Every once in awhile, I get lazy and decide to pretty much repeat the last review, because it is still on-point and I can only make up so much new stuff on hundreds of these things. One area I did want to point out, though, was the rarity of seeing the contact information for all administrative staff. Few firms have paralegal e-mail and phone info. Otherwise, the home page is still the weakest point. As for the rest, rerun…Excellent organization, searching mechanisms and timely information…Another site that has captured that combination of promoting credentials in the most dignified of manners, without feeling like it is too self-promotional.
The “News & Print” page is “Nice & Clean”. A change of place from messy, overcrowded publications pages. And each of the two highlights from each of five categories were reasonably up to date (could be better). The same process flows through to the practice pages. The “representative matters” database remains rather unique. And the home page features the practically obligatory “diversity video”.
Like Bart Simpson, I’ve been forced to write “Spalding not Spaulding” on the chalkboard one hundred times. This was pointed out to me by repeated visitors to the IMA site. One person gave me an “out” saying that my pro sports background made writing out the sporting goods manufacturer an automatic tic. Sorry for the typo. Anyway…what can I say? The site is still an above-average presence, focusing on highlights and important data, instead of graphic design. The home page manages to use the real estate for multiple purposes without getting overcrowded – highlighting a practice area, the e-learn monthly series, and a few accolades. Along with news and alerts. And I still love the “retired partners” page.
Since this is the last of the New Orleans-based firms that I’ll review, and I promised not to bust on anyone in the wake of the hurricane (for the most part), I’ll repeat what I’ve said before about looking forward to my next law firm retreat or meeting in New Orleans. And I will have the handy restaurant guide off the McGlinchey site in hand. The site, which I liked two years ago, is still in pretty good shape. You can’t blow over the Internet, only flood it with viruses. A couple of good blogs—kept up to date—add to decent content.
Now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, these guys seem to keep getting bigger and bigger. It is not the web site, but if you missed the firm’s print brochure announcing the merger, you missed one of the great marketing pieces I’ve seen in a long time. It was clever, creative, original, self-deprecating and endearing. Unlike some of the firms in the IMA Reviews that had mergers many months ago, Pillsbury has done a good job combining the PW with the SP. Most of the site content is what you’d expect. What they manage where many fail is to provide a decent home page description of who they are. Also, a useful flash show talking about the new firm. They also offer site personalization. I would have tried it myself, but filling this stuff out over and over again is just too much for me. Once again, kudos on the brochure. I’d love to have pointed to a pdf of it on the web site. If it was there, I missed it. However, it was worth some intangible points.
This is still a site that I previously described as “classy and clean”. Everything is in the right place. I like the “practice details” breakdowns under the practice areas. And little touches to download like the congressional calendar. The search results are not perfect, but I do like seeing which are PDFs and which are web pages. Conservative, without being boring. Which liberals like me know is really tough to do. This is actually a nice site for many NYC firms to model themselves after.
Now, I know TH is readying a new site, so I’m not sure how long the current review will be good for. The firm’s web folk have always put a lot of effort into reaching high and take the Internet very seriously. I wish everyone did. Let’s put it this way—many firms would be greatly improved online with the “old” TH site. So, I expect greatness from the new one. The ’08 IMAs will come way too soon for me.
At a time when everybody has upped the ante, the Akin Gump site has fallen a little back of the pack. What was great a few years ago is just so-so now. There were some fixes since the last visit, such as an upgraded “Communications Center”. The all-important attorney search functionality is first-class and very user-friendly. I saw chances to register for some timely events and subscribe to various newsletters. Yet, nothing screamed IMA to the IMA. Maybe they are in redesign mode.
Since the last review, the updating has improved. The latest headline news item was just one month old, as opposed to five months the last time out. I liked the various graphics that rotated on the home page, except for the one that said “adopt the client’s perspective” and showed two people on a cliff. Who was jumping—the attorney or the client? I kid because I love. I actually really like the site’s structure and design, including offering up the searches for attorneys and offices on the left-side of the home page. And there are some creative content-types scattered throughout.
An excellent upgrade, with previous shortcomings corrected. The playing field within the firm has been leveled, with the site focusing on everybody, and not just a particular practice or office. It is tastefully conservative and provides enough information to be useful, but never gets unwieldy. I thought the “search by detail” option for attorney bios was excellent. The division of practice areas into a tight six categories was also very well done (and a task that is not easy). I was particularly fond of attorney Mark Stancil’s Supreme Court Report. It is written in a comforting, easy to read style. Just enough to give you the update you would want. And enough that I subscribed to it myself.
