Eversheds, Sony in hi-tech deal

City firm Eversheds has cut a deal with electronics giant Sony to provide cutting-edge technology to clients who subscribe to its Web-based community rooms, which launch this week.The first community is aimed at employment lawyers.

It will give clients - principally in-house lawyers - access to specialist case law and statutes via Butterworths, relevant news fed in from the Financial Times, in addition to general advice from the firm, search engines, deal rooms, calculation systems for deducing employee payments, and audio-visual training seminars for continuing professional development points.The firm has appointed a full-time community manager - assistant Liz Gillow from the Birmingham office - who will oversee regular updates to the site by the firm.Communities for commercial property, e-commerce, mergers and acquisitions, education, and banking and finance will also be rolled out.

The community initiative started 18 months ago in response to the enlarged firm having ten different Web sites across different offices.Head of e-strategy Kevin Doolan, developer Richard Oakes and project manager Nick Williams have driven the project.Mr Williams said: 'We saw a gap in the market between the magic circle's Web sites, with their focus on finance specifics like interest-rate swaps, and the free Web sites offering relatively thin information.'He said the initiative would benefit a firm with 25,000 medium to large clients.

The initiative has been piloted using seven clients, including two blue chip in-house teams, and the firm said their response has been very encouraging.Subscription to the employment community will cost 120 per month, but following the firm's deal with Sony clients can take state-of-the-art VAIO lap-tops - complete with subscription to the community - for 200 per month.

This will give access to Windows XP and Office XP, not yet on public release in the UK.Eversheds' European offices are being canvassed to see how the strategy may be applied to offices in other European jurisdictions.Jeremy Fleming