Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Ten General Counsel Resources
Rarely a day goes by without our reference staff receiving at least one request for general counsel information. The likelihood and ease of success of locating this information depends on the company type, size and location. For publicly-traded U.S. (and many Canadian or U.K.) companies, a visit to the Corporate Governance section of the company’s web site is usually all that is required. However, private and non-U.S. companies are another matter altogether.
Here is a list of resources that I typically consult in the course of my research for general counsel information:
1. Corporate web sites, generally on the “Investor Relations” web page under “Corporate Governance.”
Here is a list of resources that I typically consult in the course of my research for general counsel information:
1. Corporate web sites, generally on the “Investor Relations” web page under “Corporate Governance.”
2. Hoovers - http://www.hoovers.com - The “Key People” portion of company reports.
3. The Leadership Directory’s Corporate Yellowbook - General Counsel information is often included in the Officers and Management portion of a company profile.
4. Directory of Corporate Counsel - currently available on Lexis.
5. West Legal Directory - Corporate Counsel (WLD-CORPCO).
6. Corporate Representation (“Who Counsels Who”), available through Incisive Legal Intelligence (formerly American Lawyer Media). A few of the firms are designated as “Company Counsel” in the “Type of Representation” field.
7. SEC Filings via http://www.sec.gov - On occasion, a full text search through company filings for the term “counsel” or “general counsel” will bear fruit. However, this is a very hit-or-miss method.
8. Westlaw Business http://business.westlaw.com - A more sophisticated platform for searching SEC filings for the term “counsel” or “general counsel.”
9. State business registrations/filings - a growing number of states are offering electronic access to images of business entity filings. You may encounter filings by or mentioning in-house counsel.
10. News - press releases and articles that mention hirings, promotions or statements made by general counsel.
What resources do you use to find general counsel information?
What resources do you use to find general counsel information?
Contributed by Michele Gernhardt.
Principles of Legal Research (West 2009)
Kent C. Olson from the University of Virginia Law Library has authored Principles of Legal Research which is due out this summer. It may not be out yet but Kent is giving us a preview of a portion of the book which should prove invaluable to all law libraries.
As an appendix to the book, Kent recently made a topical list of selected treatises and services. For each of 46 subjects it indicates the LC call number range and then lists (1) multi-volume treatises, (2) one-volume treatises and hornbooks, and (3) services. It also indicates which titles are available in Lexis or Westlaw, with WL database IDs.
The UVA Law Library has adapted this list to limit it to items available to its patrons. They have included the library's locations and call numbers, and listed the online-only items separately at the end of each section.
Kent says that anyone else interested in adapting the list for their own library holdings is welcome to do so. Please include a credit to the book, as UVA Law Library has done, if you create a handout or website adaptation.
The full list is available here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfgckfzv_4gxwzcfg4 and the version for UVA Law Library is here: http://www.law.virginia.edu/main/Treatises+by+Subject
Note from Kent:
I'd be happy to send these files as Word documents to anyone who'd like to use them. I'd also appreciate hearing about errors, oversights or updates, especially before the final printed version goes to press. Kent Olson at kolson@virginia.edu
As an appendix to the book, Kent recently made a topical list of selected treatises and services. For each of 46 subjects it indicates the LC call number range and then lists (1) multi-volume treatises, (2) one-volume treatises and hornbooks, and (3) services. It also indicates which titles are available in Lexis or Westlaw, with WL database IDs.
The UVA Law Library has adapted this list to limit it to items available to its patrons. They have included the library's locations and call numbers, and listed the online-only items separately at the end of each section.
Kent says that anyone else interested in adapting the list for their own library holdings is welcome to do so. Please include a credit to the book, as UVA Law Library has done, if you create a handout or website adaptation.
