Thursday, February 28, 2008

A new ‘adda’ [hangout] for lawyers networking in India [India]

The Indian legal community has a new player in the online field: a portal called www.legaladda.com, which seems to have gotten the nod from Microsoft. Surprising, given the rather casual and colloquial use of the word ‘adda’ as part of the brand. Not the kind of company that Microsoft would like to keep. ‘Adda’, a colloquial word is Hindi slang for hangout. Is this a serious site? We will have to wait and see…
Law Wire™ had a look at the portal itself. It has this to say on the home page by way of introduction:
LegalAdda seeks to build a vibrant community of legal professionals in India.
The site aims to facilitate collaboration amongst the legal ecosystem and network with each other. We invite students, practicing lawyers, law firms, colleges & universities to actively participate at the site.
At LegalAdda, you can participate in discussions at the forums. Your white papers on legal topics are invited at the "Contributions" section. Events of interest to the legal community can be shared at the Events section. The "Jobs and Internships" tab provides opportunity for prospective employers to post their open positions. Candidates looking for internships & jobs can benefit from this section.

It is an interesting concept, and slightly different from the existing legal portals on the market, which serve as agglomerations [euphemism for ‘databases’ of laws and rules] and occasionally offer legal advice in violation of the Bar Council of India Rules. The USP of the website appears to be that it is essentially a social networking site and a space for people in the legal world to meet and connect with each other. One is curious to see if this will catch on.

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