If the daily grind of the office is beginning to wear just a little thin then your thoughts may have well wandered (perhaps on more than one occasion) on to alternative careers, or perhaps even alternative lifestyles. Two years ago solicitor Martin Davies gave up his senior management position with a top 100 law firm to devote himself full time to his legal information website, LAW on the WEB. Now seemed like a good time for him to consider whether he made the right decision……

I first became interested in websites in about 1996. I had moved from legal work into law firm management, and from there into the specifics of marketing law firms. At the time I was Director of Marketing with a large regional practice based in Winchester and the decision was made to invest a small sum in creating a website for the firm. As the budget was small it was decided that I would put together the copy for the site and that we would maintain it ourselves. It involved learning the basics of Microsoft Frontpage, but that was soon done and the ultimate flexibility and freedom this gave the firm, and the experience this gave me, was to prove invaluable. The site went live in 1997, and continues today in much the same format.

Two years later I was convinced that the Internet was going to be a major part of people’s everyday lives, and that I needed to know more about it, so I set about creating my own site, LAW on the WEB, from scratch on my recently upgraded home PC. It was initially a simple directory of law firms who were on the Web, and some basic information on a few legal topics. Amazingly it started taking hits and law firms began wanting to be part of the site. In the meantime I had changed jobs and had now moved back into law firm management with a south coast firm. LAW on the WEB continued (with their blessing) to run in the background, but with a three-way merger to manage taking the firm into the Top 100 largest in the UK, there was little spare time to try and keep it up-to-date. But still the hits kept coming in and more law firms seemed interested in the site, particularly after we were reviewed on Radio 2 as "one of the best legal resource sites on the Web", which we may well have been, but only because there were so few others. At the time the hype with regard to the Internet was huge and people were still making paper fortunes overnight. The Net was THE place to be. It was only a year or so later that some common business sense began to prevail, and people began to realise that running an Internet business was just like any other business. The principles of positive cash flow and income exceeding outgoings was just as relevant.

In February 2000 the number of monthly visitors to the site had reached a respectable, if unexciting, 2/3,000. The appeal of working at home on my own project was just too tempting so I decided to chuck in the day job and give the site 6/12 months, to see if there really was any way that you could earn a sensible living out of the Internet.

The aim of the site is to make the law more accessible to the public. The Internet is an ideal medium for passing on basic legal information to anyone who has a PC, and who wants to know more about getting a legal resolution to their problem. It is there 24/7. There is no pressure and no feeling of inadequacy or guilt (something lawyers can often make new clients feel), plus it is free (at the moment).

The first task was to develop the site and its content so that it really did become the primary online legal resource for the general public. The aim was actually to work with law firms and other providers rather than against them. There are often several ways that an individual can solve a legal problem - do it yourself, mediation, arbitration, in tandem with a law firm, or simply giving the whole problem to someone else to handle. The idea was (and still is) to bring all these together on one site, so that people would know where to start looking. The Internet is an amazing resource, but its size can be daunting. People are still not very comfortable with search engines, many of which still produce a lot of spurious results when you search them. If you can give them one site where they know the information will be up-to-date and the links will work, then they will bookmark the site and keep coming back. Well that was the theory. Time was going to tell.

The basic legal material on the site is the core and I decided to develop this slowly. It now covers 7 key areas - crime & road traffic, employment, family, personal injury, property, small business, and wills and probate. The material covers some of the basic questions that lawyers get asked all the time. It is added to as and when topics occur or we are asked about them. On the back of this information we developed the directory of online law firms, which tallied with these key areas. We offered free entries to all those that could be bothered to let us know they had a website and an extended "profile" for those that were willing to shell out a few pounds. We had a reasonable uptake for both, getting to around 300 law firms, of which about 40 were profiled. But with the cooling of views on the Net, and the huge number of other legal directory sites that popped up, this was not a source of revenue that was going to last too long.

The primary objective for the site therefore changed after just a few months from being a short-term revenue provider, to building up the number of visitors, and therefore being able to use this position in the market at a later date, when all the cowboys had disappeared and the Internet was back in favour. There was only one flaw in this masterplan - income - but more of that later.

