SCL puts IT video on show

The Society for Computers & Law with the Law Society has issued a video to drive home to law firms the opportunities IT presents. Based on a presentation at last October's Law Society conference, 'No IT please - we're solicitors', it was launched in London before Christmas.

It depicts an imaginary but realistic scenario, where a buy-out has to be completed within hours and how IT makes this possible, where traditional communications methods would have taken days.

At the launch, joint SCL chair Neil Cameron said all the products and services demonstrated "are available now and will work".

Around 17 different forms of IT are shown in action including voice mail, E-mail, computer faxes, document management, word processing and spreadsheets. Some of the inevitable delays were truncated in the video, Cameron acknowledged.

"We just wanted to show how the different types of IT can come together and make the life of the solicitor easier."

The SCL says that the products in the video can be bought off the shelf. The advances in computers and communications have levelled the playing field between firms of different sizes. The video was sponsored by British Telecom and Microsoft and will be distributed at roadshows. It can be bought from the Law Society shop.

Cameron says that when the SCL was approached by the society: "We wanted to do something different to the conventional presentation." With BT's help on the public relations side, a script was prepared and professional actors engaged. It was then decided to video the presentation at the conference.