A comprehensive survey of barristers’ websites has found that a large majority neglect the potential value of news about members’ achievements in the cases they handle. A total of 252 Bar websites were surveyed by LawComms (an independent consultancy specialising in media relations, marketing, and websites for lawyers) in June 2008. This found that:
• 52% of the profession’s Home Pages present only static brochure-style information; they lack even the most basic updates about the set’s activities. On other sites, news and announcements are relegated to a separate page, where visitors are much less likely to see them.
• 20% of barristers’ sites have no updates of any kind. Two thirds have out-of-date news, more than a month old. Most sites feature only professional announcements and seminar details, with no updates about recent cases.
• Only about a quarter of news pages mentioned members’ cases. News items were mostly professional announcements, about new tenants or QC appointments, which were almost invariably in the “Chambers congratulates…” style and very rarely told visitors anything useful about the individual’s experience or qualities. Another group concerned seminars and there were a handful about pro bono activity.
• Only 86 of the 252 sites included recent news. There were many examples of “news” where the latest item was badly out of date, including: on many sites, the QC appointments announced in January; the Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 legal directory recommendations published last autumn; a list of recent cases in which the most recent was in 2005; requests for pupillage applications with a closing date months previously; picture features of Christmas parties; invitations to seminars which had already taken place; the “current” newsletter, published in spring 2006.
Gerald Newman of LawComms commented: “No news is bad news for barristers. A Home Page packed with news about the latest cases presents an effective low-cost way to promote members’ skills and experience. Unfortunately, too many sets are missing this opportunity.”
METHODOLOGY
During June 2008, LawComms.com visited the websites of 252 barristers’ chambers in England and Wales. Web addresses were found for another 40 sets but these were unavailable when the survey was conducted and are not included in statistics given above. The Bar Directory lists 686 sets of chambers altogether but the majority appear to be sole practitioners without a website.
LawComms adopted a broad and flexible definition of “news”, to include notices about seminars, as well as professional announcements, and news about casework or pro bono activities. Details of recent cases given in individual member profiles were, however, not included in the definition.
Of the sites surveyed, 121 (48%) had news on the Home Page, and another 81 (32%) carried items elsewhere.
If the Home Page itself did not include any items of news, the site was searched for news pages elsewhere through the menu and links on the Home Page. Some sites did not include a link to “News” on the Home Page, but only from a subsidiary pages such as “About Us”. All news, whether on the Home Page, was reviewed and the research recorded the date of the latest item (if it could be ascertained) and an outline of the contents.
Commentary is given in a detailed analysis on the LawComms website at www.lawcomms.com
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Monday, June 30
No news is bad news for Bar websites
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 30 Jun 2008 16:29 BST
Friday, June 27
E-conveyancing – things we love to hate - part #1
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 27 Jun 2008 08:06 BST
In recent weeks we've been hearing a lot of complaints about the shambolic, chaotic and pretty much pointless e-conveyancing strategy being pursued by government agencies – notably HM Revenue & Customs and the HM Land Registry. Over the next few weeks we'll be listing them however let's start by drawing your attention to a new report by Sir Bryan Carsberg, a former director-general of fair trading. The report was commissioned by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the National Association of Estate Agents and the Association of Residential Letting Agents and looks at the impact of HIPs (Home Inspection Packs) over the 12 months since they were introduced.
Carsberg's conclusion is that the contents of HIPs had been reduced to very little, despite their cost of on average £350, and that they should no longer be compulsory. Here are some quotes from his report: "I understand that, to date, few buyers have shown an interest in the HIP, and a substantial number of conveyancers ignore its existence and recommission searches on receiving instructions from their buyer client, suggesting a lack of confidence in the limited content. "This evidence alone indicates that the cost of HIPs is likely to exceed their benefits. Some would summarise the position by saying that the HIP provides the worst of all worlds – it omits much of the most useful information but still imposes significant costs on the property transaction. "Even if HIPs were to become more comprehensive, there appears to be a strong likelihood that delays between the preparation of the pack and exchange of contracts would mean that much of the information would have become out of date by the time it was used. "However I believe that the objection to HIPs is even more fundamental. I believe that consumer well-being, in matters like property transactions, is best secured by operation of the market." The Department for Communities & Local Government has said there are no plans to scrap HIPs. (They are presumably going to leave that to the next Conservative government.) If you have an e-conveyancing-related horror story, just email it in to econ@legaltechnology.com
Midgely Corner: Pornography & cakes in the digital age
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 27 Jun 2008 07:32 BST
We've checked the diary and no, its not April 1st – here's a story from the Daily Telegraph which reveals (a) what wonderful things you can do with digital photographic technology and (b) that commonsense is on the decline...
