Our Law Licence supports copyright compliance across law firms and barristers’ chambers in the UK, and globally through our Extended Multinational Law Licence. Copyright compliance is not just a legal obligation, but also an ethical one. CLA champions ethical and responsible content use within the legal sector.

  • CLA is regulated by the UK government as the collective licensing body for the reuse of text and images from books, journals and magazines.
  • As a not-for-profit company, CLA distributes revenue back into the creative industries helping to ensure that rightsholders are fairly remunerated when their works are used.

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Copyright and ESG:

Ethical Imperatives for Compliance and Responsibility

IP specialist, Colin Hulme Featured article, as seen in The Law Society and New Law Journal

In this insightful article, Colin Hulme, Head of intellectual property (IP) at Burness Paull LLP, considers the impact of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) programmes on the observance of copyright by corporates. He explores how ESG policies should impact compliance within the realm of copyright and IP.

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The CLA Law Licence is specifically created for the legal sector

It contains permissions that aren’t included in other licences. In addition to the permissions found in the standard Business Licence, the Law Licence add-on has tailored features to support lawyers, barristers and the legal sector directly.

Legal Copying, reusing and sharing content in Law firms

Share copies on an ad-hoc basis with clients and other legal professionals in relation to an ongoing case

Share copies with existing or prospective customers

Share copies with existing or prospective customers on matters for which they may seek legal advice in the future* *(excludes CCC repertoire)

Share a content with colleagues in offices overseas

Share a single digital or hard copies with colleagues in offices overseas (employees in the same firm)

Retain digitised copies

Retain digitised copies beyond termination of the licence and for as long as required to retain records of actual and contemplated legal proceedings

Start your licence enquiry

Discover how CLA can support your organisation to Copy, Right

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Collaboration between colleagues

Additional scenarios where creating and distributing copies may be necessary:

  • To share with colleagues at meetings or briefings
  • For market intelligence
  • For research & development
  • For staff training
  • To share media coverage within your organisation

Navigating your Law Licence

Ossie Ikeogu, Head of Sales and Renewals

Ossie Ikeogu, Head of Sales and Renewals, answers essential FAQs on the CLA Law Licence and Extended Multinational Law Licence

Content use and copying practices

Content use and copying practices

Study by CLA on content use behaviours and copying practices amongst UK professionals, with a spotlight on the legal sector

Helping law firms stay legal

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Discover how CLA helps the legal sector keep on the right side of copyright law, with the CLA Law Licence

Start your licence enquiry

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The CLA Law Licence allows you to make copies of extracts, subject to certain terms and conditions, from books, journals and magazines published in print and from a wide range of digital publications. Copies may be made from publications including those to which you subscribe and from articles or press cuttings provided by licensed external suppliers (e.g. a public relations or press cuttings agency or the British Library) where a copyright fee has been paid.

Act responsibly. Protect your organisation. Support creatives. Copy, Right.

Extended Multinational Law Licence

This licence simplifies licensing for global firms, improving efficiencies in licence costs and document sharing. It extends law licence permissions for firms with overseas offices.
Extended Multinational Law LicenceThis licence covers copying and reuse of titles published in the UK, USA, Canada and Switzerland plus over 100 international publishers.

Our relationship with CCC in the USA also means that UK headquartered firms only require one licence for repertoire covered by CLA and CCC, supporting responsible copyright practices globally.

Document Supply (Doc Del)

Law Licensees can also order unencrypted documents from a number of specialist document suppliers. The following suppliers can deliver digital copyright fee paid (CFP) copies to CLA licensed firms with no DRM protection:

  1. The British Library (BL On Demand)
  2. Institute for Advanced Legal Studies
  3. The Signet Library

These documents are typically encrypted. CLA Law Licensees enjoy the convenience of receiving unencrypted PDF copies of the articles and documents they request, streamlining the process of accessing and sharing content.

Top 50 legal titles copied in 2022

Discover the most copied titles by the legal sector from the CLA repertoire in 2022

Copyright & ESG

Ethical Imperatives for Compliance and Responsibility. Featured article by IP specialist, Colin Hulme

Helping law firms stay legal

CLA Sales Operations Manager, Andrew Greenan, looks at how CLA helps the legal sector keep on the right side of copyright law