Casey Hall writes recurring online content for our Findlaw business. Casey is also active in strategic planning for social media in the Professional division. He began his work at Thomson Reuters conducting legal research as a Westlaw Reference Attorney. Casey lives in Minneapolis with his wife and son.

26 May 2011Casey Hall

The Westlaw Insider Blog launched a complete redesign last week. The new page improves navigation and has a clean and fresh look. But the most exciting feature of the redesign is a new Community space for sharing Westlaw expertise.

I began my career at Thomson Reuters as a West Reference Attorney helping Westlaw users with legal research. Fortunately I was able to draw upon the combined wisdom of our authors, editors and other reference attorneys.  The Community area of the Westlaw Insider Blog provides similar access to all Westlaw users in a centralized online space.

The Community area is open to any Westlaw user with a OnePass account. For the moment it is in a closed beta so you will have to submit a request for access.  I encourage any Westlaw users to join.

I spoke with our manager of the Insider Blog, Larisa Tehvan and the web developer Martin Sawinski from 3five Design. They were both, understandably, very excited about the new redesign.  They described the goal of the Community space to be a venue for our customers to interact directly with our internal Westlaw experts.

Larisa and Martin explained that by creating a space within our online universe, people know that they can rely upon the information there.  This was designed for legal professionals who want to get the greatest possible benefit out of Westlaw and Westlaw Next.

The Community interface makes it easy to get involved.  It has all of the features you would expect in a robust online social community. You can join groups, connect with friends, and post updates. At the moment I have four friends, but am hoping for more soon. Feel free to track me down on the Westlaw Insider @CASEYHALL.