An important launch for Legal Week

This week sees an important launch for our title in the shape of Legal Week Law, a searchable online database of legal briefings targeted specifically at clients.

The concept appeals to me for a number of reasons. For one, it chimes with the direction we have sought to take the magazine in recent years: providing more of the kind of balanced and in-depth content that decision-makers at law firms and clients can rely on. The kind of reporting we aspire to do should be a business tool for our audience as much as quality journalism. As such, it seems natural for us to build our core media operation to provide more tools to help readers make informed decisions about their careers or run their businesses. In this context, Legal Week Law will hopefully earn a place alongside our growing research and events businesses.

Another attraction is that it brings Legal Week closer to the interaction between buyers and sellers – and hopefully helps the two sides meet. After all, the legal profession still has a tendency to sub-divide itself into private practice and in-house with, at times, a fairly dysfunctional form of communication between the two.

The product has also given us a chance to 'partner' with our key law firm contacts (sorry about the corporate jargon). Most of the briefings have been sourced from Partnership Club firms – the growing band of corporate subscribers to Legal Week. The way I see our title developing, there should be more occasions when I can call up key law firm partners and ask what we can do for them. Legal Week Law should give us an opportunity to do that.

But perhaps the most important thing about the venture is that it will give us a chance to bring more relevant information to clients. We see building our client audience as the heart of the magazine's future and, if Legal Week Law helps us achieve that, it will have served its purpose.

It's early days for the product but the initial reaction – judged by the number of registrations and downloaded documents – has been very positive. However, we're under no illusions: if the site is to be successful we will have to listen to the recommendations of users and work hard to source the best briefings from the best law firms.

In that regard I'd like to thank the many firms that have contributed material to the site, among them Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Norton Rose, Stephenson Harwood, Ashurst, Lovells, Latham & Watkins, Eversheds, Travers Smith and Nabarro. At launch the site has briefings from more than 100 law firms, and hopefully that will swiftly grow. In the meantime, feedback and questions will be gratefully received.