So the question then became how to generate traffic, without spending hideous amounts of money on advertising and marketing the site, which had proved so ineffective for so many other much larger and more generously funded sites - boo.com, clickmango.com, and sportal.com, to name but a few. We decided on a four pronged attack - search engine placement; maintaining accurate and relevant contents and links, so that visitors would come back to the site; links from other sites; and offering free legal help and assistance by email.

A quick look at information on the "science" of search engine placement and we knew that we were going to have to pay for outside assistance, which we did, and with marked success. We were soon on the first page of most search engines under a variety of search criteria, where we endeavour to remain, but now mainly through our own efforts.

Content is simply an ongoing project, and one which cannot be overstated. It is the biggest problem that I have encountered with other websites - legal and non-legal. At the end of the day most Internet users are looking for some specific information, which they know they can trust to be accurate and up-to-date. Out of date information, links and content are by far the biggest turn-off. Whilst content is king the site has also undergone several makeovers over the past two years, the latest just a few weeks ago. It is deliberately simple in its design and structure with few graphics or Flash animations. There are three reasons for this. The first is that that is the way people seem to like it - easy to navigate, quick to load etc; the second is that over-complicated pages simply take too long to load - over 15 seconds and your reader goes elsewhere; the third is that it means I can maintain the site in-house at minimal cost and with a huge degree of flexibility.

Links again are an ongoing project. Every now and again I have a blitz and check out our competitors’ links, and try and add 10/15 new links to the site. We now have over 1,000.

Offering free legal help and assistance was more problematic. The initial thoughts were to put together a small panel of solicitors who would be willing to answer our reader’s questions on the basis that they may pick them up as clients, but it quickly became apparent that whilst the number of questions was growing the number of clients that materialised remained small. The panel quickly became uninterested. The only option was to handle the questions ourselves, subject to numerous caveats about the guidance being given being no substitute for proper legal advice, but there were still potential dangers, plus it was taking longer and longer just to answer questions, which meant we had no time to deal with all the other aspects of running the site. So we have broadened the service to include other respected legal advice sites which offer a similar service, but with us still willing to help out if readers need us. We have also recently added a specific service for road traffic offenders, which is proving to be very popular. The current model seems to be working well with the Free Legal Advice Page getting about a 1,000 visitors per month.

So numbers were rising, up to 10,000 visitors per month following a prestigious Yell.com award in 2000, and then on past 20,000 during the summer of 2001, which makes us one of the Top 25 Legal sites in the UK, but there was still the problem of generating some revenue.

And so Can I Claim? was born. Can I Claim is a dedicated personal injury and medical negligence website, offering advice and assistance to anyone who has suffered an accident, and, more importantly, a free online assessment for any potential claimant. As a former PI lawyer I felt confident that I could sift through all the claims we received and immediately cut out the time-wasters and no-hopers, and we could then pass on the claims which had much more potential to a small panel of solicitors who would pay an annual fee for being on the panel. There are no strings attached and the solicitors simply contact the clients and take it on from there. We do not get involved in selling insurance, bank loans or tracking the clients with the solicitors. Again we have concentrated on search engine placement and links as our major development tools for the site, plus of course, linking from LAW on the WEB. The site now attracts about 2,000 visitors per month and in our first year we passed on more than 500 potential personal injury and medical negligence clients. Our panel of 22 specialist law firms covers the whole of England, Wales and Scotland for both specialist areas.

So we have some cash coming in again, which is supplemented by the occasional advertising campaign that we are asked to run, and regular affiliate payments from those with whom we have affiliate deals. During this year we are due to replace our existing directory with a fully searchable relational database on which we are working with partners Consilio, which we believe will become the Web’s definitive guide to law firms. Many of the former pretenders having now fallen by the wayside. This will then once again become a revenue generator. In addition a new site dedicated to employment law is in the process of being created and www.sacked.info will be launched later this year.

