The CLA Law Licence grants all tenants and staff of a barristers chambers copyright permissions for millions of online and print publications. This licence allows barristers, clerks, and other chambers professionals to reuse and share titles within CLA’s repertoire confidently, ensuring responsible content use and minimising copyright infringement issues.
Copyright compliance and responsible content use are expected standards within the legal sector. Copyright infringement, even inadvertently, can place a legal organisation in an undesirable position.
Content use by legal professionals
81%
Of content used by the legal sector is digital or web-based as opposed to print or hardcopy*
The digital workplace is making it easier to consume, reuse and share copyright-protected content, which may necessitate enhanced mitigation measures.
*All figures come from the CLA commissioned survey conducted independently by Savanta in April 2024.
One licence per chambers
CLA acknowledges the unique structure of barristers’ chambers, where tenants operate as self-employed individuals. For the purposes of a CLA Licence, all tenants and professionals within a chambers are considered professional employees. This allows a single licence to cover the entire chambers, offering a cost-effective solution for copyright compliance and risk mitigation.
CLA Law Licence
Discover more about the CLA Law Licence and how it can support compliance, responsible content use and risk mitigation in your chambers.
Copying permissions beyond a legal database
Enterprise-wide legal databases often have restrictions on digital copying and may exclude digital publications from permission agreements. Given the above 2024 survey findings on digital and web-based content preferences, this is less than ideal for professionals in the legal sector. Trade press, specialist journals, magazines, and websites are additional content sources that may not be fully covered by these publishers or databases.
In short, legal databases may not cover all copying needs for tenants or chambers professionals.
The CLA Law Licence expands permissions to include many digital publications as well as non-legal titles.
Exception for judicial proceedings
The 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act exception for judicial proceedings is unlikely to cover all copying within barristers’ chambers, such as internal training, PR or communications. Permission is generally required for copying published works, including law reports, not used in court or tribunals.