Since our first briefings round-up three months ago, many of the key issues affecting in-house legal teams, such as the eurozone crisis, data protection laws and commercial litigation, have developed or taken on radically new directions.

Elsewhere, a number of high-profile cases and judgments have tested basic legal concepts, notably in employment and contract law.

With its emphasis on peer-reviewed content, Legal Week Law's online library of briefings not only reflects the prevailing legal issues of the day, but crucially signposts those briefings which have proved to be the most useful to fellow legal professionals.

The success of the briefings mentioned on these pages bring into sharp focus the value these guides, reference tools and opinion pieces in helping in-house legal teams prepare for, and react to, legal developments affecting their businesses.

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March

The start of March witnessed a return to the subject that simply will not go away: the Bribery Act. A year on from its introduction, many of the popular briefings on Legal Week Law now look at how the Act has played out in the real world, moving on from focusing solely on compliance issues.

Bingham McCutchen's highly successful 'UK Bribery Act – current enforcement trends' provided an exhaustive review on the Act and its recent enforcement, settlement and penalty trends. The briefing's comprehensive analysis was rewarded by Legal Week Law readers with 24 recommendations and 753 downloads, including 239 in-house lawyers and 83 general counsel and heads of legal.

Field Fisher Waterhouse took a more functional approach with their 'Bribery Act 2010 – table of enforcement trends'. Despite a lack of commentary or analysis, the briefing's popularity reflects the value of collating data from disparate sources into one easy-to-read format. The resulting table produced 594 downloads and was recommended by 11 readers.

Mid-March saw one of the year's major financial and legal events: the Budget. A day after it was unveiled, Macfarlanes had produced their 17-page guide 'Budget 2012 – a comprehensive overview of this year's "kaleidoscope" Budget'.

The speed with which it was produced combined with its in-depth analysis both heightened the briefing's impact, making it by far the most downloaded briefing on the Budget. This fact underlines the advantages of preparing timely responses to major annual events.

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April

With social media well out of its infancy, businesses and law firms are increasingly aware of its undoubted usefulness in reaching a global audience – as well as its risks. A glut of briefings from the beginning of April reflected the innovative potential inherent in sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Shoosmiths' 'Forcing their way into Facebook: are online profiles fair game for employers?' proved to be the most popular of the bunch, with 451 downloads and 16 reader recommendations.

In common with Travers Smith's 'Avoiding ambiguity: top 10 contract drafting tips', which used the Abu Qatada deportation case as a peg, the briefing uses a recent development to spark a discussion on a very 21st century recruitment dilemma.

In addition to outlining the risks, the briefing provides clear, practical advice for employers and recruiters, a feature of briefings which has consistently proven to be the most valuable for businesses.

With 'Social media – a new tool for intellectual property disputes?', Eversheds focused on how social media can take an innovative role within the legal process, challenging traditional methods of dispute resolution.

Despite being a relatively short piece and offering limited advice, it was Eversheds' sharp eye for an interesting development which resonated strongly with Legal Week Law subscribers.

Baker & McKenzie's 'Emerging issues in social media: an in-depth discussion of the risks and rewards' provided a more general overview for employers. But what made their take particularly popular was as much the medium as the message; the use of the recorded webinar format allowed partners from a variety of practice areas to offer their thoughts on the manifold issues which social media covers.

With much of the in-house legal role concerned with liability and risk, it is unsurprising that briefings offering guidance in these areas continue to perform well. This was demonstrated in the popularity of Shoosmiths' 'Piercing the corporate veil?' – which looked at the liability of parent companies for the actions of their subsidiaries – and Nabarro's 'Who's responsible?' – which studied directors' indemnities and cover.

Most popular was Baker's