Firm Takes Fresh Approach With Website
Congratulations to law firm Harrison Pensa in London, Ontario who have just relaunched their website. While launching a new site is not necessarily newsworthy (well, unless you are a member of the firm itself), in this case HP have used some fresh thinking which makes this redesigned site stand out.
A few features of the site:
- the look of the site is bold, personable, and still professional
- rather than stock photos, they feature their own lawyers prominently
- lawyer bios include links to their lawyers on social media sites (notably LinkedIn) and also allow for readers to share the bios across the web with a social media “share” button
- they have three blogs on the site (HP Business, HP Community, and Students), again with share-ability
- they are one of the few law firms taking advantage of the popular software WordPress.
Why is it interesting that they are using WordPress? WordPress is a free, Open Source platform that has become widely adopted around the world both for blogs and for websites as an easy-to-use content management system (CMS). According to Matt Mullenweg (WordPress originator) last August in his “State of the Word” report, WordPress is running on 15.5% of all websites, and accounts for over 54% of CMS marketshare. 22% of domains registered in the U.S. are running WordPress. That is a huge adoption rate, and yet law firms have a tendency to look for something other than this obvious solution. So, kudos to HP for joining the “cool kids” in using WordPress. It makes sense to use something that is widely known, and has a community around it for support.
HP are also tying the launch of their new website in with a campaign to raise funds for the London Food Bank. For every person who “likes” their Facebook community page, they will be donating a pound of food to the food bank. Kudos on this idea to give back!
For a more in-depth discussion of why the Harrison Pensa website is significant, see also Jordan Furlong’s post on the Stem Law Firm Web Strategy blog from February 1st.
No reason for law firms to not subscribe, right?
As to Jordan Furlong’s view that the HP “website is signficant”, he may well be right. He’s far better informed on those issues than I am. On the other hand, some people might consider it relevant that he begins his discussion this way. “Stem client Harrison ….”
I think you’d have called the TV equivalent of Jordan’s message an infomercial. Reasonable people (including dinosaurs, if you will) will differ on the merits of the content that makes up the “info”.
(Full Disclosure – one of my best friends is in the advertising (licensing) business and he’s still one of my best friends, so perhaps my judgment is questionable for reasons other than what I do for a living and used to do for relaxation.)
Cheers,
David, I appreciate your skeptical viewpoint. Thank you for mentioning Stem’s affiliation with Harrison Pensa which I should have.
I am not affiliated with Harrison Pensa. One of the things I do in my consulting, however, is watch Internet trends generally and legal industry trends specifically. When I looked at the site, I decided to write this post before I looked at Jordan’s post. If you read them both that should be evident since my comments have a very different focus.
HP is one of the firms I do keep an eye on since they are doing some interesting things. They were already very much on my radar with David Canton’s work with the online service http://policytool.net. I didn’t mention this in my review above since it was already existing and I’ve talked about it elsewhere previously.
Connie,
I read both. I wasn’t criticizing you. I was just exercising my self-appointed duty as one of the site’s resident curmudgeons (for which, as the Simons know, I’m paid for more than I’m worth).
I don’t really subscribe to the view that the last lawyer to intentionally act in a way that wasn’t basically self-serving was Sydney Carton. It’s just that the lawyer marketing business spews so much treacle that even Mother Teresa should be offended.
David
Thank you for clarifying, David. Marketing one’s services is a legitimate business activity. Whether you are successful using honey or vinegar depends upon the client you are trying to attract.