Name: Victor Son
Company: Thomson West
BUSINESS SNAPSHOT
We are in
an elevator. You
hear I work in a law firm.
You have 20 seconds to make your “elevator speech”
and tell me what your company can do for me.
What do you say?
West is
the leading provider of both Legal & Business Information as
well as Business of Law solutions.
ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS
How long
has your company been in business?
Approximately 150
years.
How many
people are employed at your company? Approximately 8,000.
Is your
company a local or national company? We are international,
with our US
headquarters in Eagan,
Minnesota
as well as a local office here in
Boston.
Who are
some of your customers, both in general and in the legal
community?
Bingham McCutcheon, Campbell & Campbell, most if not all
firms do some business with West
What is
your value proposition for the legal industry? Provide
thorough, accurate, editorial enhanced information
addressing primary, secondary, analytical resources.
Can you
share a law firm success story with us?
A firm was
designing an internal Professional Development Group.
They were
uncertain as to the types of resources that were available
to them, the costs, and where to go etc. Because they were
Westlaw customers, I received a call. We provided
information to the firm of others who have successfully
developed an internal Continuing Legal Education program for
their firms. We worked with the firm and ultimately helped
them form their department which included programs from our West
Legal
Education
Center
product line.
One other
notable success story was a firm who recently had an issue
questioning the accuracy of a Supreme Judicial court opinion
they had read on WL. They had read a case from one of the
West Reporters on WL. During the discovery phase, one
attorney noticed the wording from the same case was
different in another resource.
A partner from the firm called me to find out why one
opinion contained certain language, and the other was
different. I
checked with our editorial people and found out that as a
result of our verification and correction process with WL,
the judge writing the opinion had made an error. We had
corrected the error for the court. However, the correction
had not been picked up by the resource the other attorney
had been using.
YOUR BUSINESS AND THE
ALA
BOSTON CHAPTER
How long
has your company been involved in the Boston Chapter of the ALA?
Approximately 4 years.
How does
your company benefit from being involved with the Boston
Chapter of the ALA? We get an opportunity to reach important
members of our firms and non-customers, to address issues
and concerns, as well as provide to them our newest
enhancements on our products and acquisitions. The
relationship is important to us with our efforts to support
our customer centric philosophy.
The relationship and interaction is a tremendous
value to us.
ABOUT YOU
How did
you get started at your company? A great number of years ago
I was working as a Legal Administrator at a medium size firm
and I was approached by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing (now
part of Thomson West) to join their sales team.
Definition
of a good day? A
customer telling me that he appreciates my efforts and for
helping them resolve or satisfy an issue.
What do
you do in your spare time? Love to read, time at the beach,
music, fish, watch the Red Sox, and family time. Just do not
do enough of all of these!
Something
that makes you smile?
My kids, wife, and newly born 1st
grandchild, and spending time with old friends.
HOW TO LEARN MORE
What is
your website?
Thomsonwest.com
Who at
your company can members of the ALA Boston contact with
questions or consultation? (Please provide email, phone, and
address)
Victor.son@thomson.com
617-799-2867
53 State St,
13th floor
Boston,
Ma. 02026