We have lived through the hype, and through the slump, and I am convinced the Internet will become the primary resource used by individuals for information and reference over the next 5 years. There are no overnight fortunes to be made on the Web. There never were. But if you can find a way to use it to allow people to gain access to information and advice in an easier way than they can already, then there are Internet businesses that will work, but think small and long term.

© Martin Davies

December2001

Martin Davies is a solicitor formerly in private practice, who now runs the LAW on the WEB (www.lawontheweb.co.uk) and Can I Claim? (www.caniclaim.com) websites and lectures and consults on the development of effective law firm websites.

The Future of Legal Services on the internet
The Internet Newsletter Jan/Feb 2002

"You can advertise your online legal services until the cows come home, but there are not the volumes of consumers and SMEs out there to buy these services". That was the view of Desktop Lawyer co-founder Richard Cohen when his company, Epoch Software, effectively pulled the plug on their online consumer legal service operation, in September 2001. Desktop Lawyer had been at the forefront of the provision of online legal services for the past few years, having been a pioneer in the field, and the question being asked is whether their demise could be seen as some form of turning point in the online legal services market.

Their statistics are perhaps more indicative of the real online market for legal services at the current time. From our own figures I’d guestimate that between these four sites monthly visitor numbers (unique individuals) probably total in the region of 175,000 - 200,000, which is quite a healthy number of non-lawyers using the internet for legal information and advice and some document production. They are browsers with a legal problem that they are looking to solve in some way, and are therefore potential clients for law firms or other legal service providers.

The majority of these users are probably "existing clients" of one firm or another, but they have chosen to search elsewhere for initial advice. Existing clients are a separate online legal market for all law firms, and one which should not be ignored. In fact with more than 80% of new business coming from existing clients this market is perhaps the more important to consider. The reality is that if a law firm Website is attracting between 500 and 1,000 unique visitors per month at the moment , then it is probably doing very well.

These numbers may not sound very large, particularly when people bandy about figures like 3 million hits per week, but hits (and indeed page impressions) are, and always have been, a meaningless statistics. The more complex your Web page, and the more components it has, the more hits will be recorded every time someone looks at that page.

What most people fail to remember is that the internet is still in its infancy. In the UK it is estimated that about 40% of the population currently have access to the internet, either at home or at work, but actual usage statistics are still quite low - just a few hours per month on average. There are still three major stumbling blocks - the perception of the internet as "new technology"; the cost of accessing the internet; and the equipment needed to access it.

"New technology" it may be, but it is becoming a standard technology very rapidly. Its difficult to believe the fax machine is only 20 years old. Unlike the US, local calls here are not free, but reasonably-priced unmetered access packages are now available and bundled power, telephone and internet services are being provided by companies like NTL and Powergen. Internet access costs can only come down in the future. In addition better quality, faster services are slowly coming on tap, which will make the internet an even more useable resource with greater capability for sound and pictures. As for the equipment, internet-ready PCs now start at about £500, about half the cost they were a year ago, and Web-enabled handhelds, tvs and telephones are already with us.

As a result I confidently predict that within the next five years the internet will become the primary information resource for the vast majority of people in the UK. Who wants to wade through a paper directory when you can ask your computer, television screen or handheld to find all the law firms in Maidstone who can advise on your divorce? Not only that but then you can click on a link to take you to their Website and find out just who they are and what they can do for you, and even contact them at a time that suits you. Far less hassle and less intimidating than ringing them up.

If the Web is going to become the primary information resource then the corollary is that being part of the Web ie having at least a website and email facilities will also be a necessity for all law firms. This may be a painful pill to swallow for those who are not inclined to embrace the technology, but clients, potential clients and potential employees will expect it. Charles Christian from Legal News Media suggests there are three types of online strategies that law firms can currently adopt - marketing websites, virtual legal practices, or Web-enabled legal practices. "I see the internet playing an increasingly important part in the way legal services are delivered - email, client extranets, Web-enabled applications allowing clients to place new instructions etc. However it will be very much as a way of complementing existing legal service providers rather than as an alternative online legal service in its own right", he suggests.

