Internal & External Benefits from FirmSite

A Web site presents your firm to the world. It is the public face of your company, detailing who your firm is and what it does.

Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger’s West FirmSite is more than just a fancy online billboard or brochure. It is a sophisticated online resource. Every one of their 140 attorneys uses the site to market the firm to prospective clients.

Impressive Traffic

Buchalter’s West FirmSite (www.buchalter.com) draws impressive traffic with its informative, well-organized information. West’s Search Engine Optimization feature helps prospects easily find the firm’s Web site through major search engines such as Google and Yahoo!.  Buchalter’s FirmSite consistently comes out among the top results for searches using keywords highlighting the firm’s key practice areas, such as Bank and Finance, Corporate/Business Practices, Insolvency, Litigation and Real Estate.

“Our FirmSite gets traffic all hours of the day, including international traffic,” says Kathy Carlson, director of marketing for Buchalter. “We get a lot of referrals from corporations. When the prospective clients see our Web site, they call one of our attorneys.” 

The firm also draws traffic to its FirmSite by making the Buchalter Web address a centerpiece of the firm’s marketing efforts, prominently featuring it on brochures and letterhead.

Internal Audience

While the ultimate goal is to encourage clients and prospects to visit the site, Carlson believes the audience inside the firm is also an integral part of the firm’s marketing efforts. For the firm’s attorneys, the Buchalter FirmSite is an important marketing tool.

“I’ll often get a call from one of our attorneys asking me to update the site ahead of a meeting they have with a prospect,” says Carlson. “The attorney might want to post a recent article they wrote, or update their bio after a presentation at a prestigious conference. With the FirmSite Control feature, I can quickly update our FirmSite.  Our attorneys know that when they direct clients or prospects to the site, it will have the most current information.”

Before releasing the site, Carlson formally presented it to the firm and walked attorneys through the site’s various features. By making sure the attorneys fully understood the features and benefits of the site, Carlson believes the attorneys are better able to cross-market and bring in new business from existing clients.

“With 140 attorneys, 50 practice areas and three offices, it’s not easy to know what everyone else in the firm is up to,” Carlson says. “An attorney can tell a client, ‘I don’t handle that area, but we have someone else who’s very capable that does work in that area. Let me email you the link to their bio, or if you’re online we can go over the information together.’ Even though we’re a large firm, our attorneys have all this information at their fingertips and can look very smart about our firm and how our capabilities can help their clients.”

Technology

Buchalter has extensive, easy-to-navigate information on its site, including firm policies, recruiting information, diversity issues, published articles and speaking engagements.  Carlson firmly believes that Buchalter’s use of technology gives the firm an edge in client development, recruiting and client service.  “A client or prospect will call one of our attorneys and say, ‘I was at one of your seminars, and I have a question.’ We can answer their question, e-mail them additional materials, and direct them to the FirmSite to find other upcoming seminars that interest them.”

“We’re proud of our technology, and even have a page on the site discussing our use of technology. We want people to know that we use the latest technologies in order to effectively develop our attorney-client relationships with quality work product and excellent communications, and ultimately helping them save money.”