Miller Nash http://www.millernash.com/ When the IMA Awards
expand beyond the largest 250 firms in the nation, the Miller Nash
will rate as one of the best, if not the best law firm web site in
the USA. I could practically do an entire Nifty 50 with this site
alone. Start with the ability to personalize the site. Then, chat
live with someone at the firm. There is the ability to save, e-mail
or print each page. Check out the “Briefcase” and “Jump Start”
features under “Utilities”. And what you can not see is the
client-only extranet area, and the online proposal center. Spend
some time here before developing your next site! This is assignment
one for any firm in redevelopment!!!
McGuire
Woods http://www.mcguirewoods.com/services/leo/ The
“Legal Ethics Opinion Summaries” is another example of establishing
a unique database offering content well beyond the basics. Thomas
Spahn is one of the nation’s leading ethics attorneys and an
outstanding presenter.
Siskind Susser http://www.visalaw.com/ The Granddaddy of Law
Firm Web Sites continues to grow and improve. The best-known
immigration law site on the web features live chats, excellent
online form capabilities and its newsletter is now available on your
Palm. The Jeopardy answer to the question, “What law firm best built
its practice by wisely using the
Internet?”
Perkins Coie http://www.perkinscoie.com/casedigest/default.cfm The
“Internet Case Digest” offers yet another example of a legal
resource that would bring users back to the site, time and again. A
“bookmark” for anyone in the industry.
Hale
and Dorr http://www.haledorr.com/practices/email_alerts.asp?areaID=17 They
take the use of e-mail to a higher plane, with numerous offerings
and subscription options. Not enough firms take advantage of this
component of web site development.
Osler
Hoskin http://www.osler.com/ This very strong site
starts by asking which language you are interested in. French or
English? A necessity for Canadian firms.
Jenkens
& Gilchrist http://www.jenkens.com/seminars.htm The firm
offers interactive, on-line seminars, which includes video, power
point, and the ability to even ask
questions!
Epstein Becker http://www.ebglaw.com/news_type_7.htm The
“Reporter’s Resource” in the firm’s strong “Newsstand” is a database
of media coverage, complete with links to the practice area and
relevant attorney.
Steptoe &
Johnson http://www.steptoe.com/webdoc.nsf/lawnet-others/Archive The
“Law and the Net” section offers a free subscription to the weekly
E-Commerce Law Week, with good content, and a reason for interested
parties to visit the site 52 times a year, minimum.
Michael Best http://www.mbf-law.com/ See that “Archive”
button throughout the site. It seems so intuitive, yet so many sites
continue to display old, old, old stuff throughout a site, instead
of archiving. You do not need to get rid of the content, just
archive it! And the home page “Daily Feature” does change
daily—something I wondered about when reviewing the site for the IMA
Reviews.
Jackson Lewis http://www.jacksonlewis.com/about/ “Bookmark
This Page” offers the ability to quickly add to your Favorites.
There is certainly no harm in asking, and getting added to the
bookmark list is always an accomplishment for any site.
Stoel Rives http://www.stoel.com/edefault.shtm At the
bottom of the home page, “We Support” shows examples of both pro
bono work and firm sponsorships, complete with logos and appropriate
links. Yet another good way to cross-reference.
Davis Wright http://www.dwt.com/books.htm This IMA
award-winning site offers a “Bookstore” for purchasing firm
materials, such as publications and CD-ROMS. And, YES, you can buy
right there, using Visa or Mastercard!
Thompson
Hine http://www.thompsonhine.com/firm/clients.asp I
never get tired of seeing representative clients, with that link off
to the client web site. I’m still amazed that more firms have not
used this component properly. Another nifty hurrah to the
“Resources” section of the site. Good organization with good
searching.
Milberg Weiss http://www.milberg.com/frames_contact.html Good
use of online forms, for reporting fraud, joining a class action or
simply requesting more info. Just keepin’ it interactive.
Long Aldridge http://www.lanlaw.com/ourPeople/alumniMap.cfm The
Alumni Map. Not as in alumni of the firm, but law school alums.
Click on the flash map of the USA, pick a state, then pick a law
school, to see the bios of firm attorneys. One strange thing I found
was that it is listed under “Our People”, but not also listed under
“Your Career”, where it is equally appropriate.
Hughes Luce http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store/store.aspx?storeid=commerceby Talk
about eCommerce. The firm’s outstanding www.commercebynet.com site
links over to a store for buying branded firm clothing and
paraphernalia. Likewise, the www.lawyerware.com site offers all
kinds of products for purchase.
Flowers Law
Firm http://www.flowerslawfirm.com/ “A different
kind of firm” is what it says at the top of the home page. Is there
another law firm that offers “Daily Sex News”? I don’t think so! A
place that combines some of our favorite things—lawyering, sex and
the Internet—beat that!!!
Robinson &
Cole http://www.rc.com/BioSELLAY.htm# I just picked
William’s bio as an example, but each attorney profile offers a
print version, but the nifty piece is the “contact card” use of the
vCard electronic business cards, which can be downloaded onto the
visitor’s computer (with permission, of course).