Current statistics suggest that there are about 3,000 law firms with websites, which is only about 25% of all the law firms in England and Wales, and the majority (80/90%) of these have fairly static brochure-style marketing sites. There are exceptions which seem to fall into two main categories - the large firms with massive budgets to spend - the Clifford Chance, Linklaters, and Allen & Overys; and the small entrepreneurial firms (usually with a Web-enthusiast at the heart of the site) who see the Web as a cost-effective marketing and sales tool - such as Fidler & Pepper, Briffa & Co and TJ Shepperson. Tessa Shepperson is a sole practitioner based in Norwich, who specialises in landlord and tenant law and has created a niche service site to reflect this at www.landlord-law.co.uk, which offers advice, information and documents. She thinks "that there is a huge untapped market for legal information services. People who do not necessarily want to go to the bother of visiting a solicitor (and who are worried about solicitors’ charges), have problems they want answers to, and information services on the internet is an ideal way to satisfy this need. However the information service must be relatively cheap, accessible, and the content easy for lay persons to understand (no legal babble). " Its the "cheap" aspect which causes the problems to those that are attempting to use the internet as their sole source of revenue. People may be willing to buy the odd book or CD over the Web, but are they really interested in buying legal services on the Net? Tessa’s site proves that they are, and her bold move to a subscription-based service in the near future will be watched with interest by many.

As for virtual law firms you can count these on the fingers of one hand, but one that merits consideration is Patricia Ogunfeibo’s LawGym (www.lawgym.com). It is a genuine online law firm targeted specifically at small to medium-sized businesses, offering packaged fixed-price advice services and even a "fix your own fee" service. The service has been online since 1 May and already makes a profit, albeit from a very low cost base. Legal internet businesses just cannot support huge overheads. "What will make any 'service' business money (whether over the internet, or not), is the quality of the service delivered," says Patricia. "Internet businesses can do this if they 'personalise' their internet offering. We do not charge much, as not many businesses can afford to pay hefty fees, but our clients are so pleased with the value that we deliver, that they keep coming back time and time again." It may sound obvious, but it is a rule which seems to have been forgotten by many internet businesses, along with the concept of positive cash flow.

So there is money to be made directly from a Website, but not in any great quantity at the moment. There are potential clients and work to be gathered too, but it is the retention of existing clients that may become the key feature over the next few years. Your clients will expect to be able to find you on the Web and to contact you via the internet, and possibly check on the progress of their matter 24/7. "Web-enabled legal practice" is the current trend. Put simply it is the integration of the internet (and the ease of access to information and contact it can provide), with traditional legal practice. Email is the simplest example. But few firms have really got to grips with this fantastic technology, which opens up a non-invasive direct line of contact between the client and their lawyer. Few lawyers are comfortable or competent at a keyboard, and many practices simply ignore the huge risks that they incur when allowing all and sundry to respond to incoming emails without any supervision or any record being maintained. All law firms must have a robust email capability, and partners and staff need to learn how to work efficiently with this technology to enhance the service they provide, without incurring unnecessary risks to the firm.

Beyond email there is the possibility of "deal rooms" where lawyers and their clients can share access to the documents and information relating to a specific deal or case. They have potential for big cases, but are unlikely to be used by the general high street practitioner. And finally there is the option of opening up your internal management systems and your internal case management systems to your clients, so that they can check for themselves just what you their lawyer is doing, how much time he has spent doing what, and how much money they have already committed to their case. There is an appeal, and almost an inevitability, for such a requirement from bulk work providers, such as insurers, big companies and government departments, and possibly for big work introducers, such as estate agents, who may require access to such information and have a level of knowledge to understand the steps any such transaction would normally take. Whether opening up a law firm’s conveyancing practice management system to their conveyancing clients adds real value to their service is somewhat more of a moot point. Frankly I have my doubts.

The demise of Desktop Lawyer may reassure some law firms that the days of the "quasi" legal site are numbered, which means they can relax and take their time deciding just how they want to use the power of the Web. Richard Cohen, joint CEO of Epoch Software, suggests to the contrary. "There will have to be a culture change in the way in which legal services are provided and the mass provision of such services by powerful organisations such as banks, insurance companies, financial service providers and others. We have evidence that this is now occurring and we believe this will become evident during 2002 and onwards with the institutions being major providers of legal services themselves using IT to bring down the cost and the net as the delivery mechanism. Within the next 5 years I predict much routine legal work will be done by the institutions via the net and these services will become part of their product range just as legal expenses insurance is now provided with many insurance policies for no or little extra charge".

