Internet Newsletter for Lawyers |
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According to data from the Bar Council, there are around 11,000 practising barristers
in England and Wales operating from around 350 chambers or are sole practitioners.
Gone are the days when the Bar was considered to be technically in the equivalent of
the Dark Ages and most barristers have now grasped the new opportunities available
to chambers and clerks to aid and enhance the services that they provide to
professional clients using the Internet.
Fees and Diary Management is now carried out on sophisticated computer systems,
with barristers able to access their diary and fee information direct through the Internet,
whether from a laptop or mobile phone with GPRS services. Barristers’ clerks can
manage work more efficiently as a result which helps with the profitability of being in
practice.
The clerks can calculate the fees for work done more accurately as the barrister is able
to communicate with chambers by email, which speeds up the way that chambers
operates and reacts to request to information from instructing solicitors or professional
clients.
The advent of Graduated Fees in Crime and Family Law, in particular, has increased
the need for new operating systems in chambers. The calculations of fees for work
done under the Graduated Fees schemes are effectively calculated by powerful
computers in chambers. However, the fees are only accurate if the barrister provides
all the data necessary.
With the Internet, barristers have now access to their diary and fees information around
the clock, and download emails from chambers and professional clients to powerful
mobile phones via Internet connections. The downside to that is that no-one can escape
for long – holidays and time away from chambers is full of interruptions for the busy
practitioner by phone, but particularly, the need to check email messages.
There are currently two main Diary and Fee systems available for barristers: Mountain
Software’s Meridian, www.meridian-law.co.uk and Formation’s Inquisitalaw
www.inquisita.com. The Meridian system has been developed over many years, and
now uses Internet connections to provide direct contact to and from users, with users
able to synchronise listing information from the Court Service using the menu driven
programmes. Inquisitalaw is browser based software which provides similar Diary and
Fees Management integrated systems, but has a different “feel” and uses the same
functionality that web users are used to.
The Internet has changed the way that chambers operate in many ways, but the most
important change is that the professional and lay client has much more information
available about a chambers or individual members of chambers at the touch of a button.
This has led to a gradual change in the way that clerks and practice managers work –
gone are the days when a clerk recommended a particular barrister to a solicitor,
without any real evidence that the barrister was the best person for that matter.
Essex Court Chambers, www.essexcourt.net, is typical of the straight forward approach
taken by many chambers to provide the information in a simple style and is one of the
chambers who have moved away from a traditional printed chambers brochure in favour
of a website.
However, many chambers have not spent nearly enough time on their websites and
have only provided what is effectively just a contact information page. Clients need to
know what is the individual member of chambers’ main area of expertise, and in
particular, what are the cases that they have been involved in or reported in.
There are some problems with those practitioners that do not have a lot of court work
and are therefore not in reported matters regularly. But the clever clerk or marketing
manager will describe the member of chambers in such a way that the barrister’s skills
are still obvious to the reader.
Many chambers now provide CV’s for individual members of chambers as PDF’s which
can be downloaded and read offline. It is important that chambers regularly update such
information, otherwise the CV can quickly become dated, and less relevant.
Many chambers have now dispensed with the traditional tool of the trade – the brochure
– in favour of a good, effective, and well managed website. The cost of printing a
brochure, and the limited shelf life that they have, has meant that money spent on a
good website makes much better use of the marketing budget.
E-mail marketing is now one of the ways in which chambers promote themselves: e-mail bulletins can be used to target clients to show that barristers have expertise in
particular areas of legal work. The printed newsletter or bulletin may still be useful but
a targeted e-mail can go straight to the people who will be most interested in the
content.
There are drawbacks with the increased reliance on new technology: some clerks are
reporting that they have less contact with the barristers they manage and only see them
occasionally. This has also led to complaints by barristers that the clerks or practice
managers are not doing proper Business Development work – regular practice meetings
with members of chambers that have been a feature of good clerking in the past. With
the increased use of technology, clerking has often become less personal.
Clerks complain too that the Internet has robbed them of some of their ability to direct
work from a solicitor to a needy member of chambers, since solicitors have probably
already done their research on the Internet and have decided who they want for the
case.
Most chambers that have Internet access have policies that give them powers to deal
with staff and barristers that download information onto computers which are considered
“distasteful” or have dangerous content. Some chambers have sacked members of staff
in recent times for breaches of such policies, but most chambers now accept that both
barristers and staff are going to use the Internet connection in chambers for personal
use, from time to time.
Martin Poulter is the Director of Chambers People, a specialist consultancy providing
staff recruitment services to the Bar and advice to barristers’ chambers on structures,
management, training, fee recovery and support services, including website content
(www.chamberspeople.co.uk).
Martin is also currently working with several chambers
on business development in addition to the staff services provided.
Back to Contents.
How Barristers use the Internet
by Martin PoulterChambers' Websites
Now it is essential that each chambers has a good website, containing sufficient
detailed information so that both the professional and lay client can see at a glance the
skills available and the services offered by chambers.E-Mail
E-mail has changed the way that many chambers operate. Some chambers will be
using the new Meridian upgrade, which will allow clerks to e-mail or send text messages
to barristers direct from within the Diary management system, to alert them to court
listing information.E-fax
E-Fax technology is used in many chambers to allow faxed information to be sent via
the Internet, including data scanned into computers in chambers – brief and
accompanying papers – to be transmitted as a Fax to the barrister. (See
www.efax.com). This has saved chambers considerable sums spent previously on
couriers taking papers to barristers at home to enable them to prepare for a forthcoming
hearing.Virus Guard
Most chambers will have had virus problems, and in some cases, serious ones. Any
chambers that does not have virus protection and spam filtering is taking a serious risk.The Future
Chambers have grasped the new technology available well after a slow start compared
with solicitors firms. The slow development was due to cost originally, but most
chambers now seem to accept that a new and up to date computer system, full internet
access and a comprehensive website are essential ingredients for a successful
chambers.
Email martin@chamberspeople.co.uk.