When dealing with a powerful law firm and a social network for lawyers, you should watch your words very, very carefully. Or so I imagine, and I’m not going to attempt any other approach. So here’s the news in its least editorialized form: Orrick has invested in Legal OnRamp.
Orrick, in case you couldn’t guess, is the powerful law firm; indeed, its homepage describes it as a global entity, and an “About Us” section states, “Today, we have approximately 980 lawyers in 18 offices worldwide . . .”
Legal OnRamp, then, is the social network, and the site, which is currently in an invitation-only mode, doesn’t have a lot to say about itself. So we’re off to alarm:clock, which summarizes, “Legal OnRamp provides content, connectivity and execution services to help in-house lawyers to get free legal counsel from outside firms. The hope for the advise givers is that inside counsel would appreciate their help and hire them.”
As for the specific features that Legal OnRamp might offer, a:c continues, “Its chief feature is an ask the expert section that is wiki based. Borrowing from LinkedIn’s networking function, bio pages include a ‘connection list’ of lawyers’ colleagues within and outside their firm.”
Yes, well, it all sounds perfectly lovely, doesn’t it? Yet there’s no word on how much money Orrick may have given Legal OnRamp, and it remains unknown when the network will reach its next stage of development. These lawyers are, as you might expect, good at keeping secrets.
