Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

274 Lessig, Lawrencepleadings and other documents. Many of these functionscan be included in a legal software suite such as AmicusAttorney. Some typical law office management modulesinclude the following:• client file, which provides links to all events, tasks,time and billing, and so on involving each client• general contact file with contact information for otherpeople the office deals with regularly (such as courtclerks)• calendar for managing appointments, meetings, anddeadlines• time tracking and billing• document management (often interfaces with suitessuch as Microsoft Office)Research ToolsLegal research is easier (but in some ways more complex)than in the days of going through dusty files in the localcourthouse or poring through a law library. The most usedonline database for legal research is LexisNexis, which containstwo parts: Lexis (focusing on legal documents) andNexis (for business research). Some of the most importantLexis content is:• text of all U.S. statutes and laws• U.S. published case opinions• public records including property records, liens, andlicenses• laws and opinions for many non-U.S. jurisdictions• articles from law journalsA free service called LexisOne provides a subset ofU.S. legal decisions. Lexis also has a File & Serve servicethat allows for documents to be filed with courts or servedupon participating firms. Nexis complements Lexis formany investigations because it offers news articles, particularlythose relating to business activities. Other commerciallegal information services include Westlaw andLoislaw. A free compilation of legal information that canprovide an alternative for researching laws and cases isprovided by the Legal Information Institute at CornellUniversity.Finding citations or news is only part of the task ofthe legal researcher. The organization and managementof all the data needed for any legal specialty is challenging.Printed reference books are cumbersome and canbe quickly outdated. Recently a number of legal writershave been using wikis (see wikis and Wikipedia) as atool for collaboration in creating online legal references.For example, the Internet Law Treatise sponsored by theElectronic Frontier Foundation covers a variety of legalissues relating to the use of the Internet. The Legal InformationInstitute at Cornell Law School is collaboratingwith experts to create a complete legal dictionary andencyclopedia in wiki form.Further ReadingBernstein, Paul. “Winning Software for Winning Cases.” Trial, 37(November 1, 2001): 82 ff.Delaney, Stephanie. Electronic Legal Research: An IntegratedApproach. Albany, N.Y.: Delmar (Thomson), 2002.Internet Law Treatise (Electronic Frontier Foundation.) Availableonline. URL: http://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Table_of_Contents.Accessed September 26, 2007.Law Office Computing Magazine. Available online. URL: http://www.lawofficecomputing.com. Accessed September 26, 2007.LexisNexis. Available online. URL: http://www.lexisnexis.com.Accessed September 26, 2007.Payne Consulting. Microsoft Word 2002 for Law Firms. Roseville,Calif.: Prima Publishing, 2001.Wex (Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School). Availableonline. URL: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Main_Page. Accessed September 26, 2007.Lessig, Lawrence(1961– )AmericanLaw Professor and WriterLaw professor Lawrence Lessig is a pioneer in developinglegal theories that deal with some of the most difficultissues emerging in the online world (see, for example,intellectual property and computing).Lessig was born on June 3, 1961, in Rapid City, SouthDakota, but grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. As astudent at Yale Law School in the 1970s, Lessig, though previouslypresident of Pennsylvania’s Teenage Republicans,became interested in liberal values following the Watergatescandal and his exposure to authoritarian communistregimes during a summer trip to Eastern Europe.After graduating from Yale, Lessig clerked for U.S.Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, an articulate conservativewith whom he could debate a variety of issues.When he began to teach law himself at the University ofChicago in 1991, he also began to incorporate issues arisingin cyberspace in his lectures. In one article Lessig criticizedthe Communications Decency Act for forcing sitesto block access to adult pornography in order to protectchildren. Eventually the Supreme Court agreed and overturnedthe law.In the late 1990s Lessig served as a special master to theSupreme Court in the Microsoft antitrust case. This timeLessig sided with the government, agreeing that Microsofthad used its near monopoly in operating systems to bundleits own Web browser to the detriment of rival Netscape.The Creative CommonsIn recent years Lessig has undertaken to promote a morecomprehensive set of legal principles aimed at protectingprivacy, expression, and other fundamental rights in cyberspace.Many of the early and more radical Internet advocatessaw the new medium as a libertarian or anarchist“free zone” that needed to be protected from any governmentinterference. Lessig, however, has argued in his booksCode and Other Laws of Cyberspace (2000) and Code Version2.0 (2006) that the online world needs a combination