In 2024, it is essentially unthinkable for any legal professional to not have a website. It is as vital as a telephone number and an office for any legal firm, and as the shifting sands of social media prove, relying on another platform is not a good alternative.
Instead, having a beautiful website with a theme dedicated to your firm and all of the features you could need to run the business and marketing side of your firm is the better long-term solution, but who was the first legal professional to see the future like this?
There is some debate regarding this, with many claiming that the now-defunct firm Heller Ehrmann had the first website in 1994, along with the first online advert for a law firm on the Global Network Navigator (now AOL).
Whilst the latter claim was confirmed by former CEO Tim O’Reilly, the former has been disputed by other legal professionals who operated in the early World Wide Web.
Most sources that make the claim cite the company themselves, and the Internet Archive only goes back to 1996.
It is very possible that they had a website in 1994, although lawyer and legal technology journalist Bob Ambrogi claimed in 1995 that the answer was Venable, Baetjer, Howard & Civiletti. He would later specifically claim a date of 5th March 1994 for the original registration of their domain name.
This is corroborated by an article in the Baltimore Sun from April 1994, which claims a remarkable level of sophistication at the time, with a website that has not only text but also graphics and formatting. The article even references Cello, an early lawyer-focused web browser that predates Internet Explorer.
Two full decades later, law professionals rely on the internet in ways that were not even conceivable at the time, with not only contact information and case summaries available online but actual court sessions being run through video conferencing.
