna.com/preferences/
For those of you with Texas tax practices, the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association offers a free tax alert if you sign up here:
http://www.ttara.org/Join/tax_alerts.htm
The full chart can be found on the PLL SIS webpage at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/pllsis/newslett/Freetaxalertschart.pdf.
by Andrea Hamilton, Faegre & Benson, Denver, CO
Looking for forms?
American Jurisprudence Pleading and Practice Forms Annotated, published by Thomson/West, is a multi-volume set focusing on those documents that need to be filed in court. According to the publisher, the set contains "more than 43,000 drafted, practice- and court-tested state and federal forms, checklists, and timetables needed for every stage of a case."
Current Legal Forms with Tax Analysis by Jacob Rabkin and Mark H. Johnson, published by LexisNexis Matthew
Bender is a 34-volume set focusing on most areas of law, save for criminal law and litigation. According to the publisher, the set "provide[s] a wealth of sample forms, drafting guidance and expert legal commentary to assist in the fundamental, and often time-consuming, task of document drafting."
Do you have a resource you’d like to feature in this column? Please send your submission (including the name of the resource, the publisher, and a brief description of the resource) to Andrea Hamilton at ahamilton@faegre.com. Please use Resource Review in the Subject field of your email.
