Westlaw brings RSS to lawyers’ attention in big way

Westlaw is offering news and law feeds via RSS. They call it IntraClips. This is pretty cool. Now someone can subscribe to receive law by area of practice and jurisdiction and receive the feeds on their desktop news aggregators or another Internet device.

I always wondered why LexisNexis or West did not offer an email alert service to lawyers where they could subscribe to receive daily emails about legislation and case law relevant to their specialty and jurisdiction. There is no longer the need. Plus a RSS feed is far better in that you will not have to wade through spam to get the messages. You’ll receive the title of the case or legislation, a short synopsis (in the news aggregator window) and can then decide whether to read it by clicking on a link.

Best news for lexBlog in this is that lawyers are going to become keenly aware of syndication and RSS both as a way to receive information and distribute their own information. A blog is the perfect way to syndicate and distribute a lawyer’s content to their target audience just as West distributes the law to lawyers.

Thanks to John Palfrey’s blog post for bringing this development to my attention.