Lawyers step up on-line work

A former City lawyer who left her job to be with her young children is to launch the UK's second Internet-only law firm, following in the footsteps of FIRSTlaw, the successful referral service.Patricia Ogunfeibo, formerly an assistant at City firm Watson Farley Williams, left work last year to spend more time with her two children, and to set up her Web service.VATad.com is due to launch at the beginning of June.

It will be the UK's second Web-based legal practice registered by the Law Society, and the first to concentrate solely on tax advice.Advice will be provided over the Internet by Ms Ogunfeibo and a panel of lawyers, including two tax advisers from top-ten accountancy practices.VATad.com will provide advice in response to requests posted on-line, and offer clients 24-hour access to their files.

But Ms Ogunfeibo considers that the greatest asset the Web-based firm will provide is cost.She says that while she was working in the City for the last two years, her lowest charge-out rate was 375 per hour of advice.

VATad.com's charge will be an average of 50 per hour.As few firms charge under 100 per hour for VAT advice, Ms Ogunfeibo is expecting that many companies will start to outsource their work to VATad.She has already been approached by a medium-sized City law firm - not Watson Farley - keen to outsource its work to the new Web site.

Her medium-term plan is to set up a full tax service; by the end of the year she hopes to launch TAXad.com, CUSTOMSad.com and EXCISEad.comAs a marketing exercise, Ms Ogunfeibo hopes to offer 1,000 free UK domain names and registrations for clients who enlist in July.Meanwhile, Eversheds this week launched an on-line dispute resolution service for businesses involved in domain name and other Internet-related disputes.

The Web site, dotcomresolution.com, will offer advice from a virtual office and claims to be the only law firm in the world currently offering such a service.Partner Antony Gold said the service would be offered at a fixed price 'where possible'.

He continued: 'We see on-line services of this type as a step into the future for professional services.'

Jeremy Fleming