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The Impact of COVID-19 on the Legal Information Profession within Law Firms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2023

Caroline Stafford
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Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the legal information profession within law firm libraries in Britain and Ireland. As the pandemic only began the year before commencing this research, few studies had been conducted on the topic, thereby a clear opening for this study emerged. This study uses a survey research strategy comprised of a mixed methods research approach. Desk research in the form of a literature review opens the study. A questionnaire and 5 semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted. To understand the impact of the pandemic on the legal information profession within law firm libraries, the research objectives break the topic down into 4 areas that give insight into the consequences of the pandemic. The research found that A) working from home was the major impact faced due to the lockdown in spring 2020; B) use and spending on print resources declined; C) the role of legal information professionals has not significantly changed; and D) future legal information professionals will need to upskill due to technological developments and improve the image of the profession. Owing to the recent outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to compare the findings of this research to similar future studies to determine the validity of the results.

Keywords

legal information professionalslaw firmsCovid-19
Type
BIALL Annual Conference 2022: A Selection of Papers
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 190 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Footnotes

1 World Health Organisation, ‘Listings of WHO's Response to COVID-19’ (WHO, 29 June 2020) <https://www.who.int/news/item/29-06-2020-covidtimeline> accessed 5 September 2022.

2 Cross, Felicity, ‘COVID-19 and a Change in the Legal Information Landscape’ (2020) 20(3) LIM 137CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Maher, Michael, ‘COVID-19: and the Impact on Print’ (2020) 20(4) LIM 209CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Megerman, Shira and Rodriguez, Marcelo, ‘COVID-19: How Did Your Staff Respond to the Pandemic?’ (2020) 25(4) AALL 37Google Scholar; Megerman, Shira and Rodriguez, Marcelo, ‘COVID-19: How Law Libraries Succeeded by Going Virtual During the Pandemic’ (2021) 25(3) AALL 31Google Scholar.

5 British & Irish Association of Law Librarians, ‘COVID-19 Industry Survey June 2020’ (2021) 21(1) LIM 4.

6 Samantha Steer, ‘The Law Librarian of the Future’ (BIALL Conference, June 2021).

7 Bailey, Penny, ‘Bailey Solutions. Responding to Change: Surviving the Financial Crisis, the Pandemic and Everything Else!’ (2020) 20(2) LIM 85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Cross (n 2).

9 Breslin, Jas, ‘Shelved Forever? How the Pandemic has Helped Flick the Digital Switch’ (2020) 20(3) LIM 133CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Clare Brown, ‘Law Libraries and Technology: “The Times They Are A-Changin”’ (Vable, 19 June 2020) <https://www.vable.com/blog/law-libraries-and-technology-the-times-they-are-a-changin> accessed 6 September 2022; LAC Group ‘Another Coronavirus Tipping Point: Digital Libraries’ (LAC Group, 20 May 2020) <https://lac-group.com/blog/another-coronavirus-tipping-point-digital-libraries> accessed 6 September 2022; Maher (n 3).

10 Maher (n 3).

11 Bill Hannay, ‘Speakers Discuss COVID-19 Issues for Law Libraries’ (Charleston Hub, 12 June 2020) <https://www.charleston-hub.com/2020/06/speakers-discuss-covid-19-issues-for-law-libraries-guest-post-the-rumors-blog/> accessed 6 September 2022

12 Cross (n 2).

13 Breslin (n 9); Maher (n 3); Steer (n 6).

14 Michael Maher, ‘The Future of Print Collections in Light of COVID-19’ (BIALL Conference, June 2021).

15 HBR Consulting, ‘Law Firm Research and Information Services’ Response to the Pandemic’ (HBR Consulting, 2020) <https://info.hbrconsulting.com/benchmarking-legal-information-services-survey-highlights-2020> accessed 6 September 2022.

16 Mark Hobson, ‘The Future of Print Collections in Light of COVID-19’ (BIALL Conference, June 2021); Hunter, Ian, ‘Managing a Law Firm Research Service From Home: From ‘What's Zoom?’ to Trainee Induction Week From a Bedroom‘ (2020) 20(3) LIM 140CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maher (n 14); Megerman and Rodriguez (2021) (n 4); Sneed, Thomas, ‘The Effect of COVID-19 on Law Libraries: Are These Changes Temporary or a Sign of the Future?’ (2020) 60(1) Washburn Law Journal 107Google Scholar.

17 Jones, Faye, ‘Talking Tech: Disaster Planning and The Virtual Law Library’ (2020) 25(1) AALL 39Google Scholar.

18 Brown (n 9); Hanny (n 11); Megerman and Rodriguez (2020) (n 4); Sneed (n 16).

19 Bailey (n 7).

20 Stephanie Godley, ‘Tech-Savvy Law Librarians for the New Era’ (Slaw, 26 April 2021) <https://www.slaw.ca/2021/04/26/tech-savvy-law-librarians-for-the-new-era/> access 6 September 2022; David Percik, ‘Careering into the Future’ (BIALL Conference, June 2021).

21 Maher (n 14).

22 CBRE, ‘The Law Firm Workplace of the Future’ (CBRE, 2020) <https://www.cbre.co.uk/insights/articles/the-law-firm-workplace-of-the-future> accessed 6 September 2022.

23 Steer (n 6).

24 Percik (n 20).

25 Tracey Dennis and James Rowles, ‘Books vs Online – a Courtroom Drama’ (BIALL Conference, June 2021).