Did you know that your Partnership increases in value every week? In addition to continually updating our existing online resources, ICLE is constantly adding new content of all kinds to the Partnership, from forms and checklists to timely on-demand seminars and helpful How-to Kits. Here’s a short rundown on our content-creation process, where to find the newest practice resources, and how to get involved.
Content Creation at ICLE
Numerous paths lead to the creation of new Partnership resources. Here are some of the most significant ones:
- Formal Planning. Several times a year, ICLE lawyers meet to discuss upcoming legal developments, identify practice trends, and formally brainstorm content for the coming months. To prepare for these meetings, we analyze new and amended laws and published caselaw, usage statistics for our existing resources, notes from meetings with our Advisory Boards, posts in the ICLE Community, and legal news sources. The lawyers make suggestions about projects that we need to do and projects that we could do, vote on the ideas, and receive assignments.
- Sudden Developments. Sometimes legal changes happen with little or no warning, requiring us to respond with new resources that are not in our formal plans. An extreme example of this is the COVID-19 pandemic, when we had to act quickly to provide updates on each new Executive Order. When unanticipated developments happen, we use Legal Updates to provide early essential information and then work on creating other responsive resources (like on-demand seminars or new forms) as well as updating our existing resources as needed. Legal Updates are also a great way to stay current on important legal changes.
- Customer Needs. We spend a lot of time assessing customer needs via direct channels like conducting surveys, reviewing communications from our Customer Experience team, and holding meetings with our Advisory Boards. (For example, a recent Partnership Survey indicated that Legal Updates are particularly popular, so we developed several new series in response.) We also assess customer needs indirectly by noting spikes in certain search queries on the ICLE website or looking for trends in the questions posed in the ICLE Community. Sometimes we see a post in the ICLE Community asking about a particular topic, and we realize that we need more content covering that issue. For example, a Community member asked for a pet addendum for a lease, and we were able to add two new forms to the ICLE Formbank thanks to the responses.
- ICLE Live Events. We review all of the programs and materials from ICLE live events to see what might be transformed into a useful addition to the Partnership. Selected livestreams from the events get added as on-demand seminars, and some of the materials get shaped into forms, checklists, Top Tips in Ten Minutes, or other new online resources.
- Direct Suggestions. While the content we create and when we create it depends on ICLE priorities, capabilities, and staffing, we are always open to suggestions from our customers and contributors. Sometimes a contributor we’ve worked with in the past has an idea for an on-demand seminar or a set of Top Tips in Ten Minutes. If it’s something that aligns with our plans and seems like a valuable addition to the Partnership, we often pursue these avenues and are grateful for the collaboration.
Finding the Newest Content
The My ICLE webpage features the latest Legal Updates, the most recently posted on-demand seminars, the most recent case summaries, and the latest posts in the ICLE Community. Additionally, the landing page for each resource type includes a list of the most recently added or updated resources right in the middle of the page. See the Legal Updates page for an example.
Staff lawyers routinely post about new content in the ICLE Community. ICLE Partners also receive a weekly email newsletter called the “Weekly Law and Practice Update,” which highlights the most recently added on-demand seminars, the latest ICLE staff blogs, and all of the Michigan Supreme Court and Michigan Court of Appeals opinion summaries and Public Act summaries from the previous week. The newsletter has a feature called “ICLE Covers You in Your Practice,” which highlights several of the most recently added or updated resources in the Partnership.
Getting Involved
ICLE always wants to hear from our customers about potential gaps in our content. Feel free to provide feedback here, or email icle@umich.edu. You can also email me (rebekahp@icle.org) or any of our other staff lawyers directly. If you’re interested in becoming an ICLE contributor and have ideas for new content, you can use this questionnaire to get started.