Brochure, specialist, or selling legal services on-line - a law firm's potential client is bombarded by a myriad of options.

Delia Venables offers advice on the types of sites available

No one really knows how many law firms have Web sites.

But most larger firms and medium-sized high street firms now have one, although small practices often do not - they generally have no time to think about 'luxuries' of this sort unless someone in the firm has adopted a do-it-yourself approach.

A recent survey by Web site consultancy Intendance of 100 London-based firms revealed the capacity of commercial and mid-sized firms to impress with stylish and inviting sites, while simultaneously providing valuable legal information (see [2004] Gazette, 7 May, 11).

Collyer-Bristow's Web site topped the survey for the second consecutive year, followed by Alexander Harris and Hodge Jones & Allen.

But the survey followed an earlier Intendance report on chambers, which found that barristers outshone solicitors when it came to setting up sites (see [2004] Gazette, 22 April, 9).

Web sites differ widely - from simple pages with little more than contact details, to those providing vast amounts of information on particular legal topics or selling actual legal services on-line.

Bigger is not necessarily better in this respect.

Some small sites have a style and character that attract clients, while some of the larger ones can frighten people away with complex, fussy and slow presentations.

So how should a firm go about setting up different types of site, including specialised Web sites concentrating on a particular type of work?

And how far has the concept of selling legal services on-line really developed?

Brochure sites

A 'brochure site' is a description used by some as an insult, but a well-designed one - effectively an on-line version of the firm's printed brochure - has much to commend it.

While few potential clients will actually choose a firm just from looking at its Web site, many will check a practice that they are considering and perhaps know from their local high street, and they will expect to see all the important information presented to them.

If possible, the site should provide something of the character of the firm and the people in it, so that a bond is made with the viewer, just as meeting someone in person can create a good impression.

Small photographs can be a good idea, as long as they are taken professionally rather than cut out of holiday snaps.

Cheerful photographs are better than serious ones.

A brochure site aimed at private clients should be fast to load (most individuals do not yet have broadband connections), should make good use of colour, photographs and graphics, and should provide information on the types of work handled, and ways to contact the firm.

Where the prime focus of the firm is on business clients, then the site - even a brochure site - can be larger and more impressive.

But although it is reasonable to assume that businesses have faster Internet connections, even firms that have mostly business clients should remember that speed of access is essential.

When checking how fast a site is loading, it is essential to access it from a computer that has not already viewed the site and therefore 'cached' the large and slow graphics or animations in its memory.

Checking the speed of access from your own computer is not the same thing at all.

Although it can be a good idea to add papers or articles produced by members of the firm, or news of legal developments, these are only effective if the information is kept up to date.

Articles that are a year or two old are not going to impress a potential client.

Similarly, any legal material put on the site should have a sharp focus in one of the legal areas important to the firm rather than being miscellaneous in character.

Specialised sites

A firm with a clearly defined area of work has a major advantage in providing a Web site - it can become a 'honey pot' site with specialised information on that work type and can be found by potential clients putting key words into search engines.

People will generally be impressed by a firm that provides a lot of good free information on its site, and they are then more likely to become a client if they have a particular problem that cannot be solved by general information.

While a firm may not wish to put too much free information on its site, it is part of the general ethos of the Internet to do so - and if you do not do it, then someone else probably will.

Some firms try to make viewers register - by providing information about themselves - before they can access free information.

But this is probably a mistake, as most viewers do not want to leave a trail of where they have been and receive chasing e-mails that might hassle them.

Registration requirements will frighten off potential viewers.

Most firms with specialised sites have registered a domain name with the key words involved - this helps the site come up in search engines, since key words in domain names are considered a strong indicator of good material.

In some cases, firms have registered a whole series of specialised domain names - and are either developing a specialised site for each domain name or are redirecting Web site traffic going to the specialised domain name to their own non-specialised sites.

Selling legal services

Several firms (see box on opposite page) sell legal services from their sites as well as providing free information.

In some cases, the services sold are legal documents in a form that can be amended and made personal by the client; others are documents that are produced by the firm based on information filled in on-line by the client.

These services may also be packages of forms and information on particular topics, or provide access to advice from a lawyer at a fixed price.

Some firms are providing legal documents and services on-line in several areas, including pioneers London firm Kaye Tesler & Co (www.kt.uklaw.net) and Fidler & Pepper in Nottingham (www.fidler.co.uk).

However, firms selling legal services on-line from their sites are the exception rather than the rule, and there are relatively few practices - probably fewer than 3% of firms with Web sites - actually doing so.

There are several reasons for this.

Technically, it is difficult to provide the confidentiality and security aspects of working with clients on-line and also taking payment on-line.

The types of work that are best adapted to on-line selling are generally those with the lowest margins, such as uncontested divorce, conveyancing and debt collection, thereby undermining the purpose of providing the legal services in this way.

There are real dangers in undercutting the firm's other services.

A client might ask why a firm is charging 500 for one type of contract, when something similar can be purchased on-line for 200.

The process of setting up a site to provide legal services on-line takes a long time to become profitable and requires at least one of the lawyers at the firm to champion the project and to work long hours - unpaid and unloved - sorting out the problems.

