It may seem early to start thinking about November, perhaps even a little depressing, but two forthcoming events should be put in your diary now.
BAILII Anniversary
In November, it will be five years since the evangelical meeting at Chatham House which gave the impetus to the establishment of BAILII. It seems hard to believe that so much time has passed but great progress has been made and the anniversary is to be celebrated at a special meeting on 1 November.
Lord Filkin, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, former Law Society President Carolyn Kirby, and Chief Justice Rohan Keane (who will just have retired from leading the Irish judiciary) have all promised to come and speak at the event. If it has not happened by then, perhaps Lord Filkin can be persuaded to commit to full integration of the Statute Law Database with the BAILII materials.
The meeting will not merely reflect on past achievements but will allow BAILII to report on its latest position and we will no doubt hear about exciting future plans.
SCL Annual IT Law Conference
Another date for the diary is the regular SCL IT Law Conference. This is again to be held at the Bath Spa Hotel. The Conference will take place on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 November.
As with previous years, there will be a wide selection of leading speakers from both industry and private practice, who will be focussing on some of the most topical issues impacting upon the practice of law in the technology sector.
The focus of last year’s conference was on outsourcing, and there will again be a number of speakers talking about both on and offshore outsourcing, and the gradual emergence of some elements of ‘best practice’ in this regard. However, the conference will this year also have a number of other key themes, including m-commerce and intellectual property (particularly regarding the continuing debates as to the patentability of software and the impact of open source). There will also be a workshop session on IT related disputes.