The full list is available here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfgckfzv_4gxwzcfg4 and the version for UVA Law Library is here: http://www.law.virginia.edu/main/Treatises+by+Subject
Note from Kent:
I'd be happy to send these files as Word documents to anyone who'd like to use them. I'd also appreciate hearing about errors, oversights or updates, especially before the final printed version goes to press. Kent Olson at kolson@virginia.edu
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Competitive Intelligence Sleuthing
Competitive Intelligence (CI) does not involve covert operations or espionage but it is sleuthing ... nearly almost always in electronic form. Law librarians have been doing CI sleuthing for a while and have seen an increase in the number of fee and free tools available nowadays. I could spend days just listing them, but that would defeat the purpose of this blog posting.
When you get a request for information on a company, the first thing you will have to determine is if it is a private or public company, and where it is incorporated. Use a large tool like http://www.hoovers.com/ to determine location and whether it is private or public. There is enough free content on Hoovers to give you this information. The premium databases will give you all kinds of valuable information including financials and key eople, etc.
Once you have identified location, you can either do a Google search for the state's corporations website or you can use BRB Publications' website to find the appropriate state and then do a name search for your entity : http://www.brbpub.com/freeresources/pubrecsitesStates.aspx The kind of information that is available varies from state to state and the searching capability of each site varies too, with Virginia's being one of the least user friendly.
If the company is not large enough to be listed on Hoovers and Googling the company name doesn't provide any useful information and you do not know where the company is incorporated, you will need to use a fee-based tool like http://www.accurint.com/ which is a "pay as you use" kind of subscription but you do need to register and be approved before you are given access. But if you do have access, a nationwide search of corporate filings should give you the state of incorporation. If you have access to Westlaw or Lexis, both have corporate databases that will yield the same information.
Obviously if a company is public you are going to be able to get a whole lot more information than if it were private. If you are looking for information on key management figures and boards of directors, check annual reports and SEC filings. Hoovers also has a section it calls Key People and this is where you can locate CEO information, resumes and salary information if available. If you have a Bloomberg subscription, don't forget to look here as well because it has a management section. Westlaw and Lexis are also good traditional tools to try.
Also, don't forget to look on Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/ and ZoomInfo http://www.zoominfo.com/ both require free registration to get to more information. And as much as it pains me to say this, do not overlook social networking sites such as Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ I once found someone from a publishing house on Facebook whom I could not locate anywhere else, so do not rule this out as a business resource. Facebook requires registration to set up an account, but it is free.
And while we are on the topic of people hunting, online telephone directories are now more than just a listing of a name, address and telephone number. They have a value added feature listing all previous addresses, so if you are people tracking, this is another means of verifying address information about a person. 411.com is one that I use frequently http://www.411.com/
Once you have located your company and want to figure out its litigation history -- what lawsuits have been filed against it, in which jurisdictions is it being sued the most, what kind of matters is it being sued for? And most importantly, who is getting this client's business if you are not? Resources like West Monitor Suite, Courtlink, AdVantage and Bloomberg have profiles that will show the litigation history beautifully in the form of charts and graphs in eye-catching color. Each resource does it a little differently ... it really is a personal choice which one you pick, depending on what is required. The profiles are really very useful ... you are able to tell at a glance what is going on instead of having to weed through volumes of information, and they work very well to fitting into a report.
Don't overlook Pacer https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?court_id=00idx as a resource. It's harder to do and you don't get the pretty charts but it's still possible to know what is happening with a company's litigation. The US Party/Case Index provides a means of searching by company name and will provide a listing of the case name, the court, the date filed and the nature of suit.
If tracking a company's litigation is also part of your sleuthing expedition, you will become familiar with the alert services of Courtlink and CourtExpress, as well as of those of Westlaw and Lexis. If you have a Bloomberg Law account, you are in luck because it has a very speedy alert service. Do not forget about state litigation tracking. There is no way to do this comprehensively but there are some services that will do some part of it. There is Courthouse News Service http://www.courthousenews.com/ -- you can set up "Dingers" for companies, clients and people that you are watching. Virginia Lawyers Weekly
http://www.valawyersweekly.com/ has a daily alert that is very useful. VLW also has a blog to which you can subscribe. http://www.valawyersweekly.com/vlwblog/
And of course, one cannot say enough about keeping up with what is happening to a company/client through news alerts or RSS feeds. There are lots of very useful free tools out there. One really powerful one is Google News -- you can choose what you want Google to monitor and how often you want to receive the news alerts. Almost all the major newspapers also have free alerts -- make use of those. And if these newspapers provide access to their articles through a free registration on their site, take advantage of that. Westlaw, Lexis and Bloomberg law also have substantial news databases that provide news alerts. Cost will vary depending on your contract.
