There is something a little different about the “look and feel” here, for this UK firm that specializes in insurance defense. In the US, I often find insurance defense firm web sites sleepy. The navigation was cumbersome at times, but the colors and layout were nice. And the home page lets you know it is one of the 100 best companies to work for in London. Of course, I once worked for a company that bragged about similar honors, and I would not send my enemies there to work. Or maybe I would.
This is a site that needs a new coat of paint and some fine tuning. The content is there. The presentation is not. You almost get the feeling the site is empty when hitting the home page, but surfing through will show you otherwise. A few practice areas were way too bare bones. Depending on the practice, some offered strong publication depth. I still like the “60-second tour”.
I was impressed by the timeliness and consistency of the legal updates. It always seems easy to do, but then things happen, and next thing you know the IMAs are coming out close to June instead of January. Oh yeah, I’m talking about this site. Other sections, like “conferences” needed some new stuff. If you can do the news updating, you can do the other things as well (better).
Still love the “werk ethic” of this South Africa-based firm. While the USA reviews brought up dozens of brand new sites, most in the International category were the same as before. However, that is not the case with an updated site by Werkmans. The home page still does not do justice to the level of info inside. When I see for the second year in a row that the news section was just updated, that is probably not coincidence. The site is well oiled. Improvements? Sharpen the home page, improve the “contact” components.
If you are a corporate lawyer looking for a new gig in Riyadh, on this review day the following opening appeared: “We are currently looking to recruit a 4 - 6 years PE Corporate lawyer to work in our office in Riyadh. Ideally the candidate will have prominent City firm training and have the ability and experience to handle corporate/commercial/regulatory projects independently. The successful candidate will be required to supervise existing corporate lawyers and develop the corporate practice, with particular attention to infrastructure privatization, mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring. The ability to co-ordinate and work closely with an existing strong finance/project finance team is key.” Before my next review session (in ’06 or beyond), get rid of the splash page and the frames. Add some “news”.
