Legal OnRamp (LOR) is a Web 2.0 Collaboration platform for lawyers, which enables attorneys, whether in-house counsel or private practitioners, to connect and share information virtually.[1] LOR allows members to share documents, ranging from published articles and conference presentations to white papers and forms, and utilize databases and automated tools for legal work.
Legal OnRamp, founded in 2007,[2] utilizes many features common to other social networking websites, including message boards, blogs, databases, group functions closed to non-group members, a calendar of upcoming professional events, and open forums for discussion and document sharing.[3][4] Law firms have the ability to create a presence around a center of excellence, in the fee-based LOR offering.[4] Membership is solely by invitation and is limited to lawyers [3] and third-party legal service providers.[5]
Legal OnRamp is the first Web 2.0 system to integrate a general "walled garden" community with discrete, privileged, secure legal department productivity platforms.[6]
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The site was created in part by Mark Chandler, General Counsel of Cisco Systems;[7] the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; and attorney Paul Lippe, currently the venture's CEO.[8] The Magic Circle law firm Allen & Overy has been one of the biggest contributors of information to the site,[1] helping to strengthen the firm's position as one of the most innovative law firms.[9]
David Curle, the top legal industry analyst, recently cited LOR as one of the "Ten to Watch". http://www.outsellinc.com/legal_tax_regulatory/products/879
"Until recently, Legal OnRamp was simply one of a number of online professional networking platforms for lawyers. It has become the leading platform, however, on the basis of two factors. First, it is driven by the needs of a number of in-house corporate counsel who are its most active users and proponents. Active in-house lawyers are among those driving the legal industry forward and into new models. Some of them are using Legal OnRamp as a new platform for marketing, collaboration, and service delivery. Second, a recent partnership with Corporate Executive Board’s (CEB) General Counsel Roundtable has given Legal OnRamp some instant credibility. Other recent innovations include an Outsourcing Center provided by major global firm Latham & Watkins that includes interactive forms for automating part of the legal work in any outsourcing relationship. Corporate in-house lawyers are entering a phase of the legal services industry that will require them to re-think their relationships with each other, with their corporations, and with the firms they do business with. CEB content and services will be a key component of this new way of doing business, and Legal OnRamp’s fast-developing platform will give the community the Web 2.0 chops it needs. Worth watching as a nexus of some of the market forces that will reshape the relationship between corporations and the law firms that serve them."
Site membership is restricted to lawyers, primarily inhouse.[5] Membership is solely by invitation and access to the Legal OnRamp community is not accessible without membership. Geographically, the OnRamp has been most rapidly adopted in common law countries—the U.S., the UK, and Canada[10] -- but roughly 10% of members hail from Continental Europe and Asia. The site today boasts members, who refer to each other affectionately as "Rampers,"[11] from more than forty countries.[12]
LOR has sustained a recent surge in membership after the FutureFirm 1.0 competition on April 18–19, 2009, at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law in Bloomington.[13] The Ramp was represented by Lippe, who was one of the judges; most of the competition's participants have now become members.
In July 2009, Corporate Executive Board, USA, the Arlington, Virginia-based consulting group, formed a partnership with LOR. Corporate Executive Board, USA invested an undisclosed sum in OnRamp Systems Inc., which manages LOR.[14]
LOR is considered an example of an Enterprise 2.0 system, and has been cited by Enterprise 2.0 Pioneer Don Tapscott.