Edward Brandwein, Head Librarian

We sat down with Edward Brandwein, head librarian at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. A 200-attorney firm, Patterson Belknap focuses on commercial litigation practice with specialties in pharma, biotech, and financial services. Ed describes how Bloomberg Law® helps the firm meet its litigation needs through best-in-class Dockets and tools such as Litigation Analytics. He is a strong proponent of the benefits of Bloomberg Law’s all-inclusive pricing model, unlimited access for subscribers, and continuous enhancements to the platform’s content and tools.

How has your legal practice changed over the past several years?

The level of completeness and detail that is now expected from researchers has enormously increased. Back in the day, a law librarian, if you just could handle statutes and case law, administrative codes and treatises, you were done. Nowadays, it is not at all uncommon for someone to say I want everything out there from this judge.

How was the firm persuaded to adopt Bloomberg Law?

When I came to Patterson…No one was really looking at things like the docket search capability, the unpublished case law, the things that litigators really need to look at. When I got a password on Bloomberg Law, because as a librarian, I had one of these four seats, and I began answering questions for litigators out of the database, everyone took notice. “Where are you getting this information from?” “Can you get me this?” “Can you get me that?” “How can I do it?”

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“[O]ur litigation practice is such that we needed really deep litigation research capability, and this ability to really scan a docket at a very, very granular level is unique to Bloomberg. Nobody else can do it.”

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Your practice has a litigation focus. Do you rely heavily on Bloomberg Law Dockets?

That has been very heavily used here. It’s probably the reason we got the product firmwide. I mean, our litigation practice is such that we needed really deep litigation research capability, and this ability to really scan a docket at a very, very granular level is unique to Bloomberg. Nobody else can do it.

Do you use Bloomberg Law Litigation Analytics?

Litigation Analytics is a neat tool in the sense that if you want to get a picture of what a particular judge does in a particular case, for a particular cause of action, you can do it very quickly. That’s the kind of data that yes, theoretically you could have done without this product, but it would have been very hard, and it’s the kind of thing clients want to hear. You know? “How long is this case going to take?” “How long does the judge take to decide a motion?” That kind of thing. So that’s very helpful. “How much experience does this judge have?”

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“Bloomberg Law is different from many of the other legal platforms I have encountered in a number of different ways. Most specifically, it is an all-inclusive product, so every time something new comes out, it’s included. I don’t have to sign a new contract.”

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What about our Points of Law?

Points of Law gives you the ability to quickly zero in on what matters in a case, and for young associates in particular when they’re searching — and this happens to all of us — you’re not sure if you’re seeing the right thing. You run a search, you find a case, you’re thinking to yourself, yeah, this looks good, but is it the leading case? Does it matter? Points of Law gives you a map, if you will, that allows you to get to that very quickly. It’s an interesting technology. It’s relatively recent so I don’t think it has penetrated as far into the practice groups as it, as it eventually will, but I have used it and I like it.

Why would you recommend Bloomberg Law?

Bloomberg Law is different from many of the other legal platforms I have encountered in a number of different ways. Most specifically, it is an all-inclusive product, so every time something new comes out, it’s included. I don’t have to sign a new contract. We don’t have to have another, you know, dog and pony show. … [I]nstead of having to sit there doing a cost-benefit analysis in your head, when you’re doing legal research, you can now concentrate on actually getting the answer.