Margaret Berkland is the president of Data Vision Design, Inc., which specializes in providing IT solutions to the legal community. Founded in Fredericksburg, VA in 1989, Data Vision Design, Inc. provides services that include: applications development, business process design, applications integration, electronic file tracking and, access expedition. Prior to becoming the president of DataVision Design, Inc., Margaret was the Info. Resources Technology Specialist for McKenna & Cuneo .

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AFL-CIO: PayWatch
http://www.aflcio.org/paywatch/index.htm

AFL-CIO: PayWatch is maintained by the AFL-CIO. The website allows you to compare your pay would the CEO’s in the Executive PayWatch database. You can also see how much you would be making with a CEO type raise. There is a link on how to “Enron-proof your retirement security. There are links to unions and other organizations and AFL-CIO constituency groups. The section on working women is also interesting.

Author Pseudonyms
http://www.trussel.com/books/pseudo.htm

This website claims to have 11,429 entries (4,118 for real names and 7,311 for pseudonyms) as of November 9, 2002. You browse alphabetically. There is no search engine. Real names are usually in boldface, but sometimes are maiden names, birth names, etc. There is a link to a listing of pseudonym dictionaries as well as a link to sources for the information on the site and the listing of authors with more than ten pseudonyms that are listed on the site.

Gateway to Government Food Safety Information
http://www.foodsafety.gov/

The FAQ’s page has 500 frequently asked questions (FAQ) on federal, state, and local food safety web sites. It covers consumer as well as business and industry questions. On the Search page, you can search this specific website, state health departments, or search all the documents on one or more federal government agency web sites. There is a page for linking to federal, state, international and private agencies related to food safety. News & Safety Alerts provides links to news, alerts, recalls, etc. by federal, state, and local governments. The Consumer Alert section links to information on food handling, reporting a problem, seasonal advice (holiday food preparation) and much more. There is also and Industry Assistance link for information for the industry sector. The website is sponsored by the U.S. government.

Homeland Security Information Center
http://www.ntis.gov/hs/

This website is maintained by NTIS. At this site, you can purchase from NTIS scientific and technical information from the U.S. Government related to Homeland Security. You can select from the NTIS “best picks” under the topics of health and medicine, biological & chemical warfare; food & agriculture; preparedness & response; and safety training. You can also use the search engine at the NTIS main website to search for products. There is a vast amount of information on how to order the products.

Labor Contracts Database
http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/library/contracts/

This site is maintained by the Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Berkeley. The site claims to serve “as a one-stop public on-line clearinghouse for cataloged and digitized complete text of union contracts.” The documents were found on the Web and are provide in PDF format. The following information is provided for each contract:
· Language and country
· Name and local of union
· Name of agency bargained with
· State in which the contract was signed
· Years for which contract is valid
· Occupational titles of covered employees (U.S. Dept. of Labor)
· NAICS two-digit code for agency
· Source and format of the original digital version
· and, when available, name and address of contact person.

LeapLaw
http://www.leaplaw.com

LeapLaw is the product of “Velawcity Inc., a Massachusetts corporation, was founded in January 2002 by Denise Annunciata, a former paralegal manager. LeapLaw is a subscription website. LeapLaw provides Overviews and Definitions; Sample Forms and transaction votes; Related Links; LeapLinks and LeapLaw Connections (links to government websites) and Best Practice Summaries. LeapLaw claims that it “is designed to provide resources and training that will (a) streamline legal procedural workflow processes typically assigned to junior associates and paralegals in medium and large law firms. . . “Its services can be compared to a ‘virtual paralegal” for small law offices and sole practitioners. LeapLaw states that it has “a dynamic knowledge base containing over 2,000 corporate-related terms and phrases together with definitions, 700+ forms, 800+ transaction votes, 800+ related links and a series of best practice step-by-step summaries.” The dynamic knowledge base consists of corporate information, SEC information, trademark information, international laws, and cyberlaw as related to the corporate practice area. LeapLaw plans to include litigation, real estate, employment and immigration and other practice areas in the future. I found it fast and easy to use. The forms are presented in Word or PDF format. Depending upon the cost, it seems that it could be a valuable tool for a law firm. Information about subscriptions is described in the FAQ section. For specific pricing, you need to contact the sales department. LeapLaw’s Chief Legal Officer is an attorney with nine year’s experience, and two attorneys serve as Advisory Board Members.