Advantage" Web sitescores big points
By Faye A. Silas
The Philadelphia Bar Association and area law firms hope a new online pitch about the joys of living and practicing law in their city will encourage new lawyers to make Philadelphia their home and workplace.The Internet Web site, called "Homecourt Advantage," touts Philadelphia as a great place to live and work (www.homecourt.org). Through 10 hypertext links broken down by topic, browsers can access diverse subjects ranging from law firm profiles to the latest exhibit at the art museum. The site became operational in November.
"We have to do everything we can to attract the best and the brightest to our law firms," says Kenneth Shear, the bar’s executive director. "We can’t make it on the Liberty Bell alone."
Only a small percentage of law school graduates who attend the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia accept jobs in the Philadelphia area, and the city’s law firm recruiters often have a tough time getting out-of-state law students and practicing lawyers to accept positions.
"People who don’t know Philadelphia have a lot of misconceptions about the city," says David Pudlin, chair of the bar’s Mid-sized Law Firm Management Committee and managing partner of his 29-lawyer firm. "Philadelphia is relatively cheap (cost of living) and there are good professional opportunities. We wanted a project that would let prospective legal employees know this is a great place to live and work."
These facts prompted two Philadelphia Bar Association committees to study the issue and devise a way to improve the odds. The problem of attracting lawyers to Philadelphia was raised by David Cohen, a prominent lawyer and former chief of staff to Mayor Edward Rendell, during a joint meeting of Pudlin’s committee and the bar’s Large Firm Management Committee. In response, in spring 1998, a subcommittee led by Pudlin brought together law firm representatives, the chamber of commerce, law school placement officials and marketing experts to brainstorm ideas about what could be done.
The discussion eventually centered on the concept of a Web site that would highlight the city’s law firms and legal community, as well as quality-of-life features that extol the virtues of life in the historic City of Brotherly Love.
"When you’re dealing with college students, very few are attracted to a text-laden brochure," explains Claire Block, the marketing and communications director at a Philadelphia firm who suggested the Web site idea during that brainstorming session. "Most have access to a computer and look to the Web for information."
The computer-savvy, technology-related aspect of a Web site makes it an ideal medium for attracting young people, adds Block, a technically enlightened 29-year-old who holds a degree in marketing. The site’s opening page reads: Give yourself a homecourt advantage. Be a Philadelphia lawyer. You’ve worked hard to get where you are, and deciding where and how to build your practice can be intimidating. Making decisions that affect you--and your future--can be difficult and time-consuming. But choosing your professional home doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, we’re convinced that deciding to settle in Philadelphia is pretty easy. Don’t take our word for it-see for yourself. Everything you need to know about law practice in Philadelphia is here.
We invite qualified law students, judicial clerks and practicing lawyers to explore what the Philadelphia region has to offer. Then go ahead--make the easy choice, go for the Philadelphia lawyer’s homecourt advantage.
Links connect browsers to 18 law firm profiles; examples of cutting-edge legal work that Philadelphia lawyers are involved with; associate salaries and partnership earnings in Philadelphia and comparative data from other cities; information about bar and law-related organizations, including the Philadelphia Bar Association; pro bono opportunities and public interest organizations; details about Philadelphia neighborhoods, school districts and hospitals; and community groups like the Girl Scouts. Within the topical links, browsers can click on additional links to other Web pages, such as the tourism bureau, specific regions and even real estate brokers.
After the subcommittee gave the go-ahead for the Web site, Block and Cheryl Ingram, the bar’s Web master and director of policy administration, began gathering material and writing text for the site. "We ended up doing this together on the fly," Block says. "We put this together very quickly."
The name choice? "It’s a direct result of the content," Block answers, adding that the name has appeal because it isn’t "stuffy and law-firm like."
To market, to market
Bar officials are starting to market Homecourt Advantage. Potential markets include the nation’s law schools, which will be encouraged to add a link to it on their own sites, as well as reference it in their placement material; and student List Serves. Ingram is also working with the National Association for Law Placement to get names and addresses of placement officials. And the bar plans to develop a promotional poster complete with postcard tear-offs for display in law school placement offices, and send a letter to law school deans across the country.
"I think the placement people will be motivated by this," says Ingram, a lawyer. "I think we’ll get a fair amount of help because their interests coincide with ours." While the initial response has been positive, the site is evolving and will be enhanced with graphics.
"We felt students are most attuned to it. It’s on the right track. (However), it can improve visually, for it’s a little text heavy," says Jo-Ann Verrier, assistant dean of career planning and placement at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. An e-mail about the new site was sent to law students, who responded favorably.
When the law school’s own site is modified, a hot link to Homecourt Advantage will be added, Verrier says. The school’s admission and placement material will refer to the site and staff will highlight it as well.
Looking for opportunities
Verrier confirms that only about 20 percent of the University of Pennsylvania Law School graduates stay in Philadelphia. And admission figures show that of the first-year class of 262 students, only 30, or 11 percent, were from Philadelphia. The graduates aren’t staying in town and the student pool itself isn’t local. Why is this?
"Students are concerned about providing the best long-term opportunity for themselves, and they think ‘name brand’ is the target they should aim for," Verrier says of students who, for example, are drawn to the large, nationally known New York City law firms.
Adds Pudlin, "It is perceived that there are sexier opportunities in New York."
While his own law firm routinely recruited at such national law schools as Harvard, Yale and the University of Chicago, firm officials found that they were unsuccessful attracting graduates from those schools. They stopped recruiting there for a while, but have recently resumed their national recruiting.
Paula Patton, the executive director of the National Association for Law Placement in Washington, D.C., agrees that Philadelphia has stiff competition from neighboring regions. "Philadelphia competes head on with New York, D.C., Boston," says Patton, who adds that the task of choosing a job and location is complex.
Patton complimented the variety and thoroughness of information presented on the Web site, while noting that it covers virtually all of the diverse factors law students use to evaluate a job offer. "It’s not real glitzy. It may need a little jazz. But the seed is planted and . . . it could have an impact. It’s an inventive and novel concept," she says.
