Scottish Top Twenty Sites
A Review of the websites of the largest firms in Scotland
by Delia Venables and Kevin Crombie
We were both very impressed by these sites which often combine excellent information with a stylish presentation and good navigation. Many of the sites were bright, breesy and "good fun" as well as having legal material online.
We have used the same marking scheme as in the previous surveys of English sites and Irish sites:
- Speed of access - 5 marks. As well as the mark, we show the average
access time for the first full page of the site.
- Quality of information on the firm - 5 marks. We expect to see good
information on the firm and its locations, partners and practice areas.
- Design of the site - 5 marks. This is obviously a subjective rating but we
like an interesting use of colour, good pictures or graphics and easy to
follow navigation. We like to find something a little unusual occasionally.
- "Something extra" - 5 marks. This can be a particularly good information
resource provided free on the site, a good property section (but not
allowing this to dominate the marks, since we have already covered
property sites), the provision of an email update for clients, the ability for
clients to see information on their matters, the provision of a "deal
room".....
This gives a theoretical maximum of 20 points. The winner, with 19 out of 20, is Golds Solicitors.
Firms with 18 out of 20 are Brodies and Maclay Murray & Spens. Then come MacRoberts and McGrigor Donald with 17 marks, Morton Fraser with 16 and Tods Murray with 15.
To select the Top Twenty, we have used the International Centre for Commercial Law "Largest firms in Scotland" list.
For the full article online in pdf format, see http://www.venables.co.uk/n011ricscottishextra.pdf. You can also see another version of the article, complete with links to the firms concerned, as the new Mystery Tour on Scottish Top Twenty at http://www.venables.co.uk/mystery.htm.
Kevin Crombie, kfc@totalise.co.uk, is a trainee solicitor with McGrigor Donald, and he also runs the Scottish Law Online website at http://www.scottishlaw.org.uk.
Delia Venables, delia@venables.co.uk, is an IT consultant for lawyers and editor of this newsletter. The Scottish section of her site is at http://www.venables.co.uk/scotland.htm
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