Getting CI on a company or client is a multi-tiered strategy -- there is not one resource or tool that will do it all. There are hundreds of tools out there, this posting is just a small compilation of a few that I use most frequently. I hope they will help you in your CI quests.
Contribute by Evelyn M. Campbell
When you get a request for information on a company, the first thing you will have to determine is if it is a private or public company, and where it is incorporated. Use a large tool like http://www.hoovers.com/ to determine location and whether it is private or public. There is enough free content on Hoovers to give you this information. The premium databases will give you all kinds of valuable information including financials and key eople, etc.
Once you have identified location, you can either do a Google search for the state's corporations website or you can use BRB Publications' website to find the appropriate state and then do a name search for your entity : http://www.brbpub.com/freeresources/pubrecsitesStates.aspx The kind of information that is available varies from state to state and the searching capability of each site varies too, with Virginia's being one of the least user friendly.
If the company is not large enough to be listed on Hoovers and Googling the company name doesn't provide any useful information and you do not know where the company is incorporated, you will need to use a fee-based tool like http://www.accurint.com/ which is a "pay as you use" kind of subscription but you do need to register and be approved before you are given access. But if you do have access, a nationwide search of corporate filings should give you the state of incorporation. If you have access to Westlaw or Lexis, both have corporate databases that will yield the same information.
Obviously if a company is public you are going to be able to get a whole lot more information than if it were private. If you are looking for information on key management figures and boards of directors, check annual reports and SEC filings. Hoovers also has a section it calls Key People and this is where you can locate CEO information, resumes and salary information if available. If you have a Bloomberg subscription, don't forget to look here as well because it has a management section. Westlaw and Lexis are also good traditional tools to try.
Also, don't forget to look on Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/ and ZoomInfo http://www.zoominfo.com/ both require free registration to get to more information. And as much as it pains me to say this, do not overlook social networking sites such as Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ I once found someone from a publishing house on Facebook whom I could not locate anywhere else, so do not rule this out as a business resource. Facebook requires registration to set up an account, but it is free.
And while we are on the topic of people hunting, online telephone directories are now more than just a listing of a name, address and telephone number. They have a value added feature listing all previous addresses, so if you are people tracking, this is another means of verifying address information about a person. 411.com is one that I use frequently http://www.411.com/
Once you have located your company and want to figure out its litigation history -- what lawsuits have been filed against it, in which jurisdictions is it being sued the most, what kind of matters is it being sued for? And most importantly, who is getting this client's business if you are not? Resources like West Monitor Suite, Courtlink, AdVantage and Bloomberg have profiles that will show the litigation history beautifully in the form of charts and graphs in eye-catching color. Each resource does it a little differently ... it really is a personal choice which one you pick, depending on what is required. The profiles are really very useful ... you are able to tell at a glance what is going on instead of having to weed through volumes of information, and they work very well to fitting into a report.
Don't overlook Pacer https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?court_id=00idx as a resource. It's harder to do and you don't get the pretty charts but it's still possible to know what is happening with a company's litigation. The US Party/Case Index provides a means of searching by company name and will provide a listing of the case name, the court, the date filed and the nature of suit.
