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There are more sources of information about legal developments than ever before. Whereas prior to the internet the difficulty lay in accessing legal news, nowadays the challenge is to identify reliable sources amongst the plethora of publications and avoid information overload. So what are the best ways for in-house lawyers to ensure they are staying on top of the latest developments in their areas of expertise?

Blogs

There are a range of useful blogs that in-house lawyers can subscribe to in order to keep up to date with legal news. ½Û×ÓÊÓƵ has a dedicated in-house blog, featuring blogs written by PSLs and content experts in their fields. These high quality blogs are free to access and allow you to stay on top of the latest trends, best practice and insights for in-house legal teams and add more value to your business. 

Here are some blogs recently published by experts that showcase knowledge of their specialist area.

• How in-house lawyers can drive ESG provides insights into how in-house lawyers can drive ESG policies, written by Adam Woodhall CEO of Lawyers for NetZero, expert on business and sustainability and widely published author.
• In-house lawyer tracker highlights the key legal and regulatory changes that affect or will affect in-house lawyers in 2022 and beyond. Written by Allison Woodise, Regulatory Solicitor, ½Û×ÓÊÓƵ
• Banking & Finance Update – Q3 2022 curates the key resources and points you need to know from the last quarter’s legal updates. Written by Neil Campbell, specialist in banking and asset finance transactions. This blog will help you understand the key news stories, practice notes, timelines and webinars specific to the Banking & Finance sector.

Most law firms regularly publish a range of blogs, with the larger players often investing heavily in content production. Since they are putting their names to the blogs, the quality is generally very high, and they are often written by fee earners or PSLs.

Some blogs are hosted independently by individual lawyers. Barristers in particular often maintain their own blog sites, which they use to showcase knowledge of their specialist area.

Some lawyers prefer to communicate updates via podcasts (eg ) or vlogs.

Magazines & Newsletters

There are a wide array of free online legal magazines, some of which provide excellent coverage of news in specific legal areas. Although the articles are not necessarily written by lawyers, they often include guest publications by legal experts. They usually provide an option to receive a regular email newsletter which collates some of the most recent additions.

• is one of the longest standing employment law publications, currently under the stewardship of the General Federation of Trade Unions.
• is an email newsletter service, targeted towards in-house legal counsel, which contains legal updates from lawyers primarily in larger commercial firms. 
• have a dedicated in-house legal newsletter providing news, interviews and case studies for in-house counsel
• The has been providing comment and analysis on technology law and legal tech from a range of experts for over 20 years.

RSS

Various publishers provide an RSS feed which is essentially a technical method for automatically pushing new content to readers (eg ) and applications or even directly to websites. Notable law-related RSS feeds include court judgments and .

Social media

Many lawyers are highly active on social media, especially Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s possible to find excellent discussions about law news between experts, particularly in the case of breaking developments, before comment and analysis has been published. Rather than following law firm accounts, it’s best to connect with individual lawyers who specialise in relevant areas of law.

Events

There are a range of free events on offer for in-house lawyers to discuss specific legal issues and developments. These provide a forum for exchanging ideas with a range of academic experts, legal professionals and policy makers.

½Û×ÓÊÓƵ hosts a monthly virtual event series aimed at senior legal counsel, alongside Flex Legal and Radius Law. These are a great opportunity to hear from other General Counsel and subject matter experts. You can take a look at upcoming sessions and register here.

We also run a monthly, virtual professional development programme for junior in-house counsel, which you can register for or learn more about here. 

There are also larger annual conferences, which have now returned to taking place in person post-pandemic. These provide a much-missed opportunity for networking among the in-house legal community. Notable in-house conference include:

These are all aimed at specific audiences within the in-house community, based on seniority (e.g. General Counsel only) or area of interest (e.g. operations and technology), so it’s best to take a look and choose what’s most relevant for your interests and needs.

Legal publishers

Established legal content providers, such as ½Û×ÓÊÓƵ, provide in-house counsel with all the latest legal news across the full range of practice areas. Products such as Lexis+ include up-to-date legislation, case law and commentary, along with a range of practical guidance. You can sign up for tailored news alerts to stay ahead of any regulatory change.

There are also more specific regulatory news products, such as MLex. MLex is an investigative news agency solely focused on uncovering regulatory risk across the globe, and is uniquely positioned to provide exclusive, real-time market insights, news and analysis.