Last
week,
I
presented
Part
I
of
my
written
interview
with
a
product
manager
and
researcher
at
Free
Law
Project
(FLP),
Stephanie
Taube.
That
column
presented
her
answer
to
the
first
of
my
three
questions
and
focused
on
FLP’s
newest
offering,
RECAP
Search
Alerts
for
PACER.
What
follows
are
Stephanie’s
answers
to
my
remaining
two
questions.
As
usual,
I
have
added
some
brief
commentary
to
her
answers
below,
but
have
otherwise
presented
her
answers
as
she
provided
them.
Gaston
Kroub:
For
younger
lawyers
and
even
those
in
law
school,
what
can
they
do
to
increase
their
facility
with
FLP’s
various
tools?
Stephanie
Taube:
CourtListener
is
an
open
source
legal
research
platform
that
lawyers
and
law
students
can
use
to
access
our
immense
collection
of
case
law,
federal
court
documents
and
dockets,
judges
and
their
financial
disclosures,
and
oral
arguments.
CourtListener
supports
highly
advanced
Boolean
queries,
allowing
users
to
build
complex
searches.
Users
can
set
search
alerts
for
those
queries,
or
set
docket
alerts
to
follow
particular
dockets.
We
also
offer
several
options
for
those
who
want
to
build
their
own
systems
with
our
data,
including
APIs,
webhooks,
bulk
data,
and
database
replication.
Did
you
know
that
PACER
is
the
largest
paywall
on
the
internet?
Our
mission
is
to
advance
open
access
to
the
courts,
and
we
have
several
tools
that
make
PACER
data
available
for
free.
Our
users
love
the
RECAP
Extension
—
it’s
used
by
tens
of
thousands
of
people.
With
the
extension,
your
PACER
purchases
will
be
automatically
added
to
the
RECAP
Archive
in
CourtListener,
and
anything
another
user
has
added
to
the
archive
will
be
available
to
you
for
free
—
right
in
PACER
itself.
One
of
our
newer
features
is
the
Pray
and
Pay
Project.
Users
can
“Pray”
for
PACER
documents
they
want,
and
others
can
grant
those
prayers
by
purchasing
those
documents
on
their
behalf.
Since
PACER
waives
your
first
$30
of
purchases
each
quarter,
we
encourage
our
users
to
spend
some
of
it
on
the
community’s
most-wanted
documents.
In
the
first
few
months
since
the
feature
launched,
several
thousands
of
dollars’
worth
of
prayers
have
already
been
fulfilled.
The
participation
from
our
users
has
been
really
incredible.
GK:
When
I
get
contacted
by
law
students
or
recent
graduates
asking
for
advice
on
how
to
get
a
job
practicing
IP
litigation,
one
of
my
go-to
answers
is
to
try
to
figure
out
which
firms
have
been
active
filing
IP
cases
in
the
recent
past
—
since
they
may
be
likelier
to
anticipate
needing
junior
attorney
help
for
even
more
filings,
or
to
service
the
round
of
cases
that
they
just
filed.
I
think
I
am
suggesting
a
worthwhile
approach,
but
it
also
presumes
that
the
newer
or
aspiring
lawyer
has
some
facility
with
PACER,
so
that
they
can
perform
the
suggested
research
on
IP
cases,
which
are
overwhelmingly
filed
in
the
federal
courts.
There
is
no
doubt
in
my
mind
that
FLP’s
tools
are
a
must-add
to
any
aspiring
federal
court
litigator’s
toolbox,
so
the
earlier
one
learns
to
use
them
the
better.
GK:
What
challenges
do
you
and
your
team
at
FLP
look
forward
to
tackling
in
the
coming
years?
ST:We
run
some
of
the
largest
open
legal
systems
in
the
world,
and
we
have
an
ambitious
roadmap.
We’re
collaborating
with
organizations
like
the
University
of
Michigan,
Amazon
Web
Services,
courts
and
libraries
around
the
country
to
deliver
tremendous
value
to
our
users.
Some
of
our
highest-priority
initiatives
include
new
feature
development,
enhancing
our
search
engine,
and
expanding
our
data
and
coverage.
We
have
several
AI
initiatives
on
our
roadmap,
and
are
currently
developing
the
first
open-source
legal
citator,
in
partnership
with
several
startups.
On
that
note,
we’re
currently
seeking
legal
experts
to
help
shape
the
accuracy
and
integrity
of
the
Citator,
and
encourage
those
interested
in
volunteering
to
reach
out.
Another
project
we’re
working
on
is
a
platform
that
makes
legal
information
and
e-filing
more
user-friendly
and
accessible
for
self-represented
litigants;
we’re
actively
collaborating
with
courts
to
make
this
a
reality.
We
are
also
enhancing
our
search
engine,
with
features
like
semantic
search
coming
soon.
And
finally,
we
are
always
expanding
our
data
—
some
upcoming
projects
include
adding
SCOTUS
filings
and
dockets,
and
adding
transcripts
for
oral
arguments.
In
addition
to
our
stellar
staff,
our
incredible
partners
and
volunteer
contributors
help
make
all
of
this
possible.
GK:
Stephanie’s
list
of
FLP
projects
in
development
is
most
impressive.
It
will
be
very
interesting
to
see
how
the
FLP
team
brings
AI
tools
to
bear
on
the
huge
volume
of
data
generated
by
our
legal
system.
In
that
vein,
we
can
all
root
for
a
successful
outcome
with
their
Citator
project,
which
looks
to
leverage
AI
capabilities
in
service
of
what
has
been
a
costly
value-add
service
that
lawyers
and
firms
have
traditionally
been
forced
to
pay
for.
Likewise,
the
other
initiatives
mentioned
by
Stephanie
have
promise
–
and
I
for
one
would
welcome
easy
access
to
oral
argument
transcripts,
in
particular.
All
in
all,
it
is
clear
that
FLP’s
legacy
of
innovation
will
continue
for
some
time
to
come,
to
the
benefit
of
us
all.
My
thanks
to
Stephanie
for
the
insights
and
cooperation,
and
I
wish
her
and
her
FLP
colleagues
continued
success
with
their
important
work.
Those
inclined
to
provide
financial
support
for
FLP’s
efforts
will
be
making
an
impactful
choice.
We
appreciate
FLP’s
contributions
to
date
and
I
hope
that
we
will
continue
to
see
FLP
innovate
in
the
service
of
their
mission. I
am
always
open
to
conducting
interviews
of
this
type
with
other
IP
thought
leaders,
so
feel
free
to
reach
out
if
you
have
a
compelling
perspective
to
offer.
Please
feel
free
to
send
comments
or
questions
to
me
at
[email protected]
or
via
Twitter:
@gkroub.
Any
topic
suggestions
or
thoughts
are
most
welcome.
Gaston
Kroub
lives
in
Brooklyn
and
is
a
founding
partner
of Kroub,
Silbersher
&
Kolmykov
PLLC,
an
intellectual
property
litigation
boutique,
and Markman
Advisors
LLC,
a
leading
consultancy
on
patent
issues
for
the
investment
community.
Gaston’s
practice
focuses
on
intellectual
property
litigation
and
related
counseling,
with
a
strong
focus
on
patent
matters.
You
can
reach
him
at [email protected] or
follow
him
on
Twitter: @gkroub.