Law School Faculty Share, Publish and Search for Classroom Resources in a Unique Cross-Campus Online Community

EAGAN, Minn., Jan. 7, 2009 – Law School Exchange, a new online networking and content sharing site from West and Foundation Press, takes the term "knowledge sharing" to a new level for law school faculty in the United States. Professors now can publish and distribute articles, books and other materials for research, teaching and scholarly purposes – and also search and download the work of their colleagues.

Law School Exchange, at http://exchange.westlaw.com, is the first online community of its kind. It was built for professors to better connect with fellow legal educators as they share content and join groups to collaborate on curricula, course materials and classroom preparation.

"This online community and network for law faculty enables law teachers to create, find, mix and publish the richest, most effective materials ever available for teaching law," said Steve Nickles, C.C. Hope Chair in Law and Management, Wake Forest School of Law. "It is truly revolutionary and organically evolutionary. The richness of Law School Exchange and its value will expand as faculty create and distribute all kinds of learning objects, including entirely new forms and functions for learning, that are reciprocally used, improved and supplemented by law professors everywhere. Law School Exchange gives faculty a new role and creates a new collaborative relationship not only among faculty but also between them and West. It's really a new day in law school publishing."

Nickles helped West develop TWEN® (The West Education Network), the only national, online course management system designed for legal education, used by students and faculty at leading law schools across North America. Based on ideas from hundreds of professors using TWEN, West's product developers created Law School Exchange, which can work in conjunction with TWEN.

"Professors are going to find that Law School Exchange will foster a spirit of collaboration that allows them to get input on their work, improves their research and in turn better prepares their students for the challenges of the practice of law," said Justin Hummel, director, New Product Development, West.

Material on Law School Exchange includes text, PDFs, photos, PowerPoint presentations, links to videos and more. Professors also can pull content from selected West Academic Publishing and Foundation Press books, teacher's manuals and supplements.

Faculty interested in learning more about Law School Exchange can call 1-800-486-4876 or send an e-mail to west.lawschoolexchange@thomsonreuters.com.

A Westcast podcast featuring Steve Nickles talking about Law School Exchange is available on the Westcast Web site at http://feeds.feedburner.com/Westcast or go to iTunes and enter "Westcast" in the search box.

Headquartered in Eagan, Minn., West is the foremost provider of integrated information solutions, software and services to the U.S. legal market. West is part of Thomson Reuters. For more information, visit the West Web site at west.thomson.com.

The Thomson Reuters Academic publishers – Foundation Press, Gilbert and West – offer best-selling casebooks, study aids and supplementary products for the academic market. These preeminent academic publishers have been an indispensable part of law student life since the first part of the 20th century, and are part of Thomson Reuters, the foremost provider of integrated information solutions to the U.S. legal market. Serving faculty, bookstores and students, www.westacademic.com is designed to provide up-to-date and detailed product information to meet academic needs.