In big news for Google and lawyers worldwide, Google announced yesterday that it has added legal opinions and legal journals to its huge Google Scholar database. Twitter and other legal blogs are already buzzing with the news, and there is one excellent quick overview of the impact on attorneys. The bottom line: lawyers who fail to innovate may have the most to lose. With access to legal opinions increasingly available to anyone at anytime, Joe Q. Public and so-called ‘non-lawyer specialists’ now have many of the legal research tools many lawyers take for granted. As David Curle said today, lawyers are

about to be “Web-MD’d.” Clients will begin coming to them with reams of print-outs, thinking they know the law, the same way doctors are always hearing from self-diagnosing patients who think they can spot their disease by reading stuff on the Web. New-found access to formerly hidden legal information will do for potential legal clients what WebMD and the Web has done for patients – arm them with information, and build a thirst for more information that’s targeted to them, rather than to the lawyers.  Lawyers, like doctors, will have to redefine their role and authority in a world where everyone thinks they’re an expert.

To get a quick glimpse of Google Scholar without trying it out yourself, check out our brief video overview below, as part of  our Off the Clock video tips series.

–Posted by Gregory Luce