The power, scope and use of the internet will increase significantly within the next 5 years. If law firms are not to allow others to steal their clients from under their very PC screens they need to get their Web strategy in place now.

© Martin Davies November 2001

Taking the Law Seriously
The Legal Executive December 2001

The transcript for a pilot Radio 4 topical legal quiz show, apparently along the lines of The News Quiz, has mysteriously found its way into the Legal Executive office.

We understand the producers were hoping that the proposed Chairman for the quiz would be the ubiquitous barrister-come television personality Clive Anderson, together with regular panel members John Bird (Chambers) and Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal). We believe that the half hour show never quite made it to the airwaves following extensive market research which indicated that the target audience of lawyers, legal execs and paralegals, was likely to be rather busy at 2.30pm on most Tuesdays, and still at their desks, in the pub or asleep, for the 10pm Thursday repeats.

Although the show was a topical quiz show a certain amount of scripted back-up and filler material had obviously been prepared for the four individual rounds - The Opening Speech; Interlocutory Applications; Applications to Set Aside; and The Summing Up - and as "fillers" between the rounds, and finally to close the show. We thought you might like to see what was likely to be on offer.

Anon

"Only Lawyers and mental defectives are automatically exempt for jury duty."
George Bernard Shaw.

"The one great principle of English law is to make business for itself."
Charles Dickens.

"The only way you can beat the lawyers is to die with nothing."
Will Rogers.

"No brilliance is required in law, just common sense and relatively clean fingernails."
John Mortimer.

"An incompetent lawyer can delay a trial for months or years. A competent lawyer can delay one even longer."
Evelle Younger.

"Make crime pay. Become a Lawyer."
Will Rogers.

Some of the daft things lawyers and their clients have said in court

Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan.

Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?

Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?
A: It is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.

A drunken Norwegian who pulled a pair of underpants over his face and robbed a post office was awakened by police two days later to find he had tipped them off about his identity.

The 47-year-old drunk charged into the post office and handed over a note saying "This is a robbery," the local newspaper Bergensavisen said on Friday.

But his wife's name and personal details were on the back of the demand note, the newspaper said.

The man told a court he did not remember the robbery, but admitted he had a suspicion of having been up to no good when he woke up and saw a picture of the be-knickered robber in the newspaper and found a large wad of money in his living room.

A drink-driver fleeing the police jumped into their car thinking it was a taxi. One officer said: "I was laughing so much I could hardly put the cuffs on." Gary McGowan, 27, was banned for 18 months and fined £300 by a court in Houghton-le- Spring, Co Durham.

Stephen Csillag, from Weston-Super-Mare, got so wrapped up in the thrill of his hoax 999 bomb call that police had time to trace the call and arrest him whilst he was still on the phone.

An Illinois man, pretending to have a gun, kidnapped a motorist and forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines. The kidnapper then proceeded to withdraw money from his own bank accounts.

More than 600 people in Italy wanted to ride in a spaceship badly enough to pay $10,000 apiece for the first tourist flight to Mars. According to the Italian police, the would-be space travellers were told they could spend their "next vacation on Mars, amid the splendors of ruined temples and painted deserts. Ride a Martian camel from oasis to oasis and enjoy the incredible Martian sunsets. Explore mysterious canals and marvel at the views. Trips to the moon also available." Authorities believe that the con men running this scam made off with over six million dollars.

Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn't control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the words, "Give me all your money or I'll shoot," the man shouted, "That's not what I said!"

A bank robber in Virginia Beach got a nasty surprise when a dye pack designed to mark stolen money exploded in his Fruit-of-the-Looms. The robber apparently stuffed the loot down the front of his pants as he was running out the door. "He was seen hopping and jumping around," said police spokesman Mike Carey, "with an explosion taking place inside his pants."

