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22 November 2013 / Nagib Tharani , Joshua Lenon
Issue: 7585 / Categories: Features , Profession
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Silver linings in the cloud

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Local privacy & regulatory issues must not be overlooked in the migration to the cloud, warn Nagib Tharani & Joshua Lenon

As the market for legal services changes rapidly, law firms of all sizes need to be flexible, responsive to client needs and cost-efficient. One consequence of this change is that practice management systems, once considered as just part of the plumbing, are becoming a key strategic asset to serve clients while maintaining profit margins.

A significant development in this regard has been the move of practice management systems from the firms’ own servers and desktop computers into the cloud. Rather than being installed on a firm’s own computer systems or servers, cloud-based practice management systems and their data are located on a remote server and accessed via the Internet. This means that firms require no specialised hardware or software to use cloud-based systems—everything works through a normal web browser such as Internet Explorer or Google Chrome, enabling the system, data and documents to be accessed from wherever a lawyer—or

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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