What Can an Attorney Learn from a Fish? A Lot, Says LexisNexis and One Clever Lawyer in Alaska
Case Law, Authoritative Analysis Make a Strong Foundation, but Billions of News, Business, Public Records and Court Documents Create the Total Research System and a Powerful Strategy for Success

A Call for Real Tales -- Tell Us Your True Stories of Total Research System Success

DAYTON, OH, August 08, 2002 - It may sound a bit fishy, but the lawyer’s so called “legal” research included a powerful little known resource – a database of Alaska Fish and Game licensees. And his success in hooking his catch didn’t require bait, only the LexisNexis™ total research system and a dedication to succeeding on behalf of his client.

It’s not just a single fish tale. There’s the one about the dead man who hired a real estate agent – after his “demise.” And the jury foreman who didn’t bring more information about himself to the forefront.
Or the CEO whose past could have proved unhealthy for the vitamin company.

Around the country, more and more attorneys are pairing the unconventional with traditional legal research for powerful results, confident decision-making – and great success stories to tell. The foundation for their success has been LexisNexis™, the global leader in comprehensive and authoritative legal, news and business information, with its vast collection of valuable information, sources and documents – legal and otherwise – used by lawyers, companies and students.

What’s in there that’s so, well, non-legal, but that lawyers and others find so helpful in their sleuthing? For starters, there is a complete universe of information in one place where researchers can conduct competitive intelligence, background checks and search various types of business information, such as SEC documents, corporate profiles, market research reports, financial analyst reports, demographics and M&A information.

Access to international and world news, Economist Intelligence Unit publications, country profiles, business analysis and country information, international company profiles as well as legal and regulatory information is also available. LexisNexis offers an extensive news database that contains more than 10,600 full text sources including newspapers, newsletters, magazines, trade journals, wire services and interview transcripts.  It also provides professional licensing information, biographical sources, “person locator” tools and a host of other types of personal information.

In fact, the company has been so impressed with the creativity its customers have demonstrated in snaring insurance cheats, locating hard to find witnesses and other clever catches, it’s profiling some of those customers’ more interesting success stories  – large and small – in an advertising campaign debuting this month in professional legal publications. In addition, it’s issuing a call for other attorneys to share their total research successes with their peers at  www.lexisnexis.com/totalresearch.

In addition to sharing their true stories via the Web, attorneys can enter a sweepstakes drawing to win prizes that will appeal to any information angler, including an Alaskan cruise, a deep sea adventure, a family trip to Sea World or a $500 gift certificate.

“From my personal experience, I can tell you that winning at trial can come down to who did the best legal research and used it to their advantage – in discovery, in depositions, in jury selection, in examining testimony,” said Chris Isles, a Houston, Texas, trial attorney who now shares his research and litigation success secrets as a total research system trainer for LexisNexis. “With LexisNexis, lawyers get real-life answers fast and can gain the advantage with the broader perspective they need, whether that perspective comes from case law, a court docket, corporate filings or the weather report.”

And, combined with a keen legal mind, the LexisNexis total research system, can be a formidable tool in formulating litigation strategy, says Isles, who has practiced law for almost 10 years and has handled hundreds of cases.

“A good percentage of my research in preparing for trial was using the resources of LexisNexis to plan my litigation strategy,” explained Isles.  “It’s a wonderful resource for reviewing court filings and other documents to help me determine  what the opposing counsel is likely to do. If I knew what motions he filed in similar past cases and what witnesses he traditionally used, I could better prepare for trial and formulate my own strategy for countering and minimizing each step in his path.”

It all comes down to understanding that the universe of potential information that can help lawyers at trial and in counseling clients is vast – and available. A good, total research system should reduce that mind-boggling list of databases and documents to an easy to use research process, facilitated by powerful and intuitive technology.

“If you think about the magnitude of it all – consider that the LexisNexis service provides access to about four billion documents – you might be intimidated,” said Isles. “What you have to know is that your legal mind, some key research techniques and LexisNexis tools, such as SmartLinx™, can harness all of that massive content.

“It’s not a cliché at LexisNexis when we say, ‘information is power.’ Working from a single source, our customers prove it everyday.”

The LexisNexis advertising campaign highlights how some of the company’s customers harnessed the power of a total research service to their benefit and to the benefit of their corporate and individual clients. The fish tale is the first ad to illustrate the point:

• What Can an Attorney Learn from a Fish?
  Recently, an investigator for an Oregon law firm was having trouble finding a witness whom he believed lived in Alaska. He had checked out various "people finder" services but was unable to locate the individual. The investigator had given up hope until someone suggested trying LexisNexis’ "Alaska Fish & Game Licenses" database. Why? Because while some individuals won't hesitate to give false information on more "official" governmental forms, they never think to lie on their fish and game license information. Sure enough, by using that database, the investigator was able to find an address recently used by that individual and was able to track the witness down.
  

• Dead men do tell tales
• What the jury foreman knew