Internet Newsletter for Lawyers |
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Legal-Island (http://www.legal-island.com) began its life in1997as a couple of web pages featuring links likely to be of interest to law firms in either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. It is now a major on-line resource directing lawyers and the surfing population in general to a host of on-line legal material relevant to both jurisdictions. It also features information on all our activities both Internet and ground based. These include a directory of law firms with a web presence, email services, personal injuries information and seminars and conferences on legal topics, most notably employment law.
One of our early activities was a seminar entitled "Lawyers - Getting the Most from the Internet". This was first hosted in 1998 and has been repeated every year since. It has played an important role in helping to generate interest in the Internet on the part of lawyers in Northern Ireland. The numbers in attendance increase significantly every year and it is clear that most solicitors now appreciate the importance of the Internet as an office, research and marketing tool. The seminar was hosted again in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry early this year and we plan to run them as part of a road show visiting Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway early next year.
Our web site has been central to our operations and now contains over 100 pages and approximately 1,000 external links. Last month's web site report (September 2001) indicates that the site received just under 50,000 hits and over 12,000 page views. These figures have been steadily rising especially since our new first page was launched in early August but we don't get too excited by the tally of hits and page impressions. We study stat reports only periodically and try not to contribute to the barrage of meaningless figures that are bounded about in public about visitor numbers etc. We tend to be more interested in finding out how visitors are using our pages rather than in what numbers.
Visitors to our web site can search for a law firm on-line either alphabetically or by region and our web stats suggest that a number are now doing just this. Our site also contains information for visitors with a personal injuries query and the facility to send a query to participating law firms on-line through the Internet via a submit form. The facility marketed under the separate ULR http://www.pi-ni.com was launched last month and has been well received by law firms. Presently, the service applies to Northern Ireland only but we plan to roll it out to all 36 counties soon.
Legal-Island also administers a number of email lists relevant to both jurisdictions. One carries up-dates on IT/legal issues which is sent to all firms who register a web site on our site. This is a relatively new list while our flagship service relating to employment law in NI has been in existence since October 1998. This operates on a subscription basis (£65 per year) and has a healthy number of subscribers. The service is sponsored by Goldblatt McGuigan Chartered Accountants in Northern Ireland with each email featuring a link to their web site. It is a medium traffic service delivering an average of two emails each week summarising important legal developments often co-ordinated with more information on our web site.
A company that preaches the importance of the Internet to its principal audience should properly be expected to practice the gospel and to a large extent Legal-Island does just this. In fact it might be argued that we would not exist at all if we did not make effective use of the Internet. Presently, we have six employees although over the year our personnel officer deals with in the region of 50 people who contribute to our work either as seminar or conference speakers, hosters, web designers, or legal advisors. Legal-Island has no bricks and mortar office choosing to rely heavily on email for inter office communication and ICQ for occasional on-line staff meetings. Our teleworkers are dotted about the UK and Ireland with workers operating in Anglesey in North Wales and Counties Derry, Donegal, Down and Dublin. This arrangement suites both workers and management. Legal-Island's overheads are kept low which ensures that our services to the consumer are always competitively priced. We are able to recruit quality staff who would normally have to travel long distances to do the interesting and innovative work that now keeps them busy at Legal-Island. Family hours are maximised as commuting time converts into home time. Weather permitting our teleworkers spend their lunch hours not in busy city cafes but on the beautiful Benone beach facing County Donegal, in County Down by Strangford Lough or on Dollymount Sands with a view of the Wicklow mountains.
Teleworking has been much slated in recent months but it works for us allowing Legal-Island to reach out to those in a rural setting, families and various marginalised groups in a way that more traditionally structured organisations could never do. In this sense we might be considered quite idealist. However, few I'm sure would regard Legal-Island as idealist or at all political. Emblems and even colours associated with political parties or views are kept firmly off our web site. We see our name as reflecting the fact that we work in both markets using a communication tool that transends borders rather than advancing any views regarding unification - be it legal or political.
Interest in the Internet on the part of the legal profession has developed in a manner quite different to what we envisaged. But since our two page beginning we have developed into a well known Internet company. For a dot com of a sort in today's IT climate, we should be happy with this. However, such is the dynamic nature of those who contribute to our work I feel sure that it will satisfy few of our number.
Mary McMahon, Mary@legal-island.com is Marketing Manager of Legal-Island.
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