Bright New Ideas for Websites
by Delia Venables
Many firms are now developing their second, or even third, generation websites and some of these are very interesting. Some of the best sites are coming from firms who are designing their site in parallel with the way the firm itself is developing, rather than just as a marketing exercise. This article describes 5 such firms and their websites.
Sykes Anderson
See http://www.sykesanderson.com, http://www.hairco.co.ukSykes Anderson is a small civil and commercial law firm in central London with a reputation for technological innovation. For example, the site already provides a package for issuing divorce proceedings, a free package for residential landlords to do their own DIY possession proceedings, a calculator to work out the costs of conveyancing and a calculator for Child Support Costs. A recent addition to the site is the provision of client access to online case reports and also group access to these, relevant to agents, surveyors, accountants and other intermediaries.
However, the particular innovation which caused me to include the firm in this
article is that they are contacting large companies (typically FTSE 100 and 250
companies) to provide a legal section on the companies' site, particularly where
the site is itself viewed by many smaller businesses in that particular market
section.
An example of this is the legal section provided by the "Hairco" site, run by Schwarzkopf, where Sykes Anderson provides a Q & A section on issues ranging from Health & Safety in the Salon to dealing with disgruntled customers.
David Anderson writes: (danderson@sykesanderson.com)
The Hairco site has allowed us to link with a big brand name with a reputation for quality. Effectively we have plugged into their marketing machine by providing some basic advice. This has worked to the advantage of both organisations. The hairdressing industry is as obsessed with gossip as the legal industry and word of mouth has been the way the message has got round! Our strategy is to use the web as a tool for improving our client base and increasing our profitability rather than waiting until the web forces us to reduce costs through commoditising services.
Because the barriers to entry are so low, first mover advantage is crucial and with Hairco we were able to be involved for some time before other entrants appeared in the market. We are working on a range of other applications many of which will have a short lifespan for the same reason. It is unlikely most law firms will have the marketing budgets to get mass coverage of their sites and my view is that only by linking yourself with a much larger commercial player can you get worthwhile coverage.
FirstLAW
http://www.firstlaw.co.ukFirstLAW Limited is an incorporated law firm. The firm does not offer traditional fee earning advice but instead manages tenders for corporate clients. Income is derived from a commission taken from the successful firms in the tendering process and the business is conducted by phone and on-line. The client base already includes 21 of the FTSE 100 companies and there are 400 firms of solicitors participating in tenders. David McIntosh is chairman and PricewaterhouseCoopers are major investors.
Ben Horton, (bh@firstlaw.co.uk), writes:
Whilst our service operates with a high degree of human involvement, we have built FirstLAW from the ground up, integrating technology into the business process. Information technology including the Internet is a crucial tool in our operation but one that is used pragmatically in order to achieve our business goals.
Our job is to understand the client's legal requirements and target appropriate skills. Our solicitors consult with the client and work with our information systems to identify suitable expertise. A tender request is created to allow firms to compete for the client's work. This can be conducted online or offline depending on the complexity of the request and the wishes of the client. Whilst the process is managed by us, the client has ultimate control over selection of short list candidates and the winning firm.
Market intelligence is crucial to the value we add to the client's decision making process when sourcing legal services. Marketing is sometimes treated with a degree of resentment by busy practitioners and our aim is to use the Internet to allow firms and individuals to record and therefore promote their expertise through FirstLAW. Utilising such information we are able to introduce appropriate firms to clients regardless of that firm's "visibility" in the sector or traditional marketing spend.
Client instructions range from isolated requirements to the tendering of their entire corporate legal relationship. Larger corporates have shown particular interest in using us to target niche, specialist services and skills in foreign jurisdictions. Our SME clients source a wide range of legal services and particularly benefit from our ability to help in the clarification and framing of their requirements. Public bodies are often under a duty to ensure that they achieve best value in purchasing legal services and they can use us as a straightforward way of bringing suitable firms into competitive tender.
From the firm's perspective our aim is to channel appropriate work which reflects the specialisms and strategy of the firm and which allows for competition on a meritocratic basis. Our work with the client and resultant targeting ensures that firms are presented only with suitable instructions - but the choice as to whether to compete for the work remains, of course, with the firm. There is no charge for a firm to register with us and we operate on the basis that we are only paid for the introduction of a client when a firm is paid by that client.
For the future, we see increased competition, specialisation and deregulation within the legal services marketplace and we see a role for FirstLAW in working with clients to identify and package services to meet their specific requirements in an appropriate and cost effective way.
Boyes Turner
http://www.boyesturner.com and http://www.boyesturnerlegal.co.ukBoyes Turner is a 17 partner firm in Reading with two separate web sites, each an expression of the overall marketing plan rather than a cosmetic exercise. Ian White, marketing manager (iwhite@boyesturner.com), describes the "problem" they faced - and the solution they chose:
We have an impressive list of business clients - local, national and international, with many large household names among them - yet we are specialists in private client work too. How could we position both sides of the firm as experts in their fields without diluting the messages to what are, after all, two completely different marketplaces?
The answer we arrived at was to dual-brand the firm - one brand for business
services and one for private client services, both tailored to their own particular
audience and both showing us as specialists in that field.
Thus, we created two logos, two sets of literature and two websites for respectively business and private clients.
We wanted both to be bright modern and progressive without losing the values we hold most dear; being approachable, commercially aware, friendly and human. We also wanted to be seen to be different, to stand out from the crowd and to have a bit of fun. Both sites present the information in different ways. Cartoon characters help our private clients navigate their way through the site while clean lines and bold colours define the business services site.
Sinclair Abson Smith
http://www.saslawyers.co.uk
Sinclair Abson Smith is a 9 partner firm in Stockport. You may notice that their
initials are "SAS"! They use this fact extensively in their marketing ("the Legal
SAS") and even carry out occasional stunts like abseiling down the side of the
building in aid of charity. Their website uses this approach but also makes a
speciality of the free facilities available on the site, developed by Gapnet
Computing Ltd.
John Cook, (john@saslawyers.co.uk) one of the partners of SAS (and also one of the abseilers) writes:
What makes the site different from any other is the sheer volume of facilities available on-line, and most importantly the fact that everything is completely free.
There is lots of information for clients together with interactive facilities that can be broken down into two categories, document drafting and calculators. Document drafting includes the ability to draft a divorce petition, contracts of employment, Employment Tribunal application, a Will and even a National Lottery syndicate agreement. The calculators allow clients to obtain a quote for buying or selling their house, calculate a redundancy payment, unfair dismissal award and even generate six numbers for the National Lottery.
There are also plans to launch a further website, SASprotect.co.uk with contracts of employment, policies and procedures, a free employment helpline and most importantly insurance against the cost of defending employment tribunal applications including the payment of any compensation ordered against the employer.
Rooks Rider
http://www.rooksrider.co.uk and http://www.wwim.co.ukRooks Rider is a substantial London firm with a group of female lawyers collectively called With Women in Mind, focusing on legal issues of particular interest to women. They have now set up a separate site with this name.
Lucy Riley writes: We launched the site in March and have had a very good response since then.
We have traditionally provided information through seminars, networking events and a newsletter, and now we have the website as well. The site aims to provide information and extensive links to female orientated charities and legal groups and also provides a medium for interested women to email members of the group with specific legal enquiries or to suggest subjects that they would like to see featured on the site.
Note from Delia: If you think that your firm has a Bright New Idea please contact me! I will be setting up a Mystery Tour on this theme shortly, with ongoing additions.
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