In Modesto, California, Steven Richard King was arrested for trying to hold up a Bank of America branch without a weapon. King used a thumb and a finger to simulate a gun, but unfortunately, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket.

"I want some repairs done to my cooker as it has backfired and burnt my knob off."

". … and their 18 year old son is continually banging his balls against my fence."

" My lavatory seat is cracked, where do I stand."

"Will you please send someone to mend the garden path. My wife tripped and fell on it yesterday and now she is pregnant. We are getting married in September and we would like it in the garden before we move into the house."

"The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is cleared."

"I want to complain about the farmer across the road; every morning at 6am his cock wakes me up and its now getting too much for me."

"The man next door has a large erection in the back garden, which is unsightly and dangerous."

"I am a single woman living in a downstairs flat and would you please do something about the noise made by the man I have on top of me every night."

"I have had the clerk of the works down on the floor six times but I still have no satisfaction."

" ... and he's got this huge tool that vibrates the whole house and I just can't take it anymore."

From The Chichester Observer

Police have arrested a man charged with six offences of indecent assault and another man charged with five offences of indecent assault, a man for harassment and a burglar. Three other men have been cautioned for separate indecency offences. Other offences are still being investigated including a series of indecent assaults on trains.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer
A Pennsylvania man who refused jury service has been sentenced to sit in a chair for three days. Gregory Smyth will have to sit alone outside a sheriff's office from 8.30am to 4.30pm. He will be allowed two 15 minute breaks and an hour for lunch. The judge advised him to "bring a book". Chester County Court heard Smyth, of Paoli, had made several excuses to try and get out of jury service. When the 31-year-old was sent a summons, he wrote back: "Don't waste my time threatening me with arrest, just send the cops. Chances are they won't find me. I'll be at work."

From The Times
A French man has been fined for putting up a neon sign outside his pet shop to highlight his wife's affair. Robert Sofolowski was fined 50,000 Francs, (about £4,780) for infringing Patrice Chopin's right to privacy, after revealing his wife was having an affair with the banker. The 42-year-old from Nancy says he'll appeal and continue his fight for wronged husbands everywhere. The neon sign read: "If your wife has an account at the bank, Patrice Chopin will not only take care of her money. Her intimacy interests him as well."

A man was sentenced to listen to four hours of polka king Frankie Yankovic's greatest hits for driving through the city with his windows rolled down and his truck's stereo blaring.

Municipal Judge John Nicholson found Alan Law guilty of disorderly conduct and ordered him to pay a $100 fine or listen to polka tunes. Law chose to face the music.

Nicholson picked Yankovic's music because he thought the 19-year-old Law would not be a fan of the Cleveland polka legend, who died in 1998.

"Most of the time I try to impart the Golden Rule to people: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. You may enjoy listening to your music, but many people do not want to hear your music," Nicholson said.

Law listened to the full four hours of Yankovic's hits, which include Blue Skirt Waltz, Who Stole the Kishka and Too Fat Polka, in a police station interview room Thursday.

From The Sun
Furious Anthony McKenzie accused his wife of having an affair after he saw a text message saying "I love you" — and forgot he had sent it HIMSELF.

The false accusation led to a furious row that ended with McKenzie assaulting wife Maureen. He landed in court — and now faces a divorce.

McKenzie, 50, sent the love note to Maureen while he was away in Ireland working, then forgot about it. When he later saw the message on her phone he flew into a rage and accused Maureen, 53, of cheating.

Tempers flared still further as they rowed over a £140 phone bill. Furious Maureen tried to shove the phone in McKenzie's mouth to shut him up — but he then head-butted her. Aircraft fitter McKenzie, from Mold, North Wales, admitted assault.

John Wilde, defending, told Flintshire Magistrates: "His wife was not having an affair at all. He accepts he is the author of his own misfortune, his behaviour was unacceptable."

