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Legal publishers have thrown their considerable editorial and technical resources at crafting new documents, pages, and toolkits to help lawyers locate everything from emergency pandemic declarations to drafting an SEC disclosure about the impact of COVID-19. Lawyers need to untangle the myriad legal issues impacting virtually every area of legal practice. We are surely witnessing the emergence of a new pandemic law practice over the course of several weeks. I have summarized the landscape of tools produced by legal publishers to help lawyers get oriented and “jump start” their practice in the “new normal” of law in a time of pandemic.
Bloomberg Law has created a special resource page In Focus: Coronavirus, which offers news, guidance documents, and trackers including the State Quarantine and Public Health Laws, Court Responses to COVID-19, and international and federal agency information regarding the pandemic. The Coronavirus Tax Watch page includes the latest news on the evolving tax landscape in response to the business and economic impacts of Coronavirus; developments across federal, state, and international jurisdictions; convenient links to IRS guidance, legislative documents; and more. Subscribers can get alerts on new tax developments, including Coronavirus policy decisions and legislation by registering for Tax Regulatory Alerts. The resources are limited to subscribers. However, Bloomberg is offering 30-day free trials.
CQ.com, the legislative and policy powerhouse, has created special pages and resources. The CQ Coronavirus Pandemic page is updated 24/7 with documents, transcripts, breaking news, and more. The headlines can be viewed by anyone but access to the documents requires a subscription. There is a page with comprehensive coverage of HR6201, the Coronavirus Bill.
The Fiscal Note Coronavirus Resource page offers a nightly COVID-19 podcast of developments and a free daily newsletter that are both available to nonsubscribers. The page is aggregating ALL policy-related content (US, EU, State, etc.) that CQ is producing on COVID 19, including webinars, transcripts, reference materials, “best practice” resources, documents, news, and podcasts.
Intelligize is a LexisNexis company which focuses on securities regulatory and enforcement practice needs offers several resources. Insights and Analysis –- Intelligize editors are closely monitoring how issuers and the SEC are responding to the crisis. The Insights and Analytics page provides an analysis of what companies are doing and how they are disclosing coronavirus issues to their shareholders and the SEC. Each article includes free access to the actual filings, and where possible, they have pulled out key data points to help issuers tackle disclosure obligations as conditions evolve. Intelligize has a research team which has developed search strategies related to COVID-19 to access the information companies need quickly. Those searches are available within the product under Sample Searches. The Coronavirus and SEC disclosure has many links that prepopulate the search criteria in the product for SEC precedent on particular reporting topics.
Law.com — According to Molly Miller, Chief Content Officer at American Lawyer Media, ALM launched a free COVID-19 news site more than two weeks ago on their Instant Insights page. The ALM page provides updates on law firm and court decisions to close or stay open, tips for working from home shared by remote lawyers, as well as global updates so readers can understand not just what is happening in the US but across offices around the world. They are covering the global pandemic at the Global Lawyer page. On March 10 they posted an article summarizing law school responses to COVID-19 with closings and online classes.
Law360.com — Last week LexisNexis announced the availability of a free Law360 newsletter dedicated to COVID-19. The newsletter includes breaking news, in-depth features, and expert analysis and commentary on all things relating to COVID-19 and the law. A press release described the content: “Its comprehensive coverage and content illuminates how the global pandemic has impacted the legal industry and the practice of law, as well as the U.S. court system, federal agencies, industries, businesses and more. “The free content is available at Law360 – Coronavirus or delivered via electronic newsletter.
Lexis Nexis — To help U.S. attorneys manage the evolving COVID-19 crisis, Lexis Practice Advisor has developed a free Coronavirus Resource Kit covering a wide range of topics across multiple practice areas, such as employment, contracts, and more. The Resource Kit addresses emerging issues and offers guidance relating to COVID-19 and the law, including content, forms, and other resource materials. The toolkit can be downloaded for free after filling out a form.
Practicing Law Institute offers members Coronavirus Developments, to inform on legal developments, changes to CLE requirements, PLI programs updates and more. They currently have an on-demand program Coronavirus: What Lawyers Need to Know.
LexBlog –- The Coronavirus Legal Daily. The Lexblog legal publishing platform for lawyers has launched a Coronavirus news site. The Daily aggregates blog posts from members of the LexBlog network, which includes content from the global Lexblog network. The posts include a wide range of issues arising from the Coronavirus pandemic, including legislative and regulatory developments, legal issues relating to the pandemic, court actions, practice guidance, and other legal developments.
Thomson Reuters (Westlaw/Practical Law) was one of the first to launch a Coronavirus toolkit. The Practical Law Global Coronavirus Toolkit offers collections of resources organized by country. Content includes Practice Notes, Standard Documents, Checklists, and other resources covering a range of public health emergency and disaster preparedness topics applicable to attorneys and professionals located in the UK, US, China, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. All resources within the Key Global Response: COVID-19 section are available free of cost. In addition, the Thomson Reuters news site has a COVID-19 resources page.
Westlaw also has a custom Coronavirus page for subscribers that offers a menu of primary and secondary sources materials containing useful material related to COVID-19.
Wolters Kluwer Legal and Regulatory has a free Coronavirus page that is being curated by WK editors and includes stories and other resources related to COVID-19.
Help for print subscribers. Since many print subscribers are working remotely and no longer have access to their print libraries Wolters Kluwer is offering online access for print subscribers under a free trial. Contact your rep for assistance.
Voxgov — Although Voxgov does not have a dedicated coronavirus page, it is a unique repository of legislative and regulatory material gathered daily from thousands of federal websites. Coronavirus materials can be located by keyword and alerts can be set up to deliver documents related to COVID-19 from the federal government as they are released.
Jean O’Grady is a knowledge strategist/librarian/lawyer with over 30 years’ experience leading the transformation of research and knowledge services in Am Law 100 law firms. She is the author of the Dewey B Strategic blog, which monitors the evolving landscape of technologies and companies that are transforming the business and practice of law.