If tracking a company's litigation is also part of your sleuthing expedition, you will become familiar with the alert services of Courtlink and CourtExpress, as well as of those of Westlaw and Lexis. If you have a Bloomberg Law account, you are in luck because it has a very speedy alert service. Do not forget about state litigation tracking. There is no way to do this comprehensively but there are some services that will do some part of it. There is Courthouse News Service http://www.courthousenews.com/ -- you can set up "Dingers" for companies, clients and people that you are watching. Virginia Lawyers Weekly
http://www.valawyersweekly.com/ has a daily alert that is very useful. VLW also has a blog to which you can subscribe. http://www.valawyersweekly.com/vlwblog/
And of course, one cannot say enough about keeping up with what is happening to a company/client through news alerts or RSS feeds. There are lots of very useful free tools out there. One really powerful one is Google News -- you can choose what you want Google to monitor and how often you want to receive the news alerts. Almost all the major newspapers also have free alerts -- make use of those. And if these newspapers provide access to their articles through a free registration on their site, take advantage of that. Westlaw, Lexis and Bloomberg law also have substantial news databases that provide news alerts. Cost will vary depending on your contract.
Getting CI on a company or client is a multi-tiered strategy -- there is not one resource or tool that will do it all. There are hundreds of tools out there, this posting is just a small compilation of a few that I use most frequently. I hope they will help you in your CI quests.
Contribute by Evelyn M. Campbell
Welcome to Leslie, Amy & Kristin
Leslie AshbrookLeslie is a reference librarian at the University of Virginia School of Law Library. She received her JD from the University of Missouri, her MSIS from the University of Texas and her BA from the College of William & Mary. Leslie who is originally from Chillicothe, Missouri, enjoys the outdoors and pursues hiking, biking and walking whenever she can.
___________________
Amy Wharton
Amy is Research and Emerging Technologies Librarian at the University of Virginia School of Law Library. She received her JD from George Mason School of Law and her MLIS from the University of Oklahoma. Prior to joining the UVA law library, Amy held reference and electronic positions at several law firm libraries in Washington, DC. Her most recent position was with Winston & Strawn, LLP. When Amy is not working in the library she takes care of two kids -- Joey and Wendy and three frogs -- Cocoa, Eddie and Wilt.
____________________
Kristin Glover is a research librarian at the University of Virginia School of Law Library. She graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2005. Kristin worked for three years as an attorney in the City of New York's Corporation Counsel's Office before joining the UVA law library.
Friday, February 27, 2009
2008-2009 VALL Directories
A number of the directories were distributed at the VALL Winter Meeting at George Mason Law Library today and the rest will be mailed out by Victoria Levy. Everyone should receive their directories by March 17. If you do not, please contact Victoria at vlevy@hnton.com.
Links of Interest
National Library Week (April 12 - 18) will be upon us before we know it. Check out ALA's website for ideas: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/hqops/pio/natlibraryweek/nlw.cfm
Volunteer in Washington, D.C. for the AALL Meeting
Please join your colleagues in volunteering your time to make the Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., a success.
Volunteers are needed for:
Family Social Hour; Registration Bag Stuffing; Opening Reception; Hospitality Booth; Closing; Banquet; Library Tours; Registration; Capital Crier Newspaper.
Volunteering is a great way to meet with your colleagues and make new contacts. Check out the description of volunteer opportunities on the Local Arrangements Committee homepage and complete the volunteer form online or contact Sara Sampson (202/662-9144), or Stephanie Paup.
The Future of the Internet: http://futureoftheinternet.org/colbert-report
Look to the right under Blog, there are several items that should be of interest to library professionals or to anyone really.
Contributed by Cindy Carlson.
Volunteer in Washington, D.C. for the AALL Meeting
Please join your colleagues in volunteering your time to make the Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., a success.
Volunteers are needed for:
Family Social Hour; Registration Bag Stuffing; Opening Reception; Hospitality Booth; Closing; Banquet; Library Tours; Registration; Capital Crier Newspaper.
Volunteering is a great way to meet with your colleagues and make new contacts. Check out the description of volunteer opportunities on the Local Arrangements Committee homepage and complete the volunteer form online or contact Sara Sampson (202/662-9144), or Stephanie Paup.
The Future of the Internet: http://futureoftheinternet.org/colbert-report
Look to the right under Blog, there are several items that should be of interest to library professionals or to anyone really.
Contributed by Cindy Carlson.
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