Michael Prichard was born before the Second World War and lived through the bombing and destruction of much of London. When he entered university in 1945, King's College London had reoccupied its old quarters in the badly-damaged Somerset House, and along with LSE and UCL had pooled teaching resources to overcome staff shortages and accommodation damage. This inadvertently gave Michael a rich pool of mentors upon which to found his career, and who served him well in later years. He entered Queens’ College Cambridge in 1948 and experienced the unique post-war phenomena of the “returning warriors”, which continued, along with the “weekenders”, when he became a fellow at Gonville & Caius in 1950. Here he has remained, and is still a Fellow, seventy years later. His legacy is a fund of memories of a life-long journey through changing landscapes of legal research, teaching, and college and faculty administration. Lesley Dingle first interviewed Michael for the Eminent Scholars Archive in 2012, where his biography and general academic reminiscences are set forth. She now revisits aspects of these, following a conversation she had with David Yale for ESA in November 2019. David was Michael's career-long colleague, and his interview shone new light on their decades of joint endeavour unravelling the development of maritime law in the British Isles. Shortly after David's reminder of the magnitude of their project, an encounter with Professor David Ibbetson, and most recently a meeting with Michael, now in his 93rd year, spurred the author on to summarise particular aspects of Michael's varied research projects. In the process, she will emphasise the overall sense of adventure, and enjoyment - in short “fun”, with which he explored the history and jurisdictional intricacies of the Admiralty Court (jointly with David Yale), presented his enlightened insights into the evolution of aspects of tort law, and explained his research of the few esoteric conundrums in which a retiree was able to indulge.

The 6th Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture was delivered by David Allen Green and took place on 8 June 2017 during the Annual Conference of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) which was held in Manchester. His talk concerned libraries and public policy with particular reference to Brexit. He addressed the issues of how a debate like Brexit can be better informed and to what extent reliable legal and policy information makes any difference. In essence, he looks at how good information can help shape Brexit. This article is a later write-up from David's speaking notes. The lecture was, coincidentally, given on the same day as the general election.

Masoud Gerami, Managing Director of vLex Justis, and Aidan Hawes, Head of Commercial Development, discuss the development and launch of the new vLex Justis platform. They describe the process of making decisions behind the content and features available on the platform, and how these will be continually enhanced in the future. They also discuss the global circumstances the platform was launched within and share their goal of meeting customer needs in a future which will bring new ways of working.

This paper, which was written by Rona Blair, is drawn from her presentation at the 2015 BIALL Annual Conference. The article looks at the challenges of working in a geographically dispersed team and how to overcome these challenges using pragmatic and workable procedures.

In this article Aileen Johnson, Head of Knowledge at Charles Russell Speechlys, describes the process of creating a knowledge strategy for a law firm. Simon Heatley, a Knowledge Development Lawyer in Charles Russell Speechlys' Disputes team, comments on this at a practice area level. Although drafted from a law firm perspective, this process could be adapted and replicated in other organisations.

This article, written by Emily Stannard, is based on her presentation at the 2015 BIALL Annual Conference. The article discusses the recent statutory changes to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and reflects on the impact it has had on information professionals, especially those working within the cultural heritage and education sectors. The wording of the legislation is considered in detail with the aid of case law to provide context where necessary, particularly with reference to fair dealing provisions. Developments within the Digital Single Market of the European Union also have a significant impact on national copyright law, and it is imperative that information professionals remain informed about upcoming copyright initiatives as well as making sense of the new statutory instruments.

This article, by Jonathan Sims, is based on a presentation given at the national training day on Law, Gender and Sexuality: Sources and Methods in Socio-Legal Research in May 2014, jointly sponsored by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, the Socio-Legal Studies Association and the British Library. The article identifies library collections and resources which, beyond the scope of typical law collections, might be useful for broadly socio-legal academic research on intersections between law, gender and sexuality.

The amount of physical space available is a vital issue for virtually all law libraries. In this article, Dunstan Speight, Library Manager at City law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, presents the issues involved in reducing and retaining library materials, to help library managers present a sound business case for maintaining the collection they need. Dunstan's experience is that of a law firm librarian, but it is hoped that much of what follows will also be relevant to librarians in other sectors.

Alison Lorrimer, Librarian in Departmental Solicitor's Office outlines the work of Departmental Solicitor's Office and how the library service has evolved to meet the information requirements of the office.

This article by Shaunna Mireau contains a brief update on the activities of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Vendor Liaison Committee and shares the unique features of the relationships between Canadian law librarians and the vendor community.

Clare Brown of Collyer Bristow revisits her earlier research on how the legal landscape is changing as a result of changes in regulation; the opening up of the profession to alternative business models and the effect of the internet on legal service provision.

In this article Margarethe Sannino shares some information on how legal research works in an international law firm with several offices. The focus is on German law and legal materials. A short introduction to German law is followed by an outline of German research resources in general and then, further on, there are two parts describing specific approaches to research from Margarethe's daily work; research on company/corporate law requests as well as research on legislative acts.

In this paper presented at the Joint Study Institute in Oxford, Michael Bowman traces the history of international law, with its basis in custom, and identifies the late Nineteeth century as the period when multi-lateral treaties became commonplace. He considers whether such treaties, which were essentially static in nature, provide a suitable framework for the Twenty-first century global community. However, since the Vienna Convention, treaties have become dynamic as they now incorporate mechanisms for continuous monitoring and review of treaty obligations.

This paper by Lesley Dingle, Squire Law Library, University of Cambridge was presented at the BIALL Seminar held on 3 March 2009. It covers the major sources, both paper and electronic, of international law.

Andrew Mills, of Freeth Cartwright LLP, gave a paper at the 38th Annual BIALL Study Conference in Sheffield in June 2007 on blogging. He describes how he set up IMPACT(R), his blog, which covers intellectual property and IT issues. He describes the software he used and the potential pitfalls involved when starting out. He emphasises the importance of using RSS feeds and considers whether blogs will present a threat to traditional hard copy publishing because of the speed with which they can communicate information.

This article, written by Samuel Wiggins, examines current trends within commercial law firm libraries, and considers how those trends might continue over the next five to ten years. Areas considered include legal technology, the future of the library space, the role of the professional body, training, and the relationship between traditional librarianship and knowledge management.

The library of the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow has been in existence for over 190 years. It is open to all practising and retired solicitors, advocates and law firms. This article by John McKenzie briefly outlines its history, relevance to the legal profession today, current set-up, challenges and future.

European Sources Online (ESO) is an electronic information service that provides information focusing on Europe. This article, by Ian Thomson of Cardiff University and Executive Editor of ESO, describes the development and the background to ESO, the key features and objectives of the service and current challenges.

Following the enactment of the Civil Procedure Rules in 1999, potential litigants are expected to pursue alternative means to litigation for solving their disputes. In this article, Nigel Broadbent a Director at Lupton Fawcett LLP in Leeds clearly explains the various activities which fall within ADR, including mediation, family dispute resolution, arbitration, conciliation and adjudication.