On February 25th they are launching an exciting new legal news service Legal Radar which I believe his targeted to deflate the aggressive growth and pricing of its main competitor Law360.
American Lawyer Media’s flagship publication, American Lawyer has been credited with inventing the legal news market in the 1980s. ALM has been exploring ways to reinvent how lawyers consume legal news for several years. The relaunch of Law.com brought content from all 19 ALM legal publications together in a unified platform. The old legal intelligence platform was relaunched as Legal Compass. On Tuesday they will launch an AI enabled streaming news service for lawyers.
Legal Radar delivers a clean customizable stream of breaking legal news and competitive insights. Lawyers can track companies, industries, law firms as well as litigation. Legal Radar offers breaking litigation news within minutes of a filing. When cases are reported documents such as complaints and opinions are attached to the story. I found Legal Radar to be visually “addicting” like an endless Facebook stream. It was hard to stop scrolling! Like its competitor Law360, Legal Radar is clean, scan-able and mobile friendly. Since lawyers often scroll through summaries without clicking through to the full text, Legal Radar will deliver immediate value and can be personalized for all readers. It is a brilliant approach to drawing new readers onto the ALM platform.
ALM subscribers can read the full news story. Non-subscribers can access three full stories per month across the network of publications. All readers including non subscribers can access the case law summaries and attached complaints which are included in the New Suit, Removed to Federal Court, or Who Got the Work feeds by registering for Legal Radar. What’s not to like?
- It is customizable
- You can set the time of your alerts
- You get document for free.
- Stories can be shared and bookmarked
- Federal Litigation alerts will be distributed within minutes of a court filing.
- Legal Radar can be added to the home screen of an iphone.without going to an app store.
The press release describes Legal Radar, as a “first-of-its-kind website and app that leverages AI technology to provide a faster and more personalized experience for consumers of legal news and information. Legal Radar builds on ALM’s award-winning journalism and propels the company forward in its mission to deliver the news and insights that give busy legal professionals a competitive edge.”
What you can track on Legal Radar:
- Client industries including aerospace, AI and automation, biotech, cannabis, education, entertainment, fintech, government, health care, renewable energy, and technology
- Practice areas include: antitrust, consumer protection, employment, intellectual property, product liability, securities and trade secrets
- S. and global companies spanning the Fortune 500, international businesses and fast growth startups
- Major legal industry players including the Am Law 200, NLJ 500, elite plaintiffs firms, the largest global law firms and alternative legal service providers.
- News and litigation updates from all 50 states
Market Impact – How Will Law360 Compete with Free?
Law Librarians will immediately wonder if Legal Radar can offer a way out of the Law360 trap. Law360 was never cheap. Even when it was owned by Portfolio Media, the product commanded budget busting price increases. I explored the stunning growth of Law 360 in a 2013 post The Improbable Rise of Law 360. Since its acquisition by LexisNexis, Law360 has been part of LexisNexis bundled pricing strategy. Law firms can not purchase Law360 unless they have a Lexis Advance subscription. Lexis recently side-stepped the bundling issue in a December 2019 meeting with the AALL Committee on Relations with Information Vendor s CRIV by pointing to future integration plans. This doesn’t l explain the “bundling “ that has been reported to AALL for the past few years. Michael Feit of Feit Consulting which specializes in legal resources contract analysis and negotiations, described Legal Radar as potentially ‘kicking the legs out from under” the Lexis pricing strategy.
Since Lexis has had an exclusive distribution agreement with ALM which ends in December 2020, the launch of Legal Radar is likely a sign that the ALM – Lexis alliance is coming to an end. This is good news for law firm budgets. Lexis has had a virtual monopoly on legal news. In addition to owning Law360 they have held exclusive distribution rights for ALM products and the Wall Street Journal in law firms.
The legal news market is ripe for disruption.
Law.com is not the only vendor taking on Law360. Fastcase has purchased LawStreetMedia a new legal news outlet and is bulking up their reporting and editorial staff. Kevin O’Keefe’s Lexblog is leveling the legal news market by aggregating free but premium content from across the legal blogosphere… covering white shoe firms, boutique firms and a vast array of legal practice and tech specialty blogs,
Although Thomson Reuters Westlaw and Bloomberg Law are owned by major news empires, neither has a well defined brand in the legal news market. Thomson Reuters offers news from the “Legal Executive Institute” which has zero brand recognition to the average lawyer. Bloomberg Law which acquired the iconic news outlet the Bureau of National Affairs in 2011 Is continuing to reorganize and redefine their news offerings to appeal to a younger, mobile and digital savvy generation of lawyers. Wolters Kluwer continues to publish newsletters targeted to the needs of regulatory practitioners.
Legal Radar launches on Tuesday February 25th. Try it out a this link
