Halsbury's Awards 2007

Halsbury's Awards 2007 
18 October 2007

In association with LexisNexis the BIALL Awards for Excellence have been re-launched this year as the Halsbury's Awards. These unique set of awards celebrate and reward the dedicated work and outstanding service conducted by legal information services teams, law libraries and those managing legal collections.

This year is a very exciting year for LexisNexis as it marks the centenary of Halsbury's Laws of England, the definitive authority of the law of England and Wales. As this is such a prestigious title and such an important year for LexisNexis it is only fitting that we make 2007 the inaugural year for the BIALL LexisNexis Halsbury's Awards for the UK and Ireland Best Legal Information Services.

These awards gave BIALL members the chance to nominate their own team or an information service which has made a considerable contribution to the legal information profession through excellent service, recognising particular issues which face them or demonstrated excellence in dealing with issues and challenges.

The three award categories and winners were:

The Halsbury's Award 2007 for the Best London Legal Information Service in the Commercial Sector goes to the Library and Information Service at:  

Sidley Austin LLP

Sidley Austin prides itself on:

  • Working with lawyers rather than working for lawyers.
 
The service is recognised for its high standards of commitment and professionalism and the achievements are numerous...
  • From its base in London three operations have been established in European Offices (including a specialist practitioner service for German lawyers).
  • Within the firm the service has an acknowledged role in winning clients, and works with lawyer practice groups to produce specialist client publications.
  • The Service has demonstrated innovation in successfully making business cases for developing a know how intranet, and database, which was built by the LIS team from scratch.
  • The team consistently exceed the requirements of specialist, innovative lawyers and their voices are heard in the decision-making processes of the firm way beyond their remit.
 
Halsbury's Award for the Best London Legal Iinformation Service in the Commercial Sector

The Halsbury's Award 2007 for the Best Regional Legal Information Service goes to the Library and Information Service at: 

Addleshaw Goddard LLP

Addleshaw Goddard works across three offices, two of which are based regionally.
  • The service has demonstrated innovation and pioneering work within the organisation.
Their achievements include:
  • Expanding the service to include the provision of business and market research leading to a high level of client partner support.
  • The Information Services Department support approximately 41% of all pitch proposals during last year; indeed IS staff also attend pitch meetings.
  • Apart from legal enquiries the team supports the firm by compiling company profiles and sector profiles.
  • The Team also facilitates the use of business tools to assist the firm's partners explore clients' macro and micro environments.
 
Halsbury's Award for the Best Regional Legal Information Service

The Halsbury's Award for 2007 for the Best Legal Information Service in the Non-Commercial Sector goes to: 

The Inner Temple Library 

The Adjudication Panel deliberated long and hard over this award and the outcome between two particular library services was an extremely close run thing. The Panel felt that a very special mention was deserved for the runner-up in this category which was the Law Society Library which continues to be such an invaluable resource for our profession.

However, this year, the award for Best Legal Information Service in the non-commercial sector goes to Inner Temple who aims to serve the legal community across the country. The service has successfully embraced new technology and focused on new initiatives and yet it has retained a traditional library environment.
  • New initiatives include a current awareness weblog and a quarterly electronic newsletter together with other enhancements to their web-site.
  • The Access To Law gateway is maintained and updated by the team and is an excellent starting point for free online resources.
  • One nominator referred to their 'invaluable' guide to and their legal research 'frequently asked questions' (FAQs) section of the web -pages which covers both case law and legislation.
  • The library is active in the Bar Librarians Group and consistently meets the legal information needs of barristers, judges and bar students across the entire country. A considerable achievement!

Halsbury's Award for the Best Legal information Service in the Non-Commercial Sector