To celebrate her son David's 21st birthday, Gail Jordan thought it would be amusing to take advantage of a special £9.97 offer at her local Asda store to get a cake iced with a photo on the top. And the photo she selected was of David, when he was a five month old bare-cheeked bouncing baby, lying on his front on a rug. Unfortunately the staff at Asda said the image was "pornographic"and could only be reproduced if David's arse was protected by a "strategically-placed star". Mrs Jordan reported: "They said it could be anyone's child so it could be deemed pornographic. But I was asking to have it printed on a 21st birthday cake, so surely it was pretty obvious that it was my son. It's ridiculous – I understand they have rules, but there ought to be a place for commonsense as well. In the end they would only do it with a star over his bottom, which to be honest made the whole thing even more hilarious." An Asda spokesman said: "We have a policy, as do many other retailers, of no nudity, whatever the age of the subject. In this case we offered a number of alternatives including enlarging and cropping the photo, increasing the border size or applying a strategically placed star to save his blushes." Thursday, June 26
June Legal Technology Insider out now
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 26 Jun 2008 09:18 BST
The June edition (No #210) of the Legal Technology Insider newsletter (the original Orange Rag) should have hit most physical and virtual desktops by now (OK, you guys in the US and Australia who take the print edition will have to wait a little longer for the airmail).
• Readers of this blog might also like to know that in August we will be launching an American edition of the Insider focusing on the large firms sector of the US and Canadian legal IT industry. Called American Legal Technology Insider, it will follow the UK newsletter’s approach to content and formula of covering vendor and industry news as real news. Initial responses have been positive, attracting comments such as “we definitely need one of these for North America,” “a much needed addition to the legal IT media panorama over here given the consolidation” and – our favourite – “awesome”. American Legal Technology Insider will be published in a digital only format – as a PDF file – and will be available free of charge either as a download from The Orange Rag blog and 3rd party websites or delivered directly to your email in-box as a file attachment – to subscribe email altisubs@legaltechnology.com with the word subscribe in the subject line. Issue #1 will be published on Thursday 7 August 2008 and then monthly from Wednesday 10 September. US vendors please note: we have started gathering material now for the launch issue. Insider editor Charles Christian will also be in Texas for the ILTA event in August. • And, this month's edition of the Insider also includes the latest edition of Insider Corporate Legal, our special supplement for the inhouse legal community. You can download a copy here.  1 AttachmentsWednesday, June 25
Sue Hall joins Linklaters from Baker Mack
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 25 Jun 2008 14:17 BST
Linklaters has appointed David McClune as Director of Marketing and Sue Hall as Director of Information Systems & Strategy (ISS).
Hall joins Linklaters in early October from Baker & McKenzie, where she has held the position of Chief Information Officer since April 2004. Sue has 25 years’ experience in information technology, holding a number of senior management and consultancy positions including the role of Director of Service Management at Accenture. McClune joins from Allens Arthur Robinson, one of Australasia's largest and most successful law firms, where he has held the position of Strategy and Client Services Director since 1998. He has 25 years’ experience in marketing, business development, public relations and communications in a variety of industry and government sectors, including corporate PR, advertising and the New South Wales and Queensland governments. His start-date is 1 September. Simon Thompson, Global COO at Linklaters, said: "I am delighted that David and Sue are joining Linklaters. They will both be fantastic additions to our senior leadership team, bringing a wealth of experience and expertise to our firm. Both roles provide them with great opportunities to help further develop our firm's strategy and make a major contribution to achieving our ambitions of being the leading premium global law firm."
Hayes aiming to be the highest IT director in the business?
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 25 Jun 2008 10:15 BST
We're always in favour of people doing something interesting for charity – particularly if it involves discomfort and life-threatening danger, so hats off to to Nathan Hayes (Head of Infrastructure & Technology at Osborne Clarke) who in early July will be attempting to climb Mont Blanc in order to raise money for the charity Scope. If you could find your way to supporting Nathan's fund raising aims via his 'justgiving' website www.justgiving.com/natmontblanc he would very much appreciate it. All donations will go direct and in full to Scope. The endeavour is being ably supported by Mimecast, Phoenix Business Solutions, Portrayal and PureTech Marketing. Further details about the charity can be found at www.scope.org.uk
Nathan adds "Here is a bit more background on what I am doing and why... I did something similar last year, where I took part in the White Peaks Challenge www.scope.org.uk/adventures/whitepeaks.shtml and then for good measure, and just to make sure it was a real challenge, decided to climb an Alp the day after. The whole event was recorded in real-time using SportsDo at www.sportsdo.net/Public/ActivityBlog.aspx?user=nathanhayes With the summit of that Alp being 'just' 2000m high, a few people (well specifically Anthony Wells from Phoenix) did suggest it was not a 'proper' mountain which is in part why I am now going for the summit of Mont Blanc this year. Full details of the Mont Blanc Summit Challenge can be found at www.tallstories.co.uk/event_details.aspx?EID=75 "I've worked with people with Cerebral Palsy for some time now. Before I moved into Legal, I was involved with a charity that helped kids with cerebral palsy. This came about when a local lass was looking for help buying a speech system (similar, although much simpler, to that used by Prof. Stephen Hawkins) that cost £15k. The chairman of the previous company I worked for, Spandex (no, nothing to do with Latex), decided to help out and gave her the money to buy the machine. When we found out what £15k actually bought we were rather disappointed. As such he turned to his son and myself, who both worked in his IT team at the time, to see if we could come up with a more reasonably priced solution using standard technology. This we did and as a result he invested £1m of his own money in setting up the Spandex Foundation to provide these systems to whoever needed one. "After a few years of working with the charity in my spare time I then moved to Osborne Clarke and what with a new family and the workload at OC, I could no longer really help out. That was over 10 years ago. A few years ago I decided that enough was enough and I wanted to get back into helping out again and came across an advert in a magazine advertising Scope Challenges as a way to raise money for the charity. Hence the reason why I decided to take part in the White Peaks Challenge last year." Tuesday, June 24
Two new webinars from the Insider
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 24 Jun 2008 09:50 BST
Legal Technology Insider editor Charles Christian is chairing two webinars over the course of next week.
