The hope that legal problems faced by UK firms as a result of the Single European Market will help boost its videoconferencing business is behind the launch by British Telecomunications Plc of its new LawLink service (CI No 1,164). The London Chamber of Commerce has set up LawLink, a service that enables firms to seek legal advice through videoconferencing. British Telecom provides most of the equipment, with Rank Xerox supplying workstations and documenters, which enable users to edit and transmit documents while the conference is in progress. The Chamber of Commerce wants its members to use videoconferencing to take legal advice from other centres; this predominantly means provincial firms going to their local offices and holding conferences with European law experts in London. The system is currently connected to offices in Bournemouth and Chester: the Chamber wants, however, to set up a network covering 40 regional offices and 25 countries. The scheme will cost each chamber around UKP70,000 to install; the service will be free to members, but offices will eventually hire systems out to non-member firms. International law firm Brebner & Co is also behind the scheme.
