Inksters' 2009 Roundup
31 December 2009
On the last day of 2009 we look back and reflect on the past year at Inksters. A year that has perhaps been one of the most eventful for Inksters in our 10 year history:-
Quality Solicitors
In May Inksters became the Founding Scottish member of the Quality Solicitors Organisation. This was reported on by Tessa Shepperson in her Solicitors Online Blog as Quality Solicitors - the Scottish Experience and also by the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland in Quality Talks.
Recommended Law Firm
Also in May Inksters achieved Recommended Law Firm status following independent research carried out by The Firm Magazine. In September this was published in the Recommended Law Firms Guide 2009 launched at the Law Awards of Scotland 2009.
Awards
The year started with an award nomination for Support Team of the Year at the 2009 Legal Awards for those involved in the development of our websites: this one, scotsproperty.com and shetlandproperty.com. Later in the year we received 4 nominations at The Law Awards of Scotland 2009: Law Firm of the Year (under 50 fee earners), Family Law Firm of the Year, Marketing Team of the Year and Trainee of the Year (Kathleen Simmonds). Brian Inkster was also nominated for a Golden Twit award for his tweeting. Unfortunately, we did not pick up any of those on the night but we did collect an international WebAward for scotsproperty.com.
Twitter & Web 2.0
In February we became the first law firm in Scotland and one of the very first in the UK to Twitter. This was folowed by us listing Property for Sale on Twitter and then adding Crofting Law Twitter and Family Law Twitter to our twitter repertoire. This resulted in The Scotsman covering Inksters Twittering and Extensive press coverage of Inksters Twittering.
Brian Inkster was asked by The Firm Magazine to comment on the Telford Magistrates 'Twitter' case. Our twittering also featured in a full page article 'Whither to Twitter a Bit' in the May/June edition of The Firm Magazine. The Internet Newsletter for Lawyers & Law 2.0 (May/June 2009 issue) contained an article by Brian Inkster on Inksters' innovations including our twittering. Likewise the website review in the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland made much of our twittering. Brian Inkster was interviewed on Inksters' twittering for an article in the Federation of Small Bussinesses' magazine First Voice and also for an online article on the More Th>n Business website. In July The Scotsman ran a full feature on us Moving with the times.
In addition to such publicity our tweeting lead to Brian Inkster being interviewed by Charon QC on an Insite Law Podcast. It also resulted in Brian Inkster appearing in a video for The Law Society of Scotland's road shows: The Law is IT, being interviewed by the Editor of The Firm on Twitcam regarding Web 2.0, becoming a member of The Law Society of Scotland's Communications Working Group and reviewing Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition by Adrian Dayton.
The United States of America
In 2009 Inksters were noticed across the pond with inksters.com being the first non-US law firm site to be featured on LexCSS and a Manhattan lawyer Christopher F. Meatto featuring us in his HarvardLaw74 blog. We were also mentioned by New York Attorney, Scott Greenfield, in his Simple Justice blog. In August Brian Inkster was Twitterviewed in 22 Tweets by Lance Goddard of Cleveland, Ohio.
The Film
In February the Telegraph Business Club Masterclass film on Inksters' Investing in Technology was released. As a result Inksters featured in The Daily Telegraph and again with Ten minutes is all it takes.
YouTube
In September Inksters became the first law firm in Scotland and one of the first in the UK with a dedicated YouTube channel.
Automated Registration of Title to Land (ARTL)
In June Inksters became ARTL enabled. This was shortly followed by Inksters completing their first ARTL transaction. We were then to become one of the main advocates of ARTL amongst the Scottish legal profession resulting in Registers of Scotland asking Brian Inkster to appear in a video on the Benefits of ARTL for their Product Launch at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh in December.
Moncrieff -v- Jamieson
Although the decision in Moncrieff -v- Jamieson was issued by the House of Lords in 2007 the impact of this ground breaking case continued into 2009 and no doubt will do so during the forthcoming decade. In 2009 moncrieff-v-jamieson.com featured in a new book 'Property, Trusts and Succession' by George L Gretton & Andrew J M Steven. Brian Inkster lectured on Servitudes to the University of Strathclyde. This year also saw final settlement by the Defenders of the judicial expenses arising from the case thus bringing the 11 year long proceedings to an end.
Crofting Law
Brian Inkster was instrumental in bringing a series of Crofting Law lectures to the LLB Property Law Class of the Law School at the University of Strathclyde. In June Brian lectured on Common Grazings and the Deemed Croft at the Crofting Law Conference organised by the WS Society in association with the Crofting Law Group. Then in December Brian was blogging from Inverness on the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Bill for The Firm and on the same day was elected Hon Secretary of the Crofting Law Group with effect from 15 January 2010.
Family Law
Family Law Resources on inksters.com was launched in May. Gus Macaulay became a Collaborative Family Lawyer and Louise King who has a particular interest in Family Law commenced her traineeship with Inksters.
Trusts & Estates
This year saw Kathleen Simmonds successfully complete the Wills and Executries: Law and Practice course and the Trusts: Law and Practice course of the Step Diploma for Scotland (Trusts and Estates).
To Kill a Mocking Bird
In May Kathleen Simmonds told the Firm Magazine how she was inspired into the world of the law from seeing it portrayed on screen in To Kill a Mocking Bird at the age of eleven.
Ten
We turned ten on 1 May 2009 and celebrated with a birthday party at the Lighthouse in Glasgow which was captured in pictures. Our birthday celebrations continued in July with an office trip to Shetland for our entire staff. Photos were taken of day 1 and day 2.
Charity
We continued our support of Charities such as CLAN House Appeal Prize Donation and Red Nose Day 2009. However, our major charitable activity in 2009 was the Habitat for Humanity Global Village Challenge 2009 with Brian Inkster & Nicola Walls building homes for people in poverty in Argentina. We developed a dedicated Corporate Social Responsibility website and the InkstersGive Blog to accompany it. In 2009 we raised £6,661 for Habitat for Humanity and continue our fundraising into 2010 at JustGiving.com.
We are looking forward to 2010 being as eventful.
Happy New Year!