Vision is not a question of size

A small practice putting a clutch of legal forms online for use by clients is not the sort of news that makes you pause halfway through mid-morning coffee. But six-partner firm Taylor Rose is making a bold claim: "to be a major supplier alongside our US competitors".

The Peterborough-based practice already had a few templates on its website but earlier this week it launched a separate site dedicated to online services.

At this stage there are only 30 forms or so on the site. That's a measly number compared with those available from the legal online old hands such as Epoq, which has been offering white-labelling services to dozens of law firms for years. And it's a pinprick next to the thousands of documents on offer at Rocket Lawyer or LegalZoom.

Even if the firm manages, as its website promises, to increase that number to 150 documents by the end of the year, this will still be minute in comparison.

However competent, genuinely client-focused and willing to invest in the technology that will help them provide online services, solicitors will not be able to compete with the large online form providers on the same scale. Nor will they ever have the pulling power of brands like Co-op or Saga (although the profession, collectively, does have this power).

But this should not detract from the rationale behind the firm's plans and the benefits for those who are prepared to go down the same route.

Twenty years ago, the way to get business was to have an entry in yellow pages. Today, it would be insane for your firm not to have a website and be referenced by search engines. Tomorrow, your clients will expect to be able to download legal forms like they download an MP3 file - iTunes, rather than the post office, is where they will buy their legal forms from.

Taylor Rose's approach shows that vision is not a question of size. Their legal forms website is very visual. With none of the lengthy explanations found on so many legal sites, it feels accessible and to-the-point.

Solicitors cannot afford not to take that route. Equally, they should be clear about the purpose of putting documents online and be mindful of the potential costs.

You may have dozens of your own forms and precedents that you could post on a website. You might even be successful at selling a good number. But this would be missing the point. Your firm is already known in the community and you don't need to publish online forms to establish your credentials with local businesses and families.

The real value is twofold. First, it demonstrates to your clients that you can engage with them on their terms. Second, it's possibly the best way of converting inquiries into instructions. If you are selling high-value, personal services rather than off-the-shelf one-size-fits-all documents, this is perhaps the most important reason of all.

You won't be Rocket Lawyer, but taking them at their own game is not rocket science either.

Jean-Yves Gilg is editor of Solicitors Journal

jean-yves.gilg@solicitorsjournal.co.uk