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Richard Potter, Q.C.*

If you eavesdrop on lawyers over their cocktails, you’re likely to hear this sort of comment: “Web sites? Sure, you have to have one, but what a drag.  All that effort and nothing to show for it – no one ever hired a lawyer over the Internet”.  Sound familiar?  All too common a reaction – but it misses the point.

For a professional services firm, a web site is not a sales tool, it’s a marketing device.  And, increasingly, it’s a vital one because its primary usefulness is to confirm what the viewer already knows – or thinks they know – about the firm.  Yes, we agree that there is only a remote possibility that a client will choose a firm based solely on its web site, but a client is very likely to make a final choice only if the firm’s web site confirms the impressions gathered by the viewer from other sources.  For example, if your firm prides itself on its earned reputation for teamwork and esprit de corps, and that distinguishes you from other firms, if your web site does not convey that to the viewer, you have just lost an opportunity to confirm in the viewer’s mind an important element of your face to the outside world – your firm’s differentiation from competing firms.

Another comment that you might hear at a cocktail party: “A web site is just an online brochure.  Keep it simple.  You lose the viewer after three clicks”.  One thing we know about this commentator – he or she is not using their web site to its full potential.  The whole point of “layering” information to be reached by drilling down further and further is that only the viewer knows what they want in the way of information – if they believe that layered below the home page are levels of increasingly more detailed information that they need, they will gladly keep going through 10 or more clicks.  Put another way, yes, there is “too much information available” in general, but there is never too much good information available – if you make it easily available.

And speaking of “good information”, it’s time to abandon those clunky, hard copy newsletters.  Save some trees and, instead, send information to your clients by an e-mail, with a link to the firm web site – where you have information on a sub-page that is tailored to the needs of those viewers.  If the information has real value, your target viewer will send it on to a colleague or contact, doing some of your marketing for you.

Any pitfalls to avoid?  A common mistake is to consider content from the law firm’s own perspective rather than from the viewpoint of the client.  When designing your web site, your perspective has to be that of the client.  Almost all viewers, whether they are CEOs, individuals or inside counsel, above all, want to know the answer to this question: has the law firm been faced with a problem like mine before and, if so, how has it gone about solving the problem?  For a corporate client, there is an important variation: is this firm familiar with the industry sector I am in or will I have to spend my time and money to educate them about it?

A few firms have discovered that an ideal way to reflect a client-centred viewpoint is to use actual case studies to illustrate what the firm has done, for example, in the real world of dispute resolution.  The Akin Gump firm has set up a separate web site with all the documentation generated in a high profile case of the impeachment of a State Governor (see http://www.akingumpcases.com/).  This “demonstrated ability” factor is a very powerful tool on a web site because it makes a great deal of information available but in a way that is persuasive, even if the viewer chooses not to drill down through all of it.

A final word – choose an element in your firm web site that you will find relatively easy to keep fresh and current.  Concentrate on that for a few months and watch how your viewers respond – both externally and internally.  If you follow a few of these tips, far from being a drag, your site will form a keystone to your client relationships.

* Richard Potter, Q.C., i-lawmarketing.ca, (613) 476-8998, rpotter@on.aibn.com.