A revolution in websites for legal businesses

As part of the research in creating the lpc website, a large number of solicitors’ websites were reviewed. There were very few websites that did complete justice to the businesses underlying them. Why is this?

Most pertinently the vast majority of web sites were simply an online brochure for their firm. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this; it is just an enormous wasted opportunity.

So what can be done with a website? lpc’s series “The New Economic Rules" includes an article “The Technology Paradox" where there is a powerful argument that technology requires to be at the centre of any legal business’s strategy and particularly their online strategy. While “Online Strategy” sounds dangerously pompous it really is absolutely core to any legal business in the next few years.

The website is the centre of the online strategy and it should fulfil a number of different purposes:-

• the Brochure of the firm as is often currently the case,
• A portal for the business and in particular
• An internal website for the business conveying dynamic information (intranet)
• An external website for clients of the business conveying dynamic information (extranet)

The website will automatically convey the relevant form depending upon the person who is logging in.

This may appear quite complicated but in fact it isn't. if someone is using Amazon, eBay or iGoogle those sites are doing exactly the same thing. It is the key not only to online commerce but to the seamless juxtaposition between a legal business and the people with whom it deals.

All this sounds very expensive and depending upon to whom one speaks it can be. But entirely serviceable technology that can do all of this is available free. Before there is a collective sigh of relief, the fact that something is free doesn't mean that one can just say " hey presto" and there is the all singing and dancing website dynamically responding to everybody in the world without human intervention. The work is projecting and encapsulating the vision that the individual business wants to project and achieve,, the available time in which to do that and converting the vision into reality.

More and more a business’s website will represent the personality of that business. The review of the websites often showed that all sorts of legal businesses, many very successful, have basically ignored the online strategy. Taking into account the change in business environment that will result from this downturn the lack of the right online presence will disadvantage a legal business.

The internet is a great equaliser: smaller but vibrant businesses can project an image that competes with larger more established businesses. The use of remote or distributed working means that geographical location is not necessarily key.

But profile is just a small part of this. The major gains are to be had in productivity both internally and externally. Like banks and insurance companies, many firms of solicitors will increase their productivity by reducing the manual handling of information. The holy grail of information technology is what is referred to as " zero touch". This is when a transaction can take place electronically without human intervention. Given that law is about value added advice and transactions, the aim is to ensure that as much of a transaction can take place in an automated fashion as possible enhancing the return on time spent by solicitors or paralegals.

With 60 per cent of the population of the UK having access to the Internet and with the government planning a "broadband for all" strategy over the next year or so the Internet becomes the method of communication that will more and more assume priority. Accordingly it is important that firms of lawyers understand that a website is far more than a brochure.

lpc have been involved in the extension of the internet as a delivery mechanism for legal services since the mid-90’s - indeed not long after the birth of the modern practical Internet. They can provide the vision and interpretation of an existing business’s ethos and personality carrying this from a design concept for the website through to instructions for the relevant website creator. In particular they can map and plan the integration of existing systems, controls and functionality to a single web interface.

Of course, the ability of legal businesses to absorb this inexorable movement to web functionality will vary enormously depending upon their size, desire and work profile. Indeed lpc’s advice is that there should be an ongoing strategy rather than a big bang approach; big bangs tend not to work whereas an ongoing step by step building block strategy WILL work provided that discipline is maintained in moving from A to Z.

One thing is certain this is a change in the way in which both legal businesses and their clients relate. Imagine the change in running a legal practice in the early 20th century before the advent of the telephone. The state of the websites of most lawyers shows that they have not yet grappled with the true impact of the information and knowledge economy.

lpc can assist legal businesses of all sizes make this necessary change that is essential to future prosperity.