Trends in Canadian Law Firm Websites

The March 25 issue of Legal Business, a supplement to The Lawyers Weekly, includes an article "Firm websites need to be more informative" that explores some of the things law firms can do to establish a stronger branding message in cyberspace.

Traditionally, law firm websites adopted fairly conservative designs but observers see a new trend, with more firms exploring ways to get people's attention. Leveraging expertise seems to be one technique being increasingly adopted.

Some firms are providing information on new developments in important cases in their areas of expertise. Another example comes from the Orangeville, Ont. firm of Carter & Associates, which specializes in charity, church and anti-terrorism law.

The firm decided to create "niche" websites on each of those themes, for example CharityLaw.ca. These sites are full of content. The people behind them admit that it takes time to prepare everything but that it's worth it: it makes the firm and its lawyers more saleable, establishes their reputation, attracts media requests, generates business.

The basic idea is to provide lots of content and to help users find that content more easily.

According to my experience of wandering on the Web, among the tools different law firm websites have developed to highlight their content are:

• online sign-up for news alerts and notification of new publications on specific topics
• tools for saving, e-mailing and/or printing pages easily
• personalization tools to cut down on page clutter
• abstracts of firm publications and news highlights right on the home page
• even RSS feeds

As Gisèle White, whose firm redesigned the Carter & Associates websites, wrote, "when people go to a law firm website, they want to find some substance (...) They're not expecting to see a lot of flash and fluff. A lot of old rules still apply: people still want to find lawyers who look and act profesionally".