LexisNexis, Law Commerce Expand Alliance
Joint effort brings more CLE courses online.
By Tim Pareti
May/June 2002 IssueNeeding a few
continued legal education (CLE) courses to meet a California paralegal license
requirement, Richard Salinas put his three children to bed, then sat down in his home
office and clicked on “Ethics and Professionalim in Civil Litigation,” — a
new online E-seminar offered through LexisNexis and LawCommerce. In a little more than an
hour, Salinas finished the online seminar and went to bed as a certificate copy of his CLE
course he just completed was being sent to the state bar.
“The biggest benefit of this is you
can do it anytime, anywhere,” said Salinas, a paralegal for the Law Office of Arturo
Hernandez in San Jose, Calif. “I think overall [an online CLE seminar] is much better
than going to a live seminar and much cheaper.”
In an effort to meet a growing demand for
Internet services, LexisNexis and LawCommerce recently launched an online CLE seminar
center and E-Markeplace site. Both services, found at several Web sites including www.lexisnexis.com and www.lawcommerce.com, were designed
to make it more convenient for legal professionals to take CLE courses and purchase
law-related products off the Internet, said Lynne Martin, vice president of corporate
services for LawCommerce.
“These new centers provide one-stop
shopping where legal professionals can go day in and day out to get services and products
for their law practice,” Martin said.
LexisNexis and LawCommerce formed an
alliance in 2000 to create Web-based services for legal professionals. The companies
recently expanded the alliance in creating the two services.
Thousands of vendors peddle reference
materials and law office and technology products at the E-Marketplace, Martin said, adding
that paralegals and lawyers can easily order a wide variety of products at one Web site.
The online CLE center offers a database
of CLE, as well as more than 200 hours of E-seminars that range in cost from $49 to $99,
depending on the length of the video. E-seminar users can choose from about a dozen topics
such as corporate law, litigation and law practice management, and more will be added,
Martin said.
LexisNexis and LawCommerce produce most
of the E-seminars but a host of bar associations and law firms also provide seminars to
the center, she said.
“A law practice is a busy world,”
said Kyle Christensen, senior communications specialist for West Group. “Using CLE
online makes it more practical and useful.” |
