Nothing but the net

The Law Society of Scotland’s Update team certainly hit upon a winning formula when three years ago it devised the idea of “Nothing but the Net”, a home-grown conference on legal IT issues. In those heady days, Richard Susskind’s vision of lawyers as Legal Information Managers seemed just round the corner (in fact he was the keynote speaker at the first NBTN), and delegates gazed starry eyed at the technical wizardry that was about to change the face of law forever. Of course the bursting of the dot-com bubble and a deluge of E-regulation has calmed things down somewhat. The third incarnation of the event held at the SECC on 8th October, 2002 was attended by a very streetwise audience, more intent upon discussing the practical side of incorporating IT into legal business, untangling the liability issues, and of course hearing from DI Reid of Lothian & Borders Police about the undesirables lurking just a mouse click away. It was clear that speakers from England and Wales - including keynote speaker Nigel Millar - were well impressed with the steps being taken in Scotland in relation to secure e-mail, in the form of the Law Society of Scotland’s “LawSeal” project. So, aside from a couple of grumbles about standing for lunch (Scottish solicitors prefer to network from the comfort of a chair, it seems) a recurring view was that Nothing but the Net has matured enough to be rolled out next year to a much wider audience, in other professions. Watch this space!

Paul Motion