II.OVERVIEW
Four subjects will be discussed in this paper:
The importance of top level domain names to a law firm
Designing, creating and marketing law firm websites
Re-engineering the legal process through disintermediation
The legal ethics issues associated with law firm websites
DOMAIN NAMES: A law firm's domain name can be the most important intellectual law that a firm owns. The firm's domain name not only encompasses the goodwill developed over the years in the firm's name; the domain name is also the way people communicate with the firm in an on-line world. Hundreds of thousands of domain names have been issued and a firm must move quickly to protect their "natural" domain name.
LAW FIRM WEBSITES: Once a firm has selected a domain name, the firm should develop a website. For smaller, strictly local firms this website may be very simple, but other firms should develop more elaborate websites. These websites can be extremely productive ways to generate business for the firm. For a website to be effective as a marketing tool, it must provide a valuable resource(s) for prospective clients and be developed around a central theme(s).
Simply putting up a website with valuable resources is not sufficient. These resources must be publicized, both on the Internet and in other media for the website to be effective in marketing the firm.
DISINTERMEDIATION: Marketing a firm is not the only use for websites. Law firm websites, particularly when combined with intranets, can be an effective way to make the legal process more efficient. Internet websites and intranets can be used to streamline the legal process, by removing the people that perform repetitive or clerical tasks from the legal process (disintermediation). In order to fully disintermediate the legal process, firms must work closely with clients. This cooperative process will itself strengthen the relationship between firm and client.
WEBSITE AND LEGAL ETHICS: Because law firm websites can be used for so many purposes and because the Web is so new and evolving so rapidly, traditional legal ethics rules may result in less than optimal regulation. A variety of issues arise when trying to apply the rules of legal ethics to websites.
In applying legal ethic rules to websites regulators should distinguish between those portions of a website that are public debate speech, efforts to educate the public about the law, and those portions that are commercial speech. Legal scholarship should be subject to minimal ethical overview, while portions concerning the firm, its attorneys and practice areas should be regulated by the jurisdiction(s) where the law firm has an office.
I. INTRODUCTION
II. OVERVIEW
III. THE IMPORTANCE OF TOP LEVEL DOMAIN NAMES FOR LAW FIRMS
IV. WHY CREATE A LAW FIRM WEBSITE
V. DEVELOPING A WEBSITE DESIGN STRATEGY
VIII. DISINTERMEDIATING AND RE-ENGINEERING THE LEGAL PROCESS
IX. A BRIEF REVIEW OF LEGAL ETHICS AND WEBSITES
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