“Westlaw Asia is Thomson Reuters’ latest legal research service empowering professionals within Asia to carry out legal research across borders. It’s one platform expanding possibilities,” states Rob Head, Online and Commercial Director, ASEAN & North Asia Legal business of Thomson Reuters.
On 31 March 2015, to a room brimming with legal professionals, Thomson Reuters launched the much anticipated Westlaw Asia legal research platform to Hong Kong. Offering both a macro and micro overview of the new service, guests were walked through what a typical search would look like and the results it would yield. The new user-friendly platform offers powerful new features that make it easier than ever to quickly access relevant cases, legislation, law review articles and legal analysis. One of the most impressive features it boasts is its ability to conduct multi-jurisdictional legal research within a single search. Other key functions that facilitate a smoother, more efficient search experience include editorial classifications for easy reference, a customisable viewpoint, enhanced filtering options, historic law versioning and point in time search functions and email alerts on legal updates.
With the integration of the ASEAN Economic Community nearing completion and the increase in cross-border transactions between Hong Kong and China, lawyers need to be able to efficiently access a variety of legal databases within numerous jurisdictions. In addition, the rapid influx of investment into emerging markets throughout Asia has made a resource like Westlaw Asia even more necessary, since compiling cross-jurisdictional research is timely and often at great expense to a law firm’s available resources. To aid practitioners with these challenges, Jane Lewis, Sales and Marketing Director, ASEAN & North Asia Legal business of Thomson Reuters, said, “Westlaw Asia is going to give people a lot more flexibility in their legal research as research in Asia increasingly goes across borders, particularly with the development of the ASEAN community.”
Currently, users are able to research local and regional law and legal analysis across Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Philippines, Singapore and the UK in one simple search. In the future, Westlaw Asia will expand its coverage to include Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Vietnam, Brunei, Myanmar, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Taiwan and Thailand. Moreover, it integrates Westlaw UK and WestlawNext (Westlaw’s U.S. research platform), giving users greater access to worldwide content.
Westlaw is not new to Hong Kong, as subscribers have been enjoying the benefits of Westlaw HK™ for quite some time. To that end, current users of Westlaw HK™ will be transitioned over to the new platform, and will continue to have accessibility to the same comprehensive content via the new service.
Time is one of the most valuable commodities to a lawyer. Every major and minor enhancement to a search engine equates to time saved and money earned. From the days of manual hardback book and treasure-hunt style research, Westlaw’s dial-up services, and singular database forum-specific searches to today’s multi-jurisdictional search in the blink of an eye is incredible. With this new platform and its many capabilities, Westlaw Asia offers a practical solution for lawyers working within a global practice.
