This week American Lawyer Media (ALM) the publisher of the American Lawyer and Law.com announced the rebranding and expansion of their innovative legal news service Legal Radar. Legal Radar is now Law.com Radar.
Law.com Radar was originally launched in February as Legal Radar with a breaking litigation news monitoring service. This week the service was expanded to include corporate deal feeds and news which meets the needs of transactional lawyers. The press release describes this breaking news product as allowing lawyers to be the “first to know” and therefore “the first to act” on business development opportunities.
Law.com Radar leverages ALM’s technology-driven legal news platform and offers a unique mobile experience. Adding Radar to the Law.com brand “deepens its connection to ALM’s award winning newsroom.” ALM editors refer to the breaking stories as “blips” which look like “news cards” they often include a link to related documents.
Law.com Radar is shaping up to be a highly targeted tool designed to meet the business development needs of partners. Lawyers need to understand business trends. This involves tracking not only their clients but also industries and sectors. Law.com Radar news blips can be shared with clients and colleagues.
With the launch of Law.com Radar, subscribers can now access exclusive updates on corporate transactions as part of a personalized Radar news feed covering 33 industries, 20 practice areas, US and international regions and thousands of companies and law firms. Special topics for competitive intelligence include “Who’s getting the work,” and tracking competitor firms by ALM ranking or name.
Law.com Radar Newsfeed
From the Press Release “Radar builds on ALM and Law.com’s long tradition as the premier resource for legal professionals seeking deep insights and the necessary intelligence to compete in today’s legal market,” said Richard Caruso, Vice President and General Manager, Global Legal News. “With Radar’s customizable news feed and alerts, subscribers are first to know what is driving litigation and deals in the sectors where their clients operate and compete.” Law.com Radar’s corporate deal content includes the latest mergers and acquisitions, venture financings, private equity deals, securities offerings, real estate transactions and more. Designed to help lawyers follow the deals that are most relevant to their practices and clients, each Radar blip delivers key facts, highlights the legal advisers, and links to related resources. “Our mission with Law.com Radar is to get actionable information to legal practitioners as fast as possible, so they can take the next step—whether it’s making a call to a client or flagging an emerging risk area,” notes Vanessa Blum, Executive Editor of Law.com Radar.
No Additional Charge Law.com subscribers get access to Law.com Radar’s premium content and features at no additional charge. A free version of Law.com Radar, with limited features, is also available.
The Legal News Market Heats Up Last week I covered the launch of Thomson Reuters legal news service Westlaw Today. Fastcase is building out their Law Street Media platform with a unique combination of legal news and analytics. Bloomberg Law has redesigned and relaunched their news offerings. These developments and the launch of Law.com Radar signal a a potential seismic shift in the legal news market which has been dominated by LexisNexis Law 360 for the past decade. I documented the spectacular rise of Law360 in a 2013 post. What a difference a year and a pandemic can make! 2021 will be a year of constrained budgets due to the ongoing uncertainties arising from COVID-19. Law firms looking to escape Law360’s double digit price increases (as well as LexisNexis practice of tying of Law360 to Lexis Advance contracts) may realize that they have a new savings opportunity thanks to the new wave of innovation in legal news delivery.