Bradley Arant http://legalspan.com/barw/ Another excellent
use of outsourcing a piece of technology to improve the firm’s web
site offerings. Similar to online CLE offerings, a visitor can
register and watch a presentation at no charge. The catalog of
offerings is broken down by practice category.
Pennie & Edmonds http://www.pennie.com/index.ihtml A slightly
different touch to the attorney listings on the home page. The
quickfinder offers a drop-down box of attorneys, with the option of
viewing the bio, or going straight to sending him or her e-mail.
Helpful to someone who knows the firm and the attorney, but is
unsure of the e-mail address for the individual.
Taft Stettinius http://www.taftlaw.com/news/alumninews.html#o Taft
is one of many sites to now offer alumni sections. This is one of
the stronger approaches, allowing people to contact former firm
members, with a directory that not only includes e-mail and phone
numbers, but gives the alum a chance to say a few words.
Brown Rudnick http://www.brownrudnick.com/html/inhouse.htm A
double-dose of niftiness to Brown Rudnick. One of the few firms to
dedicate a section to in-house counsel…only one of the most
important audiences for a corporate law firm to be concerned about!
Duh. Many should take a lesson here. Also, the public interest,
www.brownrudnickcenter.com, is a pro bono masterpiece.
Thacher Proffitt http://www.thacherproffitt.com/ Excuses,
excuses. There is too much going on at law firms to worry about the
web site. Yet, sometimes harsh realities of life remind us what an
important element of business and society it is today. On September
11th, I thought about TPW. The building was gone, but the site was
still up and running. It would become a key information source for
family, friends, clients and interested observers.
Jones Walker http://www.joneswalker.com/news/ezine.asp Publications
like USA Today started it, with cable and the web making it more so.
Keep it short and sweet. The E*Zine Center offers subscriptions to
many practice area tip sheets—short, informal, breaking news. This
is a site with a wealth of valuable content.
Butzel Long http://www.butzel.com/resource/rescoll.htm If
you’ve got kids, you will want to spend some time in the Butzel
resource section on College Savings Plans. Articles, summaries and
helpful links make this an added-value resource for all types of
end-users. This is a section that can hit home for many, and endear
a firm to a client, or create a bond with a prospect. I hope the
firm has marketed this well.
Lowenstein
Sandler http://www.insurance-lowenstein.com/home.html The
“Insurance Outpost” specialty site offers a unique view of the
insurance law practice, on the web. Once again, it makes it clear to
visitors that this is truly an area of firm focus.
Brobeck http://www.brobeck.com/news_events/ads.asp Not
many firms run television ads, but if you do, make sure they also
run on your web site. Some people have knocked their aggressive,
entrepreneurial style. I say, keep it up.
Mayer
Brown http://www.mayerbrown.com/ The first thing to
do when you get to the home page is see if there is a specialty site
for your area of interest. To my knowledge, no other firm has put
together the staffing and resources to offer this many different web
sites for one firm. If you’ve never checked it out, you are really
missing something.
Morrison &
Foerster http://www.mofotalkradio.com/ Mofo returns to
the Nifty 50 for a second year in a row. Last year, it was the
Mofonics garage band. This year, it is talk radio, offering an
archive of audio clips on numerous subjects.
Akin
Gump http://www.akingumpcases.com/ Sort of law firm
web site meets A&E or Court TV. Painstaking detail of an Akin
Gump case study, featuring video, articles, transcripts and a
complete overview of the inner workings of the firm on a matter.
This is an extremely impressive effort that deserves much greater
play off the Akin Gump main home page. It would be a crime to visit
this firm’s site and not spend some time here.
Shearman & Sterling http://www.shearman.com/history/history_index.html If
you are a history buff, Shearman’s history exhibit offers a lesson
in legal from 1865 through 2000, with a tie-in to the firm and a
practice area with each trip through the past. A somewhat hidden gem
on the site.
Testa Hurwitz http://www.tht.com/thtvideo.htm Ah, the video
section. As connectivity increases, the value in such sections does
as well. I look at my home connection as an example. In the last
three years, I’ve gone from the phone, at 28 and 56k, to high-speed
cable. Only now would I click on a video. Many others are doing the
same.
Pepper Hamilton http://www.pepperlaw.com/practice_areas.htm Another
simple but smart, low-tech interactive device. At the top of each
practice area description is an e-mail address for that practice.
For example, antitrust@pepperlaw.com or sports@pepperlaw.com. This
just makes it that much easier for an interested party to just zip
off a note for more information, rather than send either a generic
info@ e-mail or pick an attorney, and hope for the best. These also
could be set up to send dual e-mails, one to marketing and one to
the practice group, for tracking purposes.
Womble
Carlyle http://wcsr.yellowbrix.com/pages/wcsr/Headlines.nsp?type=newsbites A
handful of firms go the extra mile in trying to keep people coming
back constantly and consistently. With a deal for syndicated content
from Yellowbrix, the site offers up to the minute breaking news, as
well as industry news for key practice groups.
