Our New Website Positions Gluckstein Lawyers as a ‘Thought Leader and an Information Provider’

Websites have proven their worth as a means to establish an online presence. They are the virtual storefronts of a business enterprise with the chief aim of converting visitors to consumers. A website is a marketing tool, of course, but it can offer so much more. So when we set out to build our new site, we had an ambitious plan. We did not want our website to be seen as merely an advertising vehicle. We wanted to position Gluckstein Lawyers as a thought leader and an information provider. I truly believe we have accomplished that goal.

The firm that my father Bernard founded in 1962 has seen many changes on the way to becoming an industry leader in the field of catastrophic injury and medical malpractice. In recent years, we have welcomed some notable additions, including senior lawyer Richard Halpern who acts exclusively for injured people in birth trauma cases. We expanded our reach, teaming with Ottawa trial lawyer Derek Nicholson and Barrie-area litigator Steve Rastin. This year, sexual abuse lawyers Simona Jellinek, Erin Ellis, and Ivanna Iwasykiw joined our growing firm and most recently Class action and Mass tort lawyers James Newland and Brian Moher have solidified a further practice area for our organization.

It was time for a new look

We continue to expand our practice areas. As the firm grew it became obvious that the website that had served us well over the years needed a new look, especially since we were basically running three sites because of our new partnerships. We wanted to bring everything into one home, one landing page.

If you are going to do it right, redesigning a website takes time. In this case a year. I looked at some of the top corporate leaders and major websites to see what made them stand out from the crowd. I have a passion for technology, so I put much thought into how to make our site exceptional. We are a leading-edge firm in terms of legal technology and wanted our website to reflect that. I shared that desire with the legal marketing firm Cubicle Fugitive, and they turned my vision into the crisp, bright and visually appealing website you see today. It has a cleaner look, with more white background that captures the eye.

Images are appealing and effective

I am a hobby photographer so I appreciate the power of a good image. I think you will agree as you navigate our site, that the images we chose are appealing and effective, providing a degree of comfort to visitors. Although this firm was built on the stellar work we do in personal injury, we were not interested in graphic photographs of automobile collisions. Many of our referrals come in from other lawyers, so tasteful representation was important to us.

We will continue to effectively serve personal injury clients but that is not all that we do. We have changed and diversified. We have expanded our practice areas and have become experts in those areas. That is our future. And that is where this website is taking us.

One of our primary goals with this site was to provide added value. Our aim was to be an information source, and we have accomplished that. We have blogs, FAQs, videos and podcasts that offer advice and guidance. You can access and download all the podcasts we have done over the past few years. Not many of our competitors have podcasts, so we wanted to showcase the exceptional work we do with these audio files. We also wanted this website to be a source of information for the legal community, so we offer research papers and guides. We even included a glossary of legal terms to help visitors better understand the law.

Having searchable functionality was vital. This site is more dynamic and allows users to search for articles that link up to the profile of the lawyers who wrote them. It was important to create a really clean look in navigation. You can find almost anything from the first page without having to navigate in the menus and then hyperlink to those pages. If you scroll down, you will get every heading. We had the mobile community that doesn't have a mouse in mind as well as the person working at a desk top. That is the mindset of modern, successful websites.

We built a website that reflects our beliefs

We wanted something that is, above all, tasteful. We have never been one to advertise or scream the loudest about what we do. Our success is built on my father’s reputation as the founder, and the reputations of all of the people involved in our organization. That is much more important to us than landing on the number one spot on Google or being able to generate the most hits because we are grabbing attention.

The people we represent are important to us, so for that reason our website is Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act compliant. Most of all, we wanted to create a platform that has the resources that will keep people coming back. We believe the ease of use and the wealth of information offered will keep visitors engaged and they will see this site as an effective tool in their search for justice rather than merely an advertisement of our services. So far, the reaction to our new internet home has been positive. The Ontario Brain Injury Association, for example, reached out and congratulated us for creating a platform that was not only informative, but easy to use.

Take a look for yourself. I am sure you will agree.