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30 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | W I N T E R 2 0 2 0 F E A T U R E S The best firms clearly understand the importance of information hierarchy (i.e., what's most important, what's next, what's least important, etc.) and have designed pages that are easily scanned and consumed. The top scorer in this Foundational Best Practice was Eversheds Sutherland US with a 96.5 and the lowest score achieved by a firm was 61.0. Two stand-out firms are Dentons and Clifford Chance. Dentons stands out because of the visitor focus of its practice and industry descriptions. In most or all instances, the first paragraph of the overview sets the stage about the subject matter in terms of issues, challenges and opportunities. Dentons establishes a point of view and then describes why it is the firm to hire to address what's ahead. The experience bullets for each description are very detailed and paint a solid picture of lawyer and team capabilities. Bravo! And Clifford Chance is a terrific example of how to present firm innovation on a website. View the "Innovation" global navigation section. You might wonder what "best delivery" is, as we did: Clifford Chance defines it as "smarter ways of working." It appears as a sub-category under Innovation. Among the things Clifford Chance features are three visitor/results-focused case studies that quickly summarize the benefits to the clients: "1) Employment law - Machine learning software reduces lawyer effort by more than 50% and speeds up delivery to the client; 2) Loan portfolio - Machine learning software reduces lawyer effort by more than 50% and speeds up delivery to the client; and 3) Due diligence - Machine learning software reduces lawyer effort by more than 50% and speeds up delivery to the client." It is important to note that the Ten Foundational Best Practice attributes have radically changed over the seven research studies, adjusted for changes in technology, website standards, and global buyer and visitor behavior. LAWYER BIOGRAPHIES Lawyer bios are the most important and visited pages on any law firm website. For most firms, these pages carry the rest of the website, with 50 – 75% of all visitors viewing bio pages. The research scores on bios vary widely – even today and even with law firm business development teams knowing what buyers are seeking (the answers to those four questions in the first paragraph of this article). Lawyer bios scored a 60.1 in the first study (2005), a 75.3 in 2013 and an 80.7 in the 2016 study. But in the Q4 2019 research, they dropped like a rock to 72.3. Why? Because there isn't enough rigor in planning website and content upgrades. Which global law firms' bio pages stood out? White & Case scored a 92.2 and topped the list with the best bios our researchers have recently seen. Our researchers said, "The page organization is intuitive and visually appealing, the photos are large, magazine-style and show personality. The descriptive copy and experience are very good across the board, even for associates and staff. Crosslinking is well populated and draws your eye with imagery and placement, within a "related content" area. Tab structure is kept simple (biography and experience). Good page tools, social and sharing." Greenberg Traurig came in second with an 88.9, and four firms tied for 3rd place with an 87.8: Cleary Gottlieb, King & Spalding, Morrison & Foerster and McDermott Will & Emery. The global law firm that had the lowest score on bios scored a 33.3 on our 100-point scale. Interactivity, Engagement + Social Outreach This Foundational Best Practice was added in 2007, two years into our research studies. In 2007 firms scored 47.4, but for the next study in 2010, it went down to 39.5. In the remaining three studies, it has steadily gone up, reaching 87.3 in our Q4 2019 study. Take advantage of all channels to build reputation, community and engagement. It can all work much harder for your firm if view it collectively. Don't forget that you are also providing a platform for clients to interact with you. They may not be ready to hire or refer you – but they may want to keep learning about you. VIDEO Thoughtfully conceived, beautifully produced videos continue to be rare for most law firms, even in some cases for the world's largest firms. In the latest study, firms scored 74.9 for video – with the criteria being that video appeared throughout the site and it was smartly done. Analytics prove that video drives further engagement and longer website dwell times, so it has highly practical

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