© Martin Davies October 2001

I still have a large lump on my forehead courtesy of Gordon Hewstone’s article in the last issue of the Internet Newsletter, entitled "Web On a Shoestring". It developed shortly after reading the article from the repeated thumping of my head on my desk in sheer frustration at his "make do and mend" approach to the use of email and the Web. What a contrast between Hannides Hewstone’s website (if you can find it, which is pretty difficult in itself - there’s no www in the address, its a wavy hyphen not a straight one, and make sure you add that forward slash right at the end) and their "web strategy", and those of the firms in Delia’s Top 20 Brochure Sites? I know who I think will be thriving over the next 10 years.

To summarise Hannides Hewstone’s web strategy appears to be - "There’s this internet-thingey out there that everyone keeps going on about and we think really we should have email and a website. We’re not quite sure why, or what its going to do for us, or how we are going to cope with it, but we must have it. What we do know however is that we do not want to spend any money on it".

I have no axe to grind with DIY web development, in fact I positively encourage it and applaud it where it can be done well, cost effectively and produce reasonable results. I endorse the idea that firms should be in control of their websites and keep them up-to-date and relevant, but cheap and cheerful websites do more harm than good and should be avoided. Net users have very high expectations and a clearly home-made Blue Peter effort will reflect very badly on the firm, whatever its size. Creating a useful and effective website is about more than just putting a few words together in a web-design programme and clicking on the "Publish to the Web" button. I thoroughly accept that there are plenty of sharks out there who are willing to take your money and produce flashy, but completely ineffective sites. But, whether it is DIY or through an agency, the most important part of web development is working out what your site is actually going to do for you, and more importantly for your clients and potential clients.

I do not advocate firms of any size throwing huge sums of money at their websites, but if you do decide that you need a web presence then it needs some thought about what you are trying to do with the site, who it is aimed at and how you will handle contact from the site and email in general. The Web in fact gives small firms a tremendous opportunity to punch well beyond their weight if a sensible strategy and budget are put together - see for example www.popall.co.uk, and www.landlordlaw.co.uk.

Email is a very emotive subject. I confess to being a big fan and cannot see how law firms can avoid using email. I confidently predict that within the next 5 years it will become the primary source of communication between clients and their solicitors, and between solicitors and other solicitors. Why pay to send a letter when you can send it more quickly and cheaply electronically, and include all the attachments? There is no business logic in not using email and using it to the best of its capabilities. Lawyers, who spend their lives communicating (some better than others) should be embracing email rather than trying to work out how to pretend to have the capability, but without actually wanting to change the way they work. The fact is that email and the Web will change the way solicitors work and what our clients expect from us. Clients will want to have access to their files via the internet, not so that they can understand the complexities of a any particular legal transaction, but just so that they can check whether we are actually doing what we say we are doing, when we said we were going to do it. Scary stuff! They will expect to be able to contact their solicitor directly by email, not via someone else’s machine and the now antiquated fax machine. Its called accountability. Its called providing a service. If you do not provide it then you will not be making a living as a solicitor for much longer.

It is in fact potentially easier for small firms to embrace the Internet and all it means than it is for the medium-sized firms, where change is a much more cumbersome and arduous process.

Develop your website in-house if you can, but be realistic about the effectiveness of what you can produce and your ability to maintain it. And if you are going to have a website you must have an email system that backs it up. Clients and potential clients that contact you via the site expect a response the same day. That is not to say that you have to solve their problem within a day, but you must contact them within this time span (and not with an auto-response, which are almost as annoying as the wonderful automated "Press 2 for….." telephone systems which now abound), but with a genuine human response from someone who has actually read what the problem is and thought about what you can do to help the client out.

If you spend money on nothing else then at least buy your own domain name - a .co.uk domain costs as little as £10 for two years registration, and hosting a site with your own domain can cost as little as £200 per year, hardly big bucks by anybody’s standards. Creating a site within an ISPs web space is cheap and tacky and, despite what Gordon Hewstone may believe, makes you difficult to find and to remember. Internet users are big on ease and short on patience.

So rather than just pretending that you are an Internet-enabled law firm I’d suggest its worth spending just a little time and just a little money to work out how the internet could really benefit your clients and your business. It will be time and money well spent.

© Martin Davies April 2001