For practices without such people, the project will probably fail.

Finally, anti-money laundering regulations mean that 'knowing your client' becomes particularly difficult, if not impossible, and although the types of work normally sold on-line may not be those where such regulations apply, uncertainty about the regulations has put a brake on developments in this field.

Commercial companies can probably provide legal services on-line without the same degree of professional risk as lawyers but, even so, few such sites are doing so successfully.

After launching with great fanfare a few years ago, most have quietly disappeared from the provision of 'packaged' services over the intervening period.

Exceptions include Divorce-online (www.divorce-online.co.uk), Emplaw (www.emplaw.co.uk), Road Law (www.road-law.co.uk), Legalpulse (www.legalpulse.com) and Lawritelegal (www.lawrite.co.uk).

There are several commercial sites that provide marketing opportunities for solicitors but that is not the same thing as actually providing legal services on-line.

Case tracking

While selling legal services on-line has proved surprisingly difficult, providing legal services for existing clients on-line has been a flourishing field, in particular the facility for a client to track the progress of a case.

Where firms have good case management systems already in place, there are now generally modules available from their software supplier that will take the current state of a case and place a summary of the situation on the firm's site, where the information can then be accessed by a client with the necessary password.

This is proving successful with younger and savvier clients, and some of these systems can now send text messages to a client's mobile telephone as well, when key points in a sale or purchase, for example, have been reached.

However, to provide the facilities for regular - or real-time - updating of the information of the site is itself an exacting task, and not all firms have the resources and skills available to do this.

Some suppliers can provide these facilities on their sites, thus avoiding the need for the firm to do this itself (from the client's point of view, the information appears to be on the firm's site).

There are even 'pay as you convey' systems, which enable the cost of this service to be provided on an individual case basis.

Dos and don'ts

Rules about dos and don'ts apply to all sites, even if they are simple brochure sites.

Do:

- Provide full information on the firm and make sure that all such information can be printed out successfully - many sites with fixed-font print lose the right edge of a site when printed out.

- Make the site interesting with good use of colour and some photographs or graphics - but keep it simple.

Something expressing the locality is good.

Make sure that it is fast to load with an ordinary telephone line (unless you have only business clients).

- Have a proper e-mail address on the site, easily found by the viewer.

Virus and junk-mail protection has to be handled by the firm's e-mail system, not by removing all e-mail addresses from the site.

Ideally, there should be individual e-mail addresses for each fee-earner.

- Use title tags and keyword tags effectively to maximise marketing opportunities in the search engines.

Don't:

- Use animated introductions (unless you are in the media/music business) or large coloured pictures of the building or the senior partner (whatever business you are in) or pompous declarations of your aims.

- Make your viewers register before they can view the information.

Nor should you rely too much on portable document files (PDFs).

These are documents that can be created directly from a printed page, but they are large files and are slow to download.

If you do use PDFs, give a good indication of what is in the document and the file size.

- Make the site inaccessible to disabled viewers - particularly partially sighted viewers.

The final parts of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 will come into force later this year and there are bound to be some embarrassing prosecutions.

Delia Venables provides independent Web sites for lawyers at www.venables.co.uk.

She also edits the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers

Here are some examples of good specialised Web sites.

The firms involved vary from the largest to sole practitioners.

One of the exciting things about the Internet is that flair and dedication can do more for a site than brute force.

The majority of these firms are from outside London; being in London provides little advantage on the Internet.

Business documents from Dickinson Dees, Newcastle: www.dickinson-dees.com/bizdocs

Business law from Hugh James, Cardiff: www.click2law.co.uk

Cookies from Masons, London: www.aboutcookies.org

Criminal law from JMW, Manchester: www.criminal-solicitors.com

Data protection for business from Rowe Cohen, London: www.dataprotectionforbusiness.co.uk

Divorce law from Mills & Reeve, Norwich: www.divorce.co.uk

Divorce law from Woolley & Co, Stratford-upon-Avon: www.divorce-lawfirm.co.uk

Dog law from Cooper & Co, Canterbury: www.doglaw.co.uk

Drinks law from Howes Percival, Northampton and Norwich: www.drinkslaw.com

Environmental rights law from Earthrights, Essex and Devon: www.earthrights.org.uk

Employment law from GMH, Birmingham: www.got-the-boot.com

Fashion law from City firm Fox Williams: www.fashionlaw.co.uk

Garden law from Richard Smithies of Bearders, Brighouse, West Yorkshire: www.gardenlaw.co.uk

Intellectual property law from Briffa & Co, London: www.designprotect.com

Compensation law from Abney Garsden McDonald, Cheadle Hulme: www.irishsurvivors.org.uk

Landlord law from Tessa Shepperson, Norwich: www.landlordlaw.co.uk

Licensing law from Poppleston Allen, Nottingham: www.popall.co.uk

Marketing law from Osborne Clarke, London and Bristol: www.marketinglaw.co.uk

Shareholder rights from Brabners Chaffe Street, Liverpool: www.shareholderrights.co.uk

Sports business law from City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse: www.sportsbusinesslaw.com

Trade mark law from Lawdit, Southampton, www.thetrademarkroom.com

Women's law from Rooks Rider, London: www.wwim.co.uk