Covington & Burling http://www.cov.com/publications/pdfhtml.asp Sometimes
it is the little things that make a site more user-friendly. Cov.com
asks if you know the difference between html, pdf and ppt. If not,
click over for a little instruction and learning for the
tech-impaired (which is the majority).
Gray
Cary http://www.gcwf.com/journal/index.html Many
firms have debated giving away journals and publications on the web.
Gray Cary’s Journal of Internet Law gets it half-way right, by
offering a taste of each issue, along with an 800 number for
subscribing to the journal. Now, if they really wanted to do it
right, you would offer the ability to sign up and pay online, right
then and there! After all, it is an internet journal.
Milbank Tweed http://www.milbank.com/knowledgecenter.html The
flashy, bell and whistle-rich web site also offers a separate
research portal for those interested in a research tool. Flash for
the flashy; knowledge for the learned.
Troutman
Sanders http://www.troutmansanders.com/off/dc.asp A
nice little “touch” that a few firms took advantage of is providing
a weather box from weather.com as part of each office location. It
is free, it is content, it is presently a cool 32 degrees in
Washington, DC; 43 degrees in the London, England office.
McKenna & Cuneo http://www.mckennaevents.com/ For some firms
and sites, the ability to expand upon event promotion, posting and
registration makes it easier to create a specialty site simply for
events. It can also be more cost-effective, depending on the site
and developer.
Palmer & Dodge http://www.palmerdodge.com/frmFindEvents.cfm With
the conversion of most firms to database-driven web sites, many such
sites have almost become db-cookie-cutter in nature. P&D’s cold
fusion site offers a little different look, display and search
functionality than many.
Fish &
Richardson http://www.fr.com/practice/patent.cfm?child=patent Sometimes
the most powerful stuff on your site is not even at your site at
all. Click on the “Search USPTO” button to open a second browser,
taking you directly to a list of patents secured by FR for clients.
Why reinvent the wheel? And the section really continues to update
itself, so long as the firm is concerned.
Finnegan
Henderson http://www.finnegan.com/fr_fed.htm Looking for
recent decisions handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit? Right here. Updated several times a week by the
D.C. based IP firm. For interested parties and clients, a definite
bookmark destination. Quality content, added-value, updated often.
Schulte Roth http://www.srz.com/tour.asp So many firms are
moving locations nowadays. Why not show off your new digs to clients
with an interactive tour of the facilities?
Arent
Fox http://www.arentfox.com/quickGuide/discussions/discussions.html It
is not new to the Arent Fox site, but few firms take advantage of
the interactivity of moderated discussion forums to promote a
practice, or create a reason to come back and interact on an ongoing
basis.
Dickstein Shapiro http://www.legalinnovators.com/Puzzle.asp?Menu=Advertisements Besides
the clever marketing URL of “legal innovators,” is the tie-in with
the firm’s print media campaign offering an array of puzzles, where
the web site offers the solutions. Excellent tie-in between print
and online, with the draw to the firm site.
Winstead Sechrest http://www.winstead.com/pressroom/mediainfo/mediakit.html Few
firms maximize the use of the web as a resource for media relations.
An interested party can download the Winstead media kit, as well as
access a number other of journalist-friendly resources.
Bryan Cave http://www.bryancave.com/join/trivia.asp Not
quite as much fun as an arcade, but “Cave Trivia” does offer an
interactive Q&A on the firm history and fun facts.
Cooley
Godward http://www.cooley.com/practice_and_people.ixe?section=Client+Profile The
“Client Profile”, promoted on the home page, offers a chance to not
only show off clients with a detailed accounting, but provide the
client with some nice, complimentary pub from its’ law firm.
Rene Larson http://www.renelarson.com/ Another one of my
historical favorites, Rene’s site continues to grow and improve.
Click on the Web Cam, and see how the weather is in Thunder Bay,
Ontario.
O’Melveny & Myers http://www.omelveny.com/webcode/navigate.asp?nodehandle=519 Many
sites offer a keyword search (which really is a must today), but
often the search results are jumbled and difficult to make good use
of. Not the case with OMM, where the results are broken down by
category, and include details such as whether it is in a pdf or an
html format.
Hunton & Williams http://www.hunton.com/cwrhunton/index.htm A
number of firms have developed home-grown extranet programs for
clients and prospects. If you are a client, log-in; if interested,
see the demo.
Kirkland & Ellis http://www.kirkland.com/client/client.asp You
have to look for it, but Kirkland offers the chance to participate
in on-line opinion polls throughout their site (from
www.opinionlab.com). This interactive approach to finding out what
the end-user likes and dislikes helps the firm spend (time and
money) effectively in further on-line development.
Greenberg Traurig http://www.gtamericas.com/ “One point of
contact for the Americas” is the mantra of this specialty site. A
powerful presence that puts the “world wide” into the World Wide
Web.
