Practical Law Company is the UK’s pre-eminent provider of legal know-how, transactional analysis and market intelligence for business lawyers.
Practical Law Company (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) and journal editors - a group of over 100 experienced former practitioners, who cover a wide range of law relevant to companies. For more background to 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 have created a 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.
Management content including benchmarking surveys, case studies and interviews with general counsel worldwide.
A range of additional services and tools designed to help the law department to add value to the business, become more cost effective and manage resources more effectively.
For a summary of the reasons for a PLC Law Department subscription, see Justifying a Law Department subscription (www.practicallaw.com/3-201-8921)
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:
Subscribers to PLC Law Department also have access to the PLC Publications Portal a fully indexed and searchable library of the know-how of leading law firms which sits side by side with the PLC know-how.
Resources include:
Over 900 continually maintained guidance notes on key areas of law and practice PLC practice notes (www.practicallaw.com/3-103-0981)contain concise and continually maintained practical explanations of the law and discuss the practical application of the law to particular transactions or sectors.
Over 700 continually maintained precedents and clauses with practical drafting notes PLC standard documents (www.practicallaw.com/6-103-0965)provide practical guidance on key negotiating and drafting issues. All standard documents can be down loaded in Microsoft Word 6 format for immediate use.
Over 200 Checklists and flowcharts Subscribers also have access to a number of user-friendly checklists, (www.practicallaw.com/8-103-0969)flow charts and other resources to provide quick-reference reminders of key points.
Multi-jurisdictional guides across a range of practice areas. PLC Cross-border Handbooks (www.practicallaw.com/1-103-1825) provide an in-depth jurisdictional Question and Answer analysis of how the law is applied in different jurisdictions and leading practitioners worldwide.
As part of its dedicated service to in-house subscribers PLC has developed PLC Law Department Management, a service which provides practical resources for senior in-house lawyers, to help manage the law department and deal with issues relating to legal risk and compliance. Resources include benchmarking surveys, case studies and interviews with general counsel worldwide.
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.
PLC works closely with its in-house subscribers to develop tools that will make their life easier.
Subscribers can integrate their own know-how materials closely with those of the service, whilst maintaining confidentiality. For further information see Intranets: integrating PLC materials. (www.practicallaw.com/8-107-3911)
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, driving profitability.
PLC Legal Risk (www.practicallaw.com/7-378-7480)is a is a new e-learning service that enables in-house legal teams to educate the business in key areas of legal risk. It comprises practical online training courses and reference materials which are specifically written for non-lawyers and are extremely user-friendly
For information on pricing please call the PLC helpline (www.practicallaw.com/A17385).
PLC Law Department members receive:
One complimentary subscription per department to PLC magazine (£495), PLC Law Department Quarterly and PLC Cross-border Quarterly. Additional subscriptions for only £75 (PLC magazine) or £45 (PLC Law Department Quarterly or PLC Cross-border Quarterly).
15% discount on PLC Law Department events (www.practicallaw.com/A44455)
15% discount on PLC's Practice Manuals (www.practicallaw.com/T15)
Additional member benefits from PLC Law Department preferred partners:
15% discount on College of Law (www.practicallaw.com/0-200-2870) training courses
15% discount on advertising vacancies on totallylegal.com (www.practicallaw.com/0-200-2870)
"Absolutely tremendous. PLC has come up with the gold standard again. PLC Law Department saves money and adds value at the same time. Navigation around the site is superb and the underlying material is extremely valuable."
Steven Weatherley, Legal Advisor, Scottish & Newcastle plc
"We expect all our commercial and transaction lawyers to use PLC Corporate. Frankly, I would be surprised if our external law firms and other blue chip in-house departments did not take the same view." Clive Grant, Senior Legal Counsel, Shell International Limited
"Access to web services such as PLC Law Department is vital — it complements other resources and is a great help in legal research."
Melanie Gamble, Deputy General Counsel, BG Group Legal
"I find PLC Law Department gives me quick and easy access to a wealth of detailed information that, as a busy in-house lawyer, I find to be of exceptional value."
Ian Dickson, General Counsel, Creative Labs.
"Content is key. PLC Law Department's excellent content makes the site an outstanding resource in our efforts to “dot.com” our Sun Legal function!"
Mark Curtis, Head of Legal, Sun Legal.
"Very impressive. In addition to a core of essential know-how, it provides the user with helpful updates in a range of key practice areas, cross-referenced to related topics."
Lisa Gates, legal department, International Power
"PLC Law Department is an invaluable tool for in-house law departments which helps to level the playing field with law firms by providing up to the minute know-how and precedents."
Andrew Fritchie, Group Counsel & Company Secretary, Marlborough Stirling plc
"It's hard to imagine how any department can function without subscribing."
Lawyers in Business
"We require our lawyers to be deployed at the “front line”. We do not have support lawyer capability in-house, but we need reliable know-how resources to work effectively and control our external spend. PLC Law Department provides these for us. The savings attributable to the service well outweighs the subscription fee. It is extremely good value. More importantly, it provides the succinct and practical guidance that allows us to give timely and pragmatic advice to the business."
Helen Mahy, General Counsel and Company Secretary, National Grid.
If you have any comments about the content of PLC Law Department please contact Mary Mullally on +44 20 7202 1245.