• The first is on digital dictation trends. WinScribe, in conjunction with The Insider, is hosting a free webinar entitled Emerging Trends in Digital Dictation to be held on Thursday 26 June at 1:00 pm via WebEx. In this free webinar, you'll learn from moderator Charles Christian about: emerging trends in digital dictation, leveraging mobile devices to streamline dictation and business operations, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as an alternative to traditional software acquisition licensing models, and evaluation options available for new software investments. To register, please email events@winscribe.com – a WinScribe representative will contact you with the event URL and teleconference details. • The second webinar, being held in conjunction with Tikit, is on Cost-effective Client Relationship Strategies for uncertain times – optimising online investments. This is a highly topical issue within law firms but even more so now with the considerable uncertainty in the market. This is a free online discussion to talk through how firms can benefit from using online techniques and how to ensure that you are optimising them. The webinar takes place on Tuesday 1 July at 4:00pm. Along with Charles Christian, the webinar panel includes - Val Pierre Genton: Chair, B2B Council, Interactive Advertising Bureau - Richard King: Head of Legal Knowledge at Herbert Smith - Christopher Young: Leading CRM consultant at Tikit To attend this webinar please visit http://mediazone.brighttalk.com/event/Tikit/52947e0ade-1612-registration If you are unable to attend, you can also view the webinar on Tikit's website from the 2nd July.
Recession - what recession? Oh, that recession.
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 24 Jun 2008 08:30 BST
The number of new businesses created in Britain was 70,000 fewer this financial year than in the previous 12 months – a fall of 16 per cent. Latest figures from corporate services company Jordans show that many of the major gains of 2006 have not been maintained. They suggest that the slow down started around September and coincided with the first effects of the credit squeeze.
The North West of England experienced the largest percentage fall of 46 per cent year on year followed by the South East of England – outside Greater London – where the total was 26 per cent less. The drop also topped 20 per cent in Yorkshire and Humberside. Other regions fared better but still saw a fall except for Scotland, where there was no change, and the North of England, where the number of new companies formed went up by 2 per cent. Paul Townsend, Director of Jordans Corporate Services, said there was a mixed picture for 2007-08 compared to the almost universal rises of the previous year when a 20 per cent rise took the total to almost 470,000. Much of the increase that year was due to the change in the Government’s tax treatment of managed service companies, many of whom formed private limited companies instead. Townsend said that although the latest total was down, new enterprises were still being formed at an average of more than 31,000 every month. (Although whether 95% of these were Polish owned plumbing companies is another matter.) Monday, June 23
Readers poll - keep on dictating
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 23 Jun 2008 12:27 BST
The June issue of Legal Technology Insider is published later this week and one of the features it contains is the results of our latest Readers’ Poll.
We asked whether digital dictation is a transitory, interim technology* that will be rendered redundant by newer developments? We had a good response that saw some very definite views expressed. • The first question was ‘are self typing lawyers more cost effective than lawyers who dictate’ – which produced a resounding ‘no’ from 68% of respondents. That said, 60% did say they believed law students should be taught touch typing at law school – although we are not sure why as almost the same number (56%) said incoming trainees should not be tested for their typing ability. • There was also an almost unanimous (83%) verdict that lawyers should not be deprived of secretaries just because they are adequate self typists, which does make sense because a good legal secretary has always done a lot more than type. • We also asked about training, with 72% of respondents saying dictation training should become a standard part of induction at all firms, and 62% saying law firms should not teach trainees to touch type. • Turning to future trends... – 63% said they did not think a growing generation of computer literate lawyers would make dictation obsolete in 10 years; – 72% said they did not think speech recognition would make dictation obsolete in 10 years; and – 65% said they did not think speech recognition would make self typing obsolete in 10 years. So, forget speech recognition and keep on dictating. * And yes we realise that all technologies are transitory – however while some may have had a relatively short lifespan (like the audio cassette tape midway between vinyl albums and CDs – and yes we know CDs are themselves threathened by MP3 file downloads) – others enjoy a surprising longevity. For example, the QWERTY/Sholes keyboard was patented in 1874 to prevent the most frequently used keys on a mechanical, spring-driven typewriter keyboard from jamming. 134 years later it is still in use despite the fact the digital keyboard on a PC has no such jamming problems. (For the record, Thomas Edison invented the first dictation recorder in 1877.) Thursday, June 19
Navigation changes to OR interface
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 19 Jun 2008 19:37 BST
Bit of minor housekeeping to report – the 'recent comments' and 'search' boxes can now be found on the lefthand column.
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