Deborah Lovett, QC and Angela Westmacott have been practicing public and administrative law from their Victoria offices since 1997. It’s daunting to write about them because their accomplishments on behalf of their clients and the public at large would fill pages. But I’ll try. Before establishing their own firm, Deb and Angie worked as litigators for many years in the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Administrative and Constitutional Law and the Civil Litigation Sections. After launching Lovett & Westmacott they have built solid reputations as creative, results-driven legal advisors to a diverse cross section of government, institutional, professional and public law clients. In addition, they have the tribunal, trial and appellate experience to back up their clients. Further, they have been directly involved as investigators and report authors for the Attorney General of BC, the Information and Privacy Commissioner, as well as filling neutral investigation, reporting and decision making roles in work place disputes and human rights disputes. And that’s leaving aside the publications and considerable professional development work they do for the Law Society of British Columbia.
Deborah and Angie have recently been joined by Nitya Iyer, formerly of Heenan Blaikie. Nitya brings her own impressive slate of professional achievements including teaching at the University of Toronto, UBC and clerking for the Honourable Mr. Justice Le Dain of the Supreme Court of Canada. Add to that her work for the provincial government on pay equity legislation in the private sector, a three year term as a member on the BC Human Rights Tribunal, ongoing work as the Equal Pay Commissioner of the Northwest Territories and her work as a third party neutral providing investigation and mediation services in the resolution of complex discrimination cases. Oh and did I mention she has also just completed her term as Executive Director of West Coast Leaf? Nitya will be based in the firm’s Vancouver offices and her presence will add to the bench strength provided by the firm’s association with Vancouver lawyer Patrick Gilligan-Hackett. In short, this is a group of dedicated and highly skilled senior lawyers. We were honoured when they asked us to assist them in expanding their online presence.
Given the firm’s growth in numbers and service reach the decision was taken to rebrand as Lovett Westmacott, Lawyers + Mediators. We gave them a new logo and stationary package adaptable to both the Victoria and Vancouver offices.
They were very clear from the beginning about their desire for a clean, easy to navigate, site uncluttered by too many bells and whistles. After developing an eye-catching icon we then built them a site that capitalized on the high contrast in their logo met their shared need to have a place on line where clients could go to read about what they’ve done and what they can do. We think we’ve achieved that – you be the judge: www.lw-law.ca.
Tags: Advertising, Clients, Law firm websites
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Skunkworks welcomes well-known Victoria, British Columbia immigration and business lawyer Robert (“Robbie”) Sheffman to our client roster. Robbie recently launched his own firm and tapped Skunkworks to develop his new logo, business collateral and website. Starting with his logo we opted for a modern colour scheme and visual cues reminiscent of international visa documents. From there we designed a clean, straightforward website that would be user friendly for English speakers and ESL clients alike. The result is www.immigrationlawbc.com.
Tags: Clients, Law firm websites
Posted in Agency News, Client News, Law, Law firm websites | Add a Comment »
Here’s the next stream of consciousness post on elements that make for a user friendly website. This one is straightforward – display your contact information clearly and prominently on every page. While you may want to have a mailing address block at the bottom of the page (which is fine)…in my view (again…this is just my opinion, you are perfectly free to ignore me) you want to make it as easy as possible for potential clients to pick up the phone or add you to their email address book. What I like (and it drives our creative team nuts – which is part of why I like it … shhhh) is to have the firm contact information displayed at the top of the page either with the logo or in the upper right hand corner…and I like that on EVERY page. Some might argue that this is overkill when you already have a Contact page built into your nav BUT…not so if the point of the exercise is to make life easy for people who may be looking for your services. In the legal context in particular, I would argue that if someone is looking for a lawyer they are probably in a state of either anxiety or excitement and want to find information fast. Clicking around your site trying to find out how to contact you is not going to be as appealing as the spoon feeding approach. Also, they are looking at your site searching for key words that match the issue or problem they need to resolve. You have no idea where on your site they will be when they find what they are looking for and decide they want to contact you. If the contact info is right there…it’s one less thing they have to think about.
A word about Contact pages. Some might say (damn proverbial peanut gallery) “Why have a Contact page at all if you are going to put the information on every page.” Welllll, for me a Contact page serves more than one purpose. When I go to a law firm’s Contact page I am usually looking for their office location (ye old Google Map), some sort of imagery of their office building (first impressions), so I know what to look for if I’m going to meet with them. If it’s available I might also use Google’s new “drag me to the street” tool to get a look at the neighbourhood – I like to meet clients in context (it’s handy to know what else is close by that might be used to create a destination or provide people with reference landmarks). For those of you who haven’t tried it…go to Google Maps and type in your office address. When the map comes up look for the little yellow stick person on the nav — looks this:
So, while I like a phone number that is easily accessible (please don’t make me scroll to the bottom of the page and read teeny tiny print) I also think a well designed Contact page is a valuable tool to increase client familiarity and, by extension, comfort levels with your firm. Finally, for what it’s worth, to me a Contact page is the place for all extra detail…9 times out of 10 I’ve been on the phone or contacted the firm by email before I ever visit the Contact page.
Tags: Contact pages, Law firm websites, usability, web content
Posted in Law firm websites | Add a Comment »
Ok, it’s just a silly little thing but after looking at countless law firm websites in search of my “picks” for best Canadian law firm websites as fodder for an article to be authored by Luigi Benneton and soon to appear in The National…I’d had enough of gavels, columns, scales and blindfolded statues for the day (maybe even the whole month). I admit to being overly sensitive when it comes to the clichéd (dare I say hackneyed – yes, yes. I DO dare) images associated with “the law” to the point where I feel like I’ve had aversion therapy à la A Clockwork Orange. So… imagine looking at sites featuring the heinous iconography from sea to shining sea for a whole bloody day and you about get how I was feeling. Funny thing…even some sites that had great content, interesting imagery elsewhere and incorporated blogs or podcasts seemed to fall prey to GCS (Gavel & Column Syndrome). Anyway, I will stop whining now. In the course of taking a break I decided to Google something but I missed the “G” on Google and this is what popped up. For whatever reason…it broke the tension and I could blink once more.
Tags: Law firm websites
Posted in Google, Law firm websites, We are amused | Add a Comment »
