Al Gore has tried to take credit for developing the Internet in anticipation of the upcoming presidential race. In reality his contribution has been, at most, to bring the phrase "information superhighway" into the mainstream media. People are flocking to the Internet at incredible rates. New sites come up daily. In many ways the information superhighway is -a very apropos description. The Internet is always under construction, has numerous maintenance problems and is very congested during certain times of the day and in major areas. In addition, an incredible number of the places you can go are simply not worth the trip.

In spite of the drawbacks and frustrations associated with the Internet, it remains, in my opinion, one of the great accomplishments of this century. The name of the business game is information. To remain competitive in this technically sophisticated society we are creating, you will need to embrace, learn and excel at utilizing interactive information technologies such as the Internet. Yes, there is a tremendous amount of garbage on the Net and it can be frustratingly slow at times; but, let me ask you this. I need to find an expert in elevator installation in preparation for a PI case and have no idea who to contact. I can start calling the various bar associations, look at the ads in the journals or I can go to the Net. Which choice is faster? For me, the Net wins hands down.

If you, or someone in your firm, are already proficient at Internet research, congratulations, keep at it and I'd love to hear from you regarding your favorite research sites. If this is not you, then read on and let's start the process of becoming Net savvy. Here is a list of a few good sites. This is a starting point only, but be aware, these are sites the competition is using on a regular basis.

The Meta Indexes. A great starting place is http://ww.findlaw.com if you don't otherwise know where to go. The site is an index with hyperlinks to a wide range of legal resources available on the Web. If you need to find a law review article, find an old US Supreme Court case, check out the latest legal news story or look up a federal regulation this is the place to start. We think it is so good that we provide a link from the ALPS page (www.alpsnet.com). Another excellent starting point is http://www.law.cornell.edu. This is the address of Cornell's Legal Information Institute. There are hypertext versions of the U.S. Code, U.S. Constitution, the Code of Federal Regulations and much, much more. The other large meta index is the Internet Legal Research Guide found at http://www.ilrg.com. This site boasts more than 4,000 legal-related web sites worldwide, with emphasis given to the United States. Two other notable sites are http://www.hg.org (Hieros Gamos) and http://www.llrx.com (Law Library Resource Exchange). Both are worth a look.

http://www..martindale.com (Martindale Hubble) and http://www.wld.com (West Legal Directory) are both useful sites for finding lawyers.

To locate individuals throughout the United States, there are several choices. Try http://www.lookupusa.com or http://www.who@here.lycos.com. If these sites are unsuccessful you may have more success with a fee-based search such as www.findafriend.com.

The web has many search engines (super highway exit indexes). The most popular are: http:// www.infoseek.com, http://www.lycos.com, and http://www.altavista.com. To run a search using several search engines at once visit see http:// www.metacrawler.com. For search engines geared toward legal resources specifically try http://www.catalaw.com or http:// www.yahoo.com/law.

For information on expert witnesses try www.washlaw.edu/experts/experts.html. This is a site maintained by Washburn University School of Law. The Northern California Association of Law Libraries also offers a list of expert witness Internet resources at www.nocall.oriz/experts.html.

If you are concerned about privacy on the Internet, an excellent encryption program called Pretty Good Privacy is available at http://www.pgp.com.

Need a legal document? http://findlaw.con/16forms lists a number of Internet sites where legal forms can be developed on-line or downloaded for use.

There are numerous legal news sites. Of note are the Law News Network at http:// www.lawnewsnetwork.com, Lawyer's Weekly at http://www.lweekly.com, and the National Law Journal at httlp://www.nlj.com. Two other sites worth mentioning are http://ajr.newslnk.orgi , and http://www.ecola.com which are indexes to thousands of newspaper, magazine and news service sites worldwide.

Uncertain about the address of a specific court? Go to http://www.courts.con/directory.html or http://www.courts.net in order to obtain detailed information about federal and state courts.

For those of you who have difficulty obtaining necessary CLE hours, check with your state bar to see if Internet programs satisfy the requirements. I so, CLE programs are available from a number of sources including the ABA's CLE Now! This site is found at http://www.abanet.org/cle/clenow/home.html. Other programs are available from the Practicing Law Institute at http://www.pli.edu and CLE On-line at http://www.cleonline.com.

Network with other attorneys. E-mail discussion groups are being utilized more frequently for the purpose of person-to-person networking, legal research, and the exchange and dissemination of legal information worldwide. These discussion groups are generally not commercial on-line services or fee-based. To learn more about these groups go to http://www-user.lib.uchicago.edu/ -llou/lawlists/info.html.

The Internet is no longer the wave of the future; it is here and now. It is the accepted means of communication and the initial research tool for the vast majority of those under 30 years of age. The acknowledged leaders and the new wave of comers in legal research are utilizing the Net as their communication tool. In coming articles throughout the remainder of the year we will deal with Internet use from a variety of perspectives with many uses in mind.