Colchester firm Fisher Jones Greenwood this week claimed to be the first UK lawyers to offer clients and the public legal advice podcasts - audio or video files automatically distributed via the Internet.

Senior partner Tony Fisher said the move would reach out to a younger, more IT-literate audience, as well as expanding the firm's reach and channels of communication. '[It's] different, innovative, will attract a younger audience [and is] a new way of communicating for lawyers,' he said.


Podcasts, recorded by a former BBC journalist, are available initially on family law, personal injury, employment, conveyancing, wills and probate, and immigration.


Podcasting by lawyers is a growing trend in the US, behind blogging (Web logs - see [2005] Gazette, 10, November, 9). Hertfordshire sole practitioner and blogger Justin Patten said he plans to offer podcasts.


However, fellow legal blogger Peter Wainman of Mills & Reeve in Cambridge, co-author of the firm's NakedLaw blog, said that while the idea is 'intriguing', it is still early days for the technology.


'Given the comparatively slow take-up of law firms on blogging, I think it'll be a while before podcasting is embraced by the profession,' said Mr Wainman. '[But] certain content might well be suitable for podcasting [such as] announcements of big events, training programmes, and films and/or audio from seminars.'


Links: www.i-legal.info