PLC Law Department is the leading web service for in-house counsel, providing a unique combination of legal know-how, transactional analysis and market intelligence.
Practical Law Company (PLC) is the UK’s pre-eminent provider of legal know-how, transactional analysis and market intelligence for business lawyers. PLC provides market leading web services giving law firms and law departments access to practical know-how at a fraction of the cost of producing it internally.
We work closely with law firms and in-house law departments to provide innovative and practical solutions in know-how, technology and practice development. Resources are edited by the PLC professional support team (www.practicallaw.com/4-103-0546) - a group of over 100 experienced former practitioners, who cover a wide range of law relevant to companies. For more background on PLC see About Practical Law Company (www.practicallaw.com/4-200-8304).
Over 1,700 companies subscribe to PLC Law Department (equating to over 10,000 individual subscribers). PLC recognises that the know-how needs of in-house lawyers are often different from the needs of specialist lawyers in private practice and following extensive feedback from in-house users we created the PLC Law Department home page which provides an environment dedicated to in-house users.
A subscription to PLC Law Department Plus gives subscribers access to:
PLC know-how across all web services.
A tailored Law Department update e-mail, which includes a roundup of key developments across all practice areas.
A range of additional services and tools designed to help the law department add value to the business, become more cost effective and manage resources more effectively.
Each web service covers an important area of practice. Our products include continually maintained practice notes, documents with detailed drafting notes, updates with practical analysis, as well as archives of useful articles. This enables in-house lawyers to keep up-to-date with key legal developments across all practice areas and provides a level of support that was previously provided only within a few large law firms by professional support lawyers. The service is valuable to law departments with professional support lawyers and those without, allowing both to concentrate their internal and external resources where the greatest return lies. For a detailed description of each of the services please click on the links below:
Restructuring and Insolvency (www.practicallaw.com/2-381-7677)
Share Schemes & Incentives (www.practicallaw.com/8-206-0192)
Resources include:
Practice notes. Over 3,600 maintained guidance notes containing clear and detailed explanations on key areas of law and practice, updated to reflect developments as they occur.
Standard documents. Over 2,800 documents you can trust. Continually maintained to reflect developments in law, allowing you to focus on drafting the document rather than updating it.
Checklists. Over 700 checklists and flowcharts providing quick-reference reminders of key points.
Legal updates. With over 12,400 legal updates published in the last 12 months, these provide comprehensive legal know-how across a range of practice areas.
PLC Which Lawyer? An online resource identifying leading lawyers and law firms practising in the core areas of commercial law in jurisdictions around the world.
PLC Law Department Profiles: A searchable database of general counsel and legal departments at major companies and financial institutions worldwide.
Generate first drafts quickly using PLC's document automation tool. PLC FastDraft (www.practicallaw.com/1-379-9363) reduces the time spent on producing first draft transactional documents by 50% to 70% - time made available for increasing productivity, enhancing quality and driving profitability.
"I first started using PLC at a law firm. When I went into my first in-house role I missed access to it so much that in my second month I persuaded the company to take out a subscription. PLC Law Department provides one-stop easy access to all the guidance and materials you need. To have practice notes and everything in one index is valuable in itself.
It provides a great consolidated database of information: there is so much material available in one place. It is the first service that I subscribe to in-house, and the access has definitely saved our department costs. Where an area is not our specialisation we know that we can go to PLC for more information – it allows us to make a judgement call about whether or not we need to instruct outside law firms."
Ann Bodkin, Company Secretary and Head of Legal, Integrated Financial Arrangements PLC.
"I am the senior property lawyer at Oxford City Council. I lead a team of three lawyers who are responsible for undertaking the legal work arising from the Council's large property portfolio. We do most of the work in–house. Working in the public sector, there are inevitable budgetary constraints and pressures, but in my view PLC is a necessity. With a small team we simply do not have the people or resources of high street and City law firms.
Oxford Legal Services has recently acquired Lexcel accreditation and is keen to maintain high standards of service to its clients. A subscription to the Property service provides us with continuously updated guidance of a standard and quality that just isn't available elsewhere. We have a large and diverse property portfolio, but we find that there is almost always a PLC document that we can adopt and/or tailor to suit our needs."
Steve Smith, Senior Property Lawyer, Oxford City Council.
"I first came across PLC when I joined Barclays in late 2006. I have in the past gravitated towards text books for research and know-how, so it took me a while to adjust to the website functionality. I am now a complete convert. In a fast-moving environment in which we work we are expected to give first-class advice quickly and get it right every time.
If a business is expecting its lawyers to advise on a number of areas, a tool like PLC is a must. PLC research and know-how gives you the ability to get up to speed, quickly and reliably – it is both user-friendly and effective. The practice notes are a great steer and the cross-border content is also excellent in giving quick guidance on international issues. In summary, PLC does what it says on the tin: it is a practical law resource; it is great at giving you an introduction to new topics; it is a valuable know-how tool; and it is quick and accessible."
Gavin Haynes, Head of Group Legal HR, Barclays Bank PLC.
"The Shell Group operates in many countries and I have dealt with projects in more than 30 jurisdictions, so it is extremely valuable for me to get an understanding of a legal regime in another jurisdiction from the PLC Cross-border materials. At Shell I do predominantly portfolio work across the downstream business outside the UK.
I first came across PLC in 2003 and now I use PLC materials to help me form the right questions to raise with local counsel – it gives me the platform to help me to know the questions to ask. If I get instructions and I don't know a lot about the legal regime in the country, a substantial part of my background knowledge comes from PLC. I also particularly like the checklists. They are quick to go through, useful as a reminder and to reassure myself that I have covered the basics. If I draw up an agreement I like to refer back to PLC materials to make sure that I have not missed any major items. I really value the range of materials provided by the Practical Law Company. PLC provides a reliable and credible resource and one single website where you can access the range of guidance you need."
Julienne Baron, Senior Legal Counsel, Downstream Shell International Limited.
