Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, one of the world’s preeminent
law firms, was established in New York’s Financial District in 1879. It has
played prominent – sometimes pioneering - roles in legal matters ranging from
railroads to derivatives. Today the firm has over 800 partners in 12 offices in
Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States. S&C’s main About Us page is
here
OVERALL GRADE: A
Perhaps it’s those logical legal minds at S&C that make
this site so easy to use and so informative: whatever the reason, we are very
impressed. Quite frankly, the S&C site stands in stark contrast to
minimalist sites of a few other big firms, which show no personality and resemble
memos on white letterhead.
Products/Services: A
S&C’s overview is a beautifully concise statement,
opening with what they do and how long they’ve done it, then moving on to how
they recruit lawyers, who their clients are, and where the company’s offices
are. The sidebar menu is a well-organized list: Our Firm (Lawyers, Practices,
Regions, Offices), Careers, Alumni, News and Resources (Achievements, News,
Publications, Events & Speaking Engagements).
Kudos to whatever extremely intelligent person summarized S&C’s
130 years on the History
page. The narrative is focused on what matters to clients: the areas of
practice S&C pioneered in and excels in. But the narrative also relates
these events to world history, with mentions of S&C’s role in American
railroads, the Panama Canal, the Great Depression, and economic expansion after
World War II. This effortlessly shows S&C as a long-term player on the
world stage.
One of the impressive features of S&C’s About Us pages
is the fact that the News and Achievements sections are up
to the minute - or up to the week, at least. And not only are they current: every
news mention has a page with a summary, and an option to go to the full story
online or, for print articles, to download the article in PDF format – with
S&C branding. (Here’s
an example.)
One of the few pages that could use some tweaking is the Firm and
Lawyer Recognitions. We are impressed by the sheer multitude of awards, but
some logos, subheads, and/or links are needed to make that long, long flow of
text enticing to readers, and to make it easy to contact the lawyers who are
mentioned.
Personality: A
Sullivan & Cromwell’s Overview conveys a strong
corporate personality, but it’s very easy to go to a page about any partner,
and every one of those pages is full of very specific information. The lawyer’s
bio is followed by headings for selected cases, recognitions, and community
involvement. The sidebar has a brief summary of the lawyer’s specialties,
mentions in the news, upcoming engagements, education, and bar admissions. All
this wealth of information is laid out so it’s easy to sort through it.
We also like the Alumni Profiles page, which
offers brief looks at a few S&C partners who have gone on to prominent
positions elsewhere. The alumni offer very personal takes on the company, and
the very existence of the page implies that S&C is so well-established and
long-lived that it can afford to give web space to lawyers who are no longer
with the firm.
Accessibility: A
The Contact
Us page (accessible via a link in every footer) is the usual online form, followed
by a list of S&C offices and a contact name for those seeking other
information.
The feature that earned S&C an “A” for accessibility is
not on the contact page, but on the pages for individual lawyers. S&C
offers the option of adding a lawyer to your address book by downloading a
VCard, which you can then import to your address book. We haven’t seen this
option on any other site. We did not realize until we saw it here how very,
very tired we are of separately copying and pasting email, phone, and address
to our email address book. S&C may not be the first site to offer this, but
they’re the first we’ve seen, so they get the “big salad” thank-you.
TAKEAWAY
Sullivan & Cromwell’s site is a reminder that if you’ve
got great content that’s well organized, you don’t need high-tech bells and whistles.
The most memorable feature about these pages, though, is the level of
integration. The History
page mentions the firm’s strengths. The Contact Us page mentions the
firm’s history. The News page lets us easily contact the lawyer
featured in a given story. The pages for each partner have links to news
stories that mention them. This is the way websites should be tied together,
and we have seldom seen it done so well.
Does your Web site’s “About Us” section
accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks
we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential
customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for
us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to
have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.
Today’s example was chosen